i both
neet
was led by shot
e who won his
)f 66 feet, 10’/t
inter Richard
r won the 55-
eet-record time
ten performers
itry (fourth in
1 Yolanda Tay-
■11 (fourth and
, in the long
air
es
ownsley expert-
dems and got an
walks and three
ey a shower after
i inning,
iff the game with
right field and
n a sacrifice flyby
Knoblauch and
to load the bases
with a hard shot
wnsend to score
Townsley looked
of more damage
grouder to NIL
dy Bryan. Bryan,
irs in the game,
miscue by throw-
catcher allowing
(bright to score
I lead.
iced to third on
:n moved to sec-
d when Witte
finish the inning
d.
15 hits and took
Indian errors in
e.
1 eight new play-
o begin the fifth
ln’t experience a
as the substitute
runs and ten hits
ter Jeff Jones got
ines worked four
ng way to Steve
lientala. Jones, a
.win of the year
o hits while walk
out two.
sctive in two in-
ling relief giving
?ntala picked up
■ year by working
dlowing two hits,
riking out three,
i where we’re at,”
it now we appear
ton of a mentally
mtrolled the cir-
1 to play under,
aging to me.”
t
ting
ndy's.
:he Chictw
The Battalion
ENTERTAINMENT
Monday, February 20,1989
IliKil—l■^^^l | llll lli'iilllili ill Hi«—M1IIWM 111 I IIIHi 1111 IfiVT i' i~ ••TiTT
C ~VZ£% PLAYING GAMES
A look at some
of the games
Aggies play
From Pong to Devastator,
games revolutionalize fun
By Chuck Lovejoy
ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
In the beginning, there was Pong.
Pong was not the god of table tennis.
Pong was not a delicacy eaten during
solemn festivals honoring the gods,
either.
Pong was a video game.
Who would have thought that one
simple coin-operated machine
would start a revolution in the very
foundations of American — and
world — recreation.
Pong was nothing spectacular — it
was simply a video version of table
tennis.
A white blip on the machine’s
screen bounced back and forth, back
and forth off white bars represent
ing paddles, which were controlled
by rotating knobs. Just pop a quarter
in the machine, and the game began.
But Pong was an innovation — the
very first coin-operated video game,
successor to the infamous King Pin
ball.
The person responsible for the
electronic prodigy was Nolan Bush-
nell, the engineer who founded At
ari and forever changed the Ameri
can entertainment and electronics
industries.
Now video games are everywhere.
They snuggle up against soft
drink machines in the nation’s su
permarkets, they lurk in the smoky
corners of nightclubs and poolhalls,
they befriend lonely travelers in
American bus terminals and air-
UFOs that flew by just to annoy the
player.
Asteroids was not in color, but it
was exciting. The asteroids came
from all directions. The ship’s only
choices, if the rocks couldn’t be
blasted from existence, was to jump
into hyperspace or rocket out of
their way.
Asteroids quickly became the most
popular video game up to that time.
The triumvirate was loyally fol
lowed by an ample number of war
riors.
Everyone knows their names —
Pac Man, Defender, Missile Com
mand, and countless others. The
time was 1981, and America re
ceived them with open arms.
Children entered the temples,
which by now were scattered across
the land, with pockets full of quar
ters and hands that itched to grip the
games’joysticks and do battle.
Parents weren’t so happy.
Granted, many adults did get into
the fad, but not with the fervor that
children displayed. As with many
new things, fear arose for the chil
dren’s mental health (“Killing things
can’t be good for Johnny’s mind!”),
physical health (“He should be out
side in the sunshine instead of star
ing at that screen!”), and academic
health (“He went to the arcade with
out even starting his homework!”).
The arcade was never again to en
joy such overwhelming popularity.
Although still popular, video games
aren’t as popular today as they were
in the early ’80s. The reign of King
Video is all but over.
The Video Gamers of Today
King Video is not dead, however.
