Chapter 23: Ch 022

Alien 51 was a legendary nightmare of a game.

 

It was, basically, a two player first person shooter game with plastic pistols on long cords that you could use to blast aliens as you went through an army base overrun with monsters. However, the sadistic creators went a bit above and beyond that. You simply could not complete the game without two players, even if in single player mode they halved the number of creatures and boss health. The problem was in order to finish the game, you had to trigger every single Easter egg or you wouldn't have a chance. Shoot all the windows on a level and a bonus level where you can regain health and ammo happens. Shoot all the slushy cups and you can get a power up in the cafeteria level. Shoot every beer bottle, and the third area boss is drunk and you actually have a chance of defeating him. 

 

The monsters who coded this game did an amazing job with the character and the game design. It was a wonderful game to play, but just about nobody could ever get past level three. There were objects you needed to shoot to trigger events that simply were not visible except when you were moving from one location to another and would only appear for a second. There was no way to pull this off without being able to shoot some pairs of targets simultaneously. Let your guard down for a moment, miss even one mirror, and your entire run was ruined. No amount of extra lives was going to save you. Finding two people who could both memorize the pattern and work with a partner was about as likely as getting struck by lightning.

 

The creators swear it could be beaten. There were a few legendary gamer teams who posted videos of them finishing the game, but you could count the total number of such people on one hand. It was a game that was a  victim of its own success. It became a legend in its own right, right up there with Polybius. When any future games were made too hard, players would say they had been 'Alien Fifty Owned', to indicate they didn't lose, so much as the task was impossible from the get-go. And so Alien 51 remained in the corner of the arcade. Disused, dusty, and for the most part...

 

Forgotten.

 

~How much money did I sink into this game that summer?~ Toshi slid up to it and actually caressed the case, "This I remember." Hinako looked at Toshi with a raised eyebrow, "You... remember this? Uh... Nobody plays this. It's insanely difficult. Did they have one of these near where you lived with Dad?" He glanced at her, "Not a clue." She thought about it for a second then shrugged, "Doesn't matter. Let's give it a shot! Anything that might trigger your memory is worth a few coins." She reached out to take one of the guns, but Toshi stopped her.

 

Toshi shook his head as he fed in enough tokens for two credits, "Sorry. I play this best alone." She stared HARD as he drew both pistols. Hinako gave him a suspicious, sideways squint, "Wait. You solo this game AND you play both players at the same time?" The video game had a second monitor on top, like many of the other more expensive games, so other people could watch. She stepped back with wide eyes to look up at the monitor. She folded her arms and spoke with just a hint of disbelief, "This I gotta see."

 

Toshi used the ends of his barrels to hit both start buttons simultaneously.

 

You could reload by pulling the trigger while aiming off the screen, so you could re-arm one handed without pressing the reload button on the side. Where you aimed off screen could also change your ammo type, if you picked up something special. You also could skip using the grenade button on the top of the gun by pressing the player start button. Not the most effective way to play, but it made up for inefficiency with better coordination and 'cool points'. His accuracy count may have been in the toilet. He may have been just a hair slower with the grenades than he could be.

 

But damn if he didn't put on a show.

 

Hinako couldn't help but be impressed as step by step her brother began to systematically annihilate every critter that appeared on the screen. He dual wielded those hand cannons as he slowly marched through the base, sometimes shooting at spawn points before the aliens even began to spawn. It was like his arms worked independently of each other, right up until a tough critter appeared then he'd switch ammo types and focus fire on that target until it popped like a zit. Hinako was puzzled when she saw her brother shoot all of the background windows and cameras,  except one. He waited until the last possible moment then shot the remaining window, triggering a bonus level. She let out a low whistle as he had two minutes to rack up extra points, ammo, and more importantly, heal up, "Keanu Christ on a crutch, Toshi! You are on FIRE!"

 

At least he was, up until the penultimate boss.

 

Player two took too many shots and Toshi lost his last blue player life. Reduced to just player one, he tried to keep up with the wave of aliens, but the surge was too much. As the red player died, he hung up the gun, "Damnit. This is as far as I get." Suddenly, the countdown timers reset and two new credits appeared. Hinako had abruptly fed in more tokens, "Don't quit now! Toshi blinked, "I don't know the pattern after this." Hinako grinned, "SO? You got raw goddamn talent!" Some girl behind Toshi called out, "Hell yeah! You are frickin' insane!" Another called out, "About time someone beat this thing!"

