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[Interview] General: Paul Dean, Champion of Arcade eSports

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
in News & Features Discussion

eSports may seem like all the "new" rage in the games' space these days but, in truth, it's been around much longer. Genese Davis conducted a fascinating interview with one of the legends of eSports, Paul Dean. See what he has to say about his years in the spotlight and about the new generations' version. 

In sunny California, Paul Dean began his gaming career in a pretty neat environment, and describes 1972 gaming as a kid’s paradise.

“The first game I really liked was Atari’s Pong,” Dean said. “Which I played in 1972 in the back of a Restaurant Caboose in Riverside, CA, at the Railroader Restaurant. I would compete against my brother, Dave Dean, on this new cocktail game. It was so much fun to play Pong games in this real, nicely themed, railroad caboose while waiting for the hostess on an old abandoned railroad train line to call our name for dinner. It was a kid’s paradise in that caboose! I was born in 1964 so I was about 10 years old at the time. I was hooked on games ever since.”

Read more of Genese Davis's Paul Dean, Champion of Arcade eSports.

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Comments

  • RazeeksterRazeekster Member UncommonPosts: 2,591
    Interesting read. It must be cool to have a lifelong history of playing video games and meeting people who do the same thing :)

    Smile

  • TheHavokTheHavok Member UncommonPosts: 2,423
    Great write up. I totally agree about the loss of connection in socialization from online gaming. Using the word 'ghost' fits perfectly.
  • FistyMayhemFistyMayhem Member UncommonPosts: 61
    Cool read.  I disagree though that online social relationships are like talking to ghosts.  I met my fiance playing World of Warcraft, I asked him to marry me and he accepted 2 weeks before we ever met in person.  We have been living together for a bit over 3 years now and will be married in less than 2 weeks.  We have made many friends online, quite a few who we invited to the wedding and others that we will be visiting on our honeymoon.  These are all online friendships, some from gaming and some from other interests.  These are not ghosts, these are friends as real as any other and I would gladly lend them our couch indefinately if they needed it.
  • Po_ggPo_gg Member EpicPosts: 5,749

    Nice interview.

    "share your ... arcade memories" I don't have any, I got my first C64 as a kid so I used up my quarters on other things :) but Spy Hunter (the C64 version, but it's mostly the same) was one of my favourites... great game. 12 hours and 9mill - stunning.

     

    Maybe you could do a couple more interviews, like at the following Kong Off 3 you've mentioned, with Billy Mitchell or Steve Wiebe. I'm curious, what happened with them since the movie... (besides the events and results of course, which are on the web)

  • RorhcRorhc Member UncommonPosts: 115

    For a split second there I read it as Paula Dean.

     

    (it was a WTF moment) 

    This could end up being very interesting.

  • meadmoonmeadmoon Member UncommonPosts: 1,344
    Originally posted by Torvaldr

    Congrats Paul.  I'm 3 years younger and have similar fond memories of discovering games. There was this arcade in a strip mall where I lived where I spent a lot of my spare cash.

    Everyone had their game.  Most people loved Asteroids, Defender, and of course the bigger names.  My game was Tempest. It was a tube shooter and it was AWESOME and it was harder than hell.  We all competed to keep our names on the credit screen. It was a status thing. I have great memories of that.

    The idea of barcades sounds interesting to me, but probably only something that will work in more metropolitan areas.  After I got out of the Navy and moved back to Seattle my friends and I would play pinball in the taverns over our after work beers.  It was a nice social time. Barcades sound like a great opportunity for socializing and fun, especially in this day where everyone is hunched over a texting screen.

     

    I can't even begin to tell you how much money I spent playing Tempest. What a blast.

    BTW, if you have an iPad you can still play it by getting the Atari Games app. 100 classic Atari games in one app. Tempest, Breakout, Asteroids, Centipede, the list goes on.

    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ataris-greatest-hits/id422966028?mt=8

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