Star Wars: Dog Fight
Posted by: kmikeym | From: May 31, 2004
I won nine dollars playing Rogue Squadron dogfights with Steve above Cloud City.
At first, before we were betting, we were flying like Super Dave Osborn, thumbing the turbo booster and the guns as fast as possible and veering down in between two buildings only to quickly crash trying to make anything sharper than a forty-five degree turn.
Once we have our betting system figured out (a suicidal crash was a two dollar penalty), the thumb on the turbo boost moves to the air brake, trading maneuverability for speed and allowing for quick turns to fire off a few shots.
The game begins with both of us in Cloud Cars, those double podded flying chariots that escorted the Millennium Falcon during their arrival to Lando Calrissian's Cloud City. These are not high performance intergalactic fighting machines. If an X-Wing is a lamborghini, then the cloud car is an electric scooter. Thankfully the Heads Up Display tracks my opponent. Unfortunately, the color of my HUD is a dull yellow, and blends in a little too well with the rusty Cloud City environment, making it hard to tell exactly where Steve is.
Steve seems to be better at shooting than I am, which may be surprising considering I won $9. In one of our early attempts we enter into a game of aerial chicken, both heading straight into each other and firing the laser cannons. I lose. While a crash costs $2, getting shot down is $5, and so I develop my strategy: Hide in the caverns, lure him in, and let the unforgiving landscape do the rest.
This strategy works surprisingly well. It's a little slow, but there is tension knowing Steve is closing in, and hearing him taunt me by intentionally calling me by the wrong name: "I'm coming Mark. I'm right on your ass Mark." Occasionally I see his laser fire track me through one of my slow tight turns and I have to dip into a deep alley. Moments later he crashes and I earn another $2.
Intentionally calling you by the wrong name? I think the pressure got to him...
I have been calling all my friends by the wrong names recently. Sorry dudes.
Posted by: J_John at May 31, 2004 1:36 PM
No. It was a taunt. Using a funny voice. It was pretty funny, if i do say so myself.
Posted by: Steve Schroeder at May 31, 2004 5:52 PM
Surprisingly effective. i love trash talk, and this was sme quality stuff.
Posted by: Mikey at June 1, 2004 5:11 PM
but what about that speeder race on endor?? good stuff 3:05. who can beat that??
Posted by: Steve Schroeder at May 31, 2004 1:35 AM