University of Kentucky - Kentuckian Yearbook (Lexington, KY)

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Pac-fTlan, Asteroids, CentipEdE, Galaga, 5pacE Invaders... That’s (COMPUTERIZED) EntartainmEnt ■fl. nyear earlier, there were only five of them listed in the yellow pages of the Lexington telephone directory. But all of a sudden, computers came of age. The Pac-Man took over where the pinball left off, and asteroids became more popular than mom and apple pie. It was a video explosion. Lexington became filled with machine-filled rooms. The phone book showed nearly 15 listings, but the actual number was surely higher considering the fact that new gam£ rooms seemingly appeared every week. They took over in the malls when floundering clothing stores went out of business. They appeared in abandoned food stores, laundromats, and beauty parlors. When there was not room for an entire arcade, supermarkets and other enterprising businesses installed the video games individually in a corner or near an entrance. The click of the quarter turned on Pac- Man, centipede, asteroids—and their lucky owners. Video clientele ranged from the young to the old, the poor to the rich. It became a fun way to spend a few minutes on lunchtime, or a few hours on a date. It was a more sophisticated fad than some of its predecessors. In the fifties, there was the hula hoop. In the sixties, there was the peace protest. In the seventies, there was the disco. In 1982, there was the video game. It's just a craze like any other thing. | I his was certainly the most | profitable of all the fads. Warner Communications, which purchased Atari, manufacturer of many of the games, for $28 million in 1976, reported an annual profit of nearly $400 million only five years later. Atari's home video system, sold for around $150, became one of the most popular Christmas presents on the market, due to the popularity of the arcade° versions and a strategic advertising campaign that left America singing Have you played Atari today? This, however, was not the only video tune. Pac-Man Fever, a song featuring the lamentations of a video addict, broke into the top 40 on the charts. It was clear that video was here to stay. In Lexington, the video craze hit hard. Larry Monday, a junior from Owensboro, was an employee of Cheap Thrills, a newly-opened video argade located on Southland Drive. The craze began about two years ago, said Monday. Before that, it was mostly pinball. Now there's Pac-Man, Gorf, Vanguard... Monday said that the average video customer spent about $3. Some spend $10 to $15, though. It's just a craze like any other thing. Right now with the new games, it's just something everybody wants to do.” Pinball, Monday said, became a thing of the past when the video games took over. Pinball's lasted 10 to 15 years, he said. I don't think it will last another 10 years. They're Dtrying to do away with pinball. The machines just sit empty now. The advent of the video age was the climax of an era that had been predicted for years. When it finally happened, it caught on. As one UK administrator put it, It's a wonderful form of entertainment. Have you played Atari today? —Chris M. Cameron

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