Review: "Secret Passages"

GREETINGS STARFIGHTER

The Last Starfighter (Universal Pictures, 1984) is a meritocratic, sci-fi-opera western featuring an arcade game in a mundane trailer park - or in my ten year old mind - a chip-shop in Redditch. Unbeknownst to the deep-fryers, the most skilled players were secretly being recruited as pilots for an interstellar war. The ultimate fantasy for everyone who was trapped in the hopeless mundanity of the 8-bit working class: your gaming skills might mean something, someone is watching and you're special. The high-score was a key that could unlock a gateway to another life entirely.

Those words spoke directly to the part of me desperate to believe the limited horizons and scarce ten-pence pieces were preparation for something greater. Summers weren’t idled away in video dream states, it was training.

YOU’RE NOT SPECIAL

Sadly, the contrast of playing Hypersports in a chip-shop was too much for the Star League and I never got that call. (I also completed Afterburner and have similarly never been approached by the US Airforce.... i’m starting to question my belief system)

Some of us have looked for secret passages our entire lives, even if we didn't recognise them for what they were - rabbit holes, starship cockpits, arcade cabinets; they're the stories that inspired us and enabled our escape from whatever was raining on our vista.

"Drink me", "Eat me": simple actions that transform reality itself. Alice's transcendence is more than physical, its a flight from claustrophobic Victorian values into the chaos of Wonderland and the glorious absence of rules, where the ‘new you’ is just a bite or sip away. Not unlike 1990s rave culture.

Skywalker's journey in ‘Star Wars’, Dorothy’s retreat into madness in ‘Return to Oz’, Neo in the ‘Matrix’ - the tales of simple (cube) farm folk, as they reboot reality for high adventure.

These narratives tap into our desire for escape and transformation, from crisis to reinvention. The personal journeys in these stories are the threshold between what you are and who you might become. The dungeon gives up its esoterica to reveal a glimpse of a possible future self, the measly trinkets and second hand armour are a distraction.

We don't just want to find the secret passage; we want to become the kind of person who belongs on the other side... Well, this has gotten a bit heavy. What started as a few notes on a long train ride to Leeds has gone down/up its own rabbit/arse hole! On with the review!

Secret Passages

This first edition of “Secret Passages” is sixty elegantly designed and beautifully printed, full-colour A5 pages of the games that raised us. Edited and published by James Hoare, it’s the combined effort of a team of six writers and five artists. The writing is accessible, intelligent and has been expertly mashed together with James’ keen editorial style. The first edition ranges from around 1989 through early 2000s, bouncing around genres and timelines whilst maintaining a cohesive feel that reads well from start to finish.

Disclaimer: James and I have both worked within similar magazine circles, radio shows and podcasts - sometimes collaborating directly and at others just occupying the same professional orbit. James regularly defies conventional writing boundaries; he's the only author I know who can coherently connect Disney characters to Northamptonshire's death metal scene and make it all perfectly... normal. So whilst this review is kinda gushing, it’s also honest, but that’s what disclaimers are for.

At £10 via Kickstarter, you get a curated selection of eight articles and accompanying art, occasionally a sticker, editorial, intros, outros and adverts from the best companies in tabletop gaming... ahem. This is excellent value for money for what is sure to become a collectors item:

1. Breaking the Lore - Ian Watson's 1990 ‘Inquisitor’. The first WH40K novel. Even in the grim-dark future of the 41st millennium, books still burn if they don’t fit the marketing strategy.

2. Interview with a Vampire - Explore the roots of a centuries spanning series that has, quite literally, spanned a millennium Vampire: The Masquerade. 

3. Into a World of Magic and Mayhem - Many introductions to tabletop fantasy were via Jervis Johnson’s boxset ‘Advanced Heroquest’. Fond memories only soured by how little they were sold for at car boot sales.

4. Fear of a Black Comet - Tom Evans' column on his friendship with John Blanche and the game ‘Mordheim’. You likely know Tom from his popular youtube channel (we’re big fans) and this first foray into writing is worth your time.

5. The Drawing Chaos - Too many boobs and tentacles for fighting fantasy but plenty wrong enough for the Great Old Ones. The art of Cthulhu with Dave Carson. 

6. Chrome and Away. What's that Skippy? Shadowrun had an antipodean expansion that never was? This is the kind of thing I look for - I had no idea this could have existed. Lots of potential for unique creatures and weapons. The kind that keeps you coming back, or keeps coming back to you.

7. Ghost in the cell. America has an odd relationship with imagination games - fine to build mega churches based on spurious medieval fairy tales, but hold your horses with those games where you pretend to hack non-existent tech - that’s “danger-think”.

8. Random encounters. Less bargain bin, more loot box. A story from some rando in the industry. This time - Joe LeFavi from FreeLeague on the Bladerunner RPG.

It's pleasant to revisit games from our formative years, many of which were genuinely novel and first of their kind. Today's releases are burdened with legacy comparisons and are unfortunately forced to compete for diminishing attention spans in a supersaturated entertainment economy. The thoughtful, well-researched retrospectives that comprise this journal, both preserve gaming history and create valuable cultural artifacts for future geeks and misfits to rediscover and build upon.

The best stories have satisfying endings where heroes triumph and evil retreats to the shadows. With today's reality feeling more "Revenge of the Sith" than "Inglourious Basterds" our collective worldview is fracturing. As everything gets more surreal, let's hope our children turn to these imaginary worlds as escape from daily tedium, not as shelter from the actual threats manifesting in our reality.

Issue 2 of “Secret Passages” is on Kickstarter now!