Cat Weaver - Journal 2025

[catweaver]

Game Journal

[catweaver]

Trash/Garbage (Card Game)
Unknown (most likely American origination)
N/A

2 Playing Card Sets (classic 52 deck)
Hands and Cards
Randomized cards
It is not different


To play the game, one deck is mixed and shuffled. The other deck is used to pull from during the game. Each player gets ten cards, face down. Each player must set all the cards in front of them in two rows od five. The rest of the cards are placed in-between the players. The person left of the dealer picks a card from the top to start the game.
The rules of the game is to have all ten of the face-down cards be replaced by all the numbers in a deck in sequential order. Starting with an ace as 1, the cards can be counted up to ten. All number cards are viable, jacks are wild cards that can replace any number card, and any other face cards are trash. For each turn, a player can pick a card from the stack or the 'trash pile' to fill in each number. For example, if a player picks a card from the stack and pulls a 7, the 7 card would replace the 7th face-down card in front of the player. Once the card has been replaced, the player reveals the card and has the options of using the card to replace another slot or put it in the trash. The player can replace as many cards needed. If the card is one that had already been placed, it must go to the trash. Once the player places the card in the trash, its the next players turn.
The goal is to have all face down cards replaced with the number first.
For example:
Player One begins and pulls a 3 card. The player replaces the 3 card in the 3rd slot and reveals a jack card that was previously face down. The player again replaces the jack card in the 8th slot and reveals a king. Player One places it in the trash pile. It is Player Two’s turn. Player Two picks from the stack and pulls an ace and places it in the 1st slot and reveals another ace. Player Two puts the ace in the trash pile. Its Player Three’s turn. Etc.

The weaknesses of the game is not being able to interact with other players outside of watching them progress their own decks. It can disengage attention if the players are not familiar with each other without a cross-competitive goal. Another weakness can be how slow it can feel once the players are at a stand-still of cards not being turned over. This plateaus interest.

What made the game exciting for me was the race to have all the cards turned over first. The anticipation of the next card being the one I need kept my attention. Since all of our players knew each other, it was more fun to engage with each other while they also anticipated the next card.

Trash is a quick and fun card game to play. It's simple enough to engage younger players and older players. It is one in a long line of card games that evolve with different generations of players.

★★★★

[catweaver]

Backgammon
Ancient Mesopotamia
Persia, Samaria, and Egypt

Painted wood board
Painted wood chips and bone dice
Modern table with chips and dice
I think the experience would have differed in how the game was made. Using manufactured materials, the pieces have a different weight than using hand-made pieces. There are also diverse rules and betting systems that were not used in our playthrough.

The board is laid out where there are two places for chips, the inner table and the outer table. A player sits on opposite sides and play clockwise to themselves. The inner table is the players base while the outer table should be to the right/left of the players. There are two different colored sets of chips that each player has and two dice. The chips are laid in a specific order on the table.
The goal is to get all of the chips of one color to the specific players inner table. Once all the chips are in the inner table, the player can make moves to place all of the chips in the home slot. When all the chips are in the home slot, the player wins. The players can choose who goes first.
When the game starts, the player can move any of the chips (clockwise to themselves). The dice determines the amount of times one or two chips can be moved per turn. Since two dice are rolled, the player can chose to move one chip however many spaces the total of the dice is OR move one chip the amount on one dice and move another chip the amount on the other dice. Doubles means the player can roll again.
With the goal being to gather the specific color in the inner table, the players can move defensively or offensively. Chips of the same color can stack on each other in the slot, up to five. A chip cannot land on a slot of two or more chips already placed by the opposite player. If a player lands on a single chip from the other player, the other player's chip is sent to jail. It can only be retrieved back to the board by rolling to move it out, where it starts on the opposite end of the board (which is the first left slot of the opposite player).

The strengths of the game is it's simplicity on the base mechanics. It is simple to set up and to learn. Rather than chess and more akin to checkers, all chips move equally. The strategy comes from how the player plans out their next moves from the randomized dice. It is really fun to play offensively, sending the other player's chips to jail, and defensively, planning out how to get as many pieces to the inner table and covering single chips. The weakness can be found in the increasing complexity of the specific rules, increasing the time spent on the game. Having to wait to move pieces out of jail and being limited on how much the slots hold can make the game last much longer. This could affect the attention of the players.

I thought it was fun. I was intimidated by the visual complexity of the board and all the components, but I ended up enjoying it a lot. To me, it is extremely similar to both checkers and mancala. These are games that I can keep up with and strategize without too many rules to keep track of. It wasn't as complex as it seemed. I can see how the game can be too long for casual players to sit through. I would have been confused by any other added rule systems or betting.

