4 Focus, The Battalion
Thursday, July 30, 1981
Boy scores 14 million points
Pinball wizards now common
■> .-United Press International
JVLark Manzo, 14, of East
Eddington, Me., was just plan
ning to sharpen his skills when
he plunked his first quarter in
the Asteroids machine one Sun
day morning in early May.
He wrapped up the game 29
hours, 35 minutes and
14,232,200 points later.
"I'm dead tired," the youth
ful video shark said after relin
quishing the controls. "It was
just one quarter."
Manzo said he had seen a
television show about a fellow
who scored 14 million points in
the game. He just wanted to
beat his record for blasting apart
rock fragments and spaceships
with laser fire on a video screen.
"These machines pay the rent
on the store every month," said
Jack Weber, co-owner of a
neighborhood bar on Chicago's
North Side. When he and his
partner took over their tavern
the only form of entertainment,
other than drinking, was a juke
box.
Despite warnings from their
chagrined regulars that the
clientele would drastically
change, Weber installed two
game machines — a pinball and
an Asteroids.
Now the old timers have be
come as adept at manipulating
side flippers and dodging invad
ers from outer space as the new
comers who wander in off the
street at the sight of the flashing
lights.
"There's a guy named
George, a grad student, who
completely changed his drink
ing habits when he found out
we had an Asteroids machine,"
Weber said. "He was walking by
the bar one night and saw it so
he came in."
Weber said neighborhood re
sidents, including some kids
brought by their parents, come
to play. Others start at the bar
and end up playing.
He said the games weave a
spell of fascination around the
players — enticing on two levels
of competition.
"There is the person-to-
person competirion where the
players bet dinner, drinks and
money on who wins. Then there
is competition against the
machine itself."
Asteroids brings the bar about
$120 weekly, as does the pinball
machine.
Weber said there is a problem
with the video games. Players
tend to lose interest after the
game has been around for a
while because they become
familiar with all the nuances of
the computer and master the
game.
On the other hand, pinball
players seem to maintain a con
stant interest in their game, re
gardless of the machine, be
cause the game doesn't really
change, just the caricature like
figures and names of the games.
Weber said people frequently
bet $10, $15 or $20 — or more
simply the bill for dinner—on a
single game.
Paul Calimari, director of
sales for Bally Mfg., the world's
largest pinball manufacturer,
said the games came into being
during the Depression.
In 1931, Bally introduced the
first mass produced pinball
machine — "Ballyhoo" — its
name derived from a show busi
ness magazine.
Over the next 15 to 20 years
the game grew in popularity un
til it became a household word.
The debut of the Rock opera
"Tommy" by The Who, with its
featured song "Pinball Wizard,"
climbed to the top of the hit
charts and carried the game with
it in the early 1970s.
Family arcades and games
parlors began springing up,
especially in suburban shopping
centers.
"We in this business are sell
ing entertainment, cheap enter
tainment," Calimari said.
"Many people can't afford tick
ets to a football game or a boxing
match, but they can afford a
quarter for a pinball machine.
"Its a wholesome way of en
tertaining oneself for a small
amount of money."
Calimari said Bally manufac
tures between 100,000 and
120,000 pinball machines each
year. The machines cost an esti
mated $2,000 each and retail
through distributors. Most of
the games in home use are pur
chased as used commercial
games. There is a model on sale
designed for home use, but is of
inferior quality.
In the fast-growing video
game market, Midway Mfg. is
the largest company in the
world. It is a wholly owned sub
sidiary of Bally Mfg.
The phenomenal "Space In
vaders" game was brought im
ported from Japan by Midway.
In the past two years, Bally
made and sold more than 60,000
Space Invaders machines for a
net profit of about $18 million.
The company manufacturers
about eight new games a year.
One of the latest is "Pac Man" —
a difficult-to-describe-unless-
you've-played-it game set in a
maze. Afficionados say it picks
up where Space Invaders left
off.
"Video has come on real
strong into its own in the last
couple of years," Calimari said.
"The reason is the outer space
themes. Asteroids appealed to
younger people and really
helped the video arcade busi
ness."
Video started out almost ex
clusively as an arcade game. The
first game, "Pong," was made
by Nolan Bushnell of Atari. "It
took over like magic" and from
that all other video games were
derived, Calimari said.
"All types of coin operated
amusement lend itself to the
masses of people because it is a
cheap form of entertainment,"
he said. "It offers people a little
bit of enjoyment to forget about
their problems."
And, best of all for the manu
facturers, Calimari said "the
economy does not effect our
business the way it does
others."
"It was born during the de
pression and flourishes even
when economy is bad because
people need an escape," he
said. "Being able to go to your
local tavern or games parlor and
playing pinball for a while — it's
sort of like a well-to-do person
going to Las Vegas.
"What we're selling is enter
tainment, we're in show busi
ness. The more entertainment
we can provide the better off we
are."
Wedding day saved by worker
By Aline Mosby
United Press International
LONDON — The unsung
hero of the wedding ceremony
uniting Prince Charles and Lady
Diana Spencer was a hairy-
chested youth in blue jeans, T-
shirt and sneakers.
What the television cameras
did not show inside 741-year-
old St. Paul's Cathedral was that
the workers struggled too long
to lay the 652-feet red carpet
from the outside steps to the
altar because it was stiff and
cheap, in line with current aus
terity.
There was no time to pull off
all of the plastic protective cov
ering before the guests began
pouring into the cathedral at 9
a.m.
At 10:15 a.m., the procession
of supporting players in the
pomp and ceremony had be
gun. The speaker of Parliament
in his black velvet Little Lord
Fauntlroy trousers and the
queen's yeomen in red and
black Beefeater garb were para
ding by the assembled foreign
heads of state, diplomats, lesser
royalty and the best of the rest in
their feathered and flowered
hats and gray top hats and
morning coats.
Suddenly, four workers in
jeans surged forward. One in a
T-shirt labeled "Adidas" dis
playing some of his chest leaped
to the dias where the bride and
groom would be married and
grabbed off the plastic covering.
He and his helpers hurried
out of sight like "prop" boys
caught on a stage when the cur
tain went up. "The red carpet
will be used for office buildings
so there's no waste — these are
perilous times in Britain," his
sed one of the ushers.
I was one of only 12 American
correspondents permitted in
side the cathedral to view the
wedding ceremony.
A heartstopping moment for
us came after the bride and
groom said "I will" and were to
sit for the hymns and sermon.
An attendant in black swallow
tail coat stepped forward to put
a red brocaded silkstool with
gilded legs underneath the new
princess of Wales. Both Prince
Charles and Diana yanked the
sequinned 25-foot ivory tulle
train to one side. Then they fus
sed with engineering the full-
skirted ivory taffeta skirt and
numerous crinoline petticoats
so she could sit.
For four agonizing seconds
she hovered in space, her hands
groping behind her. Would she
sit in a void? She made it to the
stool.