The Lost Tribe of Arcade and Pinball Collectors

Over the weekend I visited the Puget Sound area for some videogame research. A lot of my plans ended up being sidetracked. I did get to see the Seattle Sounders game however.

I post this picture mostly just to show off.

The reason why I went was to attend a planning session for Pinball and Arcade Enthusiasts. They will be having a show this summer with collectable games set up on free play. It costs to get in, but the games are free after that. It was pretty amazing seeing so many people wanting to help out at such an event. It was also a cool feeling to introduce myself as an anthropologist who studies videogames.

After the meeting, I met with various people to see how I could help out. One guy asked a really good question.

“What are you studying?” said a pinball historian.

As most of you can imagine, I was pretty elated to meet a pinball historian. His questions made me wonder how I should explain the cultural importance. While driving home, I thought about the best way to explain. I also thought about how badly people from Ephrata seem to drive, but thats another subject.

The best answer is that idea of a lost tribe, or culture. In my studies outside of videogames, there are many cultural items that are in plain sight but not seen. For example, thousands of cultures point with their heads, and lips instead of their hands. You likely think this isn’t too big, until I tell you this includes people in the Pacific Ocean, South East Asia, and the Americas. In fact, the only way these cultures could be using the same movements is if they had contact with each other within about a thousand years.

Basically, the idea is a culture, or tribe is lost to the ages, and we only have evidence of them in our records. One day a guy shows something his grandmother made, and it turns out to be from the lost culture. The tribe has been around the entire time, they just adapted to the other cultures around them.

Another example is the language of Native Hawaiian. Although not illegal in Hawaii, it was against school rules to speak it. This included schools that were almost entirely native Hawaiian students. English was the promoted language, and it became the main language of the archipelago.  In the 1950’s and 60’s there was an attempt to rebuild the language and culture of Native Hawaii. It is ongoing to this day. Finding native speakers was difficult, and meant that the language would be stunted or even lost. Luckily the island of Ni’ihau was not incorporated into the larger Hawaiian island chain. The natives spoke their own form of Hawaiian, and used it as their first language. The people who could speak the language, including the people from Ni’ihau were recorded while talking.

Right now the big thing is to get people to speak the language again, and use it in their lives. It is a struggle that I don’t have a lot of answers to, though I have tried to learn what I can to help move it forward. We can say the same for many native languages around this world. It is sad to say that my very small amount of Bizaad adinatah can be better than many of the Navajos I have met. To give you an idea, I said the name of Navajo wrong, and don’t know how to correct it.

Within each of these cultures, there is a common pattern.

The first is the obvious one, that the culture is thought to be lost. As far as anyone is talking, the idea or the subject has not been around for years. We don’t always know why, except that it isn’t there.

The second is that it is no where near as dead as thought. There are still people involved with it, and using it all of the time. For example, the Ni’ihauen islanders have spoken Native Hawaiian to eachother this entire time, even though most of the islands have not.

Generally speaking, the culture is usually right there in the open. The person who studies it does not expect to see it still around, so they don’t look. This is one of the awkward parts of Archaeology.

Another part is that the people involved with the long lost culture don’t realize how other people view it, or think its common. Pointing with your lips is so common among so many cultures, and even joked about. A friend jokes that a Onida dog has extra muscles to point with his lips. I talked to a professor about who to talk to, and without thinking about it, he pointed with his face to where the other professors were. When you are surrounded by the culture, you don’t realize that some small thing might be thought dead and lost.

So how does this work with arcades? It starts with a very small tour of Circus Circus. I was in Las Vegas for a literary convention on Davy Barry. Circus Circus was across the street from where I was staying. I was told there was a really nice arcade in the casino, but only got a chance to see it the day I left. There was only an hour for me to tour the place, and it turned out the Midway was closed. A very nice woman gave me a tour, and talked to me about it.

At one point, all of the gambling machines in Vegas were being taken out for arcades. It was a much bigger money seller. Some of the Casinos kept an arcade section. It seemed that a lot of these arcades were shutting down though. The reason why wasn’t that people didn’t want to play them. Maintaining an arcade unit is a tricky job, and needs an experienced hand at times. The people who could do this charged really high prices. Far worse, most of the arcade mechanics were retiring. The entire arcade feel of Vegas was going away.

I knew there were hobbyists who bought arcade games, and even knew about the Arcade Legends at Costco. I even knew a collector in Phoenix. The big thing was that it looked like people would only have one arcade game, and even then someone buying it would be rare. It was much more common to find console collectors. Arcade games are big and expensive.

If you read history books on videogames, arcades sort of die off. They are not spoken of after a certain point. The basic feeling is that they were no longer a part of gaming.

Even after working in an arcade, I saw how small the groups were. There were fans for arcade, and pinball machines. I am one of them. It was just really hard to keep arcade equipment maintained, and attracting customers. The local arcades in Hawaii were going under. It was pretty much an accepted thought that arcades, and their many games were going away.

Then I found a Arcade Dreams, by a guy in Scotland. He consistently posts pictures of great old games I loved. Even my good friends are not getting as many likes as his page. I interviewed him to find out more info, he told me about arcade forums in the UK. Then, on that forum, I found out there were arcade hobbyist collectors in Seattle. Needless to say, I was floored.

The group I met is mostly pinball folks. They put on a show every year with collector donated games. Each game is put on free play, and there are plenty of other items to check out. I will be helping out with the history section I hope. It costs money to get in, and there are vendors, but the arcades don’t need quarters. I would post pictures, but I don’t know if its allowed. I can say that the meeting had nearly 30 people just planning out the show. They were very well organized, and knew how to do things.

When I was asked about what I wanted to do with the group, I was sort of dumbfounded. Then I realized that each member knew that arcades were on the outs, but probably didn’t know how they played a role in it. Imagine being told that some common thing you enjoyed doing was considered a lost thing. It works the same with Navajo speakers, or even Native Hawaiians. It is a thing they do, not a thing that was way back in the past. For me, the shock hit me when I found out Yiddish was dying. In the same way, the arcade hobbyist collector sees it. They know plenty of people who speak that way about arcades. What is forgotten is that outside of the group, no one speaks it.

In other words, I had just found a culture that was thought lost. It was right there, in plain view, and I didn’t see it. When I talked to the people about it, they were sort of wondering what was so big about them. It may not be as big as Olelo Hawaii or Bizaad Dinetah, but for videogames it is huge.