California Video Gamers Rally to Save the Pak Mann ArcadePASADENA, CA- May 8th, 2002 - Video game players throughout America are marking their calendar for Saturday, May 18th; the day that hundreds, if not, possibly, thousands of video game players converge on Pasadena, California to participate in a party and big contest organized to "Save the Pak Mann Arcade."
And, in recognition of the significance of the event, California-based
game manuafacturer, Hanaho Games, has donated as the contest prize an
ArcadePC, which is a full-sized arcade cabinet that runs classic games on
a PC computer.
Though the Pak Mann Arcade is famous throughout the United States for its
20-year history of great contests, featuring many of the nation's top
video gamers, Pasadena City Hall believe the culture of the city will be
upgraded if the arcade closes its doors.
But video game players don't agree and are uniting to launch a national
campaign to "save" the besieged game room and keep its celebrated doors
open. "Its one of the most legendary arcades in America," says Billy
Mitchell of Fort Lauderdale, FL, considered by many to be the world's most
famous video game player, having achieved the first "perfect" game on
Pac-Man in 1999. "I am coming from Florida to the Pak Mann Arcade on May
18th for the big party and contest," Mitchell promises. "I believe we can
help the Pak Mann Arcade convince the city fathers that they should not
close down the arcade because it is a historic landmark."
Twin Galaxies of Fairfield, Iowa, will be at the party, too. They are the
organization that created the International Registry of Historic Video
Game & Pinball Arcades, which documents the history of the "golden age" of
video game arcades, which covered the years 1979-1985. Twin Galaxies,
along with hundreds of video gamers, have banded together via the Internet
to try and save the Pak Mann Arcade, one of California's last surviving
arcades founded in the early 1980s. And, as potential doom comes nearer,
the Pak Man Arcade becomes only the fourth arcade to receive an award from
The International Registry of Historic Video Game & Pinball Arcades, for
its contributions to the culture of the 20th Century.
Designated a "Golden Age Pioneer" by The Registry, the Pak Mann Arcade,
along with three other arcades chosen for this honor, will be featured in
a special section of the forthcoming Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game &
Pinball Book of World Records, the gaming hobby's official book of
records. And, during the May 18th festivities, Twin Galaxies will host a
ceremony to induct the Pak Mann Arcade into the Registry.
However, at the same time that the Pak Man Arcade is enjoying this new
prestige as an award winner, supporters are being practical and are
preparing their response to a March 12th hearing, which voted against the
arcade. The supporters hope to convince the Pasadena city fathers they are
making a mistake in judging the Pak Mann Arcade a bad influence on local
youth. Instead, they say, the City of Pasadena should be lauding the Pak
Mann Arcade as a cultural icon, a time capsule that memorializes the early
1980s, when every town and city in North America had its own arcade.
To convince the city fathers that the Pak Mann Arcade means something to
the entire Los Angeles area -- if not the nation, the May 18th event is
being scheduled so that dozens of the nation's top video gamers can
collectively call on the media and help publicize the game room's plight.
Among them is the aforementioned Pac-Man player, Billy Mitchell, who will
demonstrate how to get a "perfect" game on Pac-Man. Also scheduled to
appear are champions on Robotron, Defender, Tony Hawk, Daytona USA and
many more games.
The Pak Mann Arcade, at 1775 East Colorado Blvd, has weathered four
presidencies and twenty years of financial ups and downs, but still
manages to survive on "just" video games. Eddy Hemaratanatorn, who still
owns the arcade, opened his doors with only 37 games, when arcade gaming
was in its heyday. His arcade attracted the attention of the top players
from the very beginning. "Pak Mann Arcade is immensely famous," says Jason
Wilson, an assistant editor at Tips & Tricks Magazine. "For nearly 20
years, top players have achieved world record scores at this game room."
According to Hemaratanatorn, Pak Mann Arcade is well known to Hollywood
and the music industry, too, supplying games to famous people for private
parties or for props in movie and video shoots. "The City of Pasadena has
an unfair agenda," says Eddy. "They think that closing my business will
upgrade the city. But the public disagrees with them."
"The city of Pasadena should be proud of the Pak Mann Arcade and
capitalize on its fame as a local icon of historical interest," says John
Saxon Wendell, a Twin Galaxies spokesperson. "Its an authentic,
old-fashioned video game arcade," points out Mr. Wendell. "The Pak Mann
Arcade contains just video games, a rare phenomenon in today's world
considering that most family amusement centers feature miniature golf,
indoor bowling, batting cages and rides. But the Pak Mann Arcade has
survived with only video games, evidence that the location is well-managed
and offers families a safe, friendly environment."
Wendell's assessment of the uniqueness of the Pak Mann Arcade is held by
others in the gaming hobby, too. "The Pak Mann Arcade is one of America's
few remaining classic video game arcades founded during the early 1980s,"
says The Registry's Walter Day, who also works as the Chief Scorekeeper at
the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard, the official scorekeeper for
the electronic gaming industry. "When the Pak Mann Arcade opened up in
1982, America had more than 20,000 arcades. Now, probably less than 100 of
those arcades are still in existence, victims of a glutted market and
changing gaming habits that now find the public leaning towards home
consoles."
"The arcade is a cultural phenomenon that most people in our modern era
have enjoyed at some time or other," explained Day. "And, many historians
are beginning to agree that the arcade is emblematic of the computer
literacy that has been transforming society since the early 1980s. Arcades
enjoyed their biggest boom at that time, changing the social and cultural
landscape for millions of children and adults around the world --
especially during the period when the video game lurched onto the scene,
forever changing the way the world viewed the arcade and the computer."
