I know this is past blog... does anybody know if there are any arcade establishment still going this day that still has the 80's arcades? Not the new ones that take 4 quarters to play, but originals. Send me a private message if you can.

Halloween came early last week when I saw one of the local real estate agents at the store with h__ industrial strength make-over.

As with any pastime, there's a good and a bad side to it. I'm sure there are those who abuse it, become badly addicted, or those individuals of an already violent nature that it doesn't help at all. But I think too often gaming and gamers gets a bad rap. Take, for instance, the GOP recently attacking a Maine Senate candidate for having played World of Warcraft. They've set up a website trying to attach some kind of shame or immaturity to gaming when (according to a Politco article) 183 million Americans, with an average age of 34, play some sort of video game.

At 38 I play more video games than I should. I really enjoy sports games... the more realistic the better. For example, if I take the Badgers in basketball it better be a low scoring game.
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I only play one shooting game and it is the more realistic I could find. I can go 20 minutes without seeing the enemy. The game, "Operation Flashpoint River...".
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The one thing that needs to change with the sports games... Allow them to be saved in the middle of the game. I don't have 1.5 hours to sit and play a game. During the week, no problem but not at one time. There was one Madden (2010 I believe) that allowed the game to be saved in the middle. I do not understand why that option was removed.
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All that said, I rarely purchase new sports games. I believe I have 09 College Basketball, 10 NHL, 12 Madden and College Football, and an older Tiger Woods.
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My son asking for video games for b-day and xmas has helped. He has moved beyond Lego Star Wars and really enjoys the sports games. Thankfully, he isn't able to beat me yet. He isn't allowed to play a lot because of school and other commitments in the evening but he does get to play. Unfortunately, he current favorite, WWE12. Funny thing, he has never watched the TV show or been to a live event. He simply loves the "fighting" involved in the game.

Copertop, right with ya with the old arcade games. I used to stop at Stans Arcade after school back in the 80's. At the fair I used to be in the arcade tent ALOT. Playmore Bowl had a good size one also.

New consoles and pc games just dont have the magic the old 25 cent arcade games had. 1 joystick and 1 or 2 fire buttons was fun.

I played arcades when they were big in the 80's. I remember several arcades around Janesville besides Aladdins Castle at the mall. Jim's Chalk & Cue, Bun & Games, one that was off Mineral Point which is now a Pet Clinic, and several business like taverns, pizza places, and even grocery stores would even have 2-3 or even 4 on the sides. Until graphics changed the game play, the cost of the arcade rose way up from just a quarter play I stopped playing them. The 90's rolled around then home computers started getting popular and affordable I got started right away with some 2-D games such as Doom, Castle Wolfenstien, Marathon, etc. I still have those to this day running on even the newest computers. I got more into third party shooting games that started evolving with even better graphics such as Quake, Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Call Of Duty and so forth. Even still play those to this day as well.

HG, I wouldn't say everybody "wasted their teen years away". It's pure entertainment and actually builds better hand and eye coordination as well as thinking problematic situations. Your comment would be the same to those that "waste their years away watching t.v." but I wouldn't even say that because every individual has their own way being entertained.

The 80's arcade is a lost art. Computers have evolved with extreme graphics and smaller devices put the 80's arcade to bed. But I would love to see an arcade as I did when I was a teen.

I do not play games on the tv or the computer. The last time I did, it was square dot tennis. Bleep, Bleep, Bleep, back and forth and forth and back. I guess that tells you how old I am. Video tennis was the only game out at the time and since it was the only game out, of course it was the number one. I think Space invadors came next. More Bleeps, but at least this time you could shoot the space crafts. (other little dots). Lost interest in it then and never played again. I know people who now are adults and they wasted thier teen years away in the 90's playing those games. Now today they are the ones suffering for it. At least the ones I know are easy to react violently to a minor situation, and are not all that bright in the mind (unless it comes to mortal combat of course). Kind of glad I did not pick up the addiction.

As soon as my 5 yr old son got way better than me (it took about a day) at Mario back in the early 90's I realized how pathetic I was at playing and lost interest. I have no interest in the violent games although I've had some fun times with my kids when they talked me into playing by agreeing to use "slapping" mode instead of shooting. The one exception to my seeming immunity to the addicting nature of these games is Tetris. I haven't played in a long time but there were times that I wasted whole days on that game!

I play sports games with my son on his PS2. Mostly basketball and football. I enjoy the time with him. He has about 40 games in his collection, and have no use for about 30 of them. So many games these days seem to have no "purpose". You just go around and do stuff. I've got enough stuff to do at home. :)
I owned 2 console in my life, Intellivision, and a Nintendo. Even had the "speech synthesizer" for the Intellivision. I did play alot of games on my TI-994A (pirate adventure), and Apple II+(conan hall of volta)

Like the GTA series. IV kinda is boring though. Maybe sit 20-30 min max and bring it out maybe once a month. III San Andreas I found the most fun. Always like Gran Turismo. But for games I can sit and play for HOURS, I prefer old Atari 2600 stuff and the old arcade games you can get now for PS3 (joust, robotron 2084, dig dug, sinistar, galaga, etc). Other than GTA series, FPS games arent really my interest.

Still wandering Skyrim...used to have a good time with Battlefield 1942 till EA ruined the series.

In 2008 I was finally encouraged by some distant friends to buy an XBox. To learn my way around the controller, I started out with a game called Bioshock, set in a mostly abandoned, remarkably engineered undersea city. As a novice to a video game world that had evolved from teenaged me wrestling a stick at the arcade to adult me sitting on my couch immersed in a graphically represented story, I was astounded by the visuals, sound and creativity of the game. The suspenseful story intrigued me and I was often amused to find myself viscerally afraid to step beyond some doors.
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I've played a dozen quality games since then, often with my friends as we "socialize and shoot things," and it's just a part of my life now. While other people watch tv, surf the web/facebook or do crafting in their spare evening time, I often am puzzling my way through a devious plot, using my thumbs. It's cut down on time I might have used to read, start a new hobby or repaint the woodwork, but overall my "experiences" in gaming have been enjoyable departures from the the ordinary.