PSM versus Foo Fighters

Official Playstation Magazine UK 1999

‘Did you just shoot me dude?’ enquires Dave Grohl. PSM shrugs. Let battle commence.

You join PSM in the heart of Notting Hill where two large men are focused intently on the thrills and spills of Wip3out.
‘For the first record, we had Wipeout 2097 in the studio and it just became obsessive,’ says one of the large men, Foo Fighter Dave Grohl. ‘That one was really cool because there was a Prodigy track on it that we were really in to. We didn’t have the CD so we’d just put on the game and play while listening to the song.’
Player two’s ship shoots over the finishing line. Leaving PSM to limp home in second place.
‘C’MON MAN!’ yells Dave. ‘Makin’ me wait around’.
Unbelievable. It seems Dave has played this before, but PSM puts its defeat down to a touch of nerves, and throws down the gauntlet a second time.
‘OK, let’s go again.’ Dave adopts the stance.
‘Shooting is circle right? You know what game I really got into? Ahh, mines. Goddammit!! What was it? The one where you’re a spy?
'Gex: Deep Cover Gecko,' offers PSM.
‘It was a really hot game and it was like the best one they’d ever created’
PSM fires a shot straight across the Foo bows and turbo charges past Grohl into the lead.
‘Ahh, no! It was a full-on Japanese kind of trip. There was this nuclear-power machine thing and it was up to you to save the world.’
'Metal Gear Solid?'
‘Yeah! I love that game. I was so into it.’
Meanwhile PSM notches up a point to draw the match level. Time for a change of game.
‘Is this Wu-Tang Clan?’ asks Dave.
This is indeed the Wu-Tang game. Taste the Pain no less.
‘I’m not really down with fighting games. I’m all about peace and love. Is Ol’ Dirty Bastard in here?’
But of course.
‘What a kook! Are we fighting each other? It’s weird that the Wu Tang Clan have made a game where they’re fighting each other. I wouldn’t do that. Not with my own band mates. It makes me sad.’
The bout begins and PSM quickly gets the upper hand.
‘C’MON DIRTY! You can do it. Ohhh! Getting my ass whupped. Raekwon just whupped ya. Get up, dirty, you lazy son of a bitch.’
You’ve got to wonder whether he’d let the Wu-Tang Caln get their hands on one of the Foo’s tracks and perform remix duties.
‘Well I don’t think it’s a god idea to take rock music and turn it into dance music - a) because it has become to cliched, it’s just another way of cashing in, and b) Rock music should be played by musicians, it shouldn’t be done on computers.’
Politely forgetting Grohl’s own remix of one Puff Daddy, PSM unleashes a devastating combo that leaves Ol’ Dirty Bastard inspecting the deck.
‘Ooohhhhh. My God that was quick. Wow, you’re really god at this. Let’s try something else. I like spacey, flying, driving, car games.’
The bag is dry. Damn. Um, how ‘bout Quake II?
‘Yeah sure,’ he shrugs. ‘You know I reckon it’s time someone came out with a skeet shooting game.’
Skeet shooting?
‘You know, fire dishes in the air and shoot them down [Clay pigeon shooting - upper crust Ed]. I’m in a league at home and need to practice.’
It should surely come as no surprise that one of Grohl’s hobbies is shooting down (ahem) flying saucers after all he has had a long and intense relationship with the world of sci-fi. The Foo Fighters themselves were named after a crack squad of fighter pilots that used to scour the skies looking for UFOs in the 1950s.
‘I haven’t seen the new Star Wars though. I’ve seen the original films about 6000 times, but there’s something about movies that are based on CGI that bums me out. Like, if I go see a movie I want to make sure that I’m watching a movie and not something that has been generated by a machine. Jar Jar Binks really threw me off. Freaked me out.’
Like most kids growing up in early 80s America, Grohl has been dabbling with videogames for years.
‘First there was Pong, then Pac-man, and then there was Atari,’ he says, before getting distracted by the joys of Quake II. ‘Don’t suppose I can walk through the green slime can I?’
Ermm, probably not wise, suggests PSM, a split second before the on-screen space marine starts howling.
‘Oh get out! You piece of....Oh. You you can jump! That was kind of cool!’
Meanwhile PSM pulls out its chain gun and rattles a hundred rounds into the rear end of an unsuspecting Grohl.
‘Videogames when we were kids were kind of a status symbol. Cool kids got Atari and when it first came out it was definitely a big deal.’
What about the one with the Walnut trim?
‘Yeah! I still have all those games. But everything was square and looked like Pong, except with people. Arcade wise, Galaga was always my favourite. I went to this Catholic school for two years and they had this arcade and there was Galaga. I spent every last quarter I had in that machine.’
So it’s Galaga and punk rock that shaped the young Grohl, yet these days such primitive things have been replaced by state-of-the-art videogames and the more melodic fire of the Foo Fighters.
‘I think it all happened in the 90s. Here are al these people that went through this revolution that was underground punk rock, but they kind of missed singing. They missed making songs that were sort of pretty, and eventually the two just kind of morphed together.’
The final challenge awaits. A game that requires both intense concentration and consummate skill. It is, of course, Anna Kournikova Smash Tennis.
‘Ooohhh,’ exclaims Dave, ‘Don’t think I’ve ever played a tennis game besides Pong.’
You’re in for a treat. PSM serves straight down the line, aceing our opponent.
‘Oww, who’s that bitch?’
The final score? 4-1 to PSM. Game, set and match

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