50K Racewalker

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Revision as of 16:00, 28 January 2007

OOPS!! You lose!!

Taste a walk!

"Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right, Right... OOPS!!! You lose!! Alternate left right for about 5 hours without messing up and you could win the gold!!" —Videlectrix

50K Racewalker is a Videlectrix game "programmed" by Jonathan Howe.

Date: January 14, 2005

Page Title: Take some steps!

Instructions

After designing your character, and race mode starts, wait for the gun to fire and the word "Go" appears.

Then, taking your time, press "Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right..." slowly. If you do it too fast you'll get a FAULT. If you press the same key twice you will get a FAULT. If you press any key other than left or right you will get a FAULT.

A FAULT is an annoying message that will appear and your character will stop for a few seconds.

For every white line you pass on the track, you have traveled .01 kilometers. There are 40 successful "steps" required between each white line, and 50.00 kilometers to go. That's a lot of walking!

Easter Eggs

• There is a "big head mode", similar to that found in many video games, especially first-person shooters and sports games. To toggle between "big head" and normal press the 'h' key on the "Choose it out" screen.
• There is a "fat walker" mode. To toggle between a fat walker and a normal one press the 'f' key on the "Choose it out" screen.
  • These tricks are case-sensitive and must be typed in lowercase.
• The arms on the walker can be moved up and down by pressing the arrow keys on the "Choose it out" screen.
• There are five different special combinations that can be put together on the "Choose it out" screen, each of which gives you a special name rather than "Steak Styles".
  • WILT CHAMBERLAIN: (it doesn't let you edit name when you do this one)
    • Hair: Black
    • Skin: Golden Brown (top center)
    • Shirt: Yellow
    • Style: J
    • Shorts: Yellow
    • Shoes: Black
  • BRUCE LEE
    • Hair: Black
    • Skin: Blanched Olive (upper right corner)
    • Shirt: Yellow
    • Style: B
    • Shorts: Yellow
    • Shoes: Yellow
  • LUKE SCHENSCHER
    • Hair: Orange
    • Skin: Light Pink (bottom left)
    • Shirt: Yellow
    • Style: B
    • Shorts: Black
    • Shoes: Yellow
  • DR. J
    • Hair: Black
    • Skin: Dark Brown
    • Shirt: Dark Blue
    • Style: D
    • Shorts: Red
    • Shoes: White
  • GARY PALARONCINI (Race also starts at 49.99k)
    • Hair: Blonde
    • Skin: Non-pale (center bottom)
    • Shirt: Pink
    • Style: C
    • Shorts: Medium Blue (upper left)
    • Shoes: Black

Fun Facts

Explanations

• This game is a parody of early Track and Field video games for older consoles, which simulated various track and field events by requiring the player to perform various tricks on the controller such as rapidly pushing the same button, alternating between two different buttons, rotate the joystick a certain number of times, or something similar.
• The "LICENSED BY FUNMACHINE" screen at the beginning pokes fun at classic video games and consoles, especially the Sega Genesis which displayed a "LICENSED BY SEGA" screen before each game, regardless of whether the game was actually licensed or not. (This was because this screen was a crucial part of the game bootstrap sequence, if this screen were not included, the game wouldn't start. Sega's Dreamcast also requires this screen.)
  • The name "FUNMACHINE" may be a reference to the Nintendo 64, which was sometimes referred to as "The Fun Machine" on the packaging.
  • Videlectrix fans should also note that Secret Collect was also for the FUNMACHINE, while Strong Bad's RhinoFeeder was for the SUPER FUNMACHINE.

Trivia

Woah! Pixelated blackness!

• When you approach 1K, your character starts walking into a pixelated blackness. Once you reach 1K, a message pops up, saying "Woah! We didn't expect anyone to play for this long. Um, we didn't program this far. Hang on..." After a few seconds, the blackness is apparently programmed in, and you can continue.
• When you get to the end it shows you a screen that says "you came in 3rd place", and shows your character walking up onto a stand that reads "3", with two others on "1" and "2".
  • You can view the end screen by right clicking and pressing play or forward in the swf file.
• The signs you walk by say:
  • Walk!
  • Go ________!(Whatever you typed in for a name.)
  • Farther!
  • These boots were made for it!
  • I've always loved you!
  • Our arms are tired!
  • You're almost there!
  • With your feet!
  • Walk it off!
  • Fun sport!
  • Iron Steed!
  • Beware Cheplin!
  • Weapons located in every corner!
  • Why?
  • Play footsie with me!
  • Walk Better!
  • Left! Right! Left! Right!
  • Here!
• You can highlight the text on the signs in the background with your mouse like you would regular text on a word processor.
• The fastest you can walk is approximately 0.04 km per minute, meaning the fastest that one kilometer can be walked is about 25 minutes. It would therefore take over 20 hours to walk 50 kilometers.
• Finishing the 50k would take, at 40 steps per 0.01k, 200,000 steps/keypresses.
• 40 steps per .01 km averages to 25 cm, or about 9.8" per step. That's almost a tiptoe.
• This game was last seen in Strong Bad's floppy disk container in the email sibbie.
• The font used for most of the text in this game is called "NOKIA® 5110 FontSet." It's also been used on Strong Bad's Block computer in other days.
• The music for 50k Racewalker was created with an Atari 2600 Synthcart, created by Paul Slocum. He was also the one working on the Homestar Runner RPG for Atari 2600.
• The 9's on the Km distance meter are actually lower case g's.

Remarks

• When the right arrow is pushed on your keyboard, this corresponds to the right arm moving forward, and the left arrow to the left arm moving forward. This would mean that the right arrow corresponds to the left foot taking a step and the left arrow to the right foot taking a step.
• Despite the fact that the Videlectrix synopsis hints that you lose if you press the same button twice or walk too fast, you can keep walking if you get a FAULT having not lost anything other than a few seconds of time.

Glitches

• Sometimes the game will load up incorrect data where you'll start at 0.01k and it will say fault for every step you take.
• When you get to the end and you are on the pedestal you can still walk but you just stay in the same place and one set of lights moves left.
  • Once the cheering in the end stops, this can no longer be done.

Real-World References

• The cheering sound when you cross a line comes from several games for the Intellivision game system.
• The line "these boots were made for it!" is a reference to the famous Nancy Sinatra song "These Boots Are Made For Walking."
• "Beware Cheplin!" and "Weapons located in every corner!" are from the NES game "Adventures of Tom Sawyer".
• Wilt Chamberlain was an legendary NBA player (among other things) who holds nearly 100 NBA records.
• Bruce Lee was a legendary martial artist, film star, and creator of the Jeet Kune Do style of martial arts.
• Luke Schenscher is an Australian-born basketball player who led Georgia Tech to the 2004 NCAA Final Four.
• Julius Erving (aka Dr. J) was a famous basketball star, most notably for his work with the ABA.
• The FAULT noise is the sound of launching a ball in the Atari 2600 game Video Pinball.

External Links

• Play 50K Racewalker
• Play 50K Racewalker (Flash file)
• Listen to the game music
• Forum thread re: "50K Racewalker"