Did you know that tucked away in a clandestine corner within HUU’s newly revamped website resides a disregarded section dedicated to online gaming and designed exclusively for students? No? Well let me inform you.
Across the country thousands of students have the opportunity to partake in the annually run ‘British Universities Gaming Internet Tournament’ (BUGIT), where our esteemed HUU competes with over 75 other student unions registered on the BAM Student Union Portal.
This tournament has a little known history of six years, outdating some of the games now featured on the site*. Past scoreboard results are not surprisingly unknown, as such digital records are never stored for long being subject to constant upgrading. However HUU has secured its place in BUGIT’s Hall of Fame (2008-2010) and what’s more has been named ‘Overall University Champion’ two years consecutively for combined student organisational standings.
This is decided by adding together the top 100 accumulated scores of the University from each game which is subsequently divided by 100 to give the final University score. In other words every little helps, so whether you are a considered expert or a complete newcomer, your score is added to the line up. This feat is only made the more impressive considering Karoo’s frustratingly slow internet speeds – Hull’s Achilles heel – which is soon set to improve as KC’s monopoly draws to a close. Yet having said this, why on earth would you care one jot? Having successfully dodged this time pit of online games elsewhere on the web, why put your sceptical name to this one? What has actually been achieved and where is the gain?
Well beside the so called glory, relaxation, or simply filling up time (otherwise known as procrastination) the latter achievement won our union “£1,500 worth of Newspaper printing and design services through www.quotemeprint.com“, courtesy of BAM. The above being 100% recycled, allows greater cooperation with Hull University’s growing emphasis on: ‘Go Green and Save Green!’
Closer to home, last year the money went towards printing the Hullfire Elections Special edition (March 2009) and also went towards supplementing the cost of the Sabbatical video; apparently there was a deficit in the budget stemming from the previous year — who knew? As this edition was in Hullfire’s standing orders, the voucher really went the distance in helping the sabbatical team out of a hole. So by playing games we contributed to saving the environment while lending a hand to the Hullfire team.
For those of you less concerned about saving the world, there are also monthly DVD prizes to be won on the prize game, which is ‘Gun Run’ this December. In fact the top 3 national scores will this month bag a copy of Scott Pilgrim vs. the world, an enjoyable comic comedy directed by Edgar Wright involving a literal battle for love, as Michael Cera (Scott) must defeat a gauntlet of seven evil exes to win his girl. A student must this Christmas. Due to a current lack of competition this prize is a real steal and has been claimed by at least five Hull students over the last two year period.
Endsleigh also offers prizes on their aptly named game ‘Walk of Shame’ featuring four levels where the player is tasked with getting home unnoticed still in fancy dress garb after staying over at a “friends’” house, whilst collecting items left the previous night to complete the game. Failure to do so results in dying of embarrassment when caught. Each level is made progressively difficult with the addition of more passersby to evade and objects to collect. Designed exclusively for us students the game is pretty tempting to play — that is after once putting aside one’s moral qualms. Surely it’s worth a quickie? If this doesn’t allure you, you’ll be overjoyed to hear that those who obtain a quote for their possessions insurance through the game will be entered into a competition offering a huge £10,000 worth of prizes, including a fancy dress party for their university and 100 iTunes vouchers.
Endsleigh has also recently offered a game, now ended, (just to taunt you) via Facebook to win your tuition fees for a year, an offer made even more appealing with fees officially tripling to £9,000. All the more reason to keep your head in the game and look out for such rare and prized opportunities; needless to say, few things in life come for free. Speaking of which Ensleigh is now offering a prize currently in play: a brand new FIAT 500. All you have to do is spot how many jelly babies are pictured on this sweet chariot and submit your guess via their website: http://www.endsleigh.co.uk/Pages/SweetChariot.aspx Where’s Rain Man when you need him?
Finally the highest scorer on any game will win the annually awarded mystery prize, (oh là là) and be forever immortalized slash humiliated (until they’re beaten) in the ‘Hall of Fame’. I can unveil that thus far the mystery prize has twice constituted of £25 of Amazon vouchers; an asset to any students’ skint low-budget in the recession. The students’ renowned hectic schedule of fitting in work amongst all those more pressing nights out etc, (for we are officially the UK’s friendliest university) has come to an end, so what better time could there be to wind down to a relaxing game of the aptly named ‘Alex in Danger’. Having faced the best of our British weather in hazardous ice ridden roads (causing the university’s first ever closure) why not warm up to HUU’s specially selected online games.
So there you have a plenitude of incentives to try HUU’s online games. As an SU we are already well on our way to winning this year’s tournament, and with a new influx of students third time will pay for all. With Christmas over with and semester two yet to start there has been no better time to show off your game and ‘give it a go’.
‘Where and how?’ I hear the voices of the newly converted cry, well the easiest access route is to type HUU games into your browser and hit the first link (http://www.hullstudent.com/games/) but alternatively you can use HUU’s Site Map to navigate your way about the site; which by the by also receives more website hits than any other SU in Britain. Also to keep your brain in check try your skill at sudoku classic available at: http://www.hullstudent.com/coffee/. Let the games commence.
* There are nine games in all.
- Gun Run created by Felix Reidl as a FreeX production 2005. Blow Away the hordes of machines in the fast paced side scrolling shooter. Extremely addictive.
- Lightning Breaks created by Team Taylor 2006 is a fast paced snooker game where you pot against the clock with increasing degrees of difficulty from missing pockets to a mini-hand actually blocking the way! Up to the challenge? Give it a shot.
- Driving Mad created by 3RDsense 2006 is a golf game where the player has to hit a set amount of balls onto the green before time runs out, featuring 3 different holes, treacherous winds to blow you off course and bird targets for extra time and points. See how long you can keep on target.
- Alex in Danger created by Neodelight 2006 is a platform jump and shoot game featuring 3 different worlds each with its own challenge. Alex must be taken to the doorway at the top level, whilst dodging enemies and collecting as many gems in as quick a time as possible for extra points. Think strategically.
- Quatrix created by Paul Neave, a variant of the classic Tetris puzzle game featuring multi-coloured blocks that have to be manoeuvred carefully into place as the game speeds up. You can choose from 10 different difficulty levels. Avoid leaving gaps at your peril.
- Starship Eleven (deluxe) created by Neodelight 2006 is undoubtedly the hardest of the bunch, boasting that no one has ever completed the advanced levels. Please note that Starship Eleven has two tournaments “Leisure Shuttle’ and “Space Racer” each will be classed as separate tournaments. Once having reached Masterspeech as a beginner either continue to advanced to add to your score or submit for a high score in the former. Bonus Level code: Beatmaster.
- Turbo Spirit created by Neodelight 2004 is considered the arch-forefather of all motorcycle games. Race your way through four countries in this fast paced racing game, featuring four tracks with five segments each. You have 30 seconds for each segment, don’t run out of time!
- Champion Soccer created by Neodelight 2006 is a simple ‘kick-ups’ game with extra points attainable via hitting cash going up to 10 points.
- Walk of Shame sponsored by Endsleigh. A student exclusive – can you make it home without dying of embarrassment. Tip: if you have trouble with the game not loading to the next level use your mouse to click on the level number:
For the lucky few you may find you need to chase down your prize. If so see: support@bamsupport.com.
Jonathan Oxley
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