Carnival

Carnival is a Sega game manufactured by Coleco for Atari. My point is: SEGA! On Atari! Almost as cool as Nintendo on Atari.

I like Carnival. It has bright colors and simple gameplay, and sometimes that's all you need for a good Atari game.

Some may say Carnival is too simple. Fortunately, the game creates a bit of variety with the descending ducks, the bonus points plus and minus target, and maintaining your ammo and shooting the "pipes." This game may lack the music and bear stage of the arcade, but it hides an Easter egg.

I think this game would be fun for younger children, if you don't mind them shooting ducks with what looks like a handgun.

It's okay. The ducks look like ghosts when they swoop down, anyway. It's like a Duck Hunt prototype.

Carnival is modeled after the old-time shooting galleries. Perhaps there are plenty of shooting galleries out there, but the last time I recall seeing a shooting gallery in person was in the early Nineties. It was loud and big. Many people shot many targets, and many of the metal targets set off lights, music, obnoxious sound effects, and even mechanical animations of flowers and animals. I feel like that must have been the ultimate shooting gallery, the final swan song of the physical genre.

I feel like shooting galleries are an art lost to time, you know, like Atari games.

Carnival may as well be called Shooting Gallery, because there are no other carnival games. Of course, Imagic made "Shootin' Gallery," a rare game I'll pay too much to play, someday.

My son pointed out the "carnival Ferris wheel" at the top. I guess that's supposed to be a spinning ring of pipes? Like tobacco pipes? Did people shoot pipes, too? I'm going along with my son and agreeing that the spinning thing is a Ferris wheel. You can shoot it, too, and it's not too difficult once you line yourself up just right.

Bonus points provide an element of strategy for this title, but be careful not to shoot the minus bonus. If the ducks get you, they'll eat a bunch of your bullets. You can refill your ammo. Be careful, because once you're out, it's game over.

To find the Easter egg, hold in the red button on the joystick while flipping on Carnival. You'll see a tiny dot at the top of the screen, not unlike the tiny dot you find for the Adventure Easter egg. My advice is to shoot the lowest duck before it has a chance to dive bomb. Then swerve right and shoot the dot right before it exits the screen. You may have to experiment with this; it took me many tries to get it.

Once you shoot the dot, you'll see "Program by" followed by "S.Kitchen."

Though Carnival is charming with its bright colors and simple gameplay, it is not quite engaging enough to keep my attention. I like this game, but I don't love it. Still, I think Carnival is a fair enough title for the Atari curious, who may want to see a fun shooter that isn't based on spaceships and aliens. The Easter Egg earns a nod. Plus - Sega!

I recommend Carnival for the Atari curious, nerds, and collectors.

Life game . . .

I took three different Myers-Briggs tests with three different sets of questions. Each test said I am INFJ, which is, of course, the rarest and most specialist personality type of all time. This isn't surprising. An ideal career for this Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging type? Writing.

I hold an MFA in Creative Writing. It got me a good job at Amazon. That's the joke I tell people.

The other aspects of INFJ that hold true to me: a need for purpose; having an idealistic vision of our purpose; shunning the ordinary; having a few deep personal relationships; perfectionism; seeing and feeling the pain in others (and sometimes acting on it).

I've come a long way with perfectionism. If I hadn't, this imperfect blog wouldn't exist. I accept that it's better to have things done than pour all my energy into something perfect that will never be done.

When I set down bins or pallets at work, I make sure to do so in a discreet way, so I don't create a loud noise. Other people don't set their bins down. They throw their bins, with massive force, onto the hard concrete floor, creating a loud, startling bang. I endure endless banging and crashing sounds at work. I'm sensitive, and very aware of how these sounds impact me, and therefore I go out of my way to be gentle and quiet, so I won't startle others. Therefore, it seems like a personal attack when some idiot slams down a pallet right behind me. It's like a gunshot behind my ear. I take deep breaths until the feeling in my body, a feeling of fire and fear, is calmed. I know other people think it's fine. They're just working. Part of working is being loud. They're drivers; it's okay to do what you need. It's okay to take and yell and criticize and so on. It's okay to push yourself upon others. It's all part of their personality, and if they are a supervisor, they may not understand why they need to be nicer to their staff.

Here's another example. I got cash back at the grocery store. Now, I used to be a cashier at various stores, including Walmart and Target, for over a decade. I would often run low on five and one dollar bills, especially at Walmart, and that it would take awhile for my manager to come over with a fresh stack of ones, especially at Walmart. So, even though it would be better for me to have a five and some singles--"break it up"--I told the cashier to only break it up if they have enough ones, and if not, fives were fine, unless they didn't have enough fives, and in that case, don't worry about it at all. I think the cashier rolled his eyes. But I know how dreadful it is to run out of smaller bills and keep a long line waiting.

I believe we should not "push ourselves onto others." (I'm sure I do, in some ways.)

As a result of my own sensitivities, I'm very aware of how my little actions may cause pain to others, while I'm also aware that I may ignore or fail to see how larger actions hurt others, if it inconveniences my ego.

I'm self-conscious about eating crunchy or stinky food around others.

I know I'm not a perfectionist here because this is so much rambling. Also, I don't research the games thoroughly; some game historians will describe all sides of the box in comparison to other boxes by the same publisher, compare old sales ads to confirm release date prices, and even list the ISBN number. Then they track down the original programmer and host an interview. And that's just the start.

I slept fourteen hours the night before last, then I took four naps throughout the day. I was depressed all day. I managed to apply for a job, do a small revision on a story, and do a half an hour of emotion-freeing yoga, all of which was exhausting and required naps following each activity. It was a day of rest. I see the doctor in one hour.

Note: I saw the doctor and got a blood test. He still hasn't responded regarding the blood test results, which tells me my blood is fine. He had mentioned a sleep study . . .