The Infinite Game

The following short story is based off my experience with a 1987 Nintendo game called Star Force. You will read it as though you were playing a video game.

<Press Start>

{Load intro screen}

Welcome to STAR FORCE!

WARNING: In addition to unfailing difficultly, this game has no end. You can try to win this game, but here at Tecmo, Ltd., we believe that the circuits in your Nintendo Entertainment System will disintegrate before that happens. Also, Tecmo, Ltd.  accepts zero responsibility for  ailments suffered by the user while playing this game. This includes, but is not limited to; epileptic seizures brought upon by bold flashing lights, and/or brain aneurysms caused by extreme frustration.  Lastly, any attempt to input cheat-codes or 3^rd party hardware will result in the immediate self-destruction of your game console, the possibly injurious results of which Tecmo is also not liable for. 

***

{LEVEL 1}

And so my journey through the cosmos began.

I was the pilot of this Starfighter. It was painted white with a bright red strip around the impulse engines, and the front had a glassy blue viewing screen to protect me from the vacuum of space, kind of like the windshield of a car.  

The first thing I noticed was space looked pretty awesome!

There was no explanation of my objectives and even less of an indication of a back-story of some kind, but I instinctively knew that my goal was to shoot down as many enemy spacecraft as possible to collect a lot of points.

I looked at this screen on my dashboard and saw a faceless entity, perhaps a tracer image or sensor echo, but I didn’t even have time to think about it because I had to blow stuff up and save the universe.

Everything seemed fairly normal at first, but I began to realize that my initial excitement had evolved into uncertainty. I wrestled with it until my focus was reestablished

I navigated through space pretty smoothly, and with each passing moment my reflexes quickened. It was as if I had no choice, and the only way to make it out was to survive.... T.B.C.!