Old School News Report on 1977 Arcades

[BorneAgain]

I thought this was pretty neat; a local CBS news story about the Sega (Seega?) Center Arcade from way back in 1977. Lots of cool old school arcade titles featured, including the now lost original version of the very first fighting game, Heavyweight Champ, which apparently is tough to even find pictures of, let alone video.

[Paul]

That was really cool! I love old arcade games from that era. Thanks for sharing this.

[DZ: WF Legacy]

Good footage and find!

It's always crazy to contextualize time in these videos. The "hit movie Rocky" was a brand new film that would go on to inspire so many people. Mentioning that these games have come a long way from Pong would be like saying Mario Odyssey has come a long way since Mario 3D World; Pong was only 5-6 years old at this point. The younger guy in that video is like in his early 50s now, probably.

[BorneAgain]

Apr 10, 2022 14:00:56 GMT -5 DZ: WF Legacy said:

Good footage and find!

It's always crazy to contextualize time in these videos. The "hit movie Rocky" was a brand new film that would go on to inspire so many people. Mentioning that these games have come a long way from Pong would be like saying Mario Odyssey has come a long way since Mario 3D World; Pong was only 5-6 years old at this point. The younger guy in that video is like in his early 50s now, probably.

Yeah, this particular time period is like the wild west because there's no real set idea about what video games are. You have arcades which are blossoming, home video game systems are transitioning between one game consoles to those with interchangeable cartridges, gaming on home computers doing its own thing, and only a burgeoning understanding by the old media about how successful the medium will become. It's nuts to realize that in less than a decade after this report, the entire landscape of the industry and major players (outside those like Sega which were able to adapt) will be quite different.