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When our sun explodes, I hope Robotron: 2084 survives. I'd lose Moby Dick, Angkor Wat, and The Well-Tempered Clavier to the flames if I absolutely had to, but I'd like to see Robotron, its cabinet sleek and its dark screen inscrutable, flung deep into the cosmos on a lonely spar of rock, so that alien life can one day plug it in and play it and know what terrible people we were.The Mona Lisa, Hamlet, the Epic of Gilgamesh? These would only tell the rest of the universe what we were like. They are pale fire, ghosts of what we want to be or what we fear we may have somehow become. Robotron, though? Robotron shows its audience the truth. Its cruelty and its elegance reveal a furious species in love with beauty and with violence. We are babbling with toxic madness and clearly best avoided, and yet! And yet we are so much fun. Outer space will be safer without us, but it will be chillier, too. It will need Robotron to keep it warm. Robotron and a handful of quarters, obviously, because, man, that thing is a greedy pig when it comes to money.
All of which is worth reflecting on this week because Eugene Jarvis, one half of the two-man team that designed Robotron (his collaborator was Larry DeMar), has been honoured with a Pioneer Award from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. I stood up from my chair when I read that. My heart was lifted by the news and I whooped and the postman heard me and then hurried off looking a little frightened. So be it. Jarvis counts the likes of Ed "Asteroids" Logg and David "Pitfall" Crane amongst his fellow pioneers. They're gaming greats by any yardstick, but I think Jarvis outshines them. He's my favourite game designer of all time. He's the best.
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