Climbing Game Concept

As some of you may know, Mrs. Wackenhammer is quite handy with a pencil and as often as not she is the mighty engine of design behind many of the Steampunk creations and thematic decorations at our arcade.  My own humble talents are generally confined to the mere execution of her wondrous concepts.  Yes, I have on occasion needed to interject certain modifications at the detail design stage in order to comply with the harsh realities of the physical world in which we all reside, but for the most part an improved division of labor and talent would be difficult to imagine.

Her preliminary sketch here shows our thoughts about how the climbing game might function. A majestic case like this would stand next to the Treadwall. This case would be nearly as tall as the device it serves and is likely made of richly stained wood and glass with a number of Victorian accents.

The user would insert several arcade tokens to activate the machine and push a button to indicate whether one or two players would like to attempt the challenge.  The game would commence when a player begins climbing and the analog clock on the game top would begin to count down from a specified amount, perhaps 90 or 120 seconds.  Mrs. W has been working on a new logo for us, consisting of a man in a top hat mounted on a large "W" as if riding.  As a player climbs, one of these men "climbs" also up a rod on the game display, proportional to the total amount the player has climbed so far.  Once time runs out, the man would cease his progress and the players final achievement would be indicated by a pointer to the milestones written alongside of the rod, which might be the names of mountains or tall buildings of some notoriety.

If a second player is also climbing, the Player 1 "man" would remain where he is and the Player 2 "man" would begin climbing when the second player begins his/her climb.  In this way, at the end of Player 2's climb, the height of the higher man will dictate the winner.  At this point, a bell would ring and a light would light over the winner's little man both to congratulate the successful player and to notify the other occupants of the arcade that an important contest has been decided with one of the contenders having emerged victorious!

The machine will be able to keep track of all climbing statistics including: total number of climbs, average climb height and highest climb.  If a single player wants to play, the machine will race him against the average score to date.  Again, the player wins if he can beat the average climb, as indicated by a flashing light and ringing bell.  Beating the highest climb would elicit an even more exuberant response from the game.

The game is expected to project audible feedback, perhaps shouting at a climber that they are "ahead, keep going" or "behind, better hurry up."  Also a certain amount of yodeling will likely be appropriate.

Now then, how to build it...

-Otto