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Home computers stifling video game boom by Susa~ Baj According to Klemm,!d, the result has been a real jolt to What 1s this place people run to during their breaks an industry that barely existed five years ago and one year . between classes? Why do these same people search desperago seemed on an unstopped roll. • · ' ately for quarters and experience great anxiety when the On the average video game manufacturers ate expected doll~r c?,ange machine bluntly reads, "temporarily out of to lose hundreds' of millions of dollars on consoles and ' ,service? rt 'd th ' d' · d 1 H · . . . . . ca n ges 1s year, accor mg tom ustry ana ysts . unThe place 1s the Cabnm game r?o~, located m the Wide- dreds of video game parlors have unplugged their machines ner Center. The people are Cabnm students and faculty, and closed down. Thousands of jobs have been lost. alias video addicts. The game room seems to be widely appreciated by all who love video games. The profits would appear to be evident from these video games, especially the more popular Ms. Pac Man, Jungle Hunt, and Dig Dug, three of the largest attention-getters and quarter consumers at Ca_brini. However, a view of the video game surge nationally seems to present a much different picture . According to reporter N.R. Kleinfield, from an article in the New York Times, (Oct. 17,1983) the surge of the once high-flying world of video games is apparently over. Kleinfield said, "Dozens of the game makers that rushed into the field last year have dropped by the wayside, their visions of high profits proving to be as imaginary as the fantasy worlds pictured on the game screens." "The bloom is off the rose," said Steve Hochman, president of the Crown Vending Corporation, a New York-based operator of game machines. "Most of the operators are off 30 to 40 percent in revenues, which translates to no profit, or a loss. Too man v machines are chasing too few quarters ." The game room seems to be widely appreciated by those who love video games. The drop of the video game industry seems due to the increase in the buying of the home computer. The home computer, industry observers reveal, can "figure a family's budget as well as transport the player into outer space." Between 1980 and 1982 arcade parlors doubled to 10 000 according to Kleinfield . Analysts estimate that more tha~ l,50~ of the~ have _ closed this year. Arcade operators are hopmg their busmesses will be invigorated by the e~ergence ~f a new generation of games that use laser disk~ to proJect color pictures onto the screen just like a movie. Are thsese unplayed video games-a sign of the declining interest in the games?(photo by John Doyle)
Dave Pilla, senior, enjoys the popular video game "Dig Dug" in the Cabrini game room. (photo by Usa De/Borrello)
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The national crash of the video game industry appears to have come fast . However, Roger Sharpe, editor of Video Games Magazine, said ,"I think it's a mistake to say the game market is dead and the computer market lives. " He continued , "I don't see a large falling off of players who are into games. I see a falling off of the transient audience who got into them as a cult thing ." The video game : is it a product that has simply run its course, or is it simply in a transition period? Nationally, the picture seems a little clouded and uncertain . However, our local picture of the video game still appears to be bright and enjoyable.
JFK's image remains alive twenty years later
by Bonnie Zischang Twenty years ago, on a brisk November day in 1963, the man who presided over a change of political generations in America was shot to death on a glaring Friday afternoon in Dallas . Since then, John F. Kennedy etched his image indelibly into the minds of millions in this country . The majority of us, who were mostly infants and toddlers when Kennedy was assassinated, were too young to know or understand how this man sparked the world with such passion. After his death, when the world finally got over the shock, the myths began. Twenty years later, our images of Kennedy are challenged by the revelation of previously concealed issues on Kennedy and his administration. "Kennedy was an idealist. He was a man who used his charisma to his advantage," said Nikki Shuler. Shuler also went on to say, "Many of us were too young to know Kennedy but now we are old enough to see the lives that he has affected." 'Kennedy was an idealist. He was a man who used his charisma to his advantage.' -Nikki Shuler Recently the television stations have provided a total of 72 hours worth of programs on Kennedy, the man, and the president, his private and his public life. Magazines such as Time, have also provided articles on the subject, and countless books have been written. Although his presidency was shortened to less than three years by an assassin's ------------------
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bullet, he undoubtedly was forced to deal with dramatic occurences while in office.
The Bay of Pigs invasion, civil rights violence, a confrontation with the Soviet Union over Berlin and the Cuban missile crisis were incidents that the young and inexperienced president had to learn from trial and error .
Stacy Schroepfer, senior, believes "that Kennedy's presidency affects our lives today because a lot of Kennedy's proposed legislation while in office was pushed through Congress by Lyndon Johnson (his successor)." Schroepfer commented, "Kennedy contributed a lot to the space race through the creation of the NASA Space Program."
Many question Kennedy's presidency as belonging more to the history of publicity rather than to political leadership. Many believe that it was his youth, charisma and idealism that made Kennedy gre_at.
"Just because Kennedy was dynamic and good-looking, people were drawn to those qualities. That doesn't necessarily make him a good president," said Gail DeAnnuntias, sophomore. "Actually, Lyndon Johnson should get the credit because he pushed through the Civil Rights Act and had done more than Kennedy envisioned," DeAnnuntis said.
When Kennedy took office, he entered with extraordinary energy and high hopes. To America, he seemed like the perfect president although history will remember not what he did but who he was.
Debbie Peacock, sophomore, said, "It is considered unAmerican not to like Kennedy. As small kids, we learned he was our hero." When asked what she thought of Kennedy from a historical and political viewpoint, Peacock stated, "It's too early to evaluate Kennedy . His presidency cannot be fully analyzed in so short a time. Who knows, we may need another twenty years."
According to Dr. Jolyon Girard, history chairperson, "Historians have evaluated Kennedy with a favorable idea immediately following his death . Ten years later, Kennedy was more critically re-evaluated and people realized that he was full ofrhetoric and no actions. Recent interpretations of Kennedy are neither supportive or critical. There is an understanding of Kennedy's limitations as they are more fully recognized," Girard said.
