Surgat Archives

Hello

February 16, 2002

Hi, I’m Mark! I decided to create this blog to share my experiences with the 1982 arcade game Surgat and potentially any findings I may come across with it in the future. It was a space shooter game where you grabbed an arcade gun to shoot down Space Invader-like enemies before they reached the cabinet. Sounds confusing, I know, but the game was advanced for its time, which is why it always stuck out to me. I’ll post more about it soon.

Entry 1

February 22, 2002

Kickin’ it off with the official first blog post! It took a while to gather my thoughts, but now I have a clear account that I’m finally proud to share. Without further ado, here is my personal experience with the 1982 arcade game Surgat.

When I was 12, my favorite things were video games and science fiction. So naturally, I would hang out at the local arcade in my hometown in Virginia. It was a small area, but the kids, including me, would often hang out there after school when our parents were working overtime. I played classics like Galaga and Centipede, but the one that drew me and a handful of kids the most was Surgat.

For computer game nerds, the first thing you might think of with Surgat is the demon from the 1995 DOS game I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream (great game!). But for me, that name has always echoed a childhood mystery that remains unsolved: What the hell was Surgat? Was it even a real game? Why did it disappear off the face of the Earth with no one talking about it?

The game’s setup was fascinating, as you were first introduced to it by word-of-mouth. The rumor had it that if you spent a lot of time in the arcade, the owner would take interest and invite you to the back room to play all the secret arcade games for free. It feels stupid thinking back on it now, but as a video game enthusiast at the time, I was excited. Every day after school, I would rush to the arcade and make sure to spend an extra hour getting the high score on Galaga, sometimes even lying to my parents for extra allowance under the guise of hanging out with my friends (sorry, Mom).

I stuck with this routine for two weeks until finally, the owner noticed. He greeted me with a smile and gave me a notecard about the upcoming arcade game Surgat. He said I would be one of the first people to test it before release. Eagerly, I said yes to the invitation, but unfortunately, the test was scheduled for July, so I had to wait for two months. On the bright side, the school year was ending, so I had finals to catch up on plus a lot of time to prepare during summer vacation.

The day came to test Surgat, and I made it to the arcade 5 minutes before opening. The first hour felt like a lull with me half-assing random arcade games and looking back at the notecard for the scheduled date. Teens and kids were hanging around and lined up for the main event. It wasn’t until the owner opened the backdoor for us Surgat participants to line up for the big reveal.

Just before that, a special guest arrived: Ronald Wilson Reagan. The goddamn president showed up with two bodyguards, and I was more proud than ever to be an American. The public appearance shocked me, and it’s one of the craziest parts of the story that I won’t blame anyone for not believing. My interactions with him were awkward, but we all gathered around to take a group photo before setting off into the back room.

Contrary to my expectations, the back room wasn’t all that I thought it would be. There was a purple arcade cabinet in the center surrounded by dusty concrete walls, an adjacent observation room, and a fence caging it off from the rest of the room. I tried to uphold my previous excitement by re-framing it as a real science experiment, but the suits that guarded the place gave off a heavy, unnerving sensation that I can’t describe. I swallowed it up with the camaraderie of all the enthused kids in line, knowing we were all going to be part of something great in the history of video games.

Surgat’s gameplay was like a combination of Space Invaders and Robotron: 2084. The main goal was to shoot down aliens with an arcade rifle before they touched the cabinet. The catch was that the game utilized some sort of holographic technology that projected the enemies in 3D. Given how it was the 80s, it was extremely advanced for the time, and I was impressed beyond belief when I first stepped into the arena. The flurry of red and blue ghosts kept me on my feet, and after three minutes, the level ended, and it was on to the next kid.

I managed to fare through the game just fine, but when you failed, the player had to be pulled out of the caged area with the owner running in for a quick maintenance check. I found it annoying at first since I thought it would mean that the game was permanently broken, but the rushed nature of the fixes was what caught me off guard. This happened twice.

When the tests ended, we were told to come back to the arcade the next day. However, when my dad was dropping me off, we saw the place surrounded by police. It was an alarming sight and I urged my dad to check. He did and came back to the car and drove us off. There was a moment of silence before I asked what happened. Nothing. It wasn’t until two days later that the news came in. Two missing children cases were published, and I was surprised to recognize their faces from the test. He then told me how the police investigation was tied to this and that he forbade me to visit the arcade until the end of the year. Needless to say, it was a crappy rest of the summer, and it would be the last time I’d ever see the arcade. It closed down in September, and I was left frustrated, confused, and sad over what happened to Surgat.

I tried talking to my friends about it the next school year, but they all just gave me weird looks. I chalked it up to them not being involved, even though I told them about it in the summer beforehand, but nothing came of it whenever I tried bringing it up. Discourse on Surgat died down, and we all drifted apart. Even when I made new friends in high school and college, I still couldn’t find a way to bring up the game. Overall, it felt isolating. It was almost like a weird fever dream that never left my mind. Of course, there were cool releases down the line such as Doom and the Playstation, but it just wasn’t the same.

So why am I telling you all of this despite it happening 20 years ago? Last week, I received a notecard on my desk. The front had Surgat written on it, my heart sank, and all the memories came flooding back. On the back of the card, it read this:

pdqbzruogv

I don’t know what this means, but it looks like an encrypted message of some kind? For now I don't have any leads so until something new happens, I’m convinced that my understanding of Surgat will remain flat.

Thanks for reading. I'll admit this post was lengthy, but hopefully future entries will be much shorter as I go along. I'm also a sucker for sci-fi and try to keep up with the latest tech, so if anyone has any suggestions on what this can possibly mean, I'm open to hear about it. Until then, I'll keep you guys posted.