Photo from zombiesatemygames.com
Twitch.tv is a video game streaming website, known for streaming games like League of Legends. However, one user took an old Pokemon Red rom and put an entirely new spin on it. He let the viewers control the game.
It’s not uncommon that the person playing the game will take advice from the viewers — but TTP is different. Rather than suggestions like, “Go talk to that NPC right there,” or “Use Gust!” players directly input controls — start, up, down, left, right, a, b — and the rom will follow the order. So what happens when 70,000 people are inputting controls at once? Chaos…or so everyone thought.
As of Thursday, seven days in, TTP has somehow made it to Lavender Town. They’ve beaten all the gyms somehow and have actually progressed! Sure it took them around eight hours to use cut on a tree, but they haven’t gotten stuck.
TTP actually hit a wall in the Silph Co. building — the one with the sliding arrow floor puzzle. Naturally, 70,000 people inputting the same commands would never pass this obstacle. Because of this a new mode was implemented — Democracy. The viewers can vote to switch between anarchy mode (the original way the game is set up) and democracy mode. In democracy mode, the players input commands and the highest one inputted over a span of a few seconds is implemented. In this mode, you can also stack commands. Inputting “up2down3” will make the player go up two spaces and down three. Unfortunately, during democracy mode people will input “start9” to repeatedly open and close the menu. Pressing start was annoying enough, because the menu interrupts the game, but “start9” is 100 times worse.
The game itself is hilarious. People have given the items and Pokemon different characteristics. For example, due to the constant command inputs, the bag tends to get opened a ton. For whatever reason, players would accidentally select the Helix Fossil and the S.S. Ticket — two items that don’t do anything without very specific circumstances. Of course they were greeted with messages from Oak saying that it’s not the time for those items. Both items have been crowned gods and phrases like “All hail the Helix Fossil!” and “The S.S. Ticket is a false deity,” are now common on the net. (You don’t believe in both. You pick one. Helix Fossil or S.S. Ticket. There is no such thing as agnosticism in TTP.) Fans are showing their support by uploading stupid memes to any website — Reddit, Tumblr, 4chan, Twitter — TTP is everywhere.
When the viewers were deciding whether to obtain a Lapras or an Eevee (to turn into a Vaporeon) for Surf. They could only choose one — consulting the PC to deposit Pokemon is too dangerous, since it’s very easy to accidentally release them. The Eevee plan had much higher stakes. Not only would they have to get the Eevee, they’d have to buy a water stone with their limited funds from the department store and successfully use it. So naturally, the Eevee plan won.
It was all going well until they accidentally bought a fire stone and used it on the Eevee. When going to put the Eevee away, the viewers accidentally released their Charmeleon, nicknamed “ABBBBBBK(“ (lovingly called Abby by the viewers) and their Rattata, “JLVWNNOOOO” (Jay Leno). The Flareon was immediately declared a false prophet and was released.
The people playing this game can’t be that incompetent. They’ve managed to do the in-game trade of a Spearow for a Farfetch’d. They’ve made it through all the ledges next to Pewter City, despite the fact that random people kept inputting “down,” causing them to have to start over. They beat Giovanni in the Silph Co. building.
Players are currently worried about the next big obstacle — obtaining Strength from the Safari Zone. With only 500 steps and an entrance fee that they may not be able to afford multiple times, they think that the game will end in a stalemate.
The stream is ongoing and you can watch it here. However, it can be pretty painful and cringe-inducing. If you want to catch up on the full events from the game, this video sums it up until the “false prophet” pretty well.
What do you think of Twitch Plays Pokemon? Do you think it’s horrible and stupid? Do you phrase the Helix Fossil or the S.S.Ticket? Comment below or e-mail me at dahrae@terpmail.umd.edu.