People today still find time to in
sert a quarter into a video game and
enter another world, if only for a
while.
On the A&M campus, the games
can be found in the MSC game
room, the Underground, the Com
mons snack bar area, and the golf
course office. There are also several
arcades around town, including ones
in the Post Oak and Manor East
Malls.
A&M sophomore Romeo Lopez,
who works in the MSC game room,
says the video games there are
played constantly.
“We have to run people out at
dosing (11 p.m.) every night, espe
cially on Fridays,” Lopez said. Other
than Fridays, he said the gameroom
is busy daily around lunchtime and 8
p.m.
In the MSC, most of the clientele
are male, said sophomore Christy
Lane, who works in the game room’s
snack bar.
“Until we close at 11, it’s probably
Who would have thought that one simple coin-
operated machine would start a revolution in the very
foundations of American — and world — recreation.
ports. People have built temples,
called arcades, to the revered deities
in shopping malls everywhere.
Even though the capitalistic first
video game. Pong, appeared in
1972, the real fuss didn’t start until
later in that decade, when Space In
vaders (the Conqueror) unleashed
his fury on the pocketbooks around
the globe. Yes, the globe — for by
1980, the beeping, blooping ma
chines could be found almost any
where on earth.
Space Invaders could be consid
ered the second innovation, for the
masses had grown tired of Pong and
its equally stagnant followers. The
early games, although entertaining,
were boring. Pong had no variety,
just a blip that bounced back and
forth, back and forth. “Improved”
versions of the game were intro
duced, but to no avail. The same blip
bounced around, only it bounced a
little faster.
Then Space Invaders set out on its
crusade. Space Invaders was in
color. Pong was in black and white.
Space Invaders had more sound ef
fects: crashes, whooshes, thuds.
Pong had only bloops. Space Invad
ers had a field of aliens that ad
vanced, slowly at first and faster as
the game progressed, on the hero
ship, which blasted the heathens
from the sky. Pong had a paddles
and a bouncing blip.
Then came the third conqueror —
Asteroids (the Great).
This time instead of battling space
aliens on the ground, the hero ship
was out there in the void dodging
great masses of video rock and pesty
But Pong was an innovation — the very first coin-
operated video game, successor to the infamous King
Pinball.
The fear took many forms. In
July of 1981, the town council of Ir
vington, New York, limited to three
the number of video games an estab
lishment could own, and demanded
that they be turned off before school
hours.
The paranoia wasn’t limited to
those Yankee states, either. Mesquite
tried to pass a law forbidding anyone
under 17 from playing the games.
The law was struck down by the
courts, as if declaring, “Let them
play video!”
The reign of King Video faltered,
however. By 1985, the fad had worn
off; the newness of the games had
dissipated and the public’s pocket-
books became increasingly thinner,
for video games had made billions of
dollars per year since their arrival.
Also, since 1982 or so, video
games that hooked up to the stan
dard television set became increas
ingly popular.
Such units had been on the mar
ket since the middle ’70s, but they
were cost-prohibitive, and only a few
games could be played on them.
Once again, Atari led the way in
the home game market with its
“2600” series. By this time, Bushnell
had left the company to pursue
other things, but the company still
produced its games, and hundreds
of imitators — some better, some
worse — followed suit.
about 90% guys,” Lane said.
Sheryl Price, an A&M junior who
is the weekend manager at Bally’s
Aladdin’s Castle in Manor East Mall,
said the clientele her gameroom at
tracts is more balanced — about 60
percent males and 40 percent fe
males.
John Beck, manager of Time Out
Family Amusement Center in Post
Oak Mall, said the ages of the people
who play there are distributed fairly
evenly between youngsters, high
school students and college students.
Video games serve different pur
poses for different people.
Lane, also an avid video gamer,
said she plays her favorite game,
Centipede, before every exam she
takes.
“I’m usually really nervous before
tests,” the applied math/computer
science major said. “Playing the
game helps me relax and takes the
nervousness away.”
