Play Meter

Tar -Baby toy still an ' Brer Fo and B rer Bear dey lay low.
Bre r Rabbit k e p on ax in ' him an' de Tar Baby k e p ay in' nothin' an 'finally Bre r
R abbit draw back wid his fi ·an' blip. he hit des1de of th e T ar-Baby's head. His/is'
stu c k an ' h ain't pull loose. "Leggo m y fi "!""he holler. "Ef you don ' let m e loo e .
/"II hit you again ,·· and wid dot he fo tch him a wipe wid de udder han' and' dot
tu k too . Tar-Ba by. he ain't ayin 'no thin '. and Brer Fa and Brer Bea r lay Ia .
De n B rer Robbit he hit , kic k , bwt wif his l10 id till he torred all o e r. o nly his eyes
hawing'.
De n Brer Fa>. and Brer Bear. de y sau nt ered 0111. w /w,tlin' and look in' innocent.
Dey do a lillie lw ffle and dan ce.
From "The Wo nderful T arBdby"
To le of Un cle Re n111s
By Joel Chand! r Harns
Tournament Fiasco:
What it means
By David Pierson
A national scandal surfaces
on the day the Supreme Cou rt
cons iders the fate of arcades ,
and no one stands up to
represent the industry ...
Where are the leaders?
PLAY METE R, February 1, 1982
Industry r eac tion to the $400,000
Tournament Fias co in Chi cago
~ unders co red once again the divisive ·
ness and lac k of coordinatio n with in
the industry. With three trade asso·
cia tions, a dozen or so m ajo r manu ·
fac turers , hundreds of distribut or s,
and thousands of operators - w still
don 't have a leader . You 'd think in an
$8.2 billion industr y , things would be
differ ent , that there 'd be someone
who could step forward and speak
for the indust r y when its reputation
is called into question. But there
isn't.
O n the same day the U .S.
Supreme Court began considering
arguments in the landmark M esquite,
T exas age restriction case whic h will
decide if local municipalities ca n
make arcades off-limit s to anyone
under a certain age , report s like the
following one were beginning to
break concerning the Tournament
Fiasco :
" Some participants said they had
gone through long , often ex pensive
qualifying tournament s that began
last June in game arcades and pool
halls around the country, then spent
money to come to Chicago only to
pay $1 admission fees to walk into
the Expocenter , and then entry fees
for various games. Those playing
electronic games had to drop their
own quarters for each game."
It was th e worst possible timing.
On the same day the U .S. Supreme
Court is considering the merits and
demerit s of amusement ce nt ers and
whether local municipalities have a
right to place age restric tions on
those centers , a news event of
national proportions surfaces wh ich
tells a scandalous story of players
(many of whom would have been
under ag , a co rding to M esquite
T exa ' tandards) get ting ripped of
by a national tou rnamen t that had its
origins in arc d all over the country
and which was run by someone who
till owed play rs from similar events
from more than a year ago!
It urely added fuel to the fire for
tho
lo al vigilantes who , opposed
to games fo r obscure reasons , were
looking for less obsc ure reasons to
populariz th ei r anti -game/ anti ·
ar ca de cause all over the cou ntry.
And the in du stry's reaction to all
of this?
Like Brer Fox and Brer Bear ,
" D ey lay low."
The more things change , the more
things stay the sa me . Laying low was
the same r sponse the industry did
back in 1978 when the Chicago Sun ·
Tim s sm ared the indu stry in a
gr ossly unfair " M irage " ex pose
se n es.
For the one -in -three newcomers
to the industry who are unfamiliar
with the public relations black eye
coi n-ops sus tained back then , here it
is in a pellet . The Sun · Times , in a
s rie of art icles, charged that " law-
lessness is the general rule " in the
coin machine industry . In front page
banner headline articles , which were
picked up nationally (even by C BS-
TV ' "60 Minut es" news team), the
S un -Ti mes c ha rg ed : " Operators
say their product is pinball and juke -
boxes, bu t the M irage discovered
they were really trading in illegal
kickback s, etc. "
And how did the industry respond
to all th is?
" D ey lay low. "
(C on tin ued on Page 9)
7