The Long Lost Video Game of Paris Review Editor George Plimpton?

At first we thought it was either an Onion sto­ry or a joke: Mul­ti-tal­ent­ed author, actor, sports enthu­si­ast and Paris Review edi­tor George Plimp­ton (1927–2003) also achieved con­sid­er­able suc­cess in anoth­er medi­um: video games.

The Mil­lions points us to George Plimp­ton’s video “Fal­con­ry,” the game Plimp­ton helped devel­op for Cole­co­V­i­sion in the ear­ly 80’s. You can play it here, but first be sure to catch up on the back­sto­ry (click “Back­sto­ry” but­ton below the “Play” but­ton), which may or may not involve high stakes dou­ble-cross­es, hard­core sleuthings, and the child­hood obses­sions of fre­quent Dai­ly Show guest John Hodg­man. Max­i­mum Fun has also post­ed an old com­mer­cial for the game, which we’ve repost­ed above. (Our apolo­gies for the poor qual­i­ty. It was appar­ent­ly ripped from an old VHS tape).

If it turns out that we’ve been punked, it was worth it, if only for the joys of typ­ing the words “Plimp­ton,” “Fal­con­ry” and “Cole­co­V­i­sion” all in one sen­tence. The game isn’t bad either.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

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Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.