Is this hobby more popular in the UK and other places that are not the US?

[danny_galaga]

Of the visits from country specific domains, Poland is "way out there" in first place.

They're blazing a trail with 3.6 GB of bandwidth, more than 5 times the volume of their nearest country specific competitor.

I never knew that arcade gaming was so popular in Poland ...

Any Poles care to add their opinion ?

yeah, this isnt a very good indication. to me it was pretty obvious that this would be (more or less) the order of the most members:

USA
CANADA
UK
AUSTRALIA
NZ/NETHERLANDS

there's just something about certain cultures that combines both access to those games back in the day and ALSO our nostalgia for it. Holland has a much smaller population than france or germany, but there seems to be more dutch here than any other european country. part of that i guess is that germans and french prefer their own language forums whereas the dutch arent fussed.

a notable french connection is youki. he created the awesome atomic FE (",)

[divemaster127]

I ship parts all over the world my ship ranking would be:
US
CANADA
UK
SPAIN
FRANCE
GERMANY
AUSTRIALIA
BELGUIM
DENMARK
Something I cannot figure out, is I ship a lot of parts to Spain, but only maybe 2 or 3 orders a year south of the border of the US.  I do not know if the economy of the latin american countries or just no interest.  I speak Spanish so its not a langage problem.  I was stationed for many years with the air force in Alamogordo & my wife is Spanish.  That's one reason I sell so much to spain since I speak the langauge.
dm

[Level42]

Of the visits from country specific domains, Poland is "way out there" in first place.

They're blazing a trail with 3.6 GB of bandwidth, more than 5 times the volume of their nearest country specific competitor.

I never knew that arcade gaming was so popular in Poland ...

Any Poles care to add their opinion ?

yeah, this isnt a very good indication. to me it was pretty obvious that this would be (more or less) the order of the most members:

USA
CANADA
UK
AUSTRALIA
NZ/NETHERLANDS

there's just something about certain cultures that combines both access to those games back in the day and ALSO our nostalgia for it. Holland has a much smaller population than france or germany, but there seems to be more dutch here than any other european country. part of that i guess is that germans and french prefer their own language forums whereas the dutch arent fussed.

Yep, I agree. France, Germany both have own forums (And don't forget about Italy !!!Mame was born there !). I visit the German site once in a while. My French is really poor, so I don't visit that one very often.
Since English is no problem for me (or at least I pretend ) AND the US is still _the_ place for our hobby both in knowledge and available parts and other stuff, it was only natural to find this forum and f.i. the KLOV forum.  I guess there's a good amount of reading Dutchies that never or rarely post. Reading English is easier than writing....

Also, there just is no Dutch alternative to this forum. There are too few of collectors and Mame builders here I guess to keep such a forum alive.

[patrickl]

I'm surprised that there are so few dutch folk here actually. I guess it's around 10 or so? Indeed we really have no dutch alternative and, (at least where I lived) arcades were pretty popular.

BTW talking about eastern block arcades: Soviet Arcade Games Museum

[ark_ader]

Heck, we (Brits)  had more home computers per household than anyone in the world in the 80s.   

Go Figure!

Does that also explain why the Brits have dropped off the international sporting radar ?  Soccer being the only exception - but even there, I believe the last time England won the World Cup, was way back in the 60's ?

Good old Tim Henman tried his hardest at the great old British tradition of Wimbledon, but alas, he's now gone to pasture.

Computer games are great fun ... heck, that's the passion we all have, especially for the arcade games, fueled by fond memories from our childhood ... but they can lead towards a tendency of sedentary indoor lifestyles.

How are the preparations going for London 2012 ?

Yes that could be the reason.

Also the British government do not invest in any Olympic sponsorships, do not build pools, or tennis courts or offer funding to do so.

Most of the time, the councils want the playing fields converted into Tesco supermarkets.  Kids in the UK have very little choice to occupy their time when out of school, thus the yob issue currently.

