Happy National Video Game Day. Here are few items from our archives dealing with video games and everyone’s favorite video game hangout, Top Dog.
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- Youngsters man their stations at video games at the Top Dog Video Arcade on Blakely Street in Dunmore in February 1984. Top Dog is one of the three lagrest video gamerooms in the borough. Times-Tribune Archives
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- Unidentified youngster getting ready to play Mappy at an unidentified arcade in May 1984. Times-Tribune Archives
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- A group of youngsters trying out video games at an arcade in Dunmore on October 10, 1982. Times-Tribune Archives
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- Carbondale Mayor Fred J Mancuso looks on as Scott Rivenburgh practices on the Asteroid machine on Aug 26 1981 at the Double “J” Pizza Shop in preparation for his coming attempt at beating the scoring record of 25,690,630 set in Texas in July. Times-Tribune Archives
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- Scott Rivenburgh of Carbondale fell way short in his attempt to set a new world’s record on Atari’s Asteroids machine in August 31, 1981. The 15-year old called it quits Sunday, Aug 30 at 6:30 a.m., about 22 hours after he started, with 10,600,000 points on the machine. “My fingers got too tired,” he said by way of explaination. Times-Tribune Archives
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- Video game arcades, like this one in Scranton in February 1982, are favorite haunts of young people and even the older crowd who have become addicted to the newest craze sweeping the nation – video games. Times-Tribune Archives
Top Diggity Dog
Article from the May 23, 1983 edition of the Citizens’ Voice dealing with the opening of the Wilkes-Barre location of Top Dog. Times-Shamrock Archives
Top Dog advertisement – Jan 12, 1983 – The Scranton Times
Top Dog advertisment – Jun 9, 1984 – The Citizens’ Voice
And we can not forget Showtime Food and Fun in Kingston –
Clipping from the Jan. 7, 1983 edition of the Citizens’ Voice showing the interior of the Showtime in Kingston. In addition to video games, the establishment also featured robotic band called Boots Cassidy and the Electric Mouse Orchestra. Times-Shamrock Archives
And Zack Periwinkle’s –
Zack Periwinkle’s article – Oct. 20, 1985 – The Scranton Times
Brian Fulton has been the librarian at The Times-Tribune for the past 15 years. On his blog, Historically Hip, he writes about the great concerts, plays/musicals and celebrity happenings that have taken place throughout NEPA. He is also the co-host of the local history podcast, Historically Hip. He competed and was crowned grand champion on an episode of NPR quiz show “Ask Me Another.” Contact: bfulton@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9140; or @TTPagesPast
