Looking back at the early days of video games and home computing

NORFOLK, Va. — Video games have been part of our lives for decades. Kids and adults have been entranced by the glowing screen of new worlds, battles, and triumph; it’s an addiction that first began in the 1970s and early 1980s.

On April 3, 1982, Atari celebrated “National Pac-Man Day” to promote the smash hit arcade game coming to its home video game console, and we thought that on the 43rd anniversary of that day, we’d go into the 13News Now Vault and find stories we covered during those early days of gaming, as well as the home computer revolution that was taking place at the same time. 

We’ve compiled several news stories – mostly from the early 1980s – that capture a snapshot of the dawn of the digital age. You’ll see college kids addicted to losing their quarters in arcades, adults fearful of electronic machines taking over their lives, and little kids who excitedly learn how to code. 

One story from 1982 looks at the computer revolution and what it could mean for the future (including the rise of a thing called “artificial intelligence”). Another story from 1984 explores a brand new trend: computer dating. We finish our compilation a few years later as a pair of kids try to get the high score in Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo NES in 1989, and we send our reporter Joe Flanagan for a day in the life of an arcade repairman in 1994.

Lastly, we want to highlight one of the reporters you’ll see in several of these news stories. Kellyn Beeck was the lifestyle and features reporter at WVEC for several years. He had a special knack for telling fun, sometimes downright silly, stories that are just as entertaining today as they were when they aired over 40 years ago (we’ll just say “The Pac-Man Zone” and let you see for yourself what that means).

And one thing you’ll quickly learn about Kellyn: he really loved playing video games. When he left Channel 13 in 1984, he moved out to California, where he helped create the award-winning and revolutionary strategy game “Defender of the Crown” and the action-adventure game “Rocket Ranger,” among many others. Kellyn had a flair for visual storytelling in news, and his cinematic eye in these computer games helped make them the cherished classics they are today.