| JOURNEY: ESCAPE (DataAge) |
 
Journey was a rock band that formed in 1975 with former Santana guitarist Neal Schon and mangement Herbie Herbert (and his company Greenlight Management) got together. By 1977, they now had their early lineup of Steve Perry (vocals), Neal Schon (Guitar), Ross Valory (bass), Greg Rollie (Keyboards/VocalS), and Steve Smith (drums). In 1981ish, Greg Rollie left and was replaced by ballad-writer, keyboardist, and guitarist, Jonathan Caine. The band split up in 1987 after Raised on Radio, and has since come back with a revolving door of singers since Steve Perry left for health reasons pertaining to his voice (which is back now).
Anyway, it was the ealry 1980's and Journey decided, probably to show how "high tech" they are, to make a Atari 2600 game revolving "around" their 1981 album E534P3 (Journey was doing 13375P34K decades before millennial nerds thought they invented something). After all, how can it go wrong - Journey, Atari....well...it did not go so hot for them. In Journey Escape, you play each member of the band at the time (Neil, Steve, Steve, Ross, and Jonathan) right after their show having to run through the darkness avoiding shifty managers, photographers, stage barricades, and groupies to get to their "Scarab" touring vehicle to take off to the next intergalactic show. Of course, it's 1981, Stage One: Make Rock Band video Game, Stage Two: Add Space & Intergalactic Travel, Stage Three: PROFIT. The game repeats, concert to concert, ad nauseum. Data Age went under, Journey is still a band but not with Perry up front, and Escape, the game, has all but been forgotten to the annals of time except to a small few of us music fans and/or gamers like myself who pick this stuff up because it's either hilariously bad or surprisingly good. Journey Escape kind of alls into the middle.Cheap Records & Atari Carts: My Experiences Okay, I'm a weirdo for a Millennial. I was born in 1983, the same year Journey Frontiers and Loverboy's Keep It Up came out, but instead of makinig fun of Mike Reno's Bravado and leather pants or Steve Perry's long hair and tight pants while I listen to a frog voiced woman with a ukelele and her guitar playing monocle and wax moustach boyfriend sing hipster music - I'm listening to Loverboy and Journey and making fun of the plague of my generation that is Ukelele Frog Voiced Triangle Hipster music. I grew up LIKE a Gen Xer, with 2 Gen X sisters, listening to 80's vinyl, and playing Atari games. To my generation, I'm king loser from loservillle, to myself, their the losers for being concerned with losers of something as dumb as music taste. And my wallet stays fatter as a result. C'mon, $200 to hear Sad Bastard Music? Or $56 for a county fair show with Journey, Loverboy, and Styx? Oh hi Paul Dean, how's it goin? But, I'm also a bit like the MST3K of old Atari games. See, I do like BAD Atari games because they're hilarous. Whether it's some inane kid's game where you climb a ladder to rescue people from a burning building and all you use is the X Axis and the fire button, or an international superstar corporate rock band decides to make a game about "Escape"-ing every nefarious character you find at a backstage big rock show, to get in your fictional tour vehicle and travel to the next show. So I tried this on emulation and kind of kept it in my back pocket, like I do bands, and then I found this at a Santa Cruz used music store for a couple bananas, and deicded to get it foro the specific purpose of hilarious entertainment, and because, well, I do indeed like Journey, but I harbour a sense of humor at the same time. Look, if I did not like you, I would not include you in my site outside of the Rant's section. It means I care for it.VIDEOS |
