It’s a good thing this game doesn’t takerealquarters. Back in 1997,The Simpsonsaired the season 8 episode “The Springfield Files.” The episode features a memorable gag with Bart’s pal Milhouse dropping 40 quarters into aKevin Costner’s Waterworldarcade machine. The game, which does not exist in real life, only allows Milhouse to take a single step before he’s met with a “GAME OVER” screen, at which point he’s asked to deposit another 40 quarters. Initially angry, Milhouse obliges.TheWaterworldarcade gag is brief, though it is fondly remembered by fans as a hilarious moment that occurred during the “golden era” ofThe Simpsons. One such fan would be indie game developer Macaw45, who was inspired to create a free-to-play computer game inspired by theWaterworldarcade. Of course, as was the case with Milhouse, it begins with dumping 40 virtual quarters just to get started.But Macaw45 has gone much further than imagining just the very first step of the game. The freeware adaptation expands upon that and introduces different enemies to encounter and areas to explore. There are also fun, hidden surprises for players to find. The caveat is that every death will require putting in another 40 quarters to continue, but the fun part here is that the total dollar amount spent in quarters will be displayed at the end of the game. “The game is a full adventure directly based on how it looked during its brief appearance inThe Simpsons(as a short joke), but expanded here to be a real game with fleshed out mechanics, multiple stages, boss fights, and a huge quantity of secrets for extra replayability,” the developer noted on Twitter.
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The Game Has Been Getting Good Feedback
“I’ve always been fascinated by the fake videogames that were occasionally seen inThe Simpsons, and theWaterworldone always stuck out to me as a kid,” Macaw45 says of the game’s development. “Of course it’s just a short joke poking fun at how expensive the production of the movie was at the time, but this fake game itself with its gigantic Kevin Costner character on the screen who takes a single step before the machine asks for more quarters always made me so eager to know ‘what would be beyond that one screen you see in the show…'”
They added, “This project was born from that interest, and while originally planned to only be a short game, it quickly developed further and I sunk tremendous amounts of effort into it to the point where it ended up becoming a fully fleshed out game of much greater scope than I ever expected. I hope you enjoy it!”
