The Arcade as an information community

[damageinc86]

I just asked this question on the Retro League forums, kick ass podcast by the way, and thought i'd ask people on this forum as well since obviously there is a love for classic arcade games here.  I am assuming because most of us went to actual arcades in the past.  So here is the wordy part:  I just started my MLIS program online at San Jose State University, and I'm delving into some core concepts of the Information Sciences. One of which is the concept of "Information Communities". We were encouraged by our professor to focus on something that interests us, or is a passion of ours. Naturally, my mind started to drift towards thinking about the Arcade Community, from either the golden age of arcades, or the resurgence during the early 90s. There is little in the way of formal articles about specifically the way in which information could be exchanged and dealt with in the Arcades. The traditional Library is obviously the "go to" system where users could search for, receive, and use information. But the scope of what can be an information community is broad, and open to interpretation as long as it can hit on at least a few of these general guidelines:

1. Exploits the information sharing qualities of technology
• provides a “place” for frequently updated information
• allows for in-depth treatment
• Information can link to relevant content
• can be anonymous
• can be asynchronous
2. Collaboration among diverse groups
• shares joint resources and joint responsibilities
3. Formation around user needs
• interaction between information needs and available content
4. Helps to overcome trust barriers
• removes barriers to accessing information
5. Fosters social connectedness
• increases awareness of who has information to share

Now I think the arcade scene had many of those characteristics, especially the social aspect of it pre-internet age. For example, I just heard someone's memory of going to play SFII in the arcade when they were a kid, and how the moves were completely secret in the beginning. The only way to get that information was to either happen upon it through your own trial and error, watch someone close enough to see their exact joystick and button combinations, or to get the info from the source itself (reigning champion kind enough to share their knowledge with you). I also read on a forum post that someone remembers seeing a sheet of paper on the side of their arcade's Mortal Kombat cabinet, where people would write down the moves they figured out. These are prime examples of the community being a place for people to share information.

 

I'm hoping to start with the classic arcade world, move into the home console era with things like Nintendo Power Magazine, possibly touching on some online gaming experiences, and ending with the online resources that are now dedicated to cataloging, discussing, and preserving all of this retro goodness.  I myself didn't start going to my local mall's arcade until I was about 6 or 7, and that would be in 1986/7. It was still a major spot to hang out in our small town, and I had loads of fun, but I never had a real group of friends that I went with, and was very shy so I never really talked to anyone or made any friends their either. About all I did was play games for an hour or two while my parents shopped the rest of the mall. My memories are also very vague, and have no real bearing on the social side, or information exchange possibilities of an arcade. I do remember studying players very closely while I waited for their play to be over, so that is one way I received some info and utilized it. Or the simple quick convo with another kid who says, "oh hey did you know that if you do bla bla bla, then you can get more points!?" But I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who have some more vivid and/or useful memories. Any thoughts from the Hyperspinners out there?

[dark13]

I'll tell you a thing: everyone writing about videogames writes like the "scene" was the same in the whole world but it's the biggest lie ever. Obviously there are some differences from one city/region/country to another but videogame's "history" is basically the tale of three cities. Here in europe we never had a "golden age" in the late 70's/early 80's, the "golden age of arcades" in europe just happened in the 90's, while in the USA it was just a "revival". In Japan, as far as I know, arcades are still alive (especially the ones dedicated to fighting games) while in europe and USA they are dead. Again, in europe we didin't had a "videgame crash" in the 80's, consoles were not so popular here before the ps1 and 8bit computers' market (c64/xz spectrum) didn't "crash", it was actually growing during the USA "crash". Again, in the early 90's almost everyone had an amiga 500 (mostly italy/UK/germany) while commodore failed BADLY in the USA. Consider that ibm-compatibles machines were way too pricey to be "gaming machine" in europe, especially in italy as the italian £ was a weak currency. Again, in japan consoles sold like hotcakes and the popular computers were the msx I-II and later the sharp x68000.

Here in italy, before the 90's there weren't many arcades (consider that i live in rome, the biggest city in italy) while the first shopping mall in rome opened in the '88, and to get a decently sized one you got to wait for 1992. Arcades existed mainly in cities that were holiday destination (seaside, mostly) and in amusement parks. Here in rome there were little arcades before the 90's but they were not that successful and there was a lot of drug dealing (yeah, it's a stereotype but it was indeed true). Arcades were mostly played in cafeterias, basically any "bar" (that's how we call the place where you can get a coffee, and they are really different from USA's cafeteria) had one or 2 arcades. So "socialization" and information sharing was mostly done in "bars" here in italy.

Talking about the "scene" in rome many arcades opened in the early 90's and moreover in rome there's the autumn edition of an  important european arcade exposition http://www.enada.it/ (the spring edition is held in rimini, it's MUCH BIGGER),

About "informations"... technically most games' kit had stickers with the special moves but here in italy basically NO ONE glued them to cabs (probably lazy employees or "mint" used kit sold better). I guess it was the same in the USA lol.