Today, video games can be found in almost every children’s room. However, 42 years ago, that was not the case. A video from Tagesschau from 1982 shows how suspicious people were back then about video games.
What kind of video is this? The German Tagesschau reported on July 14 or July 16, 1982, about video games that were spreading rapidly in the USA. Particularly one game seems to be exciting everyone there right now: Pac-Man. The yellow ball that eats small stones and must dodge ghosts at the same time. We have embedded the Tagesschau video for you:
Parents’ Fear That Children Might Become Addicted to Games
Especially the parents were not really enthusiastic about this new trend in 1982.
Because the parents feared that children would skip school because of such games and disturb adults. After all, according to the report, it was “a skill game on the one hand, but on the other hand also an incitement to destroy.”
The Tagesschau explains: Parents see a danger for their children in the game and in the arcades and hold protest events to address the new problem.
Here’s how it ended: The Boston magazine reported in a retrospective on October 30, 2020, that the Boston government under Kevin White promised a tough crackdown on arcades. This was meant to tame the hordes of video gamers who, in the words of the then Boston licensing officer Joanne Prevost, “terrorized” older citizens in laundromats and forced customers to “quick reprimands.”
The 80s Are Considered the “Golden Age of Arcade Games”
Why are the 80s so exciting? The 1980s to the early 90s are considered the “Golden Age of Arcade Games.” This is mainly due to the massive technical development of the gaming machines. Suddenly, high-quality graphics and sounds could be offered, and the arcade machines sprouted up like mushrooms.
In Germany, youth protection reacted to the developments: On February 25, 1985, a new law was enacted that prohibited electronic gaming devices from being displayed in public and made them accessible only to those aged 16 and older. This caused many machines to disappear from various shops.
With the rise of computers and gaming consoles, which finally allowed everyone to play from home, the era of arcade machines came to an end.
An editor from MeinMMO has been to Japan and checked out the arcade halls there. It still feels like gaming in the 80s: Visiting an arcade in Japan: Gaming like back then still today!
