HARLEM — If you've ever wondered who would win a fight between Thurgood Marshall and Duke Ellington, this game is for you.
The creator of an arcade-style fighting game that features historical figures from the Harlem Renaissance released a downloadable version of the game Wednesday.
Gerald Moore, who developed the game, said it was inspired by a children’s book he wrote about a little girl who travels through time and thwarts an evil plan of preventing the Harlem Renaissance from taking place.
"When I finished the first chapter of the book I told my wife, 'These are some pretty interesting characters,'" said Moore, a Detroit mechanic who created the game in his spare time. "That's when I decided to put them all in a video game."
Writing the book and researching each character taught him a lot about African American history. He thought a video game would be another way of getting young people interested in the area's culture.
Each character has specialized fight moves reflective of their accomplishments, Moore added.
Bessie Coleman, famed aviator and the first African-American to hold an international pilots license, can jump higher than any other player. Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme Court’s first African-American justice, throws the book at his enemies.
Moore originally wanted to debut the game in this week's New York Comic Con but because of the high demand to be a part of the event, he was waitlisted.
“I definitely wanted to debut it there because I’m sure there will be people from Harlem and they could really connect to the game and the characters,” he said.
Moore, who has never been to Harlem, planned to visit the neighborhood that inspired the game with his wife during the annual convention.
The downloadable demo of the game, which is only available for Windows, features the two-player versus mode.
Moore, who hopes to be a part of next year’s Comic Con, will continue to develop the game and add an RPG version with an in-depth story mode that lets people learn more about each character.
“The demo is a preview,” he said. “It is so people can see what I’m working on and get a sense of what it would be like if I was at Comic Con.”
