Angelo State University - Rambouillet Yearbook (San Angelo, TX)

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Video Games: craze that stirs-up nation Flashing bright colored lights, funny sounds and deep concentrationeit could have been in the University Center, at Dawgs or Showbiz Pizza or even your dorm room or apartment-lt was video-games, a craze that took the nation on a quarter spen- ding habit. Basically, the video universe was divided into three groups of games with the most popular being the coin-operated consoles, Ninety percent of the arcadians were male with 80 percent being teen-agers according to industry estimates. As soon as the games became popular, as was to be expected, critics began judging their merit. Many said the games took up much study time as well as money, and they glorified violence and gambling, and led to tendinitis. Those in favor of the games said they were not only fun, but helpful when it came to eye-hand coordination, sharpening driving and math skills and preparing people for shock. Sherry Turkle, assistant professor of sociology at the Massachusettes Institute of Technology studied the impact of video games and said they indeed built confidence. students received. She said video games provided instant gratification and were pro- ven useful in breaking through to retarded or emotionally disturbed children. ASU student Michelle Miller said playing Ms. Pac-Man helped her to relax. She said she played the game in the U.C. gameroom or at Dawgs at least once a day. Ms, Pac-Man was definetly the most popular game played at ASU according to Wes Davis, university center director. Davis said the arcade machines were provided by Dreyer Music Co. of San Angelo and profits were split 50-50 between the company and the university. In 1982-1983 58,500 worth of quarters were spent in the university center gameroom. But gamerooms were not the only places video-games could be found. In May of 1972 the first machine to be played on home sets wasintroduced-ltwasOdysseybyMagnavox Three years later Atari entered the market place and quickly took over. Atari's Pac-Man alone surpassed 20th Century- Fox's profits from Star Wars, the best selling film ever made. An estimated 70 other companies were producing home video games, but Atari, owned by Warner Communications, remain- She said total concentration was im- ed on top. perative and was part of the high that According to an article in Fortune DONKEY KONG The only game with a story line. A lit- tle man in a hard hat climbs up a skyscraper to rescue his beauty who has been kidnapped by an ape. As he climbs he must dodge barrels that are being thrown his way by the ape. The way to dodge the barrels is to climb a ladder or jump over them. The jump button was a novelty unique to Donkey Kong. CEN TIPEDE The object of this game is to shoot the centipede before it gets to the bottom of the screen and gets you. As the bright colored centipede slithers down the screen and is hit the parts hit t become mushrooms. Look out for a - spider that jumps in and out of the screen and also for falling objects as the game advances. SPACE INVADERS Space Invaders is pure shoot-and- run-destroy the alien hordes or they will destroy you. After you have suc- ceeded to wipe out the first wave of at- tackers another takes its place star- ting slightly closer to home. 'ideo games Magazine one out of every seven homes in America had a video-game player in 1983. Coleco's CoIecoVision, Mattel's Intellivision, Activision and Warren Communications Atari were the top four game systems. Nobody scored higher on video-games than their manufacturers. The coin operated video-games alone gobbled up nearly 8 billion quarters annually according to a Feb. 1983 article in TV Guide. Video-games were an obsession that was bigger financially than movies or records. Cartridges for the home video system that cost only about S6 to make were sold for a retail price of S25-350. But it was not all fun and games-a game's lifespan usually lasted about a year causing manufacturers to constantly come up with new ones. In December 1982, the stock market showed that video-games were losing ground. Atari lost 31,3 billion in fourth quarter earnings and in the same week Mat- teI's Intellivision lost 51.92 million-40f7o of their earlier value. As the Rambouillet went to press video games were still popular among college students who prefered relax- ing their minds rather than having clean clothes-as they spent their laundry quarters on Pac-Man, Centipede, Space ln- vaders, Frogger, Donkey Kong, Defender, Tron, etc., etc.-PENA if l I

