Winners Don't Use Drugs: A People's History
Here's why every game arcade cabinet in the 1990s had an FBI seal on the screen.
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Here's why every game arcade cabinet in the 1990s had an FBI seal on the screen.
Read Full Article
Woooow, this is absolutely crazy. I had never thought that "Winners" would have made it outside of the US.Kinitawowi said:I think it was the launch of Winners Don't Use Drugs that properly made me aware of the global nature of gaming. Growing up in a tiny seaside town in Norfolk, where the console never really seemed to permeate and the ZX Spectrum was king, it was easy to think of all the games I played as British developments. And then there I am, in the Panama arcade on Le Strange Terrace, and there's this big FBI logo looming at me from the Golden Axe cabinet.
Some part of me knew that the FBI was an American thing, so I was baffled to see it there - why should I care what the FBI thinks? They're American, I'm British, what's the contact point? And eventually I realised that the contact point was that very machine I was standing in front of; that this arcade wasn't a British construct, it was from across the pond.
Saw it growing up in South Africa, even before Apartheid 'fell' in '94.JonB said:Woooow, this is absolutely crazy. I had never thought that "Winners" would have made it outside of the US.
Any other folks from Europe or Asia remember seeing it?
It sounds as true as his being a Bitchin' Rock Star from Mars or a Vatican Assassin Warlock.Adam Jensen said:Does this mean that Charlie Sheen lied about winning?
I love the winners dont eat meat lampooning on the Scott Pilgrim vs the world videogame.Dr.Awkward said:It definitely had a big enough impact that it got lampooned in Blood Dragon, so hey, it's definitely influenced major parts of the world.
Haha, oh you really got me there. Good thing that time has long passed [/sarcasm]. Really though, to think that for even a second someone in elected office sat to himself and realized that games could be the answer, not a problem, is amazing. I just wish it would happen again.Robert Rath said:At a time when most government officials were at antagonistic toward games and their effect on children, the head of the nation's premier law enforcement agency chose to coopt the medium in order to deliver a message.
Why is this relatively short article broken up over three pages? "Just say no!" to pagination on websites. Winners don't use pagination in a medium where pages can be of arbitrary length.Robert Rath said:Here's why every game arcade in the 1990s had an FBI seal on the wall.
It was in all the arcades in Australia, and it was bloody hilarious and totally meaningless.JonB said:Any other folks from Europe or Asia remember seeing it?
JonB said:I remember seeing it in arcades in Mexico.Kinitawowi said:Any other folks from Europe or Asia remember seeing it?