Attention avid gamers: are you sick and tired of hearing all of this slandering of violent video games like GTA IV (Grand Theft Auto Four), where parents and society as a whole are apt to always point the proverbial finger at these video games as the root of all problems present in modern day society? It is ridiculous if you think about it, seriously! Video games are played using a plastic controller, attached to a console, connected to a television set – they do not represent anything realistic in any way, shape or form. In fact, most people are not becoming tantalized with the fake, cartoon-like violence that they see in a video game, nor are they becoming desensitized by playing games like GTA IV.

It’s so easy to Point the Finger
Yet it seems that every time a kid commits a violent crime, video games like GTA IV are blamed as the culprit. When in reality there are other, far more violent things that our children are being subjected to. Like violent movies, the news, television programs and others.

Read more >

If you have not been hearing about all of this news with regards to the common dilemmas that many consumers are experiencing after purchasing the lofty and expensive Xbox 350 video gaming consoles, here is the scoop. Many people are finding that their Xbox 360 console is overheating far too quickly; the fans and the heat synch devices inside of it are not able to properly cool the system. The ending results are that thousands of consoles overheat and become inoperable, and when this happens the power button displays three red rings, most commonly known to the community as the Red Rings of Death (RROD).

Why so Many People are Suing Microsoft

Read more >

Space Invaders was released in 1978 and proved to be one of the most popular arcade video games of all time. It was developed and sold by Taito in Japan where it prompted a shortage of 100 yen coins because it was so popular. It was licensed to Midway for US production in 1980 and proved to be equally loved by gamers in the States.

 

Read more >

In 1972 Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded Atari and their first release Pong spawned a whole new industry. The simple and addictive game-play sparked a craze that saw videogame arcades springing up in malls, cinemas and restaurants across the United States and beyond.

 

Read more >

The very first coin-operated videogame was called Galaxy Game and it was developed by two students at Stanford University. It was 1971 when Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck made their one and only unit of Galaxy Game. Sadly for them just two months later the founders of Atari, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney released their coin-operated videogame Computer Space. Both games were based on the vector display title Spacewar from 1961 but the difference was Bushnell and Dabney used an actual television set in their cabinet to display the game and they were quick to offer cabinets for commercial sale.

Read more >

It had been ten years since I set foot in an arcade, mostly because all the old-fashioned arcades here are gone. At least the ones I remember going to when I was a kid. (By the way, to the previous poster, I too remember the old Aurora Village arcade and it is missed...) So, when last week I had to plan an outing for two ten-year old girls I immediately thought about arcades, and I remembered the last arcade I went to, Gameworks, in downtown Seattle.

It's not new, and it's not really called an arcade, but inside it is wall-to-wall video games. They even have the old favorites like Ms. Pacman and Frogger decked out in wood consoles to give it that old pizza place feel.

Read more >

I Recently found this wonderful article on this wonderful blog about the type of arcade experience that I remember well from my childhood: the ubiquitous "Space Port" arcade. They all had the same campy exterior and were found at many a mall. I remember always visiting the one in the long gone Aurora Village mall in the Seattle area when I was a kid. We would always stop there to kill time before watching a movie or while waiting for the bus home - ah good times.