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Post by anayo on Jun 7, 2020 11:12:12 GMT -5
I woke up a lot in the middle of the night and had a lot of different dreams, but the main one I remember is that I was on a business trip in California. I was on some interstate when I stopped at a place that was familiar to me. It was some kind of carnival, with big gaudy colorful signs. They might have been advertising rides and fried food. Something compelled me to stop my car and go inside. Within the building was a massive arcade. I don’t remember any specific titles except that one was a racing game. It may have had an actual motorcycle you could mount and rock side to side in order to steer. The general vibe I got was that they were all from around the same time period as early 90’s Sega arcade model 2 games. The place was ostentatiously large, with a huge vaulted ceiling and colorful signage everywhere. The strange thing was that the dream was supposed to take place in the present day, but this arcade didn’t appear to have changed a bit in the past 30 years. It felt like a time capsule. This photo (from the Spainwave subreddit) looks very similar to the place in my dream: The main differences were that the one in my dream was mainly warm colors like red, yellow, and orange. There was almost no blue or teal. Also the one in the my dream had a breathtakingly high ceiling and lots and lots of floor space. Like a Vegas Casino or something, except with Sega arcades instead of slot machines. The photo is from an irl Sega arcade that was in open in spain until 2008, btw.
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Post by Ex on Jun 7, 2020 11:30:24 GMT -5
The photo is from an irl Sega arcade that was in open in spain until 2008, btw. Interesting that in the photo, all the people in that arcade are grown men. Edit: Except for the one girl working the counter in the back.
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Post by anayo on Jun 7, 2020 11:59:32 GMT -5
The photo is from an irl Sega arcade that was in open in spain until 2008, btw. Interesting that in the photo, all the people in that arcade are grown men. Edit: Except for the one girl working the counter in the back. Maybe in Spain they didn't have the whole "Sega and Nintendo are for kids" culture like we did in the US. I've heard anecdotally that it has been socially acceptable in Japan for grown men with careers to unwind at the arcade while waiting for the train.
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Post by Sarge on Jun 7, 2020 12:11:11 GMT -5
It's also possible that this was just before opening, and was a sort of promo/publicity photo, and the folks in the picture are actually staff/owners. Dunno.
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Post by Ex on Jun 7, 2020 16:59:29 GMT -5
Maybe in Spain they didn't have the whole "Sega and Nintendo are for kids" culture like we did in the US. I've gotten the gist that is the case for Europe in general, based on old magazine ads I've seen, and retro gamers I've spoken to from that region. I hope it's true.
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Post by Sarge on Jun 7, 2020 17:24:18 GMT -5
Maybe it's because microcomputer gaming was so popular over there? Plus, not having a crash that forced a rebrand as a toy?
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Post by anayo on Jun 7, 2020 18:09:41 GMT -5
I've been watching episodes of The Computer Chronicles (an American show that ran from 1983 to 2003) and whenever they talk about Sega, Nintendo, or arcades, the hosts all seem to refer to those things as kids toys. One episode comes to mind where they talk about a prominent arcade somewhere and you'd think they were talking about cinnamon toast crunch because they're like, "Why do kids like coming here so much?" then they cut to various kids saying, "Because it's fun." into the microphone.
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Post by toei on Jun 7, 2020 18:25:08 GMT -5
anayo I'm not familiar with that show, but it sounds like it was dedicated to computing in general rather than videogames? There was definitely this attitude among computer geeks at the time that theirs was an adult hobby, where console and arcade games were childish. My friend's college English teacher father played games like Warcraft II and Realmz, but I doubt if he ever touched a console game. That tone was prevalent in PC gaming mags, too, which I found pretentious and insufferable at the time. They would always rag on the lack of complexity of console games, as if simplicity could never be a good thing.
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Post by anayo on Jun 7, 2020 20:21:34 GMT -5
anayo I'm not familiar with that show, but it sounds like it was dedicated to computing in general rather than videogames? There was definitely this attitude among computer geeks at the time that theirs was an adult hobby, where console and arcade games were childish. My friend's college English teacher father played games like Warcraft II and Realmz, but I doubt if he ever touched a console game. That tone was prevalent in PC gaming mags, too, which I found pretentious and insufferable at the time. They would always rag on the lack of complexity of console games, as if simplicity could never be a good thing. The Computer Chronicles is a delightful show and I can't recommend it enough. They cover video/computer games and arcades, but just as sub-topics of computing in general. However my love of video game history has served as a gateway drug to get into computing history in general, so I can watch that show for hours and hours and never get tired of it. Growing up in the 90's I seem to remember the same sentiment that Sega and Nintendo were for kids and PCs were for grown ups. Kids my age tended to have NES, SNES, or Sega Genesis in their bedrooms. But my Dad's coworkers were into games like Doom, Quake, and Duke Nukem 3D. I also remember that in retail stores Sega and Nintendo were stocked on the toy aisle, but PC games were in the electronics section. I also noticed In The Computer Chronicles they would talk with a dismissive air about Nintendo consoles because they didn't use the latest tech, but would praise the 3DO for using a 32-bit CPU and CD-ROM drive. The irony of that isn't lost on me.
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Post by Sarge on Jun 7, 2020 20:24:00 GMT -5
It really is ironic, actually, especially looking at the fact they used an ARM CPU, and not something in the x86 line like PCs. And of course ARM processors are mostly used in mobile chipsets now. That's not really a knock on it, though, as they're plenty capable chips.
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