ONE GIANT QUESTION MARK

EDITOR'S NOTES I could try to explain this, but seven years after it happened I still can't make sense of it.  Anyway, the X68000 is a Japanese computer that was really powerful for its time, and is really expensive now.  It used an operating system remarkably similar to DOS, but when it comes to playing video games, no other computer from the early 1990's short of an SGI workstation could rival it. As for this particular game, it's called Galaxian Spoof.  I downloaded it, then lost it, then spent the last six years trying to find it again.  If it weren't for the photo and sound file on this page, I'd think that this was the product of a mushroom-induced hallucination... and I don't even eat mushrooms!

Jordan Mechner fans might want to pay close attention to this... this is easily the freakiest thing you'll ever find in a translation of one of his games.  I downloaded a Galaxian spoof from the X68000 Games Pile, and even though it wouldn't work with my X68K emulator, I did find a version of Karateka included along with it.  So I load that instead and Karateka's blonde martial arts hero pops up in front of some very garbled background graphics.  I figured that the emulator was just having problems running the game, but now I'm not so sure.  You see, after I walked for a little while a wispy green thing briefly appeared... and shortly after that a siren started screaming, pushing me a few inches back every time it rang out.  Despite my attempts to hold my ground, I was eventually shoved back to the start, dumped into an invisible pool of water, and given a solid red screen while a familiar voice shouted, "Ho ho ho, Green Giant!"  Just why on earth does this happen?  Did the Japanese version of Karateka have some bizarre marketing tie-in with produce, or is this just the world's most insane video game in-joke?  Somebody please explain this to me, because if I keep thinking about it and I don't come up with a rational explanation my brain is gonna short out.