When men get together, there are bound to be disagreements: Who gets shotgun? Burgers or tacos? Are we going out for sensual massage with release, or are we shopping for our wives?
Faced with these deeply challenging confrontations, men have developed a simple-yet-effective way to quickly and fairly settle disputes: RoShamBo, popularly known as Rock, Paper, Scissors. In 1981, Game-A-Tron released the only coin-op to date to capture its subtle complexity.
Gameplay: You play a little handy guy with cute feet and a jaunty hat. Your enemies are also little handy guys, but they're green (the universal color of evil) and have frowny faces to go with their cute little feet. Your goal is to clear all the dots in a maze, while the other little handy guys try to stop you. What sets Got-Ya apart from all the other Pac-Man knockoffs is the addition of RoShamBo. You and your enemies represent Rock, Paper, or Scissors, and when you hit each other, you'll live or die based on the classic rules of RoShamBo. Scattered around the maze are dollar signs, and when you pick one up, you can change into whichever form you want. But beware! The other little handy guys will also change form randomly.
Could be mistaken for: Ms. Pac-Man, The Hand, a trip report from the Tiltboys
Kids today may not like it because: There is no bonus level where they get to "Circle" their opponents.
Kids today may like it because: When they complete a level, their little handy guy is magically transformed into something that looks an awful lot like the Kool-Aid Man. Oh yeah!
Enduring contribution to gaming history: Game-A-Tron enjoyed so much success with Got-Ya that its programmers all retired and closed up shop before 1982. Or all their other games sucked so hard, they went out of business. The historical record is a little hazy.
Wil Wheaton knows better than to play RoShamBo with Phil Gordon, even when he's getting 110:100 odds.