Actor Zachary Quinto plays a video game in support of "Save the
Arcades" at Video West Arcade in Glendale, Calif. on Wednesday,
Aug. 19, 2009. (AP Photos/Stride, Casey Rodgers)
Zachary Quinto, known as Heroes’ Sylar to some and new!Spock to many, joined Stride Gum in an effort to save that rapidly disappearing dinosaur of pop culture, the arcade.
While home consoles might be the ubiquitous gaming channel these days, there once was a time you actually had to remove your butt from your seat and journey to the nearest arcade in order to play your favorite video game. This ritual, which encouraged geek socialization beyond the confines of the internet, has become outdated, replaced with gaming headsets and message boards.
Save the Arcades plans to remedy that. With hundreds of gaming arcades across the country facing inevitable closures due to the ugly side of progress, Save the Arcades is on a mission to save this pop culture relic before it goes the way of drive-ins and the Woolworth’s lunch counter. Having already saved one Philadelphia based arcade, Save the Arcades tends to help do the same for other arcades with press events and an online gaming website where, ironically, gamers can help save the arcades by gaming from home. The latest event, held at Glendale based Video West Arcade, brought attention to the struggling arcade while Quinto and other gamers kept Ms. Pac-Man happy.
Not everyone was happy, however, according to a post on the popular Star Trek community, ontd_startrek, as fans hoping to catch a glimpse of Quinto with gaming gun in hand were barred from entering the arcade while the event was in progress. Due to a bit of vague wording in an article at IGN (that has now been removed – whoops?) that stated that “(Zachary Quinto) will pose for photographs, interact with employees and go head-to-head with local consumers on classic arcade games,” fans arrived at the event only to discover that the photographs being posed for were press photos and the local consumers were mostly Stride representatives or friends and family of the arcade owner.
Despite all the confusion, the event did what it set out to do: give the near-forgotten arcade some due publicity and, hopefully, make a significant stride toward saving the arcade from becoming another ghost of pop culture past.
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