Steve Skinner, a freshman com
puter engineering major, said he
plays the machines for “spontaneous
“Playing a game can be a real
workout if you’re good at it,” he
added.
Skinner evidently believes what he
says, because he said he goes down
to the MSC game room at least once
a day, although he only plays if he
See Arcade/Page 12
Intramural teams play off-beat games
By Stacey Babin
ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
The server hits the ball across the
net as the opposing team awaits its
arrival. Hearts pound as arms and
hands try desperately to hit the ball
back across the net.
The ball is struck — it hits the ceil
ing, then a wall. Finally the ball
comes back down on the other side
of the court.
It’s a perfectly legal play. Ob
viously, the game isn’t volleyball. It’s
wallyball — a form of volleyball
played on a racquetball court, and
it's just one of the more off-beat in
tramural sports at Texas A&M.
Ann Stein, coordinator for intra
mural sports, said wallyball quickly
became a popular game after its in
troduction at A&M.
Sixty-eight three-member teams
now play wallyball.
Senior April Saenger has played
the game for almost four years. She
heard about the sport while living on
campus and wondered what it was.
“I like to play volleyball, but I
think (wallyball) is more of a chal
lenge,” Saenger said. “All of the
team plays. One person can’t run
around the whole time.”
The game is similar to volleyball,
but hitting the ball off the wall
makes it harder to play, she said.
The game is more difficult for peo
ple who have never played volley
ball, she said, because they are less
likely to know' how the ball is going
to angle dow n off the wall.
Wallyball also differs from volley
ball in that players can hit the ball
against the walls. The ceiling also
can be used at times.
The matches are played in De-
Ware Field House in independent,
dorm and Co-Recreational divisions.
Only one A&M volleyball club mem
ber is allowed to play on a team.
For students who want to get their
feet wet, intramurals offers some
water games, too.
Innertube water polo, which be
gins in March, uses a miniature soc
cer goal and, of course, innertubes.
Six players on each team propel
themselves with their hands and feet
while seated in their innertubes.
Only the goalie can stand inside his
innertube, touching the pool bot
tom.
The teams begin at opposite ends
of DeW’are’s indoor pool and play
for 20 minutes. One A&M Water
Polo Club member can be on a team,
but all A&M swimmers are ineli
gible.
In CoRec games, men’s goals
count for one point and women’s
count for two. The scoring system
maes the game exciting, Stein said,
because the team can make a
comeback when women players
make the shots.
Freshman Emma Goodman said,
“I like innertube water polo because
the game is a lot like soccer,” she
said.
Water, however, changes some of
the rules.
“A person can be dunked by
pushing down on the tube,” Good
man said. “This causes a turnover in
the game.”
The player who is dunked must
be in control of the ball. Anyone who
falls out of his or her innertube loses
control of the ball.
Different kinds of dunks can be
found in innertube water basketball,
which is played in the fall semester.
Goodman said she likes this sport,
too, even though she’s never played
basketball court.
Saenger said she also enjoys water
basketball, but says it’s hard to keep
paddling.
“You can get tired easily and if
you turn over it takes a while to get
back in the tube,” Saenger said.
A standard-size water polo ball is
used by the six-member teams.
Dribbling is accomplished with
the ball between the players’ knees.
The ball must be kept in the water at
all times. A player can be tackled or
can steal the ball by pushing down
on the opponent’s tube.
Stein said the water games are ex
citing because they’re so fast.
“Half the battle is staying in the
tube,” she said.
Pool racks up new aficionados
Photo illustration by Jay Janner
By Keith Spera
REVIEWER
As one of the current collegiate
trends, pool playing is enjoying a
period of popularity among stu
dents. Find a pool table in this
town and you’ll probably find a
line of people waiting to use it.
However, not everyone plays
pool for the same reasons, or with
the same goals in mind.
