#701 – Vegas Dream

A smoke-filled, boozy dream.

PLAYERS: 1

PUBLISHER: HAL Labs

DEVELOPER: HAL Labs

GENRE: Gambling

RELEASE DATE: March 1990

You couldn’t pay me to spend a weekend in Vegas, but I don’t mind dabbling in 8-bit renditions. Out of all the gambling simulators on the NES – Casino Kid, Caesar’s Palace, Peek-A-Boo Poker – Vegas Dream comes the closest to capturing the sleaze of the city. Plush red carpeting, rampant boozing, and con women are all on display here. Sure, you can play games. Blackjack, Keno, Roulette, and Slot Machines are your choices. They play as you expect, but they’re almost beside the point. What makes Vegas Dream different are the scenarios that happen to you while you’re gambling. Women will ask you to marry them. Old rummies will challenge you to a game of roulette. Coke fiends (so I assume) will buy you drinks for no reason. Perhaps people in Vegas don’t really approach strange gamblers as readily as the folks in the game, but the scenarios feel plausible. You always have options. You can brush these people off or you can agree to their request. If you agree, say, to get married to some strange woman, one of two things will happen: she could steal some of your money right after your marriage, or the casino will congratulate your nuptials with five thousand dollars. Challenge the old man to a game of roulette. Win and he’ll congratulate you. Lose and he’ll be disappointed in your skills. Let the coke fiend buy you drinks and he’ll randomly give you a ring. If the night ends well, you’ll trade in the ring for additional money or you’ll drunkenly stumble down some stairs and have to pay some hospital bills for your injuries. Every scenario is a gamble.

With the exception of Blackjack, Vegas Dream‘s games are addicting, but not really fun. Gambling isn’t really “fun,” per say. It’s a compulsion based on potential financial gain. Unless you’re five years old, you don’t play roulette because you like to watch the big wheel spin around a bunch of times. You play ’cause you want some Benjamins. Indeed, the goal of Vegas Dream is to get as much money as you can, but as I’ve stated before, virtual money’s lure has no appeal. The real treat here is to see the thirteen different scenarios play out, for good or for ill. After all, luck – both good and bad – is what Vegas is all about.

C