Word: joystick
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Electronic games like Pac-Man, Tetris, Doom and Myst are the totems of a generation and have etched an indelible imprint on the American psyche. Or so J.C. Herz, the 25-year-old author of Joystick Nation (Little, Brown; 230 pages; $23.95), would have her readers believe. For as Herz sees it, video games aren't just kid stuff; they are "theme parks of the mind" that reflect the fears, fantasies and desires lurking in every human soul...
...fine art of gaming requires precision tools. While a joystick is perfect for the sharp pitches of a flight simulator, a more refined controller is needed for sports and fighting games. Rather than opting for a space-age design, Microsoft based its new Game Pad on that outback classic, the boomerang. The oddly shaped console makes it easy to dodge virtual "point guards" in N.B.A. Full Court Press, or to execute a combination punch in Mortal Kombat, thanks to a responsive controller and nine programmable buttons. When you're fighting for your life, fear not: the wisdom of ages...
...reports, is like jumping inside the movie Toy Story. The plot line, something about a princess and a bad guy named Bowser, is, as always, almost irrelevant. What matters is that the Silicon Graphics chip-fueled Nintendo 64 puts the fastest, smoothest game action yet attainable via joystick at the service of equally virtuoso motion. Mario runs, flies, swims, dodges and flips his way past a bewildering welter of walls, ramps, pools and abysses...
...standing and access in the organization. A covert operative who must infiltrate a dangerous place like Baghdad can practice his or her mission using a computer program called Envision, which takes millions of satellite photos and converts them to a virtual-reality video of the city. Rotating a computer joystick, the operative can manipulate the video to wander through streets, peer into alleys or reconnoiter buildings at ground level...
That's right, Carnesale. He's been a pawn of the Pforzheimers for years, ever since Steven Singer (ne Pforzheimer) infiltrated Carnesale's operation. Few people know that Singer controls Carnesale's actions with a tiny joystick that he fidgets with in the left front pocket of his pants. Many Kennedy School students died from boredom in the procurement of this information...