In the US its completely different, and shows as the number of Gold Medals Britain won or any medals were a lot less than in the 80s versus the US or any other country like Kenya.

Oh I'm sure glad to be back home in the USA. 

Living in Britain is depressing. 

[TPB]

BTW talking about eastern block arcades: Soviet Arcade Games Museum

Interesting ...

So the folks in communist countries (Russians, Poles, East Germans, etc), WERE playing arcade games back in that era.

I wonder if they were bootleg versions ... I can't imagine a U.S. company, such as Atari, in the era of Ronald Reagan, having a distribution agreement with Breshnev's U.S.S.R.

Ronald Reagan once famously described the U.S.S.R. as the "evil empire".

It appears the communist countries were "far more liberal" than we, in the western countries, were led to believe by all the cold war propaganda.

I even read in the news, that Germany is introducing naked plane flights, as apparently in communist East Germany, communal nudity was allowed, and indeed practiced and enjoyed :

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3094108,00.html

http://www.dw-world.de/popups/popup_lupe/0,,3094108,00.html

[TPB]

ark_ader,

Are you an American who grew up living in England, or an Englishman who's now living in America ?

I had to laugh when I read this    ... although if this is happening, it's a sad situation indeed :

the councils want the playing fields converted into Tesco supermarkets.

... sometimes those councilors have their pockets greased by "donations" from property developers.   

BTW, my post was a bit tongue in cheek ... we like having a gentle jibe at the Poms when the opportunity presents itself, especially when it comes to sport.   

[ahofle]

So the folks in communist countries (Russians, Poles, East Germans, etc), WERE playing arcade games back in that era.

http://www.wired.com/gaming/hardware/news/2007/06/soviet_games

[patrickl]

In the US its completely different, and shows as the number of Gold Medals Britain won or any medals were a lot less than in the 80s versus the US or any other country like Kenya.

Let's check the number of gold medals of the US and GB won in the Olympics since the eighties:

	US	GB	Total
1984	83	5	689
1988	36	5	738
1992	37	5	815
1996	44	1	842
2000	40	11	927
2004	35	9	929

Funny how especially lately the US seems to be getting less gold medals while Great Brittain is getting more.

Since the US has 5 times the population of GB it's clear that, per capita, the GB is actually outperforming the US in the last 2 Olympics.

[danny_galaga]

In the US its completely different, and shows as the number of Gold Medals Britain won or any medals were a lot less than in the 80s versus the US or any other country like Kenya.

Let's check the number of gold medals of the US and GB won in the Olympics since the eighties:

	US	GB	Total
1984	83	5	689
1988	36	5	738
1992	37	5	815
1996	44	1	842
2000	40	11	927
2004	35	9	929

Funny how especially lately the US seems to be getting less gold medals while Great Brittain is getting more.

Since the US has 5 times the population of GB it's clear that, per capita, the GB is actually outperforming the US in the last 2 Olympics.

new zealand. they normally have the highest medal count per capita...

[protokatie]

The stats I see for 2008 are a bit different:

              US   GB    total
2008:   931     0      931

Way to really bring in the win in 2008, USA!   

[RetroBorg]

Updated the table to include the worlds number one sporting nation, Australia.

	US	Aus	GB	Total
1984	83	4	5	689
1988	36	3	5	738
1992	37	7	5	815
1996	44	9	1	842
2000	40	16	11	927
2004	35	17	9	929

Populations

USA - 303,332,000

Great Britain - 60,587,300

Australia - 21,200,000

The US has 14 times the population of Australia and GB has 3 times the population of Australia.

The 1984 results are bit dodgy as 14 Eastern bloc countries boycotted the olympics.

If you look at the table, Australia has out performed both the US & GB on a per capita basis from 1988 onwards and dominated GB outright from 1992 onwards.

 

[psychotech]

What do you mean we're not in Kansas anymore?

