The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
26th April 1986.
An event which changed the lives of thousands
and sent ripples through time.
Some of those ripples recently led to an HBO
Mini series baring the power plant's name,
which, if you haven't yet seen, I wholeheartedly
recommend.
Re-living the Chernobyl nuclear disaster events
in a vivid, dramatised version, was miles
apart from what we saw and heard on the 1986
news, flickering away, in the corner of our
lounges, many still hungover from the garish
feel of the 1970s.
And that vividness, that intensity brought
by such a shocking dramatisation, pushed me
to the internet, to finding out more about
the inner workings of a nuclear reactor, and
more significantly in this case, a light water
reactor, just like Chernobyl.
But I'm not here to explain it to you, that's
not my bag, that's more appropriate for someone
like Scott Manley.
So instead, I'm going to PLAY IT, using an
array of games from various systems.
But, so you know what we're dealing with,
here is a brief explanation by Scott Manley
himself.
*A Scott Manley Appears*
Hello, it's Scott Manley here.
Nostalgia Nerd has asked me to quickly explain
how a nuclear reactor works.
The important part is in a core you have Uranium
235, which when hit by a neutron, will split
into 2 parts, which will release energy, and
it will also release more neutrons, which
will go onto cause more reactions.
To stop the reaction running away, you have
control rods which absorb those neutrons.
You can slide them into the core to slow the
reaction down, or pull them out to make it
go faster.
You also need something called a moderator
to make sure the neutrons will cause more
reactions, because if they're going too fast,
they actually escape the core and don't do
anything.
That, in a pressurised water reactor is...
water, which is very convenient.
Water is also a coolant, so the reactor has
a primary coolant loop that takes heat away
from the reactor which takes heat away from
the reactor, and it'll have a secondary coolant
loop where the heat is transferred through
a heat exchanger and that secondary loop will
have the water boil and generate steam to
turn the turbines.
So you have to keep the core running at a
certain power level.
As it powers up over time, it can start to
generate neutron poisons that can slow the
reaction down, so you have to pull the rods
in and out to adjust how the reactor performs.
I'm Scott Manley...
Nuke Safe.
*A Scott Manley Disappears*
[Groovy music is groovy]
[with a slight tense undertone]
We begin with REACTOR, for the Atari VCS,
released by Parker Brothers in 1983, and a
box to definitely catch your attention.
A vibrant explosion, almost foreshadowing
Chernobyl, 3 years prior to the horrifying
event.
Now, this isn't the most realistic depiction
of a Nuclear Reactor.
It's simply a game, with some elements of
a nuclear reactor thrown in for good measure.
Using the joystick, you are placed in charge
of a ship with the sole task of preventing
a melt down.
At the centre if the reactor core, contained
by the kill wall on the outside.
In small groups positrons, neutrinos and photons
are released in the area inbetween, and it's
our job to smash them into the kill wall in
the given time limit.
Doing so, will prevent the reactor core from
expanding, making the next wave even more
difficult.
To aid with our quest we have a couple of
tricks.
First we can place a decoy, of which we have
3, which when placed well, can bounce the
particles into the kill wall, or better yet,
these side chambers.
If you get a particle in here, then it will
bounce around, earning you 15 points per bounce,
until it vaporises.
Nice.
You can also attempt to shrink the core, by
destroying the control rods either side.
Which seems a bit counter intuitive, given
control rods are usually designed to reduce
reaction in the core, but that's the way this
game works.
It's actually pretty good fun for an Atari
VCS game.
But, how about we move onto something more
realistic...
SCRAM, is actually a game from 2 years prior,
1981, and is one of the first power plant
simulators for a home computer, with only
the pertinently named Three Mile Island on
the Apple II arriving before.
Both games are similar, but SCRAM is probably
an easier game to pick up, and that's saying
something.
This is a title published by Atari for their
8 bit home micro line and written in BASIC
& 6502 assembly by Chris Crawford.
The word SCRAM itself is a reactor safe word
thought up by the University of Chicago in
1942.
It stands for "Start Cutting Right Away Man",
and refers to literally cutting the reactor
control rod ties to drop them into the nuclear
fuel, thereby shutting down the reactor in
an emergency.
Now, this is actually an actual simulation
of a nuclear reactor, albeit a simplified
model.
You are placed in control of various valves,
switches and functions of a reactor, programmed
using differential equations, with only your
joystick as the form of input.
Over here, we have the reactor, and it's primary
loop cooling system.
The water cools the reactor by absorbing and
carrying it out to the steam generator, which
transfers heat to the secondary loop.
This is the main feedwater system, and hot
steam from here, flows into the turbines which
generate electricity.
