I met Keith Robinson once, very briefly. It was at the 2014 Classic Gaming Expo. He was very busy promoting the Intellivision Flashback and was generous enough to give attendees a minute of his limited time. I told him Thin Ice! was the greatest Intellivision game ever made. That was a slight exaggeration of my opinion, I'd rank it third, but it was the right thing to say at the moment. Even if I thought Thin Ice! was the absolute worst Intellivision game I would have said the same thing because that's what decent people do. I'm the biggest jerk I know and I understand that much.
For a brief time Keith Robinson was a good steward of the Intellivision brand. Then he left the world far too soon.
In the late 1980s until sometime in the 1990s the Chicago Tribute ran a comic called Making It: A Survival Guide for Today. It was a full page thing in their extra weekend packet. I'm not going to have these details correct because I was a dumb teenager at the time. My mom subscribed to the Chicago Tribune, as everybody did then. She cancelled it after being upset by a presidential endorsement in the 2010s. Back when I was a dumb teenager I'd scan the comics and culture sections when I saw them on the kitchen table.
There was a collection of Making It comics published in 1988. I can order a used copy right now for a whole $9. Or... or, I could look for it every time I visit a used book store for the rest of my life. $9 for instant gratification or $0 for a long subquest?
I didn't know then that the author of the comic worked on a couple Intellivision games. It makes sense now, the lead character of Thin Ice! looked like a comic strip creation. Duncan the penguin had those little details that artists make. The average developer would create a basic penguin on ice skates. Even I could pull that off. Someone more artistically inclined would add the hat, scarf, and mischievous expression.
Making It was clearly "Boomer Humor", a term that didn't exist then and maybe doesn't now. Making It dealt with midlife issues for people turning 40 in the late 1980s to early 1990s. It had a cast of regular characters who spanned a range of life choices. On one extreme there was a business-y guy, reminiscent of the boss from Office Space. On the other extreme was Normy, a beach bum committed to the dreams of 1967. These two characters came across as high school friends who remained in close contact. "Get a job" vs "Get a tan" was a frequent conflict for them.
Reality works a little differently. Everyone is all idealistic when they're young. You and your friends think your little group will always be. Then you grow up. You bond with friends who have similar life circumstances and drift apart from others. You never have a falling out, you just don't connect all that much. If you have kids then you make new friends, often the parents of your kids' friends. If you don't have kids you might make work and gym friends. In real life the beach bum and business guy talk about once every 2-3 years, it works for them.
Making It dealt with midlife fears. Were you still hip & young while also achieving the expected life milestones? Are you participating in the right trends? Are you even aware of them? These are the themes I recall in the comic. These concerns are not unique to a specific generation. Perhaps they were amplified for the first generation to grow up with a television in their homes. Previous generations didn't have three whole channels filled with fictional shows about people clearly winning at life.
Normy never launched but seems happy with his place in the world. The business guy, whose name I can't recall, was perpetually grumpy. I felt the author of the comic idealized the concept of noping out of life and lounging on the beach. Who can blame him? When the opportunity came to feature one of these characters in a video game he chose the more beloved beach bum, Normy.
I think Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama meets the definition of "obscure". I couldn't find an article about the development of the game. It wasn't a huge seller or even on store shelves very long. I found a sealed copy in 2010 for a cool $8. I still haven't opened it:
I think it's time. I have shrinkwrapped more Sega Genesis games than the average person. If you stopped 100 people at random and asked how many Sega Genesis games they've shrinkwrapped, I'm definitely ahead of 50 of them. I feel confident in that estimate. This does not look like original shrinkwrap, it looks like a re-wrap.
See that, lower quality plastic with signs of melting from a heat gun.
This seal on the other side looks like a rewrap job too:
This is difficult to describe but that corner cut is like what you get from a shrinkwrap machine in the back of the game store.
I was nervous about the condition of the game now, but it was complete and looked untouched:
There are three common ways a Genesis game would end up as a re-wrap:
This copy of Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama is otherwise in new condition, so I’m leaning toward 2 first, then 3. My memory is far from perfect but I don't recall the Electronics Boutique location I worked at ever receiving multiple quantities of this game. If my memory is correct, the average location had one copy that they opened to use as a display case.
As for the first option... Summer 1994, around the time this game was released, is when Electronics Boutique dropped their 10 day game return policy in favor of a trade-in program. If someone was unhappy with their purchase of Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama it's likely they could only get a small trade-in credit. The difference between full refund and trade-in credit was a matter of timing this summer.
This poster alone made it worth opening:
I don't know where this is going up, only that it is.
I have no regrets about opening this. I wasn't planning to sell it. Someone buying sealed games would have recognized the same flaws I did and question if I was pulling a scam on them anyway.
I know nothing about how Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama came to be. I can only speculate about the history. Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama was developed by Realtime Associates, a company founded by Intellivision survivors. They worked on many licensed games, not exclusively, but enough to say they specialized in it. I think they had an idea for a time travel game, maybe most of it coded, and were waiting for the right license. That license didn't materialize and the Sega Genesis was approaching its replacement. That leads to a simple solution - use a character you already own the rights to.
