I'll admit I had my doubts when I started to play a spirited round of ATC-SIM: The Web-Based Air Traffic Control Sim. I had doubts because I am a highly functional retarded person who is so aware of his own limits, that he knows better than to play an ATC game in case some Ender's Game shit happens to be going on, and I end up killing thousands of people and some Americans.
Then Pinback told me that there's such a thing as "Ted Stevens Airport" up in Anchorage, and frankly, anyone who is allowed to fly on planes when convicted felons can get airports named after them deserves what they get from that industry. There's two people who could MAYBE get stuff named after them in Alaska: Curt Schilling and Will Riker, and every word that's come out of Schilling's mouth since the bloody sock game has been intolerable objectivist horse shit.
And Riker is a
fictional character. (crosses arms)
"Fine," I said to Pinback, "I'll try to land ONE plane." After all, Pinback has done me a fine solid over the years, playing such dear games to my heart like Knight Orc and Front Page Sports Football. Well, he didn't vote for their page deletion in the Wikipedia, and that's close enough.
I went to the ATC-SIM website and picked "Heathrow" because it was the one airport I've been to on the list for more than thirty minutes that didn't make me want to hang myself in the bathrooms. The first time I was at Heathrow, there was an announcement to NOT crowd the plane that was going to take me and 40 students to Edinburgh. As the oldest person on the flight and the lone American, I instantly felt responsible in ensuring everyone followed the disembodied voice's orders. However, the students crowded the plane door without any regard to order or instruction. I was shocked, nothing had at all prepared me for this, this... this Anarchy in the U.K.!
Nothing! It was unheard of.
The instructions to ATC-SIM aren't on the actual page you play the game on. You might think this meant that I had to use either notepad.exe or my own nootropic-fueled memory to play, but I did neither of those things. I asked Benjamin 'Pinback' Parrish for instructions in real-time, as he alt-tabbed away from his OWN game to help me. After figuring out the controls, my long experience as a gurgling text gamer came into play: I got ONE plane down onto the runway. Hooray! I am being absolutely serious when I say that landing the plane in ATC-SIM is a fun experience that actually made me happy. Like, I'm not doing schtick for a second: it was fuckin' cool.
By this point I had a terrific backlog of departures. There were three planes that had the abbreviation "DET" next to them. I assume those three planes were going to Detroit. Why were three planeloads of questionable Britons headed to Detroit at the same time? Was Australia
full or something? I've read my history, gents, I know the intent. I never let those planes depart Heathrow. They're STILL there - go dump your human garbage on Mars, Lady Byng!
Anyway, in the time it took me to beg Pinback for simple instructions, he had a terrible disaster in his
own game. He was kind enough to take a screenshot. Remember when he said you couldn't crash the planes? Well...
Pinback: I cleared two planes to 2000 feet, sent them to the same fix.
Pinback: Once then got there, they both started circling it.
Pinback: Meanwhile I was yapping at you.
Ice Cream Jonsey: Hahahah!
Pinback: They ended up circling right into each other. I have a screen cap.
(screencap is
sent)
Pinback: Your fault.
Bwa-hahahahaha!!!! Move over Osama, it's time for something
meatier!
"These blast points are too accurate for Sand People." -- Ben Kenobi
Anyway, there are now exactly THREE Flash games that are not only good, but great: Nanaca Crash, onlinegames.com/basketball and ATC-SIM. Four stars and, so far, the best game I've played in 2010.
