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Pretend & Pinball: Playstates Roots in the Midwest

October 14, 2017 by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory tags: Playstates

Being born in the Canadian Midwest (Winnipeg) I assumed that critical milestones in recreation and play took place in larger East and West coast metropolitan centres. It was the development of the computer industry that created this assumption. East-coast university hackers helped create the earliest game prototypes on mainframes while the West-coast hobbyist hackers helped create Arcades/Consoles/PCs. I thought that the middle of the continent was about farming and tornadoes.

As I did research on Playstates and their origins, I discovered for myself an unexpected revelation. The Midwest (USA) played a huge role in the development of new kinds of play and recreation. Here is a list of important Playstate developments that took place in the Midwest:

 

Year Location Details
1866 Macomb, IL Lizzie Maggie is born and would later create the Landlord Game in 1904, the predecessor to Monopoly. (Games)
1927 Chicago, IL Gottlieb is formed and begins manufacturing pinball machines (Games)
1931 Chicago, IL Bally is formed and begins manufacturing pinball machines (Games)
1938 Chicago, IL Gary Gygax is born and would later help create D&D in 1974 (Role-Play & Games)
1943 Detroit, MI Diana Paxson is born and would later help create the SCA in 1966; The SCA was influenced by the writing of Robert E. Howard who was born in Texas (Source: Medieval Fantasy as Performance) (Role-Play)
1946 Chicago, IL Williams is formed and begins manufacturing pinball machines (Games)
1947 Hannepin, MN Dave Arneson is born and and would later help create D&D in 1974 (Role-Play & Games)
1956 Chicago, IL Second City is formed through rise of Modern Improv (Role-Play)
1981 Ottumwa, IO Twin Galaxies is formed and tracