Author Topic: Am I alone in my insanity? or are you there too? (Read 3041 times)

allroy1975 · « **on:** October 30, 2003, 01:20:18 am »

am I the only one who's facinated by Arcade history? let me give an example of what I'm talking about...

I publish this "IT Bulletin" at work and I'm supposed to put something in it about our new "word list" filter that blocks words. Naturally because I'm insane and think of nothing but arcade games Q*Bert came to mind. In looking for a graphic to use I ended up spending like a half hour reading about how they came up with the charachter design and the name Q*Bert etc.

I can't stop. It just amazes me. You know? Everything. Pac Man was Based on Pizza and the name was changed to avoid graphiti artists. Ms Pac was not made by Midway but bought from another company who developed basicly a Pac Man clone. In Japaneese Doneky Kong means Stupid Ape!

Am I the only one who gets off on the HISTORY of all of this? Is there help for me? I hope not!

and does anyone else have any tatoos like mine?

Allroy

PS That's my Arm..and it's my only Tatoo. I'm gonna add Dots all the way around later to mock those "tough" guys who have barbed wire or whatever around their arm. I'm tough...at Pac Man.

palpacino · « **Reply #1 on:** October 30, 2003, 06:09:28 am »

HA! i like the tats. I must say if I saw you in the arcade kicking arse on a pac-man game with the sleeve rolled up and that tat blaring... I WOULD NOT engage.... I'd have to back down, ;-)

Speaking of the history, I'd love to know more of that smack... links?

dphirschler · « **Reply #2 on:** October 30, 2003, 07:26:22 am »

I love that sh!t. Disc-1 of my ROMS set is nothing but history. Photos, stories from programmers, stories from fans, flyers, everything I could find. It's great stuff. What an interesting time it was.

Darryl

)p( · « **Reply #3 on:** October 30, 2003, 07:34:03 am »

yeah

...i got my master degree in arthistory last week for a study about arcade videogames...3darcade was specifically made for that

peter

RetroJames · « **Reply #4 on:** October 30, 2003, 07:40:22 am »

Joystick Nation: How Videogames Ate Our Quarters, Won Our Hearts, and Rewired Our Minds
by J. C. Herz

5 used & new from $2.22

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0316360074/qid=1067517412/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-1087969-2144636?v=glance&n=507846

paigeoliver · « **Reply #5 on:** October 30, 2003, 07:42:24 am »

Quote from: )p( on October 30, 2003, 07:34:03 am

yeah

...i got my master degree in arthistory last week

I'm sorry!

Yeah, I am like that too. I have read WAY TOO MUCH on the subject. I know all about the history of games that I don't even like. Heck I even have a framed picture in my living room of a couple of 70s kids with a Puppy Pong.

RetroJames · « **Reply #6 on:** October 30, 2003, 07:43:06 am »

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0761536434/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2/103-1087969-2144636?v=glance&s=books

RetroJames · « **Reply #7 on:** October 30, 2003, 07:45:05 am »

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0262024926/ref=lpr_g_1/103-1087969-2144636?v=glance&s=books#product-details

)p( · « **Reply #8 on:** October 30, 2003, 07:57:01 am »

that book from herz i can not recommend...

I would suggest to go for Kent and even better trigger happy from steven poole.

peter

Kitbasher · « **Reply #9 on:** October 30, 2003, 10:00:24 am »

Supercade is a great read. I thouroughly suggest everyone look it up. I requested it to be loaned to my library from an outlying branch. I heard about it on one of the forumn regulars homepages. Anyway a great read. Check it out.

palpacino · « **Reply #10 on:** October 30, 2003, 10:06:42 am »

Supercade is the best.... Very detailed and has all the stuff for very unsmart and nonintelligent and not-bright and also non very un-non-clever and for sure the not-sharp people like me.........

go there to start the how-to's for anyone who is just curious or who is ready for step #2

MameMaster! · « **Reply #11 on:** October 30, 2003, 12:26:54 pm »

I too have been severely bitten by the gaming junky bug for the last year now since I found my new sweet seductive mistress....Ms. Mame.

