dwe (11/16/82)
I saw this in a Raleigh newspaper last week. (Used without permission)
CHICAGO (UPI) - Medical students are playing Bugs and Drugs on computer
terminals, dodging antibiotics, hallway muggers and mazes in their quest to
reach the hospital's top-floor Journal Club.
Only 1 percent win.
"It's a lot of fun, but it's unbelievably educational," said Dr. Fred Zar,
an infectious disease fellow at the University of Illinois Medical Center.
A tiny physician carrying a medical bag and rolling an intravenous medicine
pole is moved on the screen by pressing four keys on the terminal keyboard.
The character begins as a pre-med student with average IQ, strength, agility
and endurance and gradually gains experience -- from internship to Nobel
laureate.
"You enter the hospital armed with a minimal supply of antibiotics. Your
quest is to make it to the 12th floor of the hospital where the Journal Club
is located," Zar said.
Hospital floors are mazes filled with elevators, stairways and microbiology
labs, which first must be strategically mapped out on a piece of paper. Secret
doors appear occasionally -- if you're fortunate enough to catch a glimpse.
Players must find a relic, or piece of medical history, hidden on each floor
while fighting bacteria, viruses and parasites that arbitrarily appear on the
screen.
Between 150 and 200 different bugs can be encountered, starting with common
strep throat and becoming more "complicated and exotic as you get higher up in
the hospital," Zar said.
"You have to choose the best antibiotic before it kills you. And there's a
time limit. If you can't choose quickly enough, it will kill you."
Other ways to fight bugs include using strength in hand-to-hand combat or
using agility to outrun the bug.
There is a last resort.
"You can pray, which gives you a small chance that devine intervention will
kill the bug. The bug might get zapped by a bolt of lightning and be
destroyed," Zar said.
A mugger wandering through the hospital attacks by asking questions.
If bugs are successfully killed, players gain experience and may find a
mortar containing pearls -- of wisdom -- to buy more antibiotics or floor maps.
A paycheck can be picked up at several locations -- if you can find the
cashier.
Players start with about 10 hits. If all hits are lost, players must start
over as a pre-med student.
"If your hits become zero, you're dead," Zar said.
A graveyard then appears and a pallbearer wheels the character's body across
the screen in a cart and dumps it on the ground.
"I would say that probably only 1 percent, or less, of people who play the
game ever become Nobel laureates and make it to the 12th floor," Zar said.
Sound familiar?? Has anyone else heard of or played the game?
Afraid to say I'm afraid to
sign my name
David Easter
N. C. State University
Raleigh, NC