Button Pushers, Cartridge 1 Trivia Quiz

Answer: EarthBound (1994)

Unusual among 1990s role-playing video games, "EarthBound" (referred to as "Mother 2" in Japan) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System draws inspiration from science-fiction and horror motion pictures. The game is a quest to defeat an alien foe who has landed on Earth in a meteorite. In lieu of ogres and dragons, many of its monsters could star in B-films of their own.

The game's humor has made it a cult classic. Putrid Moldyman attacks from inside a garbage can. In addition to Master Belch, players can also fight Master Barf and the Big Pile of Puke. A reason for the Crow's spitefulness is not given.

Answer: Zombie Ghosts Coast to Coast

"Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts" (1991), like "Ghosts 'n Goblins" (1985) before it, an arcade-style platformer starring the boxer-clad knight Arthur, famed and infamous for its high level of difficulty. "Zombies Ate My Neighbors" (1993), known also as "Zombies" [but unrelated to Ubisoft's "Zombi" (1986)], was a shooting video game by LucasArts, wherein the monsters were dispatched using such suburban armaments as water pistols and weed-whackers. "Ghoul Patrol" (1994) was a direct sequel.

"Space Ghost Coast to Coast" was a television program airing on Adult Swim in the early 2000s. A straight-to-DVD horror film called "Ghost Zombie" was released in 2007. There does not appear to have been an official Nintendo video game called "Zombie Ghosts Coast to Coast" in the 1990s.

Answer: scissors

The PlayStation video game "Clock Tower," confusingly referred to as "Clock Tower 2" in Japan, is a sequel to an SNES game also known as "Clock Tower." In both games, you control a young female racing through a darkened building to escape a shadowy killer called the Scissorman. This diminutive, hobbling character wields a pair of scissors almost as tall as he is, echoing down the hallways as he pursues.

The player is truly helpless, without so much as a can of pepper spray for defense. To progress, he or she must hide in furniture and lockers - and hope that the Scissorman is not hiding there first.

Answer: Rash, Zitz, and Pimple

Conceived as both imitation or pastiche of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (popular in video games as well as television, movies, and comic books), the Battletoads starred in several video games, most notably a beat-em-up for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Up to two players may control Zitz and Rash; for the purposes of this game, Pimple takes the role of the princess needing saving (though there is an actual princess to be saved as well).

DIC Animation even produced an animated cartoon pilot based on the Battletoads. The game was a commercial success, but the animated program did not enter full production.

Answer: A microchip

Evo, the robot hero of "Space Station Silicon Valley," is destroyed at the start of the game, leaving behind only a small microchip that can walk about like a bug. Fortunately, the game is set on a giant space ship full of robotic animals of every sort. Evo, in microchip form, can take over and control any of the other robot characters to use their powers.

The creators of "Space Station Silicon Valley" went on to produce the "Grand Theft Auto" and "Red Dead Redemption" video game series.

Answer: short story by Harlan Ellison

Harlan Ellison's 1967 short story "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" has become his most well-known work, largely thanks to the success of its video game adaptation. The original game features characters trapped and tortured in a digital environment controlled by a psychopathic artificial intelligence called AM. The video game details the backstories of the human characters, and was described by Ellison as "a game you cannot possibly win."

Ellison himself wrote the script and recorded voice lines for AM, including the now-famous "Hate" monologue (short version: AM's opinion of humans is generally negative).

Answer: Knocking his bowl off a small table

In what is surely the easiest final boss in any 1990s video game, Bob the Killer Goldfish can be defeated by a single hit. He sits in a bowl deep in his (ironically) underwater lair, scowling menacingly at Jim but putting up no resistance of any kind.

After defeating Bob, the beautiful Princess What's-Her-Name calls to Earthworm Jim so she can reward him with a smooch. Right as he puckers up, a cow falls out of the heavens and crushes her. Easy come, easy go.

Answer: art design

Visual artist H.R. Giger, perhaps best known for the motion picture "Alien" (1979), also contributed to the "Dark Seed" series of computer games. The games follow average suburbanite Mike Dawson, who must travel between the real world and the Giger-designed Dark World to defeat an eldritch monster.

Giger agreed to allow for the use of his artwork if the developers used a high resolution graphics mode. This limited the game to simplified color palates, producing a dream-like, sepia look.

Answer: An isolated mansion

A special forces team called S.T.A.R.S. is sent on a rescue mission in the remote wilderness, but are attacked by vicious dogs, and the few survivors must take refuge in an enormous mansion. The S.T.A.R.S. force discover that the house is the site of evil scientific experiments. They must battle through mutated zombies, man-eating dogs, giant tarantulas, and a pit of sharks to escape.

Future "Resident Evil" games used the other settings listed.

Answer: Leonard Nimoy

Introducing himself as himself, Leonard Nimoy recorded narration to "Seaman," intoning sonorously in a manner reminiscent of Jacques Cousteau. "Seaman" allows the player to talk using a microphone attachment with a virtual creature, an intelligent fish with the face man. Seaman (also referred to as the "gillman") will talk back with questions, prompts, observations, accusations, insults, interrogations, songs, and philosophical non-sequiturs. Voice actor Jeff Kramer provided over 20 hours of dialogue for the English version of the game.

As the player plays, the character mutates and evolves into stranger and more grotesque forms. It is not clear if this is intended to be a reward.