A video game article from a 1982 issue of Playboy magazine!

Hello friends! I hope that you have been well this season. I was digging in the crates, and found an old issue of Playboy magazine that I had to share with you. Don’t worry, I’m not about to turn this blog into some sort of weirdo page.

Playboy magazine may be known for female nude pinups, however they were also known for their articles. Journalists, politicians, and authors would often write for the magazine. The March 1982 issue of Playboy actually had an article talking about video games. Unlike other magazines at the time which were trying to describe what the whole video game craze was about this one instead assumed that the readers were already somewhat familiar with them.

By 1982 there had already been a number of hits, like Asteroids, Space Invaders, and Pac-Man of course. What the magazine was trying to do was help you get high scores on three of the more popular games. These included Defender, Pac-Man, and Centipede. The article by Walter Lower Jr. included an interview with legendary game creator Eugene Jarvis.

The magazine also talked about the physical effects of playing arcade games for extended periods of time. Things that we today know as repetitive stress injuries (RSI’s) were still being explored by doctors. Fatigue, eye strain, and even hand blisters hadn’t really been seen on a massive scale until video games hit the market in the late ‘70s.

It was great reading from arcade operators explaining how games were used in social settings. Men, and women would socialize over arcade games after work. Not unlike their parents would have met at a bar or nightclub a generation earlier. The strategies explored in the article were designed to make you look like a pro, and help you impress a date.

This snapshot of history was fascinating. I’m glad that Mr. Lowe approached video games with the same level of maturity that the political analysts put in their articles. The nudie women in the issues were just the icing on the nerdy cake. Anyhow that was a look at an old game article in an adult magazine. Were there ever any video game articles that you saw in non-gaming magazines? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

A trip back to 1982. A 1UP classic...

There's not much to report in game news. I'm trying to figure out why they call Cliffy B. "Dude Huge" now. What's that about? He seems like an average size guy to me. Looking forward to Gears of War 2, well at least my brother is. I'm still waiting to see something that piques my interest for the Xbox 360, especially since the new Hulk game wasn't as well made as the previous one. I did find something rather awesome, or kind of sad, depending on your point of view. My brother found an old catalog in the doctor's office while waiting for a checkup, he took it home to share with me. The electronic game section was so amazing that I had to scan the pages in.

The Hartman Catalog Showrooms seem to be no more. I searched online and in the phone books and it looks like they closed shop a while back. These pages were taken from their 1982 catalog. Good gravy! Were some of you even born then? I was 8-years-old at the time and sure-enough, have fond memories of the handheld electronics. Some of the manufactures disappeared along with the arcade crash of the 80's. For a while some of the electronic handheld games were better than the consoles. I remember seeing the Pac Man 2 game and wondered if the handheld version fell in canon with the Pac Man and Ms. Pac Man titles.

Yes, even as a kid I was obsessed with the order and relationships between videogames and sequels. What was the plot and purpose of Pac Man 2? Would the blue and black color scheme replace the yellow and blue of the arcade cabinet? Were these new ghosts chasing Pac Man, were the mazes really going to become horizontal rather than vertical? These things fascinated me. Talk about a kook in the making!

The 3D Dungeons & Dragons game by Mattel fascinated me. My uncle and cousin each had a copy of the LCD D&D game from the year before. The various handheld titles were expensive for the time. Considering we had a couple of led lights in place of a real screen and no memory worth measuring, these titles were the cornerstone of technology and warranted the price tag. The most expensive game in the lineup was the Mattel Computer Chess game. It cost $119 in 1982, if you figure inflation that would be around $250 today.

The idea of having a single handheld game system that had interchangeable cartridges was a pipe dream. Each handheld game had to have a theme and custom-built input. Just like their arcade counterparts. Maybe someday in the far future, in the time of Buck Rogers, would we ever see such technology that allowed for a universal portable gaming device. Seven years later, practically another half of my lifetime, we were introduced to the Gameboy. The era of limited portable gaming was over.

The consoles at the time were pricey and underpowered, by today's standards. The most expensive of these, the Intellivision was $329 in the catalog. If you figure inflation that is like spending $700 today. The Odyssey and 2600 would have been around $425 in today's currency. Suddenly the PS3 doesn't seem so pricey anymore. Parents had to scrape and save to get those items in time for Christmas. My parents made a lot of sacrifices getting the 2600 to my brother. Being the only kids on the block that brought the arcade home was worth it. I have yet to find a person that owned one or two of these systems back in the day and did not have warm memories of them. Most of my generation here on 1UP, and a lot of the editors past and present, they can recall similar stories. The Atari 2600 forever changed us and gave us something to look forward to at the end of the day.

It is very interested to think about how far we have come in 26 years. The three major console developers highlighted in the catalog, Atari, Magnavox and Atari are no longer major players in the game. Even the name of Atari carries little value in the market today. It's kind of sad in a way but the memories of those rare handheld systems and early consoles will forever remain special to us gamers. Before I get all weepy I'll get back to work. Later today I have a live jazz performance. If the weather cooperates then I might have some video for you tomorrow! Keep your fingers crossed and let me know what you were up to in 1982... that is if you were even born yet. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!