Motherboard

Two men sit on stools on opposite ends of a small theater stage. The air is strangely heavy as the familiar black and white screen of Pong appears projected onto the wall in back of them. It’s time for these two to face off in videogaming’s earliest 1-on-1 grudge match. But there are no Atari paddles here. Nor are there any Xbox controllers, arcade sticks or other interfaces that would allow any of that new-fangled motion control. Instead, the combatants are holding two guitars attached to wires that run through a pedal bank, connected to a laptop, hooked up to a Super Nintendo. Uhhh… What?

This is Modal Kombat (scream it loudly and hang on the last syllable for effect), a hybrid videogame duel / guitar battle / performance piece by Yale graduates David Hindman and Evan Drummond which had its latest run at The Brick Theater’s GAME PLAY festival in Brooklyn this past weekend. The notes, slides and chords are translated into button presses by a program designed in Max/MSP, a visual programming language that can take virtually any kind of electronic signal, audio or otherwise, and set parameters allowing it to control or interact with …well, pretty much anything.

David slides up on his guitar fret quickly to deflect the Pong ball towards an unoccupied space on Evan’s side. The ball glides towards the opening as Evan tries to slide back down on his fret to intercept …but he isn’t fast enough. The audience cheers. Score one for David.

This is the basic idea behind the presentation, which combines the intensity of a videogame tournament match with the wonderment of performance art and a fair helping of audience participation. Pong is just the start, however. Next up is the ever-popular Tetris. But unlilke the other games, Modal Kombat’s version of Tetris requires a good deal of teamwork. A third player is given the task of spinning the falling blocks into the correct positions using a Wii remote while Players 1 and 2 control the left & right movement of the pieces. The audience became especially active during this segment, and those who are not actively playing start yelling directions and shouting “rotate!” with a zeal that suggests their advice might determine the outcome. After about 5 minutes of creating hopelessly jumbled structures on the Tetris board, the players finally manage to complete a line. The crowd goes nuts.

As soon as Evan pops the cartridge for Mortal Kombat Trilogy into a hacked Nintendo 64, the audience applauds excitedly knowing the main event is about to begin. Surprisingly, even the menu selection screen is controlled by guitar. A loud, staccato strum signals the selection of each character and the beginning of the first round: a classic Sub-Zero VS Scorpion match-up. The beginning of the match is more of a dance than a fight, with both players ducking and weaving in time with the guitar pluckings as if they’re experimenting with the capabilities of their digital skins.

Tension builds as the players slowly construct melodies and background textures, recorded in real-time and then played back with a loop pedal. Standing yards apart, their avatars throw punches into the air rapidly, inching closer and closer. A massive power chord rings out, triggering a mighty uppercut from Evan and the match is officially underway. Strangely, the pace of the match doesn’t seem slowed at all as both combatants have mastered the guitar control scheme. The competition almost seems like it’s a kind of bipolar process art — The combatants are playing the chords and notes that will lead them to victory, but at the same time they’re unintentionally creating an improvisational piece of music like some sort of audible mandala sand painting.

A few fireballs, power chords and punches later, Sub-Zero stands as the victor. “FINISH HIM” appears on the screen and Evan frantically slams a couple of notes, but to it’s no avail — The defeated player’s character falls with no gory grand finale as the audience lets out a howl of disappointment.

The last game is another classic: Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo. Despite being a racing game, it looks like it’s fairly easy to control on the guitar — Higher notes steer right and lower notes left while a rapid staccato plucking uses items. But the pair of video-rivals are taking a different approach this time: Instead of focusing on victory in the next match, the two begin playing an improvisational jam on their guitars and let As the screen wobbles and distorts with psychedelic effects, the two rivals veer left and right randomly on the tropical island race course, falling off the track again and again as the music becomes the main focus, and the gameplay merely a by-product — the exact opposite of before.

In addition to sharing new perspectives on competitive gaming as a performance and the relationship between music and interactivity, Modal Kombat is also, in a sense, a series of meta-games. By simply changing the method of interaction, Hindman and Drummond have created a totally new experience within a familiar framework that challenges and informs our understanding of what videogames can be. Oh yeah, and it makes them way more fun too.