by Moe Zilla

Created on: January 12, 2009   Last Updated: January 13, 2009

It was 13 years ago that Pulse Entertainment released "Bad Mojo" - adding yet another layer of mystery to the video game. In San Francisco's "Multimedia gulch" dotcoms were booming when the San Francisco-based company decided to create this interactive story about a greedy yuppie - living in San Francisco - who's suddenly turned into a cockroach.

Roger Samms has just one sentimental attachment, to a picture of his dead mother that he's had since he was a kid. But the picture of Angelina suddenly comes to life, dispensing mysterious messages about the things he needs to learn. It transforms him into a cockroach, crawling around his crummy apartment, where he struggles to survive. But he also gets a new perspective on his miserable landlord who lives downstairs.

Almost instantly he's attacked by a spider. He finds a rat dying in a mouse trap - who will eat him if he crawls too close. And by "he" I mean you, since it's the players of the game who nudge the cockroach icon across its interactive landscapes. The gorgeous artwork creates a surreal darkness as the ordinary building gets depicted from a bug's eye view. A broom handle becomes a giant tower. A glowing cigarette butt is a weapon. And even a puddle of water on the floor could be very, very deadly.

Reviewers couldn't resist the irony of declaring the cockroach game one of the best of year - but it was a stunning production. Arty videos of Angelina appear throughout the game, and it opens with a spectacular establishing shot of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. The concept was truly disturbing, but that made the game feel original and compelling. Somewhere in the game was a beautiful butterfly - and a touching story about the search for redemption.

Unfortunately, 90% of the CD-ROM games were losing money, and the interactive story became a lost art, giving way to "first-person shooter" games and massively-networked game worlds. But that makes "Bad Mojo" that much more precious, capturing a moment in time when an entirely new art form seemed possible. (In 2004 a re-mastered version was released called "Bad Mojo Redux.") In one of the games four possible endings, the building is even destroyed altogether, while Angelina mourns to the player that this area where their dreams died will now haunted by those souls.

Multimedia was still new in 1996, and one columnist joked that the game resembled the new experience of web browsing - "all forward motion, sudden changes in perspective, and love of garbage." But "Bad Mojo" was actual art, and it had a real message to convey. There's an obvious "existential" feeling in seeing the world through a cockroach's eyes, but this cockroach was once a man ignoring the plight of his blue-collar landlord. As the cockroach crawls through that man's secrets, he discovers his disappointments, lost loves, and ultimately: compassion.

It's a memorable message - and the game makes it even more memorable, because it's delivered by a cockroach.

Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.