itatton.bsky.social
(He/Him) I’m a big fan of video games, video game history, and anime.
Currently spending my spare time working on trying to find all of the digital pinball games released for consoles and handhelds. And playing Wacca. I love Wacca.
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The hardest part of trying to track down all the pinball games for consoles and handhelds is looking for the ones with pinball minigames like this. I found this one a few years ago but I still stumble on games that I didn't realize have full-featured pinball tables inside of them.
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Do you have any devices you put away and didnt take the battery out? Go take the battery out now and don't put one back in.
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lil plugbrag: my bf is in the process of building a physical reproduction of 3D Pinball Space Cadet!
bsky.app/profile/3dpi...
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Oh man now I’m really getting my hopes up for a Nurse Angel Ririka release. I know it’s too much to ask so please let me down easy on Monday.
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It sounds wonderful and it reminds me how much I miss getting to hear you play live on at least a yearly basis. I hope I’ll get the chance to again someday.
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Dad was a mainframe engineer so it was a “television” when we were watching a broadcast and it was a “CRT” when being used as a monitor for a C64 or Atari.
Likewise, he would not shut down a computer. He would quiesce it. Even when it ran Windows/MacOS. Even when he had to select “shut down.” :)
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I miss this table. It’s been a while since I found one.
I know the figures were weak for the abuse they take, but that Magneto multiball where it releases the locked balls and catches them lined up on the magnet in the playfield is such a neat effect.
“You dare attack the master of magnetism?”
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Ha ha, that brings back memories. It looks like a Fry’s Electronics sticker. I dunno what the other locations were like, but the one in Fisher’s, IN had no chill when they wanted stock out the door. I still have a few games from there with their original prices tags.
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Also, be welcoming and encouraging to people sharing their stories and knowledge. Try to speak up if you see someone getting shut down or shouted over.
All of our experiences are valid, all games are important, all developers have contributed, and no opportunity to capture a story should be lost.
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Everyone has different resources, so don’t feel discouraged if you can’t contribute as much as others. It’s equally as important to help boost people’s research and stories. Helping to make information accessible to more people also helps to fill in gaps in public understanding and grows us all.
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If you have unique skills, like being bilingual or a writer/editor, volunteer some time to people who may need support to contribute.
If you spent time in other countries and have memories or pics to share, try to find people you can share them with. You might be surprised at what value they have.
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Third, find ways to support people who are working on filling in the gaps. If you are able, make donations to writers, researchers, YouTubers, museums, etc… even if the content you are supporting isn’t in your native language. Again, we keep losing people, so capturing stories is vital.
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Second, make sure to scope information appropriately. If you grew up in the US, make sure to call out experiences as being specific to the US and don’t cast US history as being universal to everyone. Being diligent about identifying regional/cultural differences will help to paint a better picture.
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I believe there’s lots we can and should do to improve.
First, be open-minded about other people’s experiences and about the cultural impacts of games that you’ve never played. Remember the huge gaps in what’s been captured and take opportunities to learn more. Listen and don’t shut down others.
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You may be thinking about how we should reconcile this. Do we disregard what we have? Do we stop focusing on recording US gaming history?
I think shouldn’t devalue what’s already been captured nor should we stop trying to capture US history. We will continue to lose people and stories if we stop.
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Instead of being open-minded and expanding their understanding, they would rather try to shut it down because it’s easier.
There’s also bad faith actors who want to police recorded history as outlets for their personal biases. It’s not hard to find history discourse turning into blatant bigotry.
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That brings me to the negatives.
Too many people take the existing knowledge as a complete picture, and start dictating or policing what that picture should be. Some people do this out of ignorance. It can be hard when something that FEELS complete is challenged with information that feels wrong.
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I earnestly believe these types of efforts are not erasure by design nor intention. Rather erasure by circumstance.
I also believe that part of a story is better than no story at all. One person may dig up something that someone else has the resources to pursue deeper. I think this is net positive.
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But recording history is often messy, and it takes time to reconcile all the information together into complete pictures. People often capture what they can see. The reality is that everyone has to make money to survive, and not everyone has the same levels of support resources to fill in the gaps.
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Many casual and professional historians, community leaders, fans, etc… have put in countless hours trying to capture as much as they can. Many for free in their spare time. This passionate drive to capture and share as much information as possible is immeasurably valuable to recording this history.
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There are also lots of developers alive who were there at pivotal points throughout this short history. We are immensely lucky to have opportunities to capture the stories of the people who contributed in various ways. We’ve also been starting to lose them. As they pass on, so too do their stories.
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I think this is the result of a combination of good faith and bad faith efforts.
I’ll start with the positives. In terms of technology, video games are relatively young and immensely popular. There are tons of people alive who lived through video games initially reaching arcades/bars through now.
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Where is the best place to buy your book to make sure you get the biggest possible slice from the sale?