I read the Kent book....it's a bit disjointed....but over all not too bad.....I really LOVED reading about Nolen Bushnell....he's my new hero.

I also have another book "Arcade Fever" that I picked up at of all places Virgin Megastore. That one was a lot of fun because it has some excellent pics of classic machines (all in full color).

Here's a link to that one on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0762409371/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-3437573-0547811#reader-link

Also, I came across this one I'm hoping to pick up soon:
http://www.gameroommagazine.com/bk_videogames.htm

It says it will be avail. late Oct. but it's still not avail. for sale apparently.

The MameMaster!

1UP · « **Reply #12 on:** October 30, 2003, 12:39:53 pm »

High Score! is a pretty good recent book, covers everything from early pin tables of the 1800s to X-Box. I didn't get bored until I got to the stuff about PC games... A lot of Atari history covered in there. For instance, the ships in Computer Space were actually stored as a series of diodes (?) soldered on the PCB in the actual shape of the ships! Funky way to store graphics...

Captain Rotundo · « **Reply #13 on:** October 30, 2003, 02:11:40 pm »

I would be interrested in a coffee table like book with pictures of actual arcades from the period. The amazon reviews of these books say they are filled with screen shots, cab shots and flyers.... believe me with MAME I have plenty of those. I want a photo book that the cover of supercade makes it look like it is.

any ideas?

MameMaster! · « **Reply #14 on:** October 30, 2003, 02:13:39 pm »

Quote from: Captain Rotundo on October 30, 2003, 02:11:40 pm

I would be interrested in a coffee table like book with pictures of actual arcades from the period. The amazon reviews of these books say they are filled with screen shots, cab shots and flyers.... believe me with MAME I have plenty of those. I want a photo book that the cover of supercade makes it look like it is.

any ideas?

I also wondered that...but my google search only turn up this one line picture

Captain Rotundo · « **Reply #15 on:** October 30, 2003, 02:18:38 pm »

on amazon under supercade it said "customer who bought this, also bought 2 DVDs" so I click thinking maybe its a documentary on arcades... hehe
first one was the animatrix, makes sence I gues the otehr was Bowling For Columbine.
guess arcade fans skew to the left ?

)p( · « **Reply #16 on:** October 30, 2003, 03:03:09 pm »

Quote from: Captain Rotundo on October 30, 2003, 02:18:38 pm

on amazon under supercade it said "customer who bought this, also bought 2 DVDs" so I click thinking maybe its a documentary on arcades... hehe
first one was the animatrix, makes sence I gues the otehr was Bowling For Columbine.
guess arcade fans skew to the left ?

left...?...)p( looks at the open book on his desk he is reading by Karl Marx...left...me...

Captain Rotundo · « **Reply #17 on:** October 30, 2003, 03:24:39 pm »

good ol' Karl.

CitznFish · « **Reply #18 on:** October 30, 2003, 03:32:46 pm »

in 5th grade (1980) I did an oral report on VideoGames for my class. Talked about RAM/ROM circuit boards and other useless stuff (useless to the rest of the class!)

Not insanity, but I've had the bug since I was 10

allroy1975 · « **Reply #19 on:** October 30, 2003, 05:39:34 pm »

Thanks guys! I still feel like a loser, but at least a loser in good company!

I went out on my Lunch Break and picked up a copy of the ultimate history of Video Games.
I love the front cover... What Font is that on the "the" though?

to me it looks like:
the - burger time or maybe bump n jump?
Ultimate - Defender
History - Donkey Kong
of - Zaxxon
Video - Centepede
Games - Pac Man

am I right? or close?

Allroy

telengard · « **Reply #20 on:** October 30, 2003, 08:35:35 pm »

Has anyone mentioned "Arcade Fever". It's a small book but I got lots of little tidbits out of it I didn't know, like this:

The coin box in "Computer Space" was a paint thinner can
The Space Invaders games were the first to have intermissions, not Pac Man
The attract mode for Defender was written the night before it debuted

I enjoyed the timelines and interviews also.

Supercade is good too. I also have "High Score" which also covers the old computer game companies as well as arcade games.


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