There are a nearly infinite number of alternative possibilities. Maybe Keith Robinson long dreamed of a game where his Normy character went on a time traveling adventure. Maybe this started as a game based on a different licensed character and that fell through. I am guessing based on how things often work. Diner on the Intellivision was supposed to be a He-Man game until there was a license issue and it was re-branded. Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama feels like a similar origin story.
Although I clearly own a physical copy, I'm playing it on an emulator because it's easier to take screenshots. It won't be long before I appreciate having save states. Let's start it up:
OK, standard enough title screen. The menu has a sound test, neat:
I was hoping for adjustable difficulty.
The game starts with Normy witnessing said beach babes being scooped up by a UFO:
He then sees a sign announcing a new toxic waste dump:
Somehow finding the kidnapped beach babes will resolve this.
This opening is reminiscent of Camp California on the TurboGrafx-16 CD, in reverse order. In that game the sign is first:
Then your anthropomorphic friends are literally scooped up:
I don't think Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama is ripping off Camp California. The trope of a big evil company putting a toxic whatever on the beautiful shoreline existed before either of these. The trope exists because that’s a thing that actually happens unfortunately.
Of course it's 1000% plausible that Realtime Associates was working on Camp California for the Sega Genesis before that ill-fated brand collapsed.
You know what? I think I just convinced myself that's how Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama came to be. I'm not saying this is a fact. It just seems possible this started as a Camp California game. I don't think that brand survived past the year 1993. In this completely hypothetical scenario, the game would have been mostly complete in 1993 before being reskinned for a 1994 release.
Back to the game... Normy conveniently possesses time travel suntan lotion which he never found a use for previously:
The first stage endorses a young earth model or perhaps is simply inspired by The Flinstones where humans and dinosaurs co-exist:
The plot of the game is now totally lost on me. The beach babes were just taken by a UFO. Now one of them has been kidnapped by a caveman. Are they working together? Did the aliens scatter them throughout time arbitrarily?
I'm overthinking this.
The first weapon is a hammer that projects a boxing glove:
This weapon is not completely useless. It's an upgrade from being totally unarmed. Normy cannot damage enemies by jumping on them, the opposite happens. This is the only way to take out enemies.
Pigs can be used as springboards, but the mechanic is a little different than you might expect. In something like the Super Mario Bros. series, landing on a springboard does roughly nothing unless you hit jump at the right time. If you stick the timing then you launch a fixed amount. In Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama you can repeatedly bounce on the spring pig, each time building more height. After about five bounces you reach the upper limits of the level. This part is fun to toy around with.
This exact same mechanic is found in a Berenstain Bears game also developed by Realtime Associates and published in the same year as Normy:
I think these games are built on the same engine. Both are also similar Ren & Stimpy's Quest for the Shaven Yak on Game Gear, also by Realtime Associates:
This is all cool with me. If you have a working engine then use it to death. The biggest difference in these three games is the difficulty.
Alright, back to Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama.
Normy is blocked by a giant dinosaur. It seems like you can jump over it, but it's not possible.
After a little time passes, this airplane guides you back to earlier in the stage.
I avoided this tiny mammoth and in the process missed that it appears to be hiding an egg.
After defeating the mammoth, with a boxing glove, the egg hatches. When the baby dino is reunited with its mother you can proceed.
Later on Normy acquires a rock weapon which has the usual trade-offs of a weapon that travels in an arc:
After reaching a stage transition, whichever weapon Normy had simply disappears:
There are hidden items throughout the stage. These car keys, according to the manual, allow you to skip parts of the stage by hitching a ride with a flying enemy:
The fight against the first boss goes about as well as a real beach bum vs prehistoric caveman fight would. The boss can obliterate Normy very quickly, meanwhile Normy has to hit him with stones what feels like 100 times.
After that it's off to the year 1447:
The boxing glove has been replaced by a rubber (or maybe dead) chicken. It otherwise works the same.
Also note, your health does not recharge when starting a new level. Boo.
The first stage did not require mastering the dash jump. In the second stage it's required immediately. There is a short runway so you have to hit jump immediately after the dash button or Normy will run straight into the water. Despite living on the beach, he cannot swim.
Later on there is a pie weapon that is an upgraded version of the rock. There is also a Monty Python reference where you are able to disarm (literally) the black knight (with pies!):
I defeated the second boss so quickly I didn't get a screenshot of her. The instant she spawned I mashed the attack button and it was over right away:
That was the only easy part of the game so far. I don't think I've noted how difficult this game is. There is very little room for error with jumps or attacks. Enemies can obliterate your health bar in a couple hits and refills are scarce. When dashing it is very common to plummet to death.
Oh, end of the chapter:
And now we set off for the jungle:
The hammer weapon is now a hammer-hammer. It works the same as the previous two.
Swinging on vines was introduced in the previous stage. The third stage turns it up a little by making you swing across vines like in Jungle King/Hunt. The mechanics feel very similar.
The canoe part of this stage looks nice and has very low difficulty, simply paddle as fast as possible to clear the enemies.
