Journey

Journey Arcade Game

Not too many bands can say they had an arcade game fashioned after them, but Journey did.  In 1983, Bally Midway released the arcade game Journey, which came at the height of Journey’s popularity.  The game featured digitized photographs of the band members.  The object of the game was relatively straightforward.  The idea was to reunite the band members with their instruments, with each instrument being located on a different planet.  Each band member had to get their respective instrument, and get back to the main ship without getting hooked on obstacles.  Once all the instruments are collected, the band performs a concert, and the player takes control of a bouncer, named Herbie, who must keep screaming fans from jumping the stage.  If a fan makes it through, the instruments are stolen, and the player must start the collection process over again.

Journey Arcade Game Cabinet

Many of you out there fans of the Atari 2600 game called Journey Escape, which was released in 1982 and had no real connection to the arcade version.  The Atari 2600 version had the player leading band members to their Scarab Escape vehicle (from the Escape album cover), past funky-digitized groupies, photographers, and shifty-eyed promoters, in order to make it to the next concert in time.  The obstacles scrolled from the top down, and the player moved the band member left and right to avoid obstacles.  If the player ran into a “Roadie”, they were provided with immunity to obstacles for a very short time, and if they ran across a band manager, which was depicted by the Kool-Aid Man, they could move through the stage completely safe from obstacles.