Racing against a clock is fun, but nothing compares to lining up on a stripe, looking over at an opponent, and wondering if you can beat them in a race. Of course they’re looking at you the same way. As they Beach Boys sang in Little Deuce Coupe, “You don’t know what I got.”
Pistols at sunrise is so 18th century. Rapiers in the courtyard while seconds look on is all well and good if you’re in Heidelberg, but that won’t cut it in China. If you want to decide who’s the Top Dog, the Big Cheese, el jefe — you’re going to need to show up with some serious equipment.
Doom isn’t a Top Five video game. It’s not even a Top Ten video game. It’s the only video game.
If you don’t know about Doom, it basically invented what’s called the First Person Shooter. It was devised by Id Software, which was run by two programmers, John Carmack and John Romero, a game designer named Tom Hall, and an artist named Adrian Carmack. In keeping with the strange vibe the whole proceedings have, Adrian and John are not related.
People sure need a lot of elaborate equipment to have fun these days. I don’t know about you, but my helicopter is in the shop four days out of seven, so I don’t go skydiving off it as much as I’d like. I also have trouble finding my body armor for riding the motorcycle I don’t have, so I have to settle for putting baseball cards in my spokes and riding around the neighborhood.