Obsessively Cataloging Video Game "Pop" Culture
Get this malfunctioning vending machine back in working order in the charmingly titled Vending Machine Repair Kids Fixit Repairman Game. Don’t worry, kids! Once the machine is repaired, you can go back to your regular diet of soda, cupcakes, and…beer?
The zombies were bad enough, and now a power failure has disabled the soda machines in Survival Method. The apocalypse is the worst. [Source]
The recent 8-BIT ADV STEINS;GATE isn’t the first 1980s-themed Steins;Gate demake. These screenshots are from 2011’s Steins;Gate: Variant Space Octet, and they recreate scenes from the original Steins;Gate — soda machines and all — in the style of the NEC PC-88.
Steins;Gate Elite was released in the US yesterday, and the Switch version includes an 8-bit reimagining of the original Steins;Gate as a bonus. These screenshots recreate a scene previously archived in this entry, soda machines and all.
Visual novel Steins;Gate is set in Akihabara, so it’s not surprising that it features its fair share of drink machines.
Stranded in Space: Atomic Quest is a game jam adventure where you play as a robot tasked with repairing a space station’s dying generator. Luckily, there’s still enough energy left to keep the soda machines up and running.
Just for good measure, here’s a snack machine from the game…
Who can resist a name like Space Dream Foods?
Your feline friends are throwing a party, and it’s up to you to collect money and buy soda for the shindig in pixel platformer Le Chat Foncé: Petite Adventure 2.
Swing by the convenience store in super-cute mobile city builder SuperCity, park your bike, and grab an ice cold orange soda from the vending machine.*
* Please note that purchasing a soda might require waiting an hour to rebuild energy or speeding things up via microtransactions.
I can’t tell whether this soda machine from rogue-lite platformer Legacy Code is angry or just generally unimpressed with my platforming skills.
If you thought our healthcare system was broken, get a load of this bit from the 2012 press release announcing Monster Hospital for iOS: “As sick monsters recover, they can be hired as staff.” That seems a little exploitative. Anyway, at least there’s a soda machine in the waiting room.