 

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Toshi did a double take as he had failed to notice the crowd of all girl players who had come over to watch. He looked back at the game, saw the timer was down to eight, then closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and thought about what he was going to do next, then grabbed both guns. As he pulled them out, he only held them at his side as he let the timer count down. When the counter reached zero, he tapped the player buttons with the barrels and started over from the beginning. The crowd let out a disappointed 'aww'. Hinako seemed a little sad herself, "You missed-" Toshi cut her off, "It doesn't count if I have to use multiple credits." He strafed the tarmac with both guns and blew up a refueling truck, "I'll beat it from the start or not at all."

 

Everything fell away. He was in the zone. The growing noise from the crowd fell away. Toshi was pumped. It wasn't until the mid-point boss where he lost his first life. He still killed it off, but up until that point, he had been flawless. From behind, Hinako grabbed Toshi by the shoulder as the game paused between stages to total up the score, "You're doing better than last time. You were down three lives going into the missile run before. You got this!"

 

The missile run was a cake walk, but when he got to the second to the last stage, Toshi changed tactics. He switched to shotgun ammo. He hated using it since it had such a slow shot speed, but he had a new plan. When he finally got to the stage boss, he unleashed a cloud of scattershot and tossed grenades like he was sowing seeds. It was magnificent to behold, as he managed to make it through the battle without losing a single health. He also managed to use up all his exotic ammo and grenades. He was going into the final leg with nothing but starter pistols.

 

As far as the crowd was concerned, this was the highlight of the day. Something about a crowd of people where the energy feeds upon itself. On one level, it was just a shoot-em-up game. On another, everyone was super pumped. Someone was finally going to finish that damn game that nobody could beat. It didn't hurt that the one doing it was cute. The crowd was making so much noise that by this point just about everyone had stopped playing anything else and came over to watch. The more people joined, the more important the outcome felt.

 

Shouts of encouragement came from the crowd, "You can do it! and "C'mon, Pochi-kun!" and "Finish this!" along with murmurs of speculation if he could even do it. Hinako rubbed his shoulders as the stage score was totaled up. She murmured into his ear, "You've already crushed the high score. Just relax, keep doing what you are doing, and show this box who's boss. " Toshi  cracked his neck, shook out his hands, and yanked the pistols out of their holsters just as the final stage begun. He stopped moving his eye counting on his peripheral vision and reflexes. He felt strangely calm as everything unfolded.

 

He burned through what little special ammo he found on this level just getting to the final boss, a giant egg laying alien monster. Toshi lost a life on player one immediately. The crowd let out a collective groan as he died, but noticed that he wasn't shooting to get back into the game. He was letting player two soak up most of the damage as he fought with only one gun for a while. Five seconds later player one re-spawned and he resumed play, just as player two died. That one he brought back right away until player one died again. He repeated his previous running down of the clock, using player two as a meat shield. Player two lost his last life just as he was about to have to start player one. He slapped down the player two button canceling any chance of player two restarting.

 

The game, sensing that the number of players dropped, reset for a lower difficulty.

 

Suddenly what had been a non-stop wall of monsters turned into a trickle and the final boss monster's hit point total halved leaving it almost dead. He had collected what few grenades were on this level and saved them all in player one. This was the final strategy. Use the grenades to hold off the little guys and pour everything else into the big bad. The crowd started to chant, "Go... Go... Go... Go..." Even his sister joined in. It was now a battle of attrition. The outcome was in the hands of R.N. Jesus. He let his health drop to one tick left, used his last grenade, then grabbed the gun with both hands so he could hammer that trigger even faster. Maybe it was the tension of the crowd, or all the adrenalin in his veins, but for some reason he started to yell as the boss health bar dropped. As a whole bunch of eggs burst open and the resulting hatchlings threw themselves at the player, everyone else joined him.

 

The screen went white.

 

Everyone went silent. Nothing happened. One person in back cried out, "What the fuck?" A second later, a far shot of an exploding base faded into view as the sound of an explosion rolled out of the speakers. It was followed by a close up of a single hand breaking up through a pile dirt. An eight bit soldier pulled herself out of the ground and casually dusted herself off.

 

Everyone went nuts.

 

The end credits started to play. People started shouting, "Holy crap!" and  "That was just amazing!" and "Haven't seen anything like that in a long time!" Some girl grabbed Toshi's shoulder from behind, "Amazing!" Hinako slapped her hand away, "No touching!" The girl gave Hinako a glare, but winked at Toshi all the same, "You can be my wingman anytime!" She muttered in a seductive voice. Toshi didn't have a clue how to respond and just stared. Someone else shouted, "Put your initials in!" Toshi picked up the guns and aimed at the characters on the screen. He froze as he stared at it, his mind trying hard to process what came next. Embarrassed, he turned to his sister, leaned in and whispered a single question.

 

"What are my initials?"

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