A typical '80s arcade was not a "nerd" hangout ...

MaximRecoil

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A typical '80s arcade was not a "nerd" hangout ...

... despite popular belief today, and/or the impression you might get from watching "King of Kong".

They were dark and smoky, like a bar or a pool hall, and they had little-to-no supervision. This made them a popular hangout for "druggies" and "slackers". Small-time drug deals were common, and fist fights were not unheard of.

Most nerds were at home doing their homework, playing Dungeons and Dragons, or frig farting around on their home computers. Arcade games of the time didn't really appeal to typical nerds anyway; in the same way that poker or pool is a lot less likely to appeal to a nerd than chess or Dungeons and Dragons. Plus their parents wouldn't usually let them go to an arcade even if they wanted to ("family friendly" arcades such as Chuck E. Cheese's don't count).
 
And you felt the need to make such a nerdy statement why?

What are you talking about?

BTW, among the people that are still into arcade games from the '80s, there is a high percentage of "nerds" (or at least have "nerdish" traits). However, a vast majority of the people that actually hung out in arcades back then couldn't care less about the games today. It was just a social hangout and cheap (but fairly forgettable) entertainment to them.
 
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What are you talking about?

BTW, among the people that are still into arcade games from the '80s, there is a high percentage of "nerds". However, a vast majority of the people that actually hung out in arcades back then couldn't care less about the games today. It was just a social hangout and cheap entertainment to them.


I am talking about your entire statement being nerdy, pitiful chest thumping 'I'm not a nerd, nerdy'.


I'd say every teenager social "hang out", be they arcades, D&D sessions, sporting events, with the exception of church gatherings (and even they fit if you knew where to go) fits this description from your initial post:

They were dark and smoky, like a bar or a pool hall, and they had little-to-no supervision. This made them a popular hangout for "druggies" and "slackers". Small-time drug deals were common, and fist fights were not unheard of.


Face it - all teenagers, and most adults, are listless nerds...
 
However, a vast majority of the people that actually hung out in arcades back then couldn't care less about the games today. It was just a social hangout and cheap (but fairly forgettable) entertainment to them.

Must disagree Maxim.... I frequented my local arcades, some were dives, others were kept clean. The clean ones were well run and most likely focused on the fun element rather than also have pool tables and a bar. Its safe the say you had bars or pool halls that added arcade games and pins, or you had arcades that were just set up for that only.

FECs like Chuck E Cheese and Golf-n-Stuff were an expansion of the clean arcade but a microcosm of the amusement park business model. I still saw a good share of degenerates hanging out at both arcades and FECs.

I hung out at arcades in the early 80s as often as possible, hell I'd sleep there if I could. The crowd at the arcades were early teenager (like me) or pre-teens and it wasnt about the dark element that may or may have not hung out there, it was about the games...the new ones to arrive and spending time playing them.

I tried to get into roll playing games, couldnt do it....bored me to death but your point about the D&D crowd not being into arcades is pretty close. None of the D&D crowd that always sat in the corner table during lunchtime at school were ever seen hanging out at the arcades.

There was something about playing games all the time... when it wasn't on the 2600 or colecovision, it was at the arcade. Its about the games, not about smoking and trying to look cool. Those that did that weren't there for the gaming experience, they just had nowhere else to go.

That's my take on it anyways.

Was in arcades in the late 70s and early 80s....and i still am into my collection of games today.
 
I am talking about your entire statement being nerdy, pitiful chest thumping 'I'm not a nerd, nerdy'.

You clearly have reading difficulties, given that I never said anything about myself. I was the best chess player in school for example, but I was also a high school dropout (for a while anyway; though I went back after a year due to bribery from my father). I had, and have, "nerdish" traits, but I don't fit the category of a stereotypical nerd, nor any other category for that matter. This thread is about stereotypical nerds, since it deals with an inaccurate Johnny-come-lately stereotype in the first place.

I'd say every teenager social "hang out", be they arcades, D&D sessions, sporting events, with the exception of church gatherings (and even they fit if you knew where to go) fits this description from your initial post:

D&D sessions? Yeah right. Most of those were in school or at someone's house.

And yes, various social hangouts fit the description, and they also share the "few nerds to be found" aspect as well.
 
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Must disagree Maxim.... I frequented my local arcades, some were dives, others were kept clean. The clean ones were well run and most likely focused on the fun element rather than also have pool tables and a bar. Its safe the say you had bars or pool halls that added arcade games and pins, or you had arcades that were just set up for that only.

