Barnstorming

"Barns Ahoy!"

Back in a time known as 1982, an Activision newbie named Steve Cartwright came up with an idea of exceptional magnitude. After witnessing a small biplane streak across the sky one evening, he envisioned a game involving the measly aircraft that was so groundbreaking, so graphically stunning, and so unparalleled that many probably wondered if he even had his head screwed on properly. Steve thought to himself, ''In a world of Thriller, The Love Boat, and the growing popularity of rap music, the people really need experience one thing: the pure self-gratification that can only be felt by flying straight through barns.'' Thus he and the good people who brought the land such excellent titles as Pitfall! and the underrated Frostbite toiled and sweated over what they hoped would be a masterpiece (or at least I assume so). Shortly thereafter, the side-scrolling, fast-flying classic Barnstorming was born. Sure, even the most shallow games may have far better inspiration, but their results are rarely ever half as amazing.

The premise is simple: you must pilot a little biplane-that-could over a course consisting of a set number of barns (which you must swoop down and fly through) in the quickest time possible. Naturally, there are obstacles in your way, so you'll also have to dodge tall windmills and flocks of stubborn geese if you wish to be a master barnstormer. Collisions are inevitable at first, but no amount of crashes will cause this indestructible plane to plow into the ground in a mushroom-shaped ball of fire. Of course, this ''crop duster minus the crop dusting'' concept is a seemingly boring one—until the action begins.

Before you start, there are a total of four game modes waiting to be selected with each one slightly more difficult than the last. However, only three are fixed courses which put you up against more barns and more obstacles with each mode while the layout of the fourth (appropriately called ''Flying Ace'') changes every time a new game begins. In addition, the difficulty switches can be toggled to either lower the clearance heights or—if you're in a masochistic mood—to add more pesky geese to the skies.

Once a mode is chosen, it's off into the wild blue yonder. At the top of the screen, your elapsed time is displayed as well as a number indicating how many barns you must fly through for the given course, and if you should miss one or more, the farmland will simply extend enough for the correct number of barns to be added and passed through. By having an unlimited quantity of barns on a course, the game undoubtedly sounds easy and as though it's leaned towards the player's advantage—but that would be an impression fueled by the wrong idea. In Barnstorming, the challenge is not centered around high scores or even points (since there are none to be earned), but around skill and how fast each course can be completed. There are no penalties for taking forever and a day to get to the end, nor are there any for ramming into geese, windmills, or the roofs of barns. What is present is the focus on beating your best time and merely attempting to dominate each course by getting through them unscathed (i.e., without any collisions). Surely there's more to it, right? To be blunt, no. In all actuality, Barnstorming is just a very simple game that relies on patience and expertise rather than gimmicks or fancy-shmancy gameplay.

So what is the point of playing if it's impossible to lose? Furthermore, is it even possible to win? Depending on the player, both are entirely possible achievements. One might wish to write down his/her best time and strive to beat it at a future date, while others will concentrate more on avoiding obstructions until they can zoom through every course gracefully. Then there are the few who will work to accomplish both feats at one time. As you can plainly see, Barnstorming is one out of a miniscule amount of titles out there sitting in a separate world of their own: it contains no real goals set by the game itself but by the individual player. Yes, it's likely such a concept would never fly in this day and age (no pun intended), but perhaps that's what makes this game so unforgettable—at least to myself.

Because of the wide variety of challenging modes, there's a considerable amount of more playing time that can be squeezed in than may be noticeable at first. Once you are able to perfect a collision-proof route through an earlier course while still flying in and out of each barn consecutively, you can then try your luck at a more difficult setting and see if you truly have proficient skills. By being completely open-ended, the game contains phenomenal replay value for anyone who just wants to test their piloting prowess within their own limits.

Your biplane is simple to navigate and moves swiftly—which isn't tremendously impressing since the only two directions of movement possible are up and down. Still, being an atypical horizontal scroller, anything more would be unnecessary. As you fly, the screen continuously scrolls left in order to maintain your speed and ensure that you'll never stall even for a moment; however, smashing head-on into a windmill or other obstacle (which is accompanied by a sudden jolt) will—in accordance with those wonderful laws of physics we all love—cause you to halt suddenly and even jerk backwards as precious seconds are wasted. Speed can be adjusted with the press of a single button, allowing either a slow and steady progression or a hasty race against the clock at full throttle. Even the joystick itself plays a major role in the game, making the player feel as if he or she is really inside the cramped cockpit of an old plane.

Due to the Atari 2600's small memory capacity, very few of its games have an overabundance of colors or objects onscreen at one time. Barnstorming, on the other hand, contravenes this drawback and is a graphical delight to say the least. There are no formless blobs surrounding the finely rendered plane in flight; the crowds of geese soaring above are easily distinguishable as the vexing birds that they are, and even the most important parts of the game—the purple barns lining the countryside—are undeniably well designed. To go hand in hand, there are animations abound including flapping wings, twirling propellers, and the waving of the green aviator's scarf in the wind. There is no music to disrupt concentration here, only the soft noise of the biplane's engine running and occasional clanks amongst the lingering sound of silence.

Even with the highly advanced graphics and audio (for its time, of course), possibly the most striking sight is the single background made up of a gorgeous sunset (well, as gorgeous an effect as pixilation can muster) melting into the horizon beyond an almost endless field of grass—a visual accomplishment never before attained by Activision.

Instead of throwing you into enemy combat at breakneck speeds like most any other game in the world involving airplanes, Barnstorming takes a different approach and provides a relaxing distraction as you glide over farms with little or no worry. No, a game where players make their own challenges and points are unheard of (not to be confused with ''pointless'') is not for everyone, and it's no surprise that the novelty does not last forever—but despite all, a bit of allurement still shines forth. If you think you're game enough to try this unusual, long-forgotten gem, then most likely plenty of enjoyment will come out of it. Give it a go, you know you want to.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/22/03