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Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade
Video gaming: it’s a boy’s world, right? That’s what the industry wants us to think. Why and how we came to comply are what Carly A. Kocurek investigates in this provocative consideration of how an industry’s craving for respectability hooked up with cultural narratives about technology, masculinity, and youth at the video arcade.
From the dawn of the golden age of video games with the launch of Atari’s Pong in 1972, through the industry-wide crash of 1983, to the recent nostalgia-bathed revival of the arcade, Coin-Operated Americans explores the development and implications of the “video gamer” as a cultural identity. This cultural-historical journey takes us to the Twin Galaxies arcade in Ottumwa, Iowa, for a close look at the origins of competitive gaming. It immerses us in video gaming’s first moral panic, generated by Exidy’s Death Race (1976), an unlicensed adaptation of the film Death Race 2000. And it ventures into the realm of video game films such as Tron and WarGames, in which gamers become brilliant, boyish heroes.
Whether conducting a phenomenological tour of a classic arcade or evaluating attempts, then and now, to regulate or eradicate arcades and coin-op video games, Kocurek does more than document the rise and fall of a now-booming industry. Drawing on newspapers, interviews, oral history, films, and television, she examines the factors and incidents that contributed to the widespread view of video gaming as an enclave for young men and boys.
A case study of this once emergent and now revived medium became the presumed enclave of boys and young men, Coin-Operated Americans is history that holds valuable lessons for contemporary culture as we struggle to address pervasive sexism in the domain of video games—and in the digital working world beyond.
From the dawn of the golden age of video games with the launch of Atari’s Pong in 1972, through the industry-wide crash of 1983, to the recent nostalgia-bathed revival of the arcade, Coin-Operated Americans explores the development and implications of the “video gamer” as a cultural identity. This cultural-historical journey takes us to the Twin Galaxies arcade in Ottumwa, Iowa, for a close look at the origins of competitive gaming. It immerses us in video gaming’s first moral panic, generated by Exidy’s Death Race (1976), an unlicensed adaptation of the film Death Race 2000. And it ventures into the realm of video game films such as Tron and WarGames, in which gamers become brilliant, boyish heroes.
Whether conducting a phenomenological tour of a classic arcade or evaluating attempts, then and now, to regulate or eradicate arcades and coin-op video games, Kocurek does more than document the rise and fall of a now-booming industry. Drawing on newspapers, interviews, oral history, films, and television, she examines the factors and incidents that contributed to the widespread view of video gaming as an enclave for young men and boys.
A case study of this once emergent and now revived medium became the presumed enclave of boys and young men, Coin-Operated Americans is history that holds valuable lessons for contemporary culture as we struggle to address pervasive sexism in the domain of video games—and in the digital working world beyond.
233 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 15, 2024
I still remember the shock I experienced discovering that the abandoned Atari and Nintendo in the garage belonged to my mother and not my father. Growing up, my dad was the only one who played video games and my mom actively made an effort to tell my how she wasn’t into gaming.
The Super Mario World save file had another thing to say about that…
Like a typical Gen Xer American, she grew up in a small suburb that had its own arcade (literally called “Family Fun Center”) where she had spend many a quarter. The collection of classic cabinets offered coin-operated entertainment for youth of all stripes. It surprised me to learn that at the earliest stages, the arcade was not such a gendered space, but I had never made the connection before of arcade machines and those older general bourgeoise entertainment decides (let alone the sketchy history of pinball).
As with many 20th century tales, thinks took a turn for the worst with neoliberalism. The collective deaths of social capital, the “organization man”, and any policies even remotely deferential to state socialism birthed a cruel cruel dog-eat-dog world. The strongest dogs were the individual-minded technologists who reaped economic domination through their exclusionary trade.
These were the aliens who ate away any sort of equality implied in the arcade. These were the subjects of salience for that pesky press wishing to distort that unmolded narrative of arcade adolescence. These were the coin-operated Americans who didn’t let age end their boyishness and achieved cultural ascendency through parallel movements of world recording, movie making, and economy ascending. The violent video games that had previously been a single pawn of the whole file promoted itself into a vicious queen (read: king) who generated the hysteria necessary to attract contrarians while reaping the PR from pearl-clutchers.
The odd history of the arcade is the odd history of the 70s/80s transformations. It most aligns with the contemporary crisis of Silicon Valley imperialism, with techno networks running far further and deeper than the arcade days.