The people who fiock to the
pool tables invariably found in
bars are not necessarily “true”
pool players. Just because an es
tablishment has pool tables, it
does not mean that those who use
them are actually there to play
pool.
To find people primarily inter
ested in playing the game of pool,
a place of business whose main
focus is pool is the best bet. Such
places include Shooter’s, Yester
day’s, and Alfred T. Hornback’s
Professional Pool Emporium.
During a recent visit, all 15 ta
bles in Hornback’s were being
used, which is indicative of the
game’s popularity. According to
Austin Morris, who was working
behind the bar on Friday, Horn
back’s, although only open since
August, has become well-known
enough to fill all of its tables on
weekend nights. (Several players
also said that both Shooter’s and
Yesterday’s had lines of people
waiting for a table earlier that
night.)
After entering Hornback’s, it
soon becomes apparent that it is a
true pool hall, and not a typical
collegiate bar. The rows of pool
tables that take up most of the in
terior are good clues. The place is
well-lighted, and there is very
little smoke in the air.
Almost everyone inside is in
volved in a particular game in one
way or another; there are no
crowds of people milling about or
congregating at the bar. You
come here to play — or watch — a
game of pool (or dominoes or
shuffleboard, if you’re into those
sort of things).
From observations made at
Hornback’s, it seems that there
are three distinct classes of pool
players, separated by the widely-
varying degrees of seriousness
with which its members play.
The most easy-going group are
those who do not consider them
selves to be masters of the table by
any means. They generally play
with the people they come with,
and the outcome of the matches is
not all that important; having a
good time is.
Included in this level of play
are Karen Daasvand, Andre
Hellstrom, and Harald Jacobsen
(A&M students originally from
Norway, who still speak with a
thick accent), and Bob Svenson,
another Aggie, who described
himself as the other three’s “A-
merican ambassador.”
Karen and Bob teamed up
against Andre and Harald for a
series of lively doubles matches.
The games seemed to take a back
seat to the general revelry of the
group, which included gathering
a sizeable collection of empty
longnecks and even treating me
to a couple of brews.
At one point, Karen tried to
explain the reason for a bad shot
to partner Bob with a colorful
Norwegian expression, “fylda tar
skylda,” which translates roughly
to “the drunkenness is the fault.”
She soon redeemed herself by
sinking the eight-ball for a win.
Harald, who is president of
The Norsemen (the A&M
Norwegian students’ association),
shrugged it off as a “temporary
setback” and added, “for the re
cord, we won the first game.”
Some good-natured, boisterous
bragging ensued, followed by an
other Norwegian expression,
“Skaal!” (pronounced “skoal!,” as
in the chewing tobacco).
This phrase is approximately
equivalent to the English
“Cheers!,” except that the Norwe
gian version is a bit more robust,
and everyone in the group almost
has to drink after it is uttered.
(The phrase was uttered quite a
bit Friday night.)
Bob explained his reason for
playing pool on a Friday night:
“After a hard week of school, the
last thing I want is to get really
trashed. Pool is relaxing. Other
stuff (dancing, heavy drinking)
requires too much effort — save
that for Saturday night.”
Next up the seriousness-of-
play ladder are those who are not
playing for money, and who
usually come to a pool hall with
someone to play against, but take
their matches pretty seriously.
Some of these folks bring along
their own pool cues.
A.J. Robbins said he brought
his cue along because “you get
used to a certain stick.” “Some
times, the hall’s poolsticks might
be warped,” he said, which appar
ently would affect his play. A.J.
also said that for as little as $40
and up to $200, you can get your
own poolstick and carrying case,
an investment which he seemed
to be quite happy with.
Frank Price, playing in a dou
bles match at another table, joked
that his motivation for playing
pool was “fear of competing—I’d
rather play pool than chase wo
men.”
He suggested that the current
popularity of the game is partly
the result of the lingering influ
ence of the 1986 movie “The
Color of Money,” in which Paul
Newman and Tom Cruise por
trayed a pair of pool sharks.
