This edition of Games on Film is something a little different. We’ll be going way back to 1976, Predating Space Invaders (Taito, 1978) and many of Atari’s early arcade action. This also stands as the earliest point in the Games on film timeline. Can it be beat? Only time will tell.
What even is this? A very brief overview of Vigilante Force (1976)
Vigilante Force was written and directed by the late George Armitage. Starring Kris Kristofferson, Jan-Michael Vincent and Bernadette Peters.
A group of Vietnam vets are brought together to form a vigilante task force to help reduce crime in a small town. While things start off okay, the group soon becomes power hungry and corrupt, turning on the town they were meant to protect. It’s then up to a small group of the townspeople to band together and stop the renegade vigilantes.
The film has a fairly novel premise, but one that is undone by an awkward clash of folksy country bear-style humour and 70s-style violent action. Performances are generally quite good but hampered somewhat by the aforementioned tonal shifts, coupled with strange wardrobe choices, Jan-Michael Vincent in dungarees?
It’s quite short, so it might be worth a watch at least once if you’re a fan of 70s action thrillers. Otherwise, your time might be better spent with the Death Wishes of the world. That or see if you can track down a working Pro Hockey arcade cabinet.
It goes like this…
In a very brief scene near the start of the film, we see the would-be vigilantes gathered around a Williams Pro Hockey machine (1973). Captivated and amazed by its fast gameplay and blistering challenge. The score is tied at 6-6. One last shot seemingly wins the game outright, and both sides celebrate like they both won.
Later, during one of the film’s bar scenes, some pinball tables can be seen in the background (though none of the characters actually play them). There is a shuffleboard in the background of the diner scene.
It’s in the game
According to the game’s promotional flyer, it has 3 equal time periods and a sudden death for tied scores. From the footage, we can clearly see one timer end and another begin, which means they are either on the 2nd or 3rd (final) round. It might also mean they are on a sudden-death Round.
They stop playing after someone scores, turning the score 7-6.
This happens when the time is at about 56 seconds. This would lead to the conclusion that it was a sudden death round; otherwise, realistically, they’d continue playing. (Obviously, it’s a film and not realistic, so none of this really matters.)
The reaction to the winning goal is also a bit strange. They all act excited as if both sides had won, while it would have been the player on the left who actually won. (Talk about good sportsmanship.) It’s worth noting that games this primitive didn’t have computer players, so they weren’t celebrating a joint victory over beating the machine.
One of the players is doing a play-by-play of the game, calling out players names. Now I’m not overly familiar with Hockey players from the 1970s, but I’d guess he references real-world players.
The name “Maloney” can be heard, a possible reference to Dan Maloney, who played for various teams throughout the 70s, playing for the Detroit Red Wings at the film’s release. They also clearly say “2-1-2”, which is a reference to a defence strategy in Ice Hockey. Now, we’re dangerously close to talking about sports, so I’ll stop here.
The Games on film…
Pro Hockey, Williams, 1973
Fireball, Bally, 1972
Fun Fest, Williams, 1973
Unidentified Shuffleboard, ??? , 197? (probably from the early to mid-70s. After much searching, I was unable to find an exact match, sorry, fans of the movie “Vigilante Force”)
Attack of the Clones
William’s Pro hockey, 1973, was one of many “PONG clones” that were a dime a dozen following Atari’s breakout hit PONG (1972) It was also one of Williams’s first arcade games. There was also a very similar Pro Tennis version.
Early arcade games like this were very basic. In many cases, they only had player versus player. With no programming for a computer opponent. Another interesting thing of note is that many early PONG clones didn’t have dedicated monitors for the display; instead, they used regular consumer TVs.
Contemporary
This mediocre film inadvertently captured the earliest days of video games, making it an interesting time capsule of sorts for us to look back on, while the same could be said for any example of a video game that happens to appear in a film, I think this hits just a little different.
For one, the graphics are very primitive and have not stayed the test of time the way pixel graphics have. There’s also no character associated with the game. I feel this is a very important factor.
The Pac-Man arcade is now over 40 years old, however it’s use of colour and characters (Pac-man and the ghosts) gives it a contemporary feel. The same could also be said about Space Invaders; the graphics are still very basic, but the invaders’ still have a lot of personality.
Lastly Pac-Man and Space Invaders are also iconic for there cabinet art. The main purpose of side art and marquees was to attract players to pay and try out the game.
Ice Hockey is a mostly woodgrain box, while it does have some colourful abstractly drawn Hockey players around the screen, they lack any real idenity of character unlike the Invaders or Pac-Man and the Ghosts, whoes design remains iconic and recognizable today as much as it was back then.
Advancement
Video game tech advanced rapidly in a relatively short space of time, with about a 10-year difference from the film’s release in ’76 and the NES launching in America in ’85.
Not only graphical advancements, but also the way games are accessed moving from bars and diners, to dedicated arcades before coming home.
In the mid and late 70s Video games could still arguably be seen as somthing for young adults and not for kids, mostly due to the association with bar culture (Just like in the film.)
This trend and view of video games debatably didn’t fully change until the advent of home consoles like the Atari 2600, and NES.
Offten sited as the first video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey (1972,US) was a slightly more advanced PONG clone. It blurred the line between board game and pong clone. Maybe I’ll do a deeper dive into the Odyssey if it ever crops up in film or TV…….
There are a few more examples of films that coincidentally depict the early days of arcades and the dawn of video games, such as Jaws and Dawn of the Dead, but these will have to wait for another time.