The animated film Wreck-It Ralph, which was directed by Rich Moore, was released in the year 2012. The film’s main character is a videogame character named Wreck-It Ralph, or Ralph for short. After the 30th anniversary of his game, Ralph becomes tired of being the bad guy and dislikes how the other characters of his game treat him just because he plays the bad guy. Being the villain in the game does not make him an actual bad person. He ventures off into other games around him in search of finding a hero medal which would prove to all of his videogame peers that he is capable of being good.
Even though the movie takes place inside of the games themselves, these games are specifically played on an arcade gaming system. The systems are the classic coin operating systems that are typically found in arcades. The players manipulate some of the game with a joy stick and two button options. Other games seen are racing games, which require the player to sit down in a seat, as you would a car, and press the foot pedals and navigate their character with a steering wheel. Another game seen, is a first person shooter game where the player must pick up a blaster, aim it at the screen, and shoot. These are all types of games that most everyone is familiar with and are still played around the world today. Though there are different ways of playing games, such as on a console at home, just about everyone can recall playing a game in an arcade like setting. In the movie, Ralph makes a comment of his game be “retro” which he defines as being old but still cool, which I would say is true to say about these means of game play.
The film is able to reach a wider audience. Since it is an animated film geared towards the younger population, they use classic types of games, which would appeal to both the younger and the older population. Though they do not go far into detail about it, the movie does bring up the coding of one of the games called Sugar Rush. A child may not quite understand what code is, but adults can grasp an understanding of what code is and how tampering with it can alter aspects of a game. You can see a video clip here where one of the characters ventures into the code of the game.
The game also discusses glitches and how they might appear in the game, jumping and causing havoc across the screen during game play. The movie assumes that the audience knows what glitches are. When we as the game player see glitches during game play, we assumes that something is wrong with the game which often results in trying to either repair the game or pulling the plug on it. You can see here a video clip where the characters discuss the glitch character and how her being a glitch could result in the pulling of the game from an arcade.
The movie is clearly fictitious story of what games are really like inside of the world of the coin operated gaming system. Though the game briefly talks about the videogame code, glitches, and the dangers of messing with videogame code, the movie was purely for entertainment and not for gaining a better understanding of how games actually operate internally.