Tag: Video Game History

DARKADE: Murder and Mayhem in the American Arcade/ Part 1

Posted on by Cat DeSpira

It's true that arcades were places of escape that took us to new realms via sensory doorways accessed through a vector/raster screen. And it's true that they taught us that the universe of technology and our desire to discover what lies beyond it was pre-installed stock in ourselves by a force we already recognized as "wonder"; and, yes, it's undoubtedly true that we unlocked a star-field of possibilities within ourselves for the price of a single quarter. Oh, yes, arcades were places of light and love. But like everywhere else on this planet of apes sometimes the darkness rolls in on freeplay.

Hot For Pac-Man: Oui Magazine 1982

Posted on by Cat DeSpira

As a teen in 1982, I knew nightclubs often had full-sized arcades inside of them, but the goings on in those adult playgrounds were, of course, an unknown world to me. To be honest, I figured people just hung around, got drunk or stoned and played video games with people they wanted to hook up with. A single's bar with video games. Nothing unusual for The Me Generation's standards of living, whose mantra was, "If it feels good...do it."

Buried Arcade History: Newspaper Photos From The Video Craze That Deserve To Be Seen Again #2

Posted on by Cat DeSpira

Buried Arcade History #1 here Once again I'm back with more "lost photos" from national newspapers that I often find while I'm conducting research. For a while there I felt that, surely, the well would  run dry,  but that hasn't been the case at all.  With every new cache of newspaper archives I begin leafing … Continue reading Buried Arcade History: Newspaper Photos From The Video Craze That Deserve To Be Seen Again #2 →

Buried Arcade History: Newspaper Photos From The Video Craze That Deserve To Be Seen Again

Posted on by Cat DeSpira

Sometimes I find myself studying the faces of the people in the photos next to the games or milling around the arcade. They're usually young teenagers, just as I was back then, examples of American naivete and valor rolled up in a fuse so hot that any new interest could ignite it with a single spark.  The 80s was an age of unending successive fads...except one. Video games. That was no fad. Falling in electronic-love was never a passing fad as much as people today want to claim it was.