THE GAMES OF TOMORROW, YESTERDAY: 1982’S ‘GAME PARLOR OF THE FUTURE’
The Paleofuture blog, dedicated entirely to looking at the future of predictive articles past, found this feature from a 1982 issue of ‘Electronic Games’ (the first U.S. all-games magazine) which does a surprisingly accurate job of describing the developments that would come in the following two decades.
Though it wasn’t quite prescient enough to see games moving into homes and the subsequent quiet death of the arcade itself, below are some of the choicest quotes, with links to the wishlist items that would essentially come true:
Interactive fiction should continue to do well, as will role-playing games that involve the arcader in ever more personal ways (such as Prisoner and Network). Players will be able to assume the role of a detective, questioning the suspects in a murder case with full audio/visual accompaniment…
Look for arcades to be constructed along the lines of big-budget science fiction movie sets, with special effects a major attraction of the games. For example, there might be chairs that rock back and forth, swing from side to side or swivel a full 360 degrees…
The arcade games of the next century may not only be activated by voice command, but conceivably even by thought – at least in a sense. Something akin to galvanic skin-monitoring devices attached to the gamer’s arm, perhaps in the form of a bracelet, could measure emotional response and even act as a triggering device.
Game Parlor of the Future (1982) [Paleofuture, via Matteo Bittanti]
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