I can definitely see the influence of backgammon on so many strategy-based and resource management games. Like most modern versions, it requires head-counting and risk management. These are all valuable skills people can learn from, making it a good blueprint for similar mechanics. Monopoly, Risk, Sorry, and Catan are all games I have personally played that all have similarities to backgammon and similar ancient games. A lot of resource, war, and socio-economic simulators have used components of backgammon for mechanics, especially when playing online.

★★★

[catweaver]

Pong
Allan Alcorn
Atari

Arcade game cabinet
2 Knobs
Laptop up and down keys
The cabinet has the players stand, using their hand to control the knob. The knob is more of a haptic experience than laptop keys. The audio/visual/social experience of being in a social setting like an arcade would change the enjoyment factor. It takes two players for the game on the original, where I was playing with an AI opponent.

The game's goal is to pass the digital ball through the other players defense, getting to eleven points first. Pong is digital ping-pong, using two digital panels as paddles to hit the ball. The player uses the knob to go up and down to meet where the ball is before it passes through the line. The player needs to turn the knob counter-clockwise to go down and clockwise to go up. Strategy in the game can come from where the ball hits the paddle. The player can control the angle of how the ball bounces on the sides of the screen by hitting it on the edge of the paddle.
The goal is to be the first player to eleven points.

The strength of Pong is how easy it is to pick up and how intuitive it is, especially compared to other popular games at the time. Aside from the comparison to table tennis, most people have passed a ball around and understand the base idea of trajectory. Pong utilizes the trajectory aspect and does not include any of the more complicated rules of tennis or table tennis. The hardware was also able to serve the ball to whoever won the last game, counts the points, and can tell when a player wins or loses. It is highly intuitive for beginner players to understand the win/lose state. The weakness is how slowly the game starts for players that understand the mechanics. Knowing how the game functions does little for a player that is waiting for the speed of the ball to become interesting.

I think what is fun about Pong is the predictability of the game. I know where the ball is going to be, especially at the beginning of the game, so its all about how fast I can get there. I only have one focus, which differs from the typical modern-day experience of games. I think playing in an arcade with other people, which was the original design, is much more fun. To be able to trash-talk and push my sister is more enjoyable for the real human experience that Pong lacks purposefully.

Pong was influential on two levels. One was the game itself. It influenced the idea of sport/physics games, creating the basis for public interest in a digital game of things they have played before in real life. The knob went on to be used in arcade cabinets for a while after. The second is the history of the game, being a copy of a game already made by Magnavox. This set the precedent of copyright infringement in the budding arena of video games. Settling out of court, Pong was proof that games could be iterated, if not copied, and the law would have to become more and more specific in copyrighting components of games.

★★★

[catweaver]

Pinball
Probably golf, pool, and croquet players, Montegue Redgrave (patent)
Multiple companies: Automatic Industries, the Bingo Novelty Company, and Gottlieb & Co. created versions

Wood table with pins and pockets
Cue sticks
Laptop left and right keys
Using cue sticks instead of the plunger and flippers to control the ball would require much more skill. It would be more like pool than the traditional pinball.

Pinball is traditionally played the same. The single player would shoot the ball into the enclosed board, either with a cue or plunger. This sends the ball into the board to be knocked around by pins, obstacles, and other flippers.
The goal depends on the era of the pinball machine, with the same idea being to get as many points as possible by keeping the ball in-play. The earlier eras where pockets that the player would hit the ball into. The later eras included flippers and obstacles that would earn the player points if they were hit. The modern era adds to the board with interactive elements like raceways and bonus areas to earn even more points.
The player wants to keep the ball on the board and in-play as long as possible. The number of balls available is often finite and some games will reward players with more points depending on how long the ball is kept in play. There is no win-state, so points determine success.

The design of the game is one of the biggest strengths, as it can be iterated so many times. Pinball has spanned franchises, play styles, and the shift from physical to digital platforms. The basic physics makes it easily understandable and controlled by players. The weakness is the over complication of modern boards and the gap between the flippers to make the player lose. Modern boards are so over-stuffed with obstacles and interactables, it complicates an easy game. Sometimes, the ball is impossible to follow. This is purposeful by the designers to get the player lost and/or distracted so that they lose their ball and have to pay to play again. The margin of losing is often determined by the gap the player has between the controllable flippers.

Pinball is my favorite arcade game to play, and I have played it ever since I went to my first arcade. I enjoy only controlling two flippers and watching the ball on the board. Its really fun to watch a little physical object interact with all the obstacles in real-time. Often, modern boards are themed and have fun interactable content. Earning points makes the experience even more competitive for myself. I did not like the moving camera in the specific link so that kids have an easier time following the ball. It was incredibly distracting, in my opinion. Part of the fun is losing your place with the ball and keeping it up.

I think Pinball is influential for its monetization in the gaming industry. Money exchange was not new for games, but using money to play a game that could not be accessed otherwise became the basis of arcades and arcade cabinets. Pinball's physics were also important for games like Pong to come into the limelight. Games have been using physics since the beginning, from launching space ships in trajectories to most sports games. Since physics can be computed and computers were build for exactly that, games were able to replicate physics. Pinball uses real life physics in physical cabinets and replicates that online. I don't think we would have had games like Angry Birds or Smash Hit without pinball, just to name a few mobile examples.

★★★★★

[catweaver]

Galaga
Shigeru Yokoyama
Namco

Arcade cabinet
Joystick with A and B buttons
Laptop left, right, x and y keys
The arcade experience and the physical system of Galaga would have the player standing and using both hands to play.


The game boots with a start screen. The player can use the joystick and two buttons. Once the game starts, the player is a ship in the middle of the screen that can be move left and right with the joystick. The player can also shoot using the buttons.
The goal is to shoot down the bugs that will fly on-screen, the Galaga forces. The bugs will file on screen and move down towards the player. They will also fly at the ship, try to abduct the player, and slowly advance. The player must shoot them down before they approach the bottom of the screen. If a bug touches the ship, the ship explodes and the player loses. The player has three lives before game over.
The game comes from avoiding the bugs and shooting them down. More will come gradually and the player must avoid the bugs that fly down to kill the player. Once all the Galaga forces are shot down, the next wave will advance. There is no win-state, so the player base uses points to determine success.

Galaga has a widely-recognizable art style and game mechanic. The colorful bug sprites and white ship against black space make the high contrast moving characters easy to follow. The mechanic of an advancing force with a shooting player is iconic. The difficulty makes it more fun for experienced players to speed through the game. The weakness of the game is the repetitive Galaga forces due to the constraints of the cabinets at the time.

Galaga is fun for its immediate feedback systems. The player can shoot and hit a target quickly. Seeing the numbers of Galaga bugs get less and less is satisfying. When more fly on-screen, it creates another set of obstacles to plow through. As the forces advance and fly at the player, it adds more to what the player is engaging without flailing around. Since the ship can only go left and right, it keeps the player on track and game loop simple.

The influence of Galaga on the style and mechanics of games cannot be understated. Though many space-related games existed, Galaga captured audience attention with simplicity. The art style continues to create more iterations of space-bugs as enemies in modern games. The mechanics being only on one axis influenced the cross of platformers and shooters. Having the player's movement streamlined makes the shooting the main focus.

★★★

[catweaver]

Brain Strainers
Dan Smith, Bob Stewart, Radia Perlman
Carousel Software, Inc., Published by Coleco


ColecoVision Flashback
Two controllers with a knob and a number pad 1-9
Laptop keys
The haptic experience of the controllers would have made more sense and be more satisfying.


The game play of Brain Strainers is simple. I played Follow the Leader. There are 4 colors in a wheel for the player to remember. The game can be played either with one player or two players. The player can also choose the level at which the game progresses. If the level is four, then the game will put the pattern up to four sequences before the player can win. The game will use the four colors in a random pattern for the player to memorize.
Once the game starts, the game will flash the color on screen. The player will then move the knob in the correlating position to the on-screen color. The game will repeat the first color and add another color to the pattern. The player must then use the knob to repeat the pattern. This continues until the player loses by messing up the pattern or wins by successfully inputting the correct pattern.


The strengths of the game are simplicity and repetition. With the main audience being young children playing with their parents and/or siblings, kids can only focus on so much at a time. Having the bright colors against the black screen and simple words in big fonts for kids to read is well-placed. The pattern recognition is very fun for kids to remember and utilizes colors, brightness, and an arrow to help them. The weakness is replayability once those children are bored of the game. The other game being available helps, but having another mode for the color patterns would be fun. (like a 80s version of beat saber)


What makes the game fun is the pattern recognition. I played this game because my mother played it on her ColecoVision in the later 80s. My mom thought it was fun because she could only play with herself and occasionally her sister as a latch-key kid, so she would see how much she could remember. Being able to control the level, increasing the longevity of the pattern, makes the game challenging. The beginnings of edutainment were taking off and, some can argue, still haven’t learned longevity.


Playing the game, I see the influence on rhythm games in video games and more haptic experiences. Rhythm games were and are immensely popular, especially during the early 2000s, and has the core experience of Brain Strainers. Beat Saber, Guitar Hero, and Bop-It are all games that take elements of color recognition with music. Edutainment have been using pattern-based games for a long time, as far back as I can remember is Starfall.


★★★

[catweaver]

Zork (1)
Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling
Infocom


PDP-10 mainframe computer
Keyboard
Laptop keyboard
No, since it's a similar, if not the same, input system so the experience is the same. The load out time probably would’ve been slightly longer.

Zork is a text-based RPG where the character can complete actions for multiple outcomes. The main mechanic is simple text input, where the player can direct an action. “Get lamp” or “Go west” are the most common examples. The player can traverse a huge map of locations, perform different actions in each location, and can collect items. There are enemy types the player can fight and a randomly generated thief that can steal the player’s stuff. The locations are sprawling, with hundreds that can be found through hidden places, mechanisms, and out of the box thinking.
The game boots the player outside of the main house with anywhere to go and everything to do. The player can type in each action with the computer either responding in kind, or telling the player that the input does not work because of the phrasing, availability, or spelling. The player can then explore the house, forest, tunnels, and giant underground systems with unique rooms. The things the player collects can be keys to puzzles, useful for scenarios, and fun set dressing. As the player moves locations and performs actions, a new text dialogue pops up to read. The game has a win state once treasure has been collected, but the player can explore and do as much as they want.

The strengths of the game is the picture it paints with only words and the simplicity of the input. There are no pictures, only dialogue. With the exploring portions, it feels like an interactive book. The actions the player can take makes the text engaging to a player with an imagination. The dialogue is also very eloquent and sarcastically funny, so it keeps the player engaged on an emotional level. The input system being as simple as typing words on a keyboard is brilliant. The people playing at the time would be familiar with keyboards and books, so combining both into a game made it a bestseller. From the input system, it teaches the player to use the keyboard and to spell correctly. I don’t think that was the intention but it was a great by-product. The weakness is the progression through the game can get very confusing without a way to keep track and the other is a more modern issue, the specificity of the commands.

I personally love a self-driven story where I can wander around and come back to the plot whenever I want. But, I struggle when there is not a goal or directive. The goal being to explore made it difficult for me to get into the game. The commands were easy to catch onto and the fun was finding new places. I did not like getting stuck because I did not think of moving a rug I did not know about. The later installments have a more linear story to follow, but the first Zork lost me about halfway through the underground caverns. I can see how amazing the novelty of it is, but I stopped having fun without something to do.

Zork would be incredibly influential for its base on story-telling adventures. Oregon Trail, Colossal Cave Adventure, and Zork all bleed into any game with open-ended quest lines. Minecraft is entirely open-ended with a huge emphasis on caves. Kids point-and-click games would remove the text-based input and keep the exploration components. Open-world games take a page out of Zork to create multiple areas, hidden locations, and different ways to solve puzzles. Collection of items are huge in video games from Fallout to Mario Odyssey. Interactive books already existed, but making them games would create a genre in horror ARG circles. I think of “Ted the Caver” and how big that was for online horror writing. It has some similarities to Zork in the caves to open caverns and the haunted, spooky feeling.

★★

[catweaver]

Wizball
Jon Hare and Chris Yates
Sensible Software


Commodore 64
Joystick with keyboard
Laptop keyboard
I think the experience would have changed completely. Trying to figure out the key settings and how to get it fast enough was not working for me. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more.


Wizball is a mix of side-scrolling shooter and platformer. The player is a wizard ball collecting paint droplets around a dark, monochromatic world. The ball bounces around on screen and the player controls the rate the ball turns, controlling what direction and how fast it bounces. The titular wizball can shoot lasers at enemies, sometimes creating a pearl. Pearls can be collected and used to buy upgrades, like better control, going up, down, left, and right linearly, and the wizard’s pet cat, Catillite, that can help collect paint.
The game starts with the player only controlling the bounce trajectory and lazers. The wizball bounces around the level and can shoot the standing enemies that look like rotating branches, crunching triangles, or centipedes. If the wizball runs into an enemy, the wizball explodes. When an enemy is killed, the player can collect the pearls and start to upgrade. The player can also pass through holes on the floor to get to other levels. Each level has its own assigned paint color, starting with red, blue, and green. Bubbles doing the worm can be shot at to drop paint, which Catillite can collect. Once the color has filled up the little pot at the bottom of the screen, the bonus level starts where the wizball can collect more pearls. Wizball wins and goes back to the lab to mix the paint. Once the level starts up again, the same color comes back to the level. Once the main colors are collected, the pot on the right of the screen will show what color can be collected by collecting different paint colors from different levels. The goal is to mix all the right colors to restore all the colors back to the world.

I really like the concept of using the colors as a goal and having it visually reflected. Its a huge strength of the game, from the uniqueness and the visual achievement of getting another color. The psychedelic sounds, colors, and design are all iconic of the 80s. The weird designs of the enemies were fun and engaging. The weakness was the controls. Starting the game, it is not intuative for the player of any goal. It could’ve just been my experience but I had a hard time controlling the wizball. I couldn’t figure out a lot of the game without dying a lot, so I had a tough time progressing.

I did not have fun. I like side-scrollers, and especially shooters. I am a big fan of surrealism. I could not figure out how to play this game well and the learning curve was a learning plateau. Once I figured out a mechanic, the last one would not work for me. It could have been me or the emulator, but I did not have a good time.

The game was widely well-received and has a fanbase online today. The more simple gameplay and rapid visual progression makes the game fun to go through (I had to watch gameplay to understand the hype.) The influence of this game is a little more obscure but I think people take a lot of similar elements to their shooter games, especially bullet-hell games. The surrealism of video games could be in part to Wizball and a similar tone can be found in games like Undertale, Binding of Isaac, and the indie project OFF.

★

[catweaver]

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
Hirokazu Yasuhara and Sonic Team
Sega


Sega Genesis
Game controller with up, down, left, right control pad with 3 separate buttons
Laptop keys
The controller is held with two hands so it would’ve been easier to move around than laptop keys. The controls are already touchy, so maybe it would not have changed my reaction time.


Sonic is a side-scrolling platformer where the main goal is speed. The player controls the main character, Sonic, running back and forth across the levels, called acts. Sonic can also jump to leap on platforming and on enemies to kill them in an explosion. This can also be used as a double jump over more platforming and enemies. If Sonic bumps into an enemy, Sonic dies. There are rings scattered throughout the map that can be collected for more lives. Gaining one or more rings allows the player to have one more life against enemies, so if Sonic bumps an enemy, he loses all his rings. Bumping an enemy with no rings kills Sonic. When running fast enough, Sonic turns into a blue ball that can go through round-a-bouts and kill enemies in the way. There are more platforming elements like multi-level platforming, ramps, springs, and floating platforms. There is a timer for the level that determines the grade the player gets based on how fast the level is completed.
The game starts out on the first level of many that Sonic must run through, collecting as many rings as possible as fast as possible. The goal is to get to the end of the level. The overarching story is to get to the emeralds that the villain, Dr. Robonik, needs to rule the world. The enemies are animals that got turned into robots by Robonik. Once a level is completed, the player can jump to hit a big ring to enter a bonus mode. At the end of three acts, the player fights Robotnik in a boss fight, completing the level.


The strengths of the original Sonic game is its unique gameplay and iconic design. The art design has been immortalized in countless pieces of media, from fanart to music to movies to critically acclaimed fan games. The blue hedgehog really resonates with people. The blue color, the early 90’s teenage attitude, and intuitive gameplay are all elements that have continued into more franchise installments. The unique gameplay pairs a platformer like Mario with the speed of racing games. The weaknesses of the game is how confusing the platformer can be without clear directions of where to go. Later installments fix this problem.


The speed and story of Sonic makes the game incredibly fun. There is a clear mechanic and an eye-catching character that both narratively point to the goal, go fast. This speedy and colorful gameplay makes the game initially fun, while the easy-to-learn/hard-to-master mechanics makes the acts of the levels fun to come back to. The timer and grading of the speed makes it really fun for masters and speedrunners to come back to the stages again and again.


Sonic was influential as a social and media icon. The lasting effects on video games are including but not limited to, speed platforming, using the in-game currency as a life buffer, floating platforming, using physics as a mechanic, grading based on timing, and boss battles per level completed. Sonic himself can be found on any media imaginable and was a staple of my childhood. The show (both of them, we didn’t know there was a difference) was a big favorite of my sisters and I, and we would go back to playing Sonic on our DSIs right after.

★★★★

[Professor Watkins]

Graded to here.