Today, you can find video games in almost every child’s room. But 42 years ago, things were different. A video from the Tagesschau from 1982 shows how distrustful people were of video games back then.
What kind of video is this? The German Tagesschau reported on July 14th or 16th, 1982 about video games that are becoming very popular in the USA. One game in particular seems to be getting everyone excited there at the moment: Pac-Man. The yellow ball that eats small stones and has to avoid ghosts at the same time. We have embedded the Tagesschau video for you:
Parents fear that children could become addicted to games
In 1982, parents in particular were not really enthusiastic about this new trend.
Parents fear that children will skip school and bother adults because of such games. After all, according to the report, it is “a game of skill on the one hand, but also an incentive to destroy things on the other.”
The Tagesschau explains: Parents see the game and the arcades as a danger for their children and are calling protest events to solve the new problem.
This is how it ended: Boston Magazine reports in a review dated October 30, 2020 that the Boston administration under Kevin White promised a tough crackdown on arcades to curb the hordes of video gamers who, in the words of then-Boston Licensing Commissioner Joanne Prevost, were “terrorizing” elderly citizens in laundromats and forcing customers to issue “quick warnings.”
The 80s are considered the “Golden Era of Arcade Games”
Why are the 80s so exciting? The 1980s to the early 90s are considered the “golden era of arcade games.” This is mainly due to the enormous technical development of gaming machines. Suddenly, high-quality graphics and sounds were available and slot machines were springing up like mushrooms.
In Germany, youth protection authorities reacted to the developments: on February 25, 1985, a new law was passed that electronic gaming machines could no longer be displayed in public and were only accessible to people aged 16 and over. As a result, many machines disappeared from many shops.
With the rise of computers and games consoles, which finally allowed everyone to play from home, the era of slot machines came to an end.
A MeinMMO editor was in Japan and looked at the arcades there. Gaming there still feels like it did in the 80s: Visiting an arcade in Japan: Gaming like it was back then, even today!