Kocurek makes these compelling connections in an impressively succinct matter complete with lucid writing. True to the arcade vibes, the book contains a rich array of visual material that take the reader to the era in those increasingly gendered spaces. Incredibly local historical snapshots mix with greater developments (David Harvey & Twin Galaxies!) to tell this compelling, if tragic, tale. I especially appreciated the concluding chapter’s brutal ties to the present. Sexism in the gaming industry is sexism in the tech sector, which is itself sexism in… well, everywhere.
Arcades may be dying out, but nostalgia will always linger. If we remember, it’s best we do so with a clear mind. Not forgetting who made those high scores.
The Super Mario World save file had another thing to say about that…
Like a typical Gen Xer American, she grew up in a small suburb that had its own arcade (literally called “Family Fun Center”) where she had spend many a quarter. The collection of classic cabinets offered coin-operated entertainment for youth of all stripes. It surprised me to learn that at the earliest stages, the arcade was not such a gendered space, but I had never made the connection before of arcade machines and those older general bourgeoise entertainment decides (let alone the sketchy history of pinball).
As with many 20th century tales, thinks took a turn for the worst with neoliberalism. The collective deaths of social capital, the “organization man”, and any policies even remotely deferential to state socialism birthed a cruel cruel dog-eat-dog world. The strongest dogs were the individual-minded technologists who reaped economic domination through their exclusionary trade.
These were the aliens who ate away any sort of equality implied in the arcade. These were the subjects of salience for that pesky press wishing to distort that unmolded narrative of arcade adolescence. These were the coin-operated Americans who didn’t let age end their boyishness and achieved cultural ascendency through parallel movements of world recording, movie making, and economy ascending. The violent video games that had previously been a single pawn of the whole file promoted itself into a vicious queen (read: king) who generated the hysteria necessary to attract contrarians while reaping the PR from pearl-clutchers.
The odd history of the arcade is the odd history of the 70s/80s transformations. It most aligns with the contemporary crisis of Silicon Valley imperialism, with techno networks running far further and deeper than the arcade days.
Kocurek makes these compelling connections in an impressively succinct matter complete with lucid writing. True to the arcade vibes, the book contains a rich array of visual material that take the reader to the era in those increasingly gendered spaces. Incredibly local historical snapshots mix with greater developments (David Harvey & Twin Galaxies!) to tell this compelling, if tragic, tale. I especially appreciated the concluding chapter’s brutal ties to the present. Sexism in the gaming industry is sexism in the tech sector, which is itself sexism in… well, everywhere.
Arcades may be dying out, but nostalgia will always linger. If we remember, it’s best we do so with a clear mind. Not forgetting who made those high scores.
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July 23, 2025This may sound a little picky of me but I wish there was a little more analysis, for as interesting as the history was I feel like not all of it was truly interogated to the same level. Still a very fun read even if the conclusion was rather 2016-ish in its focus on Gamergate, fundementally correct in the way it asserts that the hate campaign was an eruption of male entitlement and essentially a utterly odious evil but also should have probably noted that alot of the pro-feminist critiques were very bad and dumb (in that they were poorly structured and evidenced arguments, the concept of applying feminist critiques to video games is good but you have to actually have something worthwhile to say).
August 21, 2025
A very interesting look at arcade culture and how it developed.
August 13, 2018
A fascinating if occasionally repetitive history of an important facet of my childhood.
September 11, 2015
I felt like a magnetic attraction to this book from the moment I saw its cover and read its title. When I was a kid, I can't count the hours (or quarters) I spent at the arcade. Eventually the arcade closed, and most kids got their gaming "fix" from home consoles. Now this book goes beyond the story of the arcade; Carly Kocurek analyses the arcade, and video games as a form of entertainment, from the perspective of what audience it is targeting. In this case boys and young male adults.
The demographics are clear, and considering I grew up as one of these boys, in a certain way it helped open my eyes to the perception of the gaming industry from the female side. Kocurek provides examples of early promotions from the pioneer video game companies that set the stage for these games to be viewed as a sport, a manly thing to do, almost to the point of being worthy of admiration if successful. Beyond that, the author even takes a look at Hollywood and famous films like Tron and War Games (a movie that was a favorite growing up.)
Of course there is always the darker side of gaming. We see the moral battles against video game violence, the spending of money in the arcade, and the demonization of the arcade itself by its opponents.