Normy then acquires a spear and faces this rat mini-boss:
After about ten tries I quit here. It's possible to dodge this mini-boss' attacks but it's not fun. I don't think you have to finish a game to have an opinion on it. In the case of Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama I played far enough to understand the core game doesn't change all that much between stages. I'll soon learn there are mini versions of Pac Man and Pong toward the end, otherwise it's more of the same.
I quit Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama about halfway through the game. Midlife if you will.
Based on a tool-assisted speedrun, I played this game all wrong. I think the best strategy is to play it like a Sonic game and dash through the levels as quickly as possible. Normy is not damaged if he bumps into an enemy while rushing, although he is very likely to fall off a cliff. That's the trade-off.
I can't find a definitive release date for Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama. Late spring/early summer 1994 is what the reviews point to. It would make sense to release a game ostensibly about the beach near the start of summer. The first sign of this comes from a review in May of 1994:
Was anyone really offended by the term "beach babe"? This isn't exactly a strawman argument but it's close. They are imagining that someone somewhere must be bothered by "beach babe". I could agree it's antiquated and tacky at worst. Otherwise this duo thought Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama was a solid game.
Electronic Gaming Monthly has a worse opinion in their June 1994 issue. Since magazines are advance dated, this was likely written around the same time as the previous review.
I scanned a Funcoland catalog of unknown date a while ago. I never posted it because the quality is poor. The Dreamcast is the newest system in the catalog so it's probably from 2000. Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama is a little higher than the average game:
I do not remember a game called No Escape at all. Based on the price it must have been awful, but I suspect it's rare now. (Quick search reveals it goes for about the same price as Normy today.)
Assuming these games are of similar rarity, this hints that the folks at Funcoland didn't think Normy was all that bad. The algorithm for Funcoland pricing seemed to be a mixture of game rarity and quality.
As I understand, the idea of a "midlife crisis" is a largely western one. In cultures that revere the elderly, there's no concept of a midlife crisis. In cultures where aging is feared, this phenomenon happens somewhere between the ages of 40-60. Huh, midlife? Statistically speaking most won't make it to 80. Literally only one person ever crossed 120 (as of this writing). 35-38 is really midlife, sorry to break that to you.
If the midlife crisis occurs past the 50% mark then the Sega Genesis was in full midlife crisis mode in 1994. On one hand, it was putting out its best work ever. All the years of experience came together to produce things like:
Phantasy Star 4 was a 1994 release outside of Japan. It may be the peak of the Sega Genesis library. It's also a bit past the halfway mark. The system launched in (in the US) in August 1989 and the final release was in 1998, thanks to a steady stream of annual sports game updates. In Japan the system launched earlier and stopped receiving new games earlier (football, basketball, and hockey are hardly popular there). 1993-1994 is the equivalent of age 40-60 for us mortal humans in this timeline.
There's a stereotype about men buying a sports car as part of their midlife crisis. In 1994 the Sega Genesis bought a fancy new car:
The 32X was the equivalent of dying your hair and updating your wardrobe in hopes of attracting someone younger.
This gambit might yield short-term success. As someone who worked at a video game store in the 1994 xmas season, I assure you the 32X was briefly a smash hit. It doesn't last. Your attempts will grow more desperate while it's clear you're not the young hip person you think you are.
(Yes, that was a commentary on the Saturn/Dreamcast vs PlayStation 1/2)
Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama hit the shelves when Sega was looking to the future. Retailers were too. The Atari Jaguar and 3DO were pushed to the front of the store, although it didn't help either console sell. A new Sega Genesis game featuring a mostly unknown character didn't receive much attention. Looking back, the summer of 1994 was an uninteresting one for video games. Things got exciting after school started again - Mortal Kombat II home versions, Donkey Kong Country, and of course the 32X.
The lead of Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama is someone in their 40s without any problems. Somehow he is able to spend all day on the beach, with no apparent income, and everything is fine. I can't help but feel this character was at least a small manifestation of the author's ideal life. I think Keith Robinson liked working on video games, interviews with him support that. Would he have traded for the life of a beach bum?
Normy won't admit it, but he's acting like someone going through a midlife crisis. These beach babes are way too young for him. The beach babes of his youth all have careers and/or families by now. Poor Normy is all alone, chasing subsequent generations of beach babes who aren't going to reciprocate. I wouldn't trade lives with him. Retire on the beach, sure. Never grow up, sorry, not for me.
I try to end everything on a positive note. If Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama was released a little earlier it could have been a sleeper hit. Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario World may have set the bar for 16-bit platformers, but there were plenty of others that did well. For example, Bubsy was successful enough to earn a few sequels. Of the two, I've now logged more time with Normy than Bubsy. If Normy was a 1992, or even 1993, release things might have turned out better.
By 1994 so many 16-bit platformers were released that Normy's Beach Babe-o-Rama was hardly noticed. It took something like Donkey Kong Country, in November of the same year, to get everyone's attention.
Also on a positive note, I'm happy I randomly found a copy of Normy’s Beach Babe-o-Rama and finally got around to trying it. It reminded me of a comic I enjoyed even if I wasn't the demographic for it. It was a very nice looking Sega Genesis game, equal to or better than other platformers that sold better. It's not often enough I try a "new to me" game. I might even play it again.
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