Monday, August 17, 2020

Kuujjuaq Arcade 1982

Here are some excerpts from Taqralik, "The Magazine of Northern Quebec", circa October 1982.   I was sent this amazing magazine by my friend Amy Prouty (PhD candidate, Inuit art history).

It features a write-up, and 2 photos, from the Kuujjuaq arcade that was opened October 23, 1982.
The magazine is in Inuktitut and English.


Taqralik magazine - 1982-10


photo credited to Willie Adams




The indoor photo shows a Flight 2000 pinball machine at the forefront, which we can note from this similar angle:

picture via IPDB


The videogame in the background is a bootleg copy of Ms. Pac-Man.  Before Pac-Man came to North America, it was called Puck Man, and so the clever bootleggers continued with that convention for the very popular sequel Ms. Pac-Man.

Here is the only photo I could find online of this edition of bootleg machine.  Note the brick-maze art on the bezel matching the side-art in the 1982 photo.

You can see the monitor burn-in on that picture, which easily allows one to identify it as Ms. Pac-Man instead of Pac-Man, given the maze differences:

Ms. Pac-Man maze

Pac-Man maze


The arcade offered 5 pinball machines and 3 video arcade machines, but sadly states the intent to replace all pinball machines with arcade games.  SADNESS!

1982 was a major turning point in the pinball industry as video games steamrolled them in popularity, and as the story goes, it wasn't until 1984's Space Shuttle that pinball started turning the tide and regaining some square footage on arcade floors.



Pages 26-29, the section is called "Successful Private Businesses in N. Quebec", and this is included in full below.





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