Quote: Adam West has been many things -- Batman, a cartoon mayor, a cowboy, and even a women's rights activist -- but did you know that he was a videogame journalist too?
It's true, sort of. In the July 1983 edition of the horribly-titled but otherwise decent Videogaming and Computergaming Illustrated (right), West contributed a surpsingly forward-thinking editorial on the current state and future of the videogame medium.
While West admitted in the piece that he himself was not a game player ("I prefer working out and skiing," he wrote), he saw the potential in them, saying that "In the same way a painting allows us to gaze upon the faces and souls of people from another age, or a book permits us to linger on the thoughts of great figures from history and fiction, videogames can expand our awareness of the world as it is, was, or might be."
His example of this kind of mind-expanding game is, well, a game about Batman, but other than that the article makes some reasonable points.
"The medium is still in its infancy," wrote West, "but read this again in a few years and see if this prediction hasn't come true: as videogaming grows, we will grow."
Let's do that. I have reproduced the entirety of West's op-ed below, just as it appeared in the magazine (warts and all). Without further ado, here is Adam West: Videogame Journalist.
I've been playing with computers longer than most.
I had onboard computers in Robinson Crusoe on Mars, having learned in an episode of TV's The Outer Limits that you can't survive on the Red Planet without them.
Then, of course, I was up to my cowl in computers as television's Batman. We had an Interdigital Batsorter, Chemo-Electric Secret Writing Detector, an Intergalactic Recorder, and other forward-looking implements.
In 1966, when the series began its three season run, all of that was science fiction.
Computers were playthings of the researchers at MIT, and satellite dishes were strictly for communicating with those brave pioneers in Gemini and Apollo spacecraft. The only "cable" I ever thought about was the one which carried telephone impulses to and from Europe (and now that has been replaced by far more efficient satellites.)
Videogames? In the sixties, that meant To Tell the Truth and What's My Line?
Today, a lot of the apparatus we had in Batman -- dressed, of course, in less imposing names -- is fact. And we're lucky this is so.
My present-day fascination with videogames does not derive from personal affection. I prefer working out and skiing to playing videogames. But that's a personal preference, not a value judgment. I happen to think that videogames are an ideal means to help broaden the imaginations of young people.
Take the character of Batman. Our show still draws heavy ratings whenever it's shown, and I'm pleased that today's relatively sophisticated audiences enjoy the unique meld of action and humor we had in every episode. Yet, I'd like to see a videogame which features Batman as he was conceived back in 1939: a shadowy creature of the night.
Once again I, personally, would rather play that part than play the game, but for all the people who don't have that option, videogames are a great way to experience the thrill and challenge of being such an extraordinary figure.
Needless to say, adventure characters should be just one facet of videogaming. In the same way a painting allows us to gaze upon the faces and souls of people from another age, or a book permits us to linger on the thoughts of great figures from history and fiction, videogames can expand our awareness of the world as it is, was, or might be.
The medium is still in its infancy, but read this again in a few years and see if this prediction hasn't come true: as videogaming grows, we will grow.
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