This brings us to the final cat
egory of pool player, the pool
“hustler.” A hustler often comes
to a pool hall alone, and then
plays strangers, usually for a “f-
riendly” wager of a beer or a bit
of money.
A true hustler will purposely
lose when the wager is small, let
ting his opponent gain confi
dence. Then, when the bet is in
creased, he plays to the best of his
abilities and starts to win. Ob
viously, the final result of the
game is of paramount impor
tance to this type of player.
Jay, an A&M graduate student
who declined to give his full
name, closely resembles a typical
pool hustler. Around closing
time, he had a table to himself,
and was practicing. Although
hesitant to actually say that he has
purposely played poorly to fool
an opponent, he admitted to
sometimes losing when playing
for beer, and then winning
money.
“Most people like to play, they
don’t mind putting down some
money,” he said. “They come in
sober, they-sit around, they want
to play for beer. They may win a
couple, and then they want to
play for money. You could make
a living doing this.”
In fact, Jay went on to say,
“That’s how I made spending
money as an undergrad — play
ing pool in the MSC. Generally, I
played for $5 a game, with a dol
lar added on for every ball the
loser has left on the table. So, if I
ran the table (hit all of his balls in
without his opponent sinking
any), that would be $12 a game.”
In the small Texas town that
he’s from, Jay said the pool stakes
can get even higher. “I’ve seen
people play for car titles,” he said.
Of course, hustling has its
downside. For starters, betting on
games is generally forbidden in
pool halls and bars. Also, some
people do not react kindly to be
ing hustled, and at the very least,
will complain to the hall’s man
ager. “I’ve been kicked out of a
few bars,” said Jay.
Now, Jay said, he does not hus
tle nearly as much. “I play to sup
port my (pool) habit,” he said.
For Jay, and a large number of
other college students, the pool
habit will not be broken soon.
Darts games popular for centuries
By Thomas Boylan
ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
Stepping to the line, Cliff mea
sured the distance like a veteran, vi
sually pinning a tiny spot on the tar
get eight feet away, and raised a
small metal cylinder to eye level.
He had taught more than half of
the people in the bar to play, turned
them into enthusiast like himself,
and everyone froze as he sighted
along the cylinder.
He stood absolutely still, waiting
for the right moment, the right
“feel,” and threw suddenly — a
quick, snakelike thrust — so that the
cylinder plunked directly into the
bullseve.
And the crowd went wild. “Great
dart, Cliff!” “Heck of a throw!” “The
next drink’s on me!” He walked
away from the toe-line or “hockey”
satisfied of winning not only his
third consecutive game, but drinks
for the rest of the evening.
For the past 100 years, basically
the same thing has been happening
in bars and pubs all over the world.
Cliff put a lot of people to the toe-
line with their first darts, and al
though he hasn’t won any major
tournaments, he represents, the es
sence of the game — an evening on
the town, a beer and a friendly game
of darts.
Cliff and a million others throw
darts every day. (By the way, “Cliff”
doesn’t actually exist, but that
doesn’t mean you won’t meet some
one like him next time you’re in a
bar with a dartboard.
The game of darts began in En
gland with the advent of “pubs” or
public drinking houses, where work
ing-class men gathered after a hard
day for a pint and time with their
buddies.
It was by necessity an inexpensive
game.
For a few dollars, anyone can buy
a board and a set of darts and use
the same equipment that profes
sional dart players use in thousand-
dollar matches.
Moreover, there are men and
women of all ages, sizes and back
grounds not only playing but mak
ing a living at darts.
That’s not the heart of the game,
however. The object is casual play
among friends, and it’s a game for
anyone.
It doesn’t require an alley, a pool,
a field, stadium or street. You can
play the game in your own living
room.
The rules of organization are flex
ible. If you like to play alone, play
alone; there are at least a dozen solo
games. But eight to 10 can play with
out undue complication and can
compete in anything from a “conver-
See Darts/Page 14