Weekend Open Thread: MrBiggs FEC Auction; Interview with 100Yen Director, Game Epilepsy + more

I’m not sure why, but lately it seems like I come across a bunch of news all at once. So here is a start to your weekend, arcade style.

Mr Biggs FEC Closing Doors, Auctioning Games

First off, an FEC location in Colorado Springs, CO called Mr. Biggs is closing its doors after seven years in business and on June 2nd, everything they have is going up for auction. I found out about them not long ago while researching the BattleTech Pods, which you could call the US version of those famous Gundam pods found in Japan that I’ve brought up over the past couple of Fridays. Apparently at one point this location had up to 12 pods setup there.  I don’t see the pods mentioned in the ad for the auction but they have plenty of other items that will be going on sale and will probably get a second lease on life through other locations. You can see the ad here. Thanks to Craig Simpson for the tip!

One of the Tesla Battletech pods that MrBiggs FEC had a dozen of

Interview with Director/Producer of 100 Yen: The Japanese Game Experience Documentary, Brad Crawford

Next up is a tip shared with us by Bryan Adler, of a three part interview by Classic Game Room with the produce and director of a documentary we have talked about here before, 100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience. Self-explanatory, here is the interview in three parts:

“Dark Warrior Epilepsy”

Have you ever wondered what led to those epilepsy warnings found on video games? They are still published in game manuals and in some cases during the attract modes on arcade titles. We can trace that back through the history of video games to the arcade industry specifically when a small number of people began having problems. Part of that comes from a medical condition that was called “Dark Warrior Epilepsy” as it was discussed in the British Medical Journal back in 1982. It had actually started out as “Space Invaders Epilepsy” and evolved as more cases began to pop-up during the height of the Golden Age Arcade Craze. One quote:

The term Space Invader epilepsy is, in fact, a misnomer, since no cases have been reported with the Space Invader video game itself. We suggest, therefore, that Astro Fighter and Dark Warrior epilepsy be classified under “electronic space war video game epilepsy” and this as a special category of photoconvulsive epilepsy. Video games other than space war games – for example, Super Bug and Munch Man – appear to be less epileptogenic. Electronic space war video game epilepsy has yet to be reported with Defender, Space Fury, Lunar Rescue, or Asteroids war games.

For more on the history of what occurred and their conclusions, check out this article at Mindhack.com . And for the curious, a video of Dark Warrior in action:

B-List Celebrity Blast From the Past

Also since we are back in the 80s, another article of interest covering the “Battle of The Video Games”. Not Starcade but something that seems to have been inspired by that show, which ended up using some celebrities competing on video games for charity. Eat your heart out Celebrity Apprentice! It wasn’t a nationally broadcast program but since it was produced by a TV station in LA they didn’t have too difficult time tapping some names for the show, although few that people would recognize anymore.  Theawl.com has the full rundown on the program but here is the opening segment of the program via Youtube.

As far as “open thread rules go, feel free to comment here about whatever, these things in the article, or something else. Any arcade visitation plans you have or whatever. Either way, have a great weekend!