So basically, there's two sides of this book. There's the history part, and then there's the analysis of the author. I really enjoyed how Kocurek moved through the decades, the venues, and even the controversies. She was able to insert commentaries about the key players (no pun intended) in the video game history. However, is the other side of the story that falls short for me. Clearly the purpose of the book is to demonstrate that "boyhood" goes hand-in-hand with the arcade, as evidence by the subtitle of this work. But there were times that it seemed like the author was hammering the boy/man concept for pages, to the point were phrases became repetitive and this interrupted the flow of the read.
For the history side of the book I think this will be a book that will be enjoyed by anyone that has had video games as part of their lives.
** I received a free copy of this book as an ARC by the author/publisher in exchange of a honest review.
The demographics are clear, and considering I grew up as one of these boys, in a certain way it helped open my eyes to the perception of the gaming industry from the female side. Kocurek provides examples of early promotions from the pioneer video game companies that set the stage for these games to be viewed as a sport, a manly thing to do, almost to the point of being worthy of admiration if successful. Beyond that, the author even takes a look at Hollywood and famous films like Tron and War Games (a movie that was a favorite growing up.)
Of course there is always the darker side of gaming. We see the moral battles against video game violence, the spending of money in the arcade, and the demonization of the arcade itself by its opponents.
So basically, there's two sides of this book. There's the history part, and then there's the analysis of the author. I really enjoyed how Kocurek moved through the decades, the venues, and even the controversies. She was able to insert commentaries about the key players (no pun intended) in the video game history. However, is the other side of the story that falls short for me. Clearly the purpose of the book is to demonstrate that "boyhood" goes hand-in-hand with the arcade, as evidence by the subtitle of this work. But there were times that it seemed like the author was hammering the boy/man concept for pages, to the point were phrases became repetitive and this interrupted the flow of the read.
For the history side of the book I think this will be a book that will be enjoyed by anyone that has had video games as part of their lives.
** I received a free copy of this book as an ARC by the author/publisher in exchange of a honest review.
October 3, 2015
I received a copy of this book for free through a Goodreads First Reads Giveaway.
3.5 Stars. Reading the title makes you wonder if the book is about video arcades or about the male patrons of video arcades. It's about both. On the one hand you have a history of the arcade and the cultural and technological changes within it. On the other you have the author arguing that the arcade was dominated by male gamers and the inherent masculinity in the game industry as a whole.
Throughout the book the author touches on this masculinity and the fact that there are plenty of female gamers back then, as there is now. However, she never really makes any arguments about the topic of gender until the final chapter in the book. I think the book would have been better served in two halves; one half for the history of the arcade and gaming culture, followed by the second half addressing the gender biases within that arcade and gaming culture. It would have had much more impact and been far easier to follow if that were the case.
The writing itself is dry. It's sociological study (almost like an extended thesis paper) and not an entertainment oriented book. There is very little opinion or story telling involved, but that didn't seem to be the intention of the author anyway.
Bottom line: if you grew up in arcades, you might find the majority of the book interesting in a nostalgic sense. If you have a sociological interest in the gender bias and gap within video gaming culture and it's origin, you might find the book interesting. Outside of those arenas, I wouldn't recommend it.
3.5 Stars. Reading the title makes you wonder if the book is about video arcades or about the male patrons of video arcades. It's about both. On the one hand you have a history of the arcade and the cultural and technological changes within it. On the other you have the author arguing that the arcade was dominated by male gamers and the inherent masculinity in the game industry as a whole.
Throughout the book the author touches on this masculinity and the fact that there are plenty of female gamers back then, as there is now. However, she never really makes any arguments about the topic of gender until the final chapter in the book. I think the book would have been better served in two halves; one half for the history of the arcade and gaming culture, followed by the second half addressing the gender biases within that arcade and gaming culture. It would have had much more impact and been far easier to follow if that were the case.
The writing itself is dry. It's sociological study (almost like an extended thesis paper) and not an entertainment oriented book. There is very little opinion or story telling involved, but that didn't seem to be the intention of the author anyway.
Bottom line: if you grew up in arcades, you might find the majority of the book interesting in a nostalgic sense. If you have a sociological interest in the gender bias and gap within video gaming culture and it's origin, you might find the book interesting. Outside of those arenas, I wouldn't recommend it.
June 30, 2016
Solid, thought-provoking look at the history of game arcades. It leans more towards cultural exploration than technical, so it's interesting to juxtapose with a book like Videogames: In The Beginning.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews