#gamebuddies

This is the best craigslist pickup I have ever found (or probably will ever find). I could hardly believe my eyes when I came across it. But there it was in all its retro glory. A fully functional Vectrex.

This console has eluded me for years. I often searched both eBay and craigslist for one, but eBay sellers wanted upwards of $150 plus shipping and I’ve never seen a working one on craigslist until today. Even better, I happened to see the post literally minutes after it went up.

I bought it from an older man who said it had just been sitting in his garage since the ’80s and I was the first to call him. He plugged it in and showed me the built-in game Minestorm. The vector monitor looked beautiful. When I asked him how much, I expected at least a Ben Franklin. But no. After a long pause, he said, “Sixty and it’s yours.” I didn’t even try to barter. I just wanted to get it in my car.

I’m still excited about it as I’m writing this. I truly never expected I would find one of these in the wild for so cheap. But man, persistence pays off! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to play some Minestorm.

In last week’s Gamebuddies podcast we discussed Flappy Bird, the mobile game phenomenon that recently took the world by storm. With its simple mechanics of navigating a cartoon bird through an endless series of pipes, the app is both mindlessly addicting and mildly infuriating. Players have proudly displayed screenshots of 15 or 20-point runs, which count as impressive victories where Flappy Bird is involved.

However, no one expected yesterday’s news: with less than twenty-four hours’ warning, creator Dong Nguyen announced that Flappy Bird would be removed from the app stores, presumably for good. The Taiwanese game designer’s Twitter announcement prompted a scramble to download the game before it disappeared forever, with any last skeptics and hold-outs taking the opportunity to see what the craze was all about.

Marketing ploy? Stress overload from unexpected success? Speculation abounds as to the reason behind Nguyen’s shocking move. His decision seems particularly unbelievable in light of a recent revelation that the game - which was free to download - brought in over $50,000 a day in ad revenue. To walk away from that type of monetary success seems borderline insane to many, yet this is precisely what Nguyen decided to do, his tweets regarding the announcement stating that he “cannot take this anymore.” A tweet from earlier in the day also tellingly states that the game, while a success, “ruin[ed his] simple life,“ and therefore he "hates it." However, those in the marketing ploy camp theorize that pulling Flappy Bird from the market may create a larger demand for future Dong Nguyen games, particularly if they may also only be available for a short time.

True to Nguyen’s word, as of February 9th Flappy Bird is no longer available in the app store. Several clones have attempted to take its place, but are unlikely to capture the success of the original. Many questions remain unanswered, including how long the app’s popularity will sustain itself, being a largely word-of-mouth success that has many fans but that can no longer gain any new players. The saga of Flappy Bird leaves us with intriguing example of an indie game turned runaway hit, and the unforeseeable effects of being thrust into the spotlight.