Video game propreitors worry that a spate of video game books will decrea&s their revenues.
Books assist video buffs
NEW YORK (AP) -
There's trouble in Video
Game City — code books
Memorize the manual and
you'll get hours of playing
time for just one quarter
More and more video buffs
have been exchanging tech
niques for pattern playing,
sending arcade owners, who
grossed an estimated $5 bil
lion last year, to the edge of
financial hyperspace
Now the owners face a new
problem — a growing number
of best-selling paperbacks
by video game wizards that
serve as how-to manuals
Of course it's going to
hurt business," says Irving
Tauve, co-owner of Man
chester Music, a New Hamp
shire company that owns
about 700 video games "The
longer a person plays on a
quarter the less quarters I
get "
There are at least five
paperbacks on the market:
Signet’s Mastering Pac
Man" by blackjack expert
Ken Uston, Bantam's "How
To Master the Video
Games;" Pocket Books's
"How To Win At Pac-Man;”
Simon & Schuster's How To
Beat the Video Games;'' and
Warner Books Scoring Big
at Pac-Man."
The books range in price
from $1 95 to $3 95
“Theoretically, you could
have a user's manual for
each of these games,' Uston
says
The original press run on
Uston's book was 500,000,
and according to Signet
spokeswoman Fern Leiber
Edison, store orders before
the book was released
required printing of another
250,000 copies After two
weeks in bookstores, Uston's
book has climbed to No 5 on
B Dalton's mass-market best
seller list
Pac-Man has received so
much literary attention
because it lends itself to
more thorough analysis than
attack and reflex games
Uston says maze games like
Pac-Man require "the most
skill, about 90 percent, and
only 10 percent hand-and
eye coordination " Attack
games range from 90 per
cent hand-and-eye coordin
ation to 50-50, he adds
Uston turned his attention
to Pac-Man while awaiting
the outcome of court appeals
on his banishment from ca
sinos in Atlantic City He is an
expert blackjack 'counter''
who can calculate the
chances of a high or low card
turning up after several
decks of cards have been
played
Uston's book is the most
elaborate on Pac-Man, still
one of the most popular of all
arcade games
"The manufacturers are so
worried that everyone's go
ing to master these games.”
says Uston, during an inter
view conducted over a Pac
Man board at a Broadway
arcade
But look, I just messed
up," he exclaims as his Pac
Man is caught by a pursuing
monster
Uston, who is writing a
second book on arcade
games, doesn't consider
himself an expert at playing,
just at analyzing At a recent
arcade party held to promote
Coleco's new line of porta
ble, self-contained games,
including Pac-Man, Uston
brought along Raymond
Chan, a 20-year-old college
student from San Francisco
Uston asked Chan to help
him with his book research
after he saw Chan walk away
bored from a Pac-Man after
racking up 1.4 million points
without a single mishap
Chan thinks the pattern
books make arcade playing
more fun and interesting
Amu
Cultural Forum Presents
Sty “Band
/lMjtwtute'e *Dcutce
oudtti
*76e SfanCtyfaeM,
Sat. '?&&. 13 emu faUlnaam,
"Dance, 9-micUuqAt
Sty 6a*td dance teteamt %-9
«dt& PCoh /UcOucA
ICO AmoCmC “PtofrAWl “Dmu
/1U afaaluteJty pied
PRECISION HAIRWORKS
29th & Willamette (behind Patty’s Pizza)
BRING YOUR VALENTINE
TO DINNER!
For an intimate pizza for two or a seven-course
Classic Italian meal
Then join us in the lounge for Live jazz with:
Andre’s St James Trio ♦ 8:30-1:00
f I AV*K
II Al«A\ tl'IMM
259 East 5th Avenue
(Inside the Granary Bldg.)
V 343-8488 ^
Valentines Day is for lovers...
So is
Planned
Parenthood.
we offer confidential, professional health care for
women and men. All birth control methods and
supplies at low cost: pill, diaphragm, I.U.D., foam,
diaphragm jelly, Encare, condoms, basal body
thermometers
• Pregnancy tests • Yearly gynecological exams •
• Treatment for vaginal or bladder infections • Breast
exams
• Pap smear • Test for anemia and diabetes • Blood
pressure check
• Venereal disease test and treatment
Counseling and referrals on adoption, abortion, birth
control, sterilization, infertility
you can visit us at 134 E. 13th (near campus)
or call us with your questions:
344-9411 or 344-1611
A United Way Agency