namcomuseum:

In 1982, America’s Pac-Man Fever was at a fever-pitch with no cure in sight. The pandemic was spread by Ohio-borne songwriters Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia when they wrote the aptly named Pac-Man Fever, which went on to sell over one million album to earn its RIAA Gold Record certification!

In March 1982, this peaked at #9 Billboard Hot 100, beating out such hits as “867-5309/jenny by Tommy Tutone” and Freeze-frame by The J. Geils Band!

oldgamemags:

Video Games Magazine Issue 11, June 1983 - Q*Bert makes the jump to Pinball. Bizarre looking table too.

Now the fascinating thing about this article is it’s writer “Zelmo”. Apparently a contributor involved in the coin op industry. Who was Zelmo? Was this written by the guy who actually made the machine (a paid article?) or just a guy who loved the heck out of pinball machines and wanted to start writing some stuff up?

WHO ARE YOU ZELMO?! We may never know.

“Order and sense are the primary predator of doodles, in fiction as in life. Ballpoint doesn’t harp on detail in its storytelling, thankfully. It gives you a tiny bit of setup before letting the world speak for itself, and the beautiful chaos carries the player along from there. This is a place where army boots chew cigars and fight laser-shooting eyeballs—which are, for their part, piloting pears.”

—Anthony John Agnello reviews the beautiful, hand-drawn madness of Ballpoint Universe.