Top of the evening to you! Time for another entry in Retro Game Network?s Pure Imagination series. This week, we have a complete doozy for you when it comes to cover art. It?s a title that chances are very high that you may have never owned or even played, but as you will find out in a moment, the cover art is quite memorable, but not for the reason that you would like it to be. Today, there are lots of music based games available, some more famous than others. We live in a world where DJ & Guitar Hero, Dance Dance Revolution, Rock Band and various music generation games are available for almost every console and computer format imaginable. But what kind of music games were out there in the 1980s? We all know about the Miracle Piano System, but how about this long-lost non-classic: Brain Strainers for the ColecoVision & ADAM computers! (What, with a name like Brain Strainers, you were hoping for a zombie apocalypse game? Sorry, not here?)
Now I am no expert on marketing. I?m just an average vintage gamer that has a lot of time on his hands, and a lot of bad games in his collection. But all I can say about this box art, is what the hell were they thinking? See, the last time I checked, box art was supposed to make you WANT to pick up a game, not make you run away from it like a swarm of killer bees! The logo of the title and the piano at the bottom are actually done quite nicely. Lots of bright colors that could peak ones interest, since it looks like it could be an interesting game involving music. (And for a video game console of the era, that could be quite an achievement!) But there is just way too many problems with the box. Actually, I can count three of them on the top of my head: Photo number 1, photo number 2, and photo number 3. Allow me to explain this a little further.
Let?s talk about the parents pictures for a moment. On the left, we have the father, with typical 80s hair (which looks like it was still stuck a few years in the past). He has his hand to his ear as if he is trying to listen carefully at something. His eyes show an incredible interest in something out of view. His open mouth shows a little bit of confusion. Yes folks, a lot can be learned about a person when you look them in the mouth. In all due respect, when was the last time that you actually cupped your hand to your ear for a better listen at something? It?s sort of like how one turns the radio down in their car when they are looking for a new landmark. Or even better, when someone needs to whistle loudly and they put their fingers in their mouths to supposedly make the whistle louder, even though we all know that it is just for effect. (Or at least I?m told. I can?t whistle.) It just doesn?t make sense.
But now, what?s behind curtain number two? Mom! Again, she has a typical late 70s or early 80s hairstyle going on. (Isn?t it a shame that you can date almost every photograph ever taken just by looking at their hair?) She has a look of curiosity in her eyes as well, which for some reason, is being shown in the same direction as the father. So I guess whatever they are looking at, it?s somewhere in between them. But her eyes don?t look as much as interest in something, but more rather than the terror of seeing something instead. But not terror in the Laurie Strode way in the original Halloween. Instead, she would just let Michael Myers kill her and have it be done with. (Then there wouldn?t have been 7 sequels and 2 remakes!) The fact that she is biting her fingernail also adds to this effect. To be honest however, for all we know, she could have just had ribs for dinner and was picking some pork out of her tooth. I know I would be interested in pork. But not in such an intense manner like that! But I?m digressing and making myself hungry.
Where the photos really ?shine? on this one though, is the little girl in the center of the box art. Let?s pause for a moment, because this needs to be said. At this time period, most of the gamers out there were kids and young adults. There weren?t as many adult gamers out there as like there are today. So it would be a good time to remind you all, that when video games were released back then, it was almost always as a purchase for a child. So chances are, if you were a parent, you would want to buy a game for your kids that would at least LOOK like fun on the box, even if you had no idea what the game was about. So seeing a kid like the one in the photo in the upper center of the box, just baffles me to no end. She looks like she is the most confused of them all. I guess what Carousel Software was going for with this one, was giving kids a dose of reality early on in life, because I am sure that if a child opened this game as a Christmas present, they would have the exact same look on their face. She has braids which for some reason look crooked on the one side, and really, really tight to boot. The best part is the look on her lips and her nose. She actually looks like she just stepped in something that Fido accidentally did on the carpet. I?ve seen that look before. I?ve had that look before. But I really don?t believe it belongs on a video game box.
So let?s say that you were one of those that saw the box, and for one reason or another, actually decided to buy the game. Let?s say that the taglines of ?Two Upbeat Memory Games?, ?A Challenge For The Entire Family?, or ?Play Clef Climber: The Musical Matching Game? actually peaked your interest for a moment. You get home, plug it into your ColecoVision or ADAM system, and turn it on. What do you get after the famous Coleco BIOS screen? Well, you actually get your choice of two games! The first game is called ?Follow The Leader?. Now if the screen looks like it?s a square version of the classic board game Simon, you are 100% right. The first game is in fact a ripoff of Simon. Which in my opinion, is not a problem at all. Back in the day I used to kick some serious Simon butt. I even have it for my iPhone! But, we talked in earlier articles about having games being made that were made just for the sake of being created, that were not needed. Is there really any reason for someone to spend all that money on a video game cartridge, when for the same amount, the board game could have been purchased for you, and 3 of your friends? So it?s a decent game for what it is, just not needed in a cartridge.
The second title is a game called ?Clef Climber?. One thing about the game of Simon is that all of the tones, no matter what order the computer gave you, always produced a somewhat pleasant tune. If you bought this for your kids, and they played this part of the game, you will be BEGGING them to turn it off. Basically, the game will produce a musical note from the traditional scale. Shortly after, another note is played. You then take the controller and move the second note up and down the scale until the two notes match in harmony. I play the piano personally, and I know when I am playing a piece, and hit the wrong note, it is almost always unpleasant. Well imagine this being done on a ColecoVision sound chip. Needless to say, it is not a pretty song. The game defaults to what the manual calls an ?electronic horn?, but it sounds more like living right next to a fire station at noon. There is another option that will produce a more ?natural? sounding piano. But why even have the horn in the first place? And to top it all off, there was a two player mode as well. It?s almost like Coleco WANTED the parents to go crazy! Looking back, it now seems pretty obvious to me why the mother and daughter had those looks on their faces. But why was dad actually TRYING to listen better? Maybe he was like Beethoven and just totally deaf and didn?t know any better.
Now looking at the box art again, would you in a million years expect either of these games to be on the cartridge? I sure didn?t. Regardless, the cartridge itself isn?t terrible. It?s probably one of the earliest ways of playing around with music on a home video game console. Computers of the era did it quite well, but they also had additional hardware that you could purchase to make some excellent sounding tracks. Of course, this was pricey in the early 1980s, so this was more than likely one of the few choices that people had at the time. What I think is a little sad however is that it doesn?t actually teach you anything. When I first saw the game and read about what it had to offer, I was under the impression that the game would either teach you how to read music, or have some kind of association of music on the screen. (Which it does the latter but in a very crude way and only a single note at a time.) While I think that the concept was decent, I think that video game hardware was simply not advanced enough to make it worthy. But of course, if you ever want to challenge me in the two player mode of the Simon clone, I?m down with that no problem! In fact, the game that didn?t need to be on the cartridge at all, is actually what saved it in my eye. (Or, ear?)
Source: http://www.retrogamenetwork.com/2012/09/04/pure-imagination-brain-strainers/
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