Defend NYC From Hijacked Airplanes [Flash Required]

October 7, 2001 6:39 PM

Defend NYC From Hijacked Airplanes [Flash Required] You're somewhere in NYC shooting down incoming jets as they try to crash into the World Trade Center. The text is in French, but the mechanics are easy to understand if you know how to play missle command. Is there going to be a mod for "Hunt the Wumpus" called "Hunt The Osama".
posted by RoyalJack (21 comments total)

Is it a political commentary that it is impossible to stop the terrorists, no matter how good you get at playing the game, that planes just keep coming till the towers collapse?
posted by rushmc at 6:50 PM on October 7, 2001

I usually don't mind computer game violence, but this is more than I can handle. Disgusting.
posted by muckster at 6:57 PM on October 7, 2001

Well, I don't think it's political commentary in this version, but the original game it's based on--
Missile Command--had a clear message about nuclear war/attack.

On Missile Command: The game was nearly shipped with a name that carried the message of the end of the world . . . Armageddon.

Because in

Missile Command, the game doesn't end until all your cities are destroyed and the big red "THE END" flashes on the screen.

In this version--based on the WTC attacks--I think the message is wrongly applied. And I think it's just a fascinating artifact of how the Internet handles/filters things.
posted by RoyalJack at 7:07 PM on October 7, 2001

Disgusting.

Oh please.
posted by jpoulos at 8:09 PM on October 7, 2001

Disgusting... no. Disturbing... maybe.
posted by TacoConsumer at 8:16 PM on October 7, 2001

woohoo! fun flash game!
posted by corpse at 8:26 PM on October 7, 2001

I'm I think it goes without saying that I don't even want to see this game. Now I'm gonna have more nightmares, thanks.
posted by QrysDonnell at 9:17 PM on October 7, 2001

Aw!
The innocent passengers unwittingly aboard weapons of terror don't even scream when you shoot them down. What a total rip.
posted by dong_resin at 9:34 PM on October 7, 2001

I'm I think it goes without saying that I don't even want to see this game. Now I'm gonna have more nightmares, thanks.

We'll notify the site that hosts the game and have them block your specific IP...

It's like my friend who was having problems sleeping after watching too much TV coverage of the attacks on the WTC and Pentagon. Solution? Turn off the TV! Or change the channel.

Ba, ba, black sheep URLs need not be clicked...
posted by RoyalJack at 9:41 PM on October 7, 2001

Don't know about you, but I am indeed having nightmares about the towers on fire, and I do find the playful re-enactment of the deaths of thousands represented by cartoony planes crashing into cartoony buildings for the purpose of gratifying an itchy trigger-finger revolting, repulsive, sickening, nauseating and repellent -- in a word: disgusting.

Satire is one thing, but this ain't funny, it's ugly, and it hits home much too closely. Disturbing it would be only if somebody, somewhere could not be expected to make light of a tragedy, always. Somebody was bound to make this game but we don't have to cheapen ourselves by playing it.

I know, I know. Boring moralism. Almost as boring as all those posters all over town showing dead people's faces.
posted by muckster at 9:46 PM on October 7, 2001

bah. who needs games?
posted by quonsar at 9:55 PM on October 7, 2001

Muckster, you're right, it's disgusting.

I suppose inevitable.

I see also that coming soon is an "Attack on the Taliban" game.

Similarly disgusting and inevitable, I suppose.
posted by artlung at 10:00 PM on October 7, 2001

Artlung & Muckster: The game is disturbing, but not anything unusual for games or entertainment. You know in Rambo III, Rambo fought with the Taliban to resuce a friend. So I guess Rambo trained the Taliban?

And then in video-games there's Contra that filtered the whole concept of covert military action into a videogame.

Then there's the new game Tropico where you play Che Guevara who is somehow the ruler of his own little communist paradise.

For what it's worth here's a huge group of online games that are bent on killing Bin Laden.

While the game is disturbing, it's definitely a cultural artifact of how some people are reacting to what happened.
posted by RoyalJack at 10:10 PM on October 7, 2001

Whoops, the bin laden link is here
posted by RoyalJack at 10:11 PM on October 7, 2001

Have they taken it down? I've been trying to have a look ever since the initial link was posted but I'm not having any luck.
I'm just as spooked as everybody else is. The reason I want to look is because I'm wondering if they invented this game as a way of returning themselves some control over the current situation, however unrealistic that sense of control might be.
posted by realjanetkagan at 12:10 AM on October 8, 2001

I can get to it fine.

I don't think it gives any 'control' over the situation as you always end up losing.

(unless you can win. I don't have the patience to find out)
posted by justgary at 12:34 AM on October 8, 2001

I'm just as spooked as everybody else is. The reason I want to look is because I'm wondering if they invented this game as a way of returning themselves some control over the current situation, however unrealistic that sense of control might be.

Honestly, I believe that any creative act related to the attacks is ultimately cathartic for the person who created it. Is it cathartic to anyone else? Not really. This game just freaks me out more and more... But I'm sure that whoever did it--consciously or subconsiously--had to work something out...
posted by RoyalJack at 12:43 AM on October 8, 2001

RoyalJack: Then *don't go there.* I've been trying to keep up with the news and keep sane at the same time...and sometimes I've have to turn everything off & go for a walk with the cats & dawdle & amble & look at everything they look at. Yes, people are doing nutso things to keep themselves sane. Maybe you can't walk with your cats & that won't work for you. If something doesn't work for you---or makes it worse---please don't do it. Be good to yourself.
posted by realjanetkagan at 1:09 AM on October 8, 2001

Still having nightmares about all this? Channel your anxieties into a creative outlet. I wrote a couple short stories about it. No nightmares here. Granted no one's ever gonna read them cuz I suck, but at least I feel better.

I'm still waiting to hear bad sick jokes about 91101. Anyone remember those terrible jokes when the Challenger exploded? What's NASA stand for? Need Another Seven Astronauts. yuk yuk *cough!*
posted by ZachsMind at 4:11 AM on October 8, 2001

That's the first decent chuckle I've had about WTC...thanks for the post.
posted by rmolenda at 6:55 AM on October 8, 2001

If something doesn't work for you---or makes it worse---please don't do it. Be good to yourself.

Janet: I have no problems with the link. I posted it to begin with. *Don't go there* indeed.
posted by RoyalJack at 11:30 AM on October 8, 2001