How about ...FINLAND ..?

Member count:

1 ...

[protokatie]

Retroborg:

Either get me Au citizenship so I can live a new life, or farken sod off.

(seriously, get me Au citizenship...)

[ark_ader]

In the US its completely different, and shows as the number of Gold Medals Britain won or any medals were a lot less than in the 80s versus the US or any other country like Kenya.

Let's check the number of gold medals of the US and GB won in the Olympics since the eighties:

	US	GB	Total
1984	83	5	689
1988	36	5	738
1992	37	5	815
1996	44	1	842
2000	40	11	927
2004	35	9	929

Funny how especially lately the US seems to be getting less gold medals while Great Brittain is getting more.

Since the US has 5 times the population of GB it's clear that, per capita, the GB is actually outperforming the US in the last 2 Olympics.

If you read my post properly you will find that I was basically saying that the US was getting more Gold Medals than the UK, or Kenya was getting more than the UK etc.

As USA provides more funding to its Olympic hopefuls than does the UK government.

Nice to see you took an interest though.

ark_ader,

Are you an American who grew up living in England, or an Englishman who's now living in America ?

I had to laugh when I read this    ... although if this is happening, it's a sad situation indeed :

the councils want the playing fields converted into Tesco supermarkets.

... sometimes those councilors have their pockets greased by "donations" from property developers.   

BTW, my post was a bit tongue in cheek ... we like having a gentle jibe at the Poms when the opportunity presents itself, especially when it comes to sport.   

Both   

[patrickl]

If you read my post properly you will find that I was basically saying that the US was getting more Gold Medals than the UK, or Kenya was getting more than the UK etc.

As USA provides more funding to its Olympic hopefuls than does the UK government.

You said:

In the US its completely different, and shows as the number of Gold Medals Britain won or any medals were a lot less than in the 80s versus the US or any other country like Kenya.

So that says:
1) GB wins less gold medals now than in the 80s
2) Kenya wins more gold medals than GB
3) The US wins more gold medals than GB because of poor investments

(BTW it doesn't matter if you look at gold medals or all medals)

Ad 1) So you did compare the Great Britain gold medal tally to that of the eighties. Saying it was lower now, because of their poor investment in sports. This is incorrect. It's higher now than it has been for decades.

Oddly enough, the US gold medal tally is going down. Hitting the lowest points since the eighties in the last Olympics. Even though the number of available medals has increased substantially. So you're double incorrect on this one.

Ad 2) I forgot to add the gold medals for Kenya. They got 1 or 2 gold medals for most Olympic games and 5 gold medals for the 1988 games. So they sure didn't get more gold medals than GB. Not even close. Kenya has a population half that of the UK so that doesn't explain it either. Again incorrect.

Ad 3) You say the US gets more gold medals than the UK. This is true. Yet you connect to this statement that it means GB is doing something wrong. The US is a country 5 times the population than the UK. It's a bit silly to say that the US has more gold medals so the GB is doing something wrong. They would be doing something wrong if they got less than a fifth of the US gold medals. The US recently averages around 40 gold medals per Olympics and Great Britain around 10. That indicates the US is actually performing worse than Great Britain (either the US should win 50 or GB should get no more than 8 ). So your statement is incorrect. Even if the US spends more money on their Olympic hopefuls they are obviously wasting it.

What the US seem to be doing cleverly is invest heavily in track and field and swimming, which historically other countries didn't seem to show much interest in (and/or have better drug testing). Although with Australian and Dutch swimmers talking away swimming medals and the Chinese showing strong swimming performances recently, the US would be wise to diversify a bit.

2004 Olympics Weighted medal score per million population   1,2 and 3 go to Bahamas, Australia and Cuba. The UK is 31st, US 38th and Kenya 52nd. So indeed the UK aren't doing that great (they are slightly above average), but the US and Kenya do even worse and are hardly an example for Great Britain to follow.