Journey Through Satan’s Hollow

I haven’t necessarily played many arcade-style games, but when my Game Studies professor asked us to check out an arcade emulator at https://archive.org/details/internetarcade, I was rightly excited. Although “Joust” was, naturally, my first choice (who could pass up jousting?) and it was at the top of the list, instead, I scrolled through the pages and pages of arcade games (600+) until one game caught my eye:

I “inserted” a virtual coin; it was basically where I clicked a button that said “1 Player” and then the game began.

I died often…but I died gloriously. The game begins with a bunch of vulture creatures flying above you and you are supposed to shoot them. 

Satan is really angry that you’re in his lair, and will stop at nothing to kill you.

This event in itself –one where a human is in the realm of Satan’s underworld– presents the theory that your character might, in fact, be the lost Winchester brother, Adam;

Stuck in Lucifer’s cage.

however, the real reward of playing Satan’s Hollow on an emulator is trying to figure out the buttons to control the little shooting device. After many attempts, I determined that the controls are simple:

|ctrl|   shoot

|alt|   shield

l <–>  r  arrows move your character

You also can deploy shields, but only for a limited amount of time (about four seconds); after that, it needs to recharge.

One of the fun experiences of playing these arcade style games is that it also shows the loading windows– you know, the ones with the hints and player scores. It left me feeling nostalgic, and reminded me of Friday nights as a kid, going to the bowling alley: I played Street Fighter while my parents bowled in a league. When I ran out of quarters, we would crowd around and watch the demo.

Satan’s Hollow is such a delightful little game. I am definitely bookmarking this one and others in the archive so I can continue to enjoy other bits of nostalgia.

https://archive.org/details/arcade_shollow

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