Day believes this transformation has benefited today's electronic gaming
industry, too. "In fact," Day continues, "today's monstrous 300-game
Location-Based Entertainment complexes (LBEs) and Family Entertainment
Centers (FECs) should pay tribute to the memory of the small, neighborhood
arcades that pioneered this 'golden age.' Without the groundbreaking work
of arcades like the Pak Mann Arcade, today's successes would not be possible."
The Pak Mann Arcade is the fourth arcade founded in the early 1980s that
has received recognition as a "Golden Age Pioneer." In addition to the Pak
Mann Arcade, the three earlier awards were issued during a banquet held at
the 1998 Pinball Expo Show at the Chicago Rosemont Ramada Inn (near O'Hare
Airport) on Saturday, October 24, 1998.
The awards were authorized by The International Registry of Historic Video
Game & Pinball Arcades that was founded by the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic
Scoreboard as a repository for historical data on the arcade era. Though
arcades have been around since before the beginning of the 20th century,
the first four award recipients - including the Pak Mann Arcade -- were
drawn from the era now popularly described as the "Golden Age of Video
Game Arcades," which roughly covers the years, 1980-1985.
The four arcades and their managers are Pam Iverson for Space Station
Arcade in Anchorage, Alaska, Tom Blankley for Friar Tuck's in Calumet
City, Illinois, Daniel "Yogi" Taylor for The Launch Pad in Capitola,
California and Eddy Hemaratanatorn for the Pak Mann Arcade in Pasadena,
California.
Billy Mitchell, who was crowned the Video Game Player of the Century while
at the Tokyo Game Show in September, 1999, thinks the city of Pasadena
should support the Pak Mann Arcade and join the worldwide videogame and
pinball industries in commemorating the historic contribution the Pak Mann
Arcade has made to the Los Angeles culture of the last 20 years.
When presenting the initial awards in 1998, Day pointed out that these
arcades were pioneers founded during the early 1980s, who, today, still
function as traditional neighborhood video game and pinball arcades.
Furthermore, Day marveled, the recipients survived through nearly twenty
years of social and financial upheavals that, during the same time period,
saw the demise of 20,000 other arcades in the US alone. "Just to merely
survive," says Day, "proves the Pak Mann Arcade, as well as the three
earlier award winners, have tremendous business acumen, determination and
love for the electronic gaming industry - not to mention the desire to
serve the public with a fun, safe, family-oriented recreational facility."
"Players from all over America have contacted us," says Hemaratanatorn,
"offering us spiritual support as we fight to keep one of America's last
vintage arcades alive. With their support, the Pak Mann Arcade can
continue onward, keeping alive the spirit of the arcade era, so its legacy
can be enjoyed by future generations of Californians."
Players wishing to show their support for the Pak Mann Arcade can send an
email of concern to the mayor's office by addressing it to: Ann Erdman,
Public Information Officer for the City of Pasadena. Also, please send
messages of support directly to the Pak Mann Arcade at
savethepakmann@Yahoo.com.
The Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard, based in Fairfield, Iowa, has
been keeping score for the world of video game and pinball playing since
1982 and monitors the highest scores on all home and arcade video games,
PC-based games and pinball. Its most well known product is the Twin
Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records -- which is
a 984-page book containing 12,416 scores from players in 31 countries
compiled. Twin Galaxies also conducts an Annul Video Game Festival at the
Mall of America in Bloomington, MN. For more information, contact Walter
Day at (641) 472-1949 or go to http://www.twingalaxies.com
Originally from
Mark Schlosser [dakotainthejungle@hotmail.com]
Fri 10/19/2001 10:17 AM
Hello,
I haven't written a lot of people in a while so here is an update on what
I'm up to. I got real sick with strep throat in Bangkok a few weeks ago and
was on my death bed until I got the bright idea to go to the hospital. The
hospitals are great in Thailand. Gave me a few shots in my butt, and some
pills and sent me on my way. All for only a couple of bucks.
Then I headed up to Cheng Mai in northern Thailand to meet up with Marc and
Josh cause I was too sick to leave when they did. Cheng Mai was a really
great clean city, but I missed out on the trek Josh and Marc went on where
they hiked 3 days and visited 2 different hill tribes. From there we headed
straight East to the Laos border where we took embarked on the most insane
journey of my life. A 6 hour trip down the Mekong River in what they called
a speed boat, but what I'd call some old wood shaped into the form of a boat
with a Toyota Corolla engine on the back welded to a propellor and enough
room for 3 people, but we had 7 and 6 backpacks. Knees to my chin, helmut on
my head in case we crash into land I guess, and a life jacket that would do
nothing in case I fell out cause the Mekong River would have swallowed me up
before I could have had time to think. When we finally arrived in Luang
Probang, Laos, we were relieved to be alive, and extremely sore from the
journey. But what a releif Laos is. It's absolutely beautiful untouched
landscape, quiet, and the people are extremely friendly. Luang Probang is a
small village of about 16,000 where we spent our time at a temple in a cave
on the Mekong, a waterfall with a bunch of locals swimming in the pools,
each night at a Red Cross herbal steam bath, and one day playing b-ball with
some Laos kids(I lost to some guys half my size).
Then we headed on to Vien Vang which is about 25,000 and we spent 2 days
innertubing down some river I don't even know the name of, but was amazing,
and watching the sun set over the same river and mountains at night. They
have a curfew in Laos at 12:00 so there is not much night life.
We just arrived in the capitol of Vientiene which seems great. It has a lot
of old French arcitecture from when they ruled, and I saw a b-ball court
when the bus pulled in so I'll have to teach some Laos kids the game
tomarrow and try to redeem myself after my embarrassing loss in Luang
Probong.
Mark
