{"id":583,"date":"2012-02-23T02:43:08","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T02:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=583"},"modified":"2012-02-23T02:43:08","modified_gmt":"2012-02-23T02:43:08","slug":"theres-always-a-bigger-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=583","title":{"rendered":"“There’s always a bigger fish…”"},"content":{"rendered":"

In high school, there was no bigger event than the release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace<\/em>.\u00a0 It was a *brand new* Star Wars<\/em> film, the first since 1983, and was using state-of-the-art sound and visual\u00a0effects.\u00a0 It was hyped more than any other film in history at that point, and\u00a0no matter where you turned, it was in your face.<\/p>\n

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My favourite NASCAR driver, running a paint scheme promoting my favourite movie at the time??? SCORE.<\/p><\/div>\n

Sitting in the theatre for\u00a0my first viewing (of five), waiting for the curtains to go up was one of the most exciting\u00a0“OH MY GOD I’M GONNA PEE” moments in my entire life.<\/p>\n

For the record, I didn’t pee.\u00a0 If so, I managed to do it in\u00a0the correct spot.<\/p>\n

Inevitably, several\u00a0games based on the movie were released.\u00a0 It seemed like every few months, there was a new one popping up.\u00a0 Not counting\u00a0educational titles (which there were plenty of),\u00a0ten console or hand held Episode I <\/em>games hit the market between 1999 and 2002, as did two fairly hard-to-find arcade games.<\/p>\n

Even though I knew it was the worst of the Star Wars<\/em> movies thus far, I was sucked in.\u00a0 Yes, Jar-Jar was groan-inducing.\u00a0 Yes, some of the dialogue was a bit clunky, a trait carried over from the original trilogy.\u00a0 I was only 15 when it was released, so I didn’t bother looking at anything negative about the movie, even though I knew it was there.\u00a0 I just sat back, turned my brain off, enjoyed the ride and everything that came along with it.<\/p>\n

I recently saw the movie’s 3D release in theatres, and it brought me right back to 1999…<\/p>\n

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1999 - PC\\Playstation (LucasArts)<\/p><\/div>\n

This game fell under the Action\\Adventure umbrella with a few RPG elements threw in for good measure, and was released for\u00a0Windows\u00a0a few days after the movie was released.\u00a0\u00a0The version I wanted –\u00a0for PlayStation – was delayed until September, for some unknown reason.\u00a0 My PC was undoubtedly able to run the game, but I’ve always believed controls with a keyboard to be a bit awkward.\u00a0 Patiently, I waited.<\/p>\n

Using a\u00a056k modem,\u00a0I was able to\u00a0download the demo once\u00a0everything lined up just right,\u00a0and no\u00a0incoming phone calls could\u00a0interrupt it.\u00a0 I had a program called “Download Accelerator”, which helped me manage my downloads a little better, but there was no actual acceleration of any kind.\u00a0 In retrospect, I’m not sure how we weren’t driven crazy by how slow everything was…<\/p>\n

In any case, I played that introductory Trade Federation Ship level over and over again.\u00a0 Not only that, but I was mesmerized even by the title screen!<\/p>\n