FECs like Chuck E Cheese and Golf-n-Stuff were an expansion of the clean arcade but a microcosm of the amusement park business model. I still saw a good share of degenerates hanging out at both arcades and FECs.

I hung out at arcades in the early 80s as often as possible, hell I'd sleep there if I could. The crowd at the arcades were early teenager (like me) or pre-teens and it wasnt about the dark element that may or may have not hung out there, it was about the games...the new ones to arrive and spending time playing them.

I tried to get into roll playing games, couldnt do it....bored me to death but your point about the D&D crowd not being into arcades is pretty close. None of the D&D crowd that always sat in the corner table during lunchtime at school were ever seen hanging out at the arcades.

There was something about playing games all the time... when it wasn't on the 2600 or colecovision, it was at the arcade. Its about the games, not about smoking and trying to look cool. Those that did that weren't there for the gaming experience, they just had nowhere else to go.

That's my take on it anyways.

Was in arcades in the late 70s and early 80s....and i still am into my collection of games today.

There are exceptions, obviously (as I implicitly noted in my second post). However, this thread is about generalities (which are the basis for stereotypes), and in general, not only were typical arcades not primarily a nerd hangout, but nerds were not very common in them for various reasons. Slackers were the most common element, as they had plenty of free time on their hands, and arcade games didn't require any effort, deep thought, or specific area of interest to be entertaining for a few minutes.
 
I was always going to arcades in the early 80s and I was at all types, casinos, smoky dingy ones, family ones like Pistol Pete's and Chuck E Cheese, and ones in pizza places and grocery/drug stores and the dingy disco ball type places were mostly "teenagers" but a lot of the dingy stuff was more strip malls and big city type arcades and "some" casino stuff but arcades were always known as "shady" back then, one reason why people were so vehement to get them removed back in the late 80s.

I mean, it's still cheap entertainment now, but people don't play them as much...
 
By the way, these guys were all regulars at the arcade after school:

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LOL

The third from the left is Lawton, the best all around arcade game player I ever saw. I competed with him for high score on Super Punch-Out; and it is the only one I ever beat him at.
 

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Well, regardless as to whether you were a nerd then, there's a pretty good chance that if you own and maintain your own machines now, you have to have some nerd-like super powers. And regardless of what those abilities would have been viewed like then (BTW, you would have been on a whole different level of "cool") they are pretty much respected today.

Everyone needs a little "nerdiness". It's part of being a well-rounded person.
 
This reminds me of a part from MST3K...the Time Chasers episode...

Scene of guy kissing girl:

"Servo to alternate universe tough guy Mike: I bet you do that a lot"
"Mike: You know it, every day."


Now I am the nerd.
 
Around here, arcades were shady meeting places for teenagers. No nerds (or girls)hung out at them. Usually burnouts and other disorderlies, smoking, drinking you "special" beverage from your 711 cup, plotting your trouble for the rest of the night. Basically BEING A TEENAGER. The parking lots were full of '78-'81 Camaros and TransAms.

Don't think many of those guys turned in collectors.....maybe a few.
 
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Well, regardless as to whether you were a nerd then, there's a pretty good chance that if you own and maintain your own machines now, you have to have some nerd-like super powers. And regardless of what those abilities would have been viewed like then (BTW, you would have been on a whole different level of "cool") they are pretty much respected today.

Everyone needs a little "nerdiness". It's part of being a well-rounded person.

That was all addressed in post numbers 3 and 6, not that it has anything to do with this thread (i.e., what category I fit into then or now is irrelevant).

By the way, I never saw the following kids from my school at the arcade, not even once:

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my D&D playing gamer friends & i also hung out at arcades. we didn't use drugs, and there were chicks involved. i'm the only one that ended up as a collector, though.
 
Yeah, back in the day arcades were super shady. I'd do speedballs with my homies and then we'd run train on a cougar who was looking for a fix. Then we'd play some Q*Bert and then kill a motherfucker and snatch his chain. It was basically like the staircase in the projects except they had video games. Isn't that what everyone did?
 
By the way, these guys were all regulars at the arcade after school:

attachment.php


LOL

The third from the left is Lawton, the best all around arcade game player I ever saw. I competed with him for high score on Super Punch-Out; and it is the only one I ever beat him at.

The first one is Dave Mustaine
 
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