With bizarre names like Pac-Man, Asteroids, Space Invaders, Battlezone and Donkey Kong, video games have landed themselves not only in amusement arcades but also in corner drugstores, supermarkets, gas stations, fast-food parlors and nearly everywhere else that people congregate. Their beeps and booms and colorful lights have captured the fancy and imagination of a new generation of players to the point of obsession.
Other than the obvious appeal to teenagers and its commercial success, the proliferation of arcade video games has triggered reactions ranging from strong parental protests to outright government bans. In the Philippines, President Marcos officially banned the games and gave owners two weeks to destroy them
Angry parents say that their boys simply skip lunch and spend their lunch money, and time, at the video-game arcades. An irate mother in an affluent suburb of New York blamed the games for increased juvenile crime. “Children snatch purses and gold chains for money to put in these machines,” she said.
Many video-game arcades have grown out of onetime pinball parlors and pool halls. Though the sounds and sights are different, the atmosphere remains largely the same. Outbursts of bad language, fits of anger, screams and kicks when a player loses his game are common occurrences in such places. More seriously, however, Time magazine reports that “homosexual cruising is a problem in Amsterdam’s arcades. In Stockholm, the games are associated in the public mind with teen-age hoodlumism involving drugs, prostitution and illegal hard liquor.”
Very timely huh?