Bridge and Tunnel

Agent Orange as seen in the Nokia version of Button Men

Release Date: July 2003
Set Size: 12 Buttons
Publisher: Bridge and Tunnel Software
Designers: Steve Karstensen and Manville Fog
Artist: Gerald "G" Hurt
New Rules: Rebound Dice, Mood Swing Batch Dice

The Bridge and Tunnel set was a digital-only set released for use in an early version of Button Men Mobile. The name "Bridge and Tunnel" comes from a passage from the William Gibson novel "Neuromancer." Two sets were developed, one for the Nokia 7210 and another for the Nokia Series 60 that went unreleased. Cheapass Games issued a press release about the game on November 12th, 2003.

Note: All quotes are from Steve Karstensen, President of Bridge and Tunnel Software unless otherwise attributed.

According to Bridge and Tunnel founder and co-creator of the program:

"[The set] was approved by James Ernest for the game, but never licensed as an official set; it was a more hands-on approval. James played our version and basically didn’t let us do anything without his ok. [Manville] Fog, [the second co-creator], actually looked into getting a button stamper press and made his own.

We did play test it a lot, against just about every other button that appeared in the digital version and probably a few that weren’t. We did actual physical testing with buttons and dice, as well as a lot of playtesting in the game itself."

The Bridge and Tunnel sets included several unique buttons.

Character development history

Each character in the first "Bridge and Tunnel" set was from another game by Bridge and Tunnel Software. In addition, all characters from Paddle Battles, a "pong-with-powers" game, featured Rebound Dice. "The Rebound die was invented because we wanted to have a new die that reflected the buttons’ origins, and since several of the characters came from Paddle Battles, we developed it from there."

"Those other characters were for the Series 60 port. We ran out of storage space on the 7210 and wanted to add more for the better phones."

Nokia 7210 Set

Agent Orange (6) p(6) =(10) (4/12) (4/20) Agent Orange was a character from the Pong clone "Paddle Battles."	Huitzilopochtli (6) (8) =(10) (12) (X) Huitzilopochti was from Paddle Battles. "I actually knew a girl named Huitzilopocthli and we eventually wanted to draw a portrait of her in a headdress with glowing eyes, but it didn’t happen."	Lisa (4) (4) (30) (30) "Lisa and Phuong were from Ticklish Situations. That one’s a long story. It was an innuendo-heavy game show style trivia game."
Neithershadow (6) (10) s(10) (10/20) (6/30) "Nethershadow was from The Wizard’s War, a top-down, turn-based homage to Magic: the Gathering. No cards, just dueling wizards." Artist ("G") tells further about Neither Shadow: "Neithershadow was a villain of one of my old superheroes called Guiding Light. That's why the two are preparing to fight in the image.	Phuong (4) (10) (10) (20) (X) Phuong was also in the game "Ticklish Situations." Fun fact: Phuong also played Tien Wu in the PC game “Bikini Karate Babes” and it’s sequel.	Uncle Scratchy (2) (4) (6) (10) (X) "Uncle Scratchy was the mascot of Uncle Scratchy’s Flea Racing, a horse-racing parody. I’m still proud of that one. I would love to do a remake."

Unreleased Nokia Series 60.

No official art released; unofficial art created January 2021. This set was not playtested. "I don’t know where those recipes for the new buttons came from. I can’t even remotely guarantee they were ever playtested at all." From text files gathered from the bequeathals of Fog, it appears Fog himself created these buttons with the intent of adding Stinger Dice to the set without discussing it first with Mr.Karstensen, who believed the Stinger Dice were an error.

G g(6) =(6) z(8) (16) (10/20) "G was the nickname our staff artist (Gerald Hurt) went by."	Phantom Zero g(8) s(10) (12) (2/12) (X) "Phantom Zero was the protagonist for a game I was designing. It was a super-soldier that hunted powered individuals. The plan was to get Phuong to star."	Pinball Wizard =(6) =(6) (20) (20) Pinball Wizard appeared in Paddle Battles. Based on images in Fog's files, Pinball Wizard may have had the ability to shoot a flaming pinball (effect unknown) in the Paddle Battles game.
Steve ⟨=(4) =(4) =(8) =(20) =(X) | (6) (8) =(30) =(30)⟩? Steve Karstensen was the President and Founder of Bridge and Tunnel Software. He also appeared as the final boss in Paddle Battles with two randomly selected powers from the other Paddle Battles characters.	The Fog s(4) s(4) (30) (30) Manville Fog co-produced the Button Men Mobile game. "I brought Fog on board to do the AI and playtesting because he was obsessed with BM and knew it way better than I did." The reproduced artwork for "The Fog" is a reference to Fog's work on the generic Button Men Fanatics artwork and was made using the same files and template as they were.	The Grotch z(4) =(20) (V) (V) (V) "The Grotch appeared in Paddle Battles. He resembled an artist’s mannequin in a white leotard with a big red G on the chest. Green skin. He had eyes and a nose but was bald with no mouth."