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COUNTRY The country charts were busy during 1982 and the early part of 1983 with over 45 country acts capturing el hits. Veteran acts like Merle Haggard, Conway Twitty, Charlie Pride, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, George Jones and Dolly Parton all captured 41 hits during the year, Out of over 46 41 country hits Billboard's country charts showed Nelson's Always On My Mine to be the top selling country song of 1982. ln the early months of 1983 songs like Can't Even Get The Blues, Why Baby Why, We've Got Tonight and Dix- ieland had hit 41 with plenty promising to follow as the country charts continued to live up to their tradition of fast pased action on the charts. These are the top ten hits of 1982 as recorded by Billboard Magazine Physical by Olivia Newton John Eye ofthe Tiger by Survivor Centerfold by The J Geils Band l Love Rock 81 Roll by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts Ebony Sz Ivory by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder . Hurt So Good by John Cougar . Abracadabra by Steve Miller . Donlt You Want Me Baby by The Human League 9. Waiting For A Girl Like You by Foreigner 10. Jack 8a Diane by John Cougar SOUL The masters of soul music were joined by some new blood during1982 coming up with a total of 13 K1 songs during the year. Three masters of soul, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye combined for over 20 weeks atop the soul charts dur, ing 1982 and the first months of 1983 with Wonder's That Girl becoming the top soul song of the year with 10 weeks at ffl. Other acts like Earth, Wind gc Fire, Zapp, Bobby Womack, The Gapp Band, Lionel Richie and The Dazz Band all put hits on top during the year. During the early part of 1983 the soul charts belonged to one man-Michael Jackson, whose hit Billie Jean was put on top of the charts for over eight weeks,-FLORES Year's Music The Oak Ridge Boys John Cougar The Australian group Air Supply year's music

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X OO O00 ooo GOO O Pac-Man gobbling up millions What was yellow, looked like a pie with a piece missing and went wacka-wacka-wacka when it gobbled up dots? Any student in 1982-83 could tell you-it was Pac-Man. Pac4Man was a video game critter who not only ate dots, but fruit and ghost monsters as it moved through a maze, Of course it was not as easy as it sounds, When Pac-Man did not eat a large dot to get energized-he was in danger of being eaten by one of the four ghost monsters named Blinky, Pinky, lnky and Clyde. The game was originally developed in Japan and was based on a folk character whose appetite could never be fulfilled. The name came from Paku the Japanese word to eat. ln 15 months Pac-Man swallowed up an estimated S1 billion in quarters and became the hottest item on the video-game market, Bally Manufacturing Corp's Midway sub- sidiary sold some 96,000 Pac-Man arcade machines in 18 months under a licensing ar- rangement with Namco Ltd. of Japan, and also held royalty rights to Pac-Man spin-offs, There were several hundred of these spin-offs. Ms. Pac-Man and Baby Pac-Man machines as well as Pac-Man dolls, blue jeans, non-electronic games, puzzles, toys, pajamas, lunch boxes, bumper stickers, Hallmark cards and gift wrapping, Dan River sheets and pillow cases and J.C. Pen- ney children's clothing were just a few. Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia released Pac-Man Fever on Columbia Records which was number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March of 1982, A Saturday morning Pac- Man cartoon show and several howfto books were also popular,-PENA O 0 I ,Ap s....,.-v---l- ' Q O PAC-MAN Pac-Man is a critter who runs through a maze gobbling up dots and running from space monsters. Every once in a while fruit appears on the screen and if he eats it-it could be worth mega points. The big dots on the screen are energy dots. After a few seconds of eating of those the table turns and Pac-Man can gobble up the ghost monsters. v-f'?' ' ,L 9,f'A 'N jvffl' wx I f ..,. vi' f 4 W by .55 . -. gameroom Photosl S Myer Nina trys his luck at Ms Pac-Man in the U C Ms Pac-Man was the most popular game at ASU Stephanie Long enjoys the luxury of staying home and playing Pac-Man with her Atari 400 llrlambright pac-man