Any excess heat is transferred to the Tertiary
loop, where it is released as steam via.
the Hyperbolic cooling tower.
Depending on how much power we can generate
before losing all our staff and having to
shut the generator down, determines whether
we pass the operator exam and at what level.
Fix all the problems created by the frequent
earthquakes, do exceedingly well and you pass
as a Senior Reactor Operator, and I guess,
are then legally qualified to operate an actual
nuclear reactor.
If take a peek in the manual, it compares
it to the Three Mile Island power plant, in
Pennsylvania, which itself, suffered a partial
meltdown in March 1979.
A combination of mechanical and human failures
led to a large amount of coolant to escape,
but thankfully did not cause the same level
of catastrophe or contamination that was witnessed
at Chernobyl.
It did however, galvanise anti-nuclear activists
and safety campaigners, whilst also bringing
nuclear power into the public eye, and as
with all good anxieties, sublimated into entertainment,
in the form of these games.
Indeed SCRAM even encourages you to recreate
the Three Mile Island incident.
The manual is filled with a lot of information,
in fact it's more like a nuclear reactor handbook
than a game manual, giving you a tour of the
nuclear facility, breaking down each component
before giving you a run down of how to keep
the plant running effectively, and more importantly,
safe.
There's even a entire section devoted to Thermodynamics;
this is heavy stuff, which resulted in equal
parts praise and upset from reviewers of the
time.
I presume those upset were the ones who just
wanted to belt out a quick review, without
having to dedicate a week to the cause.
I feel you friends, I really do.
[TENSE MUSIC with a hint of dystopia]
[Screeching loading sounds]
Alright, let's move onto a ZX Spectrum reactor
game.
Is it me, or does all this box art have a
kind of Cold War, soviet feel to it.
I find it quite soul warming.
GEMINI Leisure Software.
Ohhhh yeah, this is where leisure really starts.
Released in 1984 by Gemini Marketing, again
this is a game playing into the fears and
excitement of the new and ever present nuclear
age.
Unlike SCRAM the manual here is a leaflet.
It feels ill fitting with the more serious
box, with sturdy plastic packaging, and dark,
foreboding colours.
Inside, we get 3 points;
A) Maintain the power level above zero
B)
Keep the radiation level below maximum.
C) Have at least one life left.
Well, ok then.
Let's get cracking.
Or I would get cracking, if the game would
load.
No matter what Spectrum model I tried, or
what release of the software, it failed to
load.
There are reports of a glitch in the loading
sequence of the game, but I could get nothing,
not a smidge out of it on real Sinclair hardware.
{Cut scene}
*CLICK of tape deck*
"Of course, Sinclair will cover it up.
he always does
A ZX Spectrum simply CANNOT fail.
I just hope you find these tapes, and do the
right thing"
*click*
{Cut scene}
[concerning background humming]
Ahhhh, OK, now this is a very different game.
It feels more like Reactor on the Atari VCS,
but the logic here is possibly more sound,
and actually this is a compelling little game
in its own right.
A bit like Beehive Bedlam on the original
Sky Digital box was.
You didn't expect it, but after you found
yourself playing for 3 hours straight, you
knew it was addictive.
Here it's about balance, just like a nuclear
reactor is, and, just like Reactor on the
VCS, how you achieve balance is by smashing
particles against an inanimate object.
In this case, the central discharge unit.
Rather than random deflection, however, the
metals floating about diverge at a right angle
to your control unit, meaning some form of
puzzle and tactic is in order.
Of course, you can't smash all the metals
into the discharger, as your reactor's power
will fall, but have too many and you'll risk
an excess of radiation.
Neutrons are the multiplyer here, and when
they hit a moving metal, the metal divides....
just like A REACTION.
You can absorb a few of these neutrons, however,
you'll have to discharge yourself if you absorb
more than 4.
You'll also lose a life if you get hit by
a piece of metal immediately after absorbing
a neutron.
Adding a further tactical element.
It's pretty absorbing stuff.
Although I'm not sure how much it will teach
you about managing a nuclear reactor.
Once the timer has reached 1500, then you
have to contain the reactor entirely in concrete.
You do this in a snake style, by leaving a
trail of concrete blocks in your wake.
You need to fill every gap, or keep trying
until you do, before moving onto the next
reactor.
Not bad at all.
Well, I guess we should try something on the
Commodore 64 now.... how about the appropriately
named CHAIN REACTION, by Durell Software and
released in 1987?
Now this is actually a conversion of the ZX
Spectrum game, which is probably the best
version, but we get a dash more colour here,
so let's go with it.
This is a game that ties in more with one
of the Chernobyl clean up scenes, rather than
trying to control a reactor.
Here we're at the mercy of the Anti-Nuclear
party who have reprogrammed the power station
robots to empty the containment vault and
attack all human staff.
OK, maybe it's less like a Chernobyl clean
up scene.
We have 30 minutes to retrieve all the fuel
rods, armed with a machine gun and thankfully,
our anti-radiation suit.
If our radiation level does get too high,
there's a nice decontamination show which
will help us.
This is an fun-ish game, but it does break
away from nuclear reactor simulation quite
a bit.
It's more of trying to fit an isometric explorer
into a literal nuclear suit, and there are
better isometric games out there.
So, then, how about THIS.
Another Commodore 64 game, but this one carries
the name Chernobyl.
Oh yes, just a year after the disaster itself,
Cosmi Corporation were releasing a game based
around the potentially still present threat
of the Soviet nuclear disaster.
Imagine if the disaster had been in the United
States, with hundreds, neigh, thousands of
deaths.
This would be the pinnacle of poor taste.
But this was the 80s, and the USSR, so apparently,
with the west having been fed anti-communist
propaganda for the last few decades, sympathies
were numbed.
However, some publications did point out the
lack of taste.
But apparently, the name of Chernobyl wasn't
developer Paul Norman's original plan here.
No, this was something pushed by publisher
Cosmi, to play on the disaster which was clearly
still pretty ripe at the time.
In fact Norman having built up his game as
a generic Nuclear Reactor game, tried to fend
off this marketing label but to no avail.
Paul Norman, of course, creator of other megalomaniac
simulations such as Def Con 5 and The President
is Missing.
So, here we are.
Chernobyl: Nuclear Power Plant Simulation
as it's known to us, or The Chernobyl Syndrome
as it was known in some regions.
Inside the box we actually get the story of
Chernobyl, in an attempt to tie the game in
as much as possible, and a manual, which again,
is no where up to the standards of SCRAM.
We do however, get a mention to Three Mile
island as well in the manual introduction.
Might as well go all in with both disasters
I guess.
We also get page after page detailing how
many things can go wrong with a nuclear plant.
It really does a good job of instilling fear
into your soul.
Like SCRAM, the simulation on offer here is
a light water reactor, so that's nice.
After a finicky startup procedure, where you
have to enter a code from the manual, and
the time and your name, we get a list of goings
on in the reactor, a nice reactor type hum
from the 64's SID chip, and a command line
interface to interact with the beast.
Christ.
To take control of the station, we need to
type ON LINE.
The manual is then thoroughly unhelpful as
to what to do next.
Instead we need to reference an in game manual,
which itself is padded out with background
story and information.
The whole procedure is clumsy.
However, delve deep enough in and there's
a pretty good simulator here.
When I was young I had dreams of running large,
important systems from my humble C64.
I tried to program a version of Mother from
Aliens in BASIC.
So this simulation would have fitted my bill
almost exactly.
I could imagine watching a nuclear power station
dramatisation in the 80s and then spending
hours playing with this thing.
You can view different parts of the power
plant by typing it's name in the command line.
You can even view a blueprint of the plant,
so you can see where staff are and the like.
There isn't really a game here, instead you
get a slightly megalomaniac feeling of running
a nuclear power plant remotely from your house.
I quite like it.
It certainly feels more engrossing than SCRAM,
but unless you're really into learning about
a reactor then there isn't much here to keep
you entertained.
I'm not sure if it's even possible to induce
Meltdown.
Paul Norman was so concerned with realism
here, that all the fail safes you might expect
are present, and as it's not even an exact
copy of an RBMK reactor, recreating the events
of Chernobyl would likely end in relative
safety.
{Cut scene}
"3.6 roentgen, not great not terrible"
{Cut scene}
[Funky Music is funky]
But, this isn't where the Chernobyl video
game story ends.
Oh no.
In 2007, GSC Game World developed S.T.A.L.K.E.R;
a first person survival horror based around
the Chernobyl disaster site, where you have
to find people and kill them.
I haven't played it properly, but it actually
looks quite compelling.
But if you want to get back to the safety
of a Nuclear Reactor, then there are a few
modern games which allow you to do so.
They may not have the cold war feel of our
1980s games, or the simplicity of SCRAM's
nuclear reactor, but we do get all the pleasures
of modern day gaming, combined with melt down
sequences which I'm sure make SCRAM look like
a Windows 3.11 screen saver in comparison.
Oh for the days of simplicity and nuclear
fear.
Oh wait, we still have that.
That's all for now folks.
Thanks for watching, have a great evening.
