Most of us grew up playing one video game or another. First was
Atari and Colecovision, then onto the Nintendo years, then
Playstation, X-Box, PC games, and on and on. Toronto light boxes has that fantasy, fable, fairytale side, and there’s also an odd simplicity to it. But no matter how
far home gaming has gone, we all remember the action arcade games
could proide for us. There’s nothing like an action arcade to get
the blood flowing – the constant din, chatter and hordes of intense
gamers was a culture unto itself.
The nice thing now is that you can download so many classic games
for free if you just know where to look. Everything from Pitfall to
Soul Caliber can be accessed online if you put in the time and
effort to find them. So suddenly, your good old PC can be that same
action arcade you grew up with, including the same title and
gameplay.
My favorite growing up was Gauntlet. I would head down to the “OP
Arcade”, as it was then called, with my roll of quarters and a Jolt
Cola and spend hours in front of that screen. “Green Elf Needs Food
Badly” – remember that? It’s a line that every gamer has heard more
often than they can count, and it’s still good for a laugh when in
the right company.
The action arcade there was a congregation point for all sorts of
misfits. The true nerds and gamers, of course, were there in
numbers. But so were the toughs, the greasers and, for lack of a
better term, the “socs”. It was kind of like The Outsiders, except
with less C. Thomas Howell. Pretty funny.
What surprises me is that no one has really been able to capture the
action arcade mood and atmosphere in a film. Sure there was that
terrible Fred Savage movie from the ’80s – and for the life of me I
can’t remember the name of it – but other than that there’ve been
pitifully few attempts at creating that world. You’d think a film
about that subculture would have wide popularity given the
pervasiveness of gamers and gaming in today’s culture.
One film that did try – successfully – to capture the culture of the
action arcade is called “King of Kong – A Fistful of Quarters.”
It’s a documentary film from 2007 about two gamers attempting to set
the high score on Donkey Kong, and it’s definitely worth watching.
Toronto trade show display Introduction For many companies, a trade present can provide a simple and handy technique to target related buyers. I know it sounds like you’d be watching two nerds playing video
games, but it’s actually insanely well done and the story arc is
impossible to turn away from. Definitely one of my favorite
documentaries of the past few years.
Of course, there are still real arcades in existance, but the advent
of serious home gaming has largely eliminated the action arcade
subcultre. Alas, to everything there is a season.