Were You an Activision Master Gamer?

Were you an “Activision Master Gamer?” That is the question posed by Mr. Paxton Holley of the Cavalcade of Awesome. And me?

I never was.

In fact, it’s quite strange: despite being the original third-party video game publisher, and despite being perhaps the biggest third-party video game publisher today (if not the biggest publisher, period), the paths of Activision and myself have almost never crossed.

As I look down the long list of games bearing their name, I realize I’ve only played but four: Super Pitfall, The Three Stooges, Vigilante 8, and X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse. And to be honest, the first two did little to endear themselves to me (to explain Super Pitfall, I refer you to the Angry Video Game Nerd; beware of foul language).

As a Transformers fan, it’s to be expected that War for Cybertron would be on my list, if nothing else, and indeed it is. In fact, I thought I would have it by now, but it seems that circumstances have deemed that I not play it yet. Soon, hopefully.

Outside of this, the closest my interest has been to playing their games has been the Pitfall titles, despite the above. Then there was Ghostbusters: The Video Game, but they dropped that one.

My wife, on the other hand, seems to have a greater affinity for the company’s titles, such as Guitar Hero. Or, at least, she did until Guitar Hero 3 introduced duels, which got in the way of the game. River Raid, Frostbite, and Dolphin were some of the others in which she indulged, and has written about at length on Retronauts.

That said, I suppose I’m clearly in the minority, as games the likes of Guitar Hero and Call of Duty simply hold no interest for me. And before those, back in the era of the Atari 2600? I should probably give those a chance someday, but have simply never really done so.

It was before even my time with video games, really, and before they essentially became recognized as the Face of Evil within the game industry, but Activision did have a neat sort of promotion going in its early years. For those who could prove they had the mettle to hang with the best in games such as Pitfall!, River Raid, or Kaboom!, a cloth patch/badge noting their achievement could be had.

My wife has covered them previously on Retronauts, but more recently, the Cavalcade of Awesome has gone into much greater detail about which games offered badges, what they looked like, and what was required in order to win them.

So massive is the feature, in fact, that it had to be broken up into five parts, which you can find by clicking the following links:

• Part 1
• Part II
• Part III
• Part IV

So, while I’ve never really been much of an Activision gamer, master or otherwise, and perhaps may never be one, how many of you were/are?

And for that matter, how many of you have managed to capture some of these badges as trophies of your accomplishments? How many did you earn? And do you still have them?

Incidentally, my wife’s article about the badges did note Nintendo Power‘s “World 9 Challenge” badge for the Super Mario All-Stars version of Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. That one, I did win, and yes, I still have it.

–LBD “Nytetrayn”

David Oxford

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

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