A FOCUS ON JODY WEISSLER’s HOBBIES

Jody’s Arcade. Electronic and Video Games since the 1970s.

I have been interested in video games my entire life. In fact, when I think of much of my childhood, countless memories are about what handhelds or game consoles my friends had. I also have fond memories of the arcades of different hotels, malls, or amusement centers. I am not unique. Many people who grew up in the 70s and 80s have this unique perspective of being alive at a time when arcades and the growth of the video games were celebrated. Home and handheld electronics popularity and innovation skyrocketed and video games often were central to movies, cartoons, music, and popular culture. Despite countless shared experiences, we also all have our own unique video game narrative. For example, my wife’s family Colecovision game console with her own fond memories of playing Burger Time and Smurfs is very different than my Atari heritage.

I hope you enjoy and relate to some parts of this this story of the last (almost 50 years) of the constantly evolving story of a video games and that details that I provide that while specific to my upbringing will hopefully bring about some shared memories that you have in your video game history. This entire journey and collection of memories I will refer to as Jody’s Arcade.

PONG and Early Handheld Electronic Games

For the 1970s Weissler family, it began with the Coleco Telstar and a series of handheld electronic games. In the 1970s Atari and a number of less known players came out with dedicated versions of PONG to be played in home consoles. All of these consoles generally had variations of PONG. Coleco was a more well known maker of these pong consoles and the version that my dad and mom got us included a wired rifle that had an electronic shooting game where you shot at a moving white dot on a black background in addition to PONG variants.

The Telstar was entertaining, but it was also a time period where there were handheld plastic games like Maniac and Simon that were all the rage. Mattel Baseball and Mattel Basketball with LED lights that illuminated to simulate motion were also played for hours in the Weissler family. My brother Adam and I had a two player game called Bambino Boxing. Year later Street Fighter or Smash Bro came out, but it was this game, where I got the experience literally just pounded on the keys with your little LED fighter.

In my video game narrative there are memories that stand out quite clearly and I was only in 1st grade when I remember two twins on my bus having a unique handheld toy for there bus ride across the east San Fernando Valley. I would envy this handheld game system but would not acquire one for years later. This handheld machine was called the Microvision and it was made by Mattel. It was the first handheld game system that played multiple games via cartridges. The packed in game was called Blockbuster and it was a variant of breakout. This was 1979 and I was 7 years old.

Getting the first Atari 2600 and my introduction to electronic games from Japan.

The ATARI 2600 also known as the Atari VCS was our first console that accepted cartridges. It was purchased at Long’s Drugs in North Hollywood, California. The game that came with the console at this time was Combat. This system had three knobs on each side of the cartridge slot. The system would soon be replaced with a model that only had two knobs on the left and right of the cartridge slot. Joysticks and paddle controllers were also included. Years later it would become common to only include joysticks and the packed in game became Pac-man. It should be noted that despite including paddles, the console we purchased did not include any game that could use it, but my parents soon did buy me Breakout and Circus Atari. These game did not compare with Activision’s Kaboom which is the famous game where you catch bombs with buckets filled with water. Once I had Kaboom the paddles were used non-stop. If you have memories have paddle controllers you probably are aware of the little extra movement that most paddles soon had.

Japanese Imports given to me from my Grandma

Despite the Japanese name of Atari, Atari was very much an American Company based in the United States. When my grandma took her trip to Hong Kong in the early 80s she returned with a Space Shuttle Game Watch and a collection of Nintendo Game & Watches. Popeye, Octopus, and Donkey Kong Jr were all early Game & Watches that were part of my handheld collection. Almost ten years later, in the late 90s I got a compilation cartridge of some of the game and watches that I did not own. While it was still a genuine Nintendo device, game and watch games on a Gameboy, and especially when the screen is now in color, is not the same. One unique Game & Watch is the Donkey Kong one. In addition to being two screen (a precursor to the Nintendo DS) the Donkey Kong handheld had the first directional gamepad that eventually became a Nintendo and game controller norm in general.

Getting to the Arcade

My first arcade memory is was part of larger entertainment center in North Hollywood California that had an arcade mini golf and a cement waterslide. I remember seeing Outlaw and Asteroids with its vector graphics very well. In the 80s a large arcade like this often had mechanical games of the past. Pinballs of course, but there was also some popular baseball mechanical games. I rarely played these and by the 90s the stand up mechanical games were museum pieces.

Of all the arcade experiences the one that stands out the most was The SEGA Center at the Sherman Oaks Galleria. Located at the third story of this iconic 80s mall was a large arcade that you entered from the middle of the food court. My parents had the entertainment book, and I remember getting ten dollars worth of quarters for 5 dollars. Pole Position, Turbo and Tron. I also remember they had the black and white atari football in front and a battle zone in the back.

This was also the best period of time for visited Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theater. Things were very different back then for these restaurants. First of all they were not well lit like today’s arcades. There were two different rooms with mechanical characters. There was no play equipment or jumpers.

The sunken arcade at the Disneyland Hotel was only visited a few times, but probably one of the most interesting arcades I every visited.

In the 1980s I was fortunate enough for my parents to take us to Disneyworld and stay at the The Contemporary Resort Hotel. In case you are not too familiar with Disneyworld, this is the hotel that has the monorail run right through and of course it had a full level of an arcade. Memories of playing both centipede and spy hunter there as well as seeing an arcade with its own shooting gallery.

Catalina island at one time had two very large arcades. pokereno and black jack (21) games. Skeeball had two different options. Ten cents or 25 cents earned a different amount of redemption tickets. My mom and grandma would be laying out in the sun and I would be asking for more and more dollars to be spent. I remember the arcade closer to the casino that had the Atari Fire Truck video game.

Knott’s Berry Farm had a large arcade under the Knott’s Berry Tale’s Ride and later the Kingdom of the Dinosaurs. This arcade is memorable because I was once in a Skeeball competition there.

continuing the thought regarding Skeeball Six Flags Magic Mountain had an array or arcades over the years. Stopping to see a friend excel at Paperboy. Getting the small prize at 240 and a larger prize at 280. Around 2016, Magic Mountain removed Skeeball from its games of skill area. To this day, I wonder where the
Skeeball machines went. Are they in a wherehouse at Six flags, are they in another arcade, where they purchased by a private collector?

Redondo Beach pier arcade had the world’s largest pinball, a real Atari Pong, lots of skeeball. While not an arcade game, I still have memories of the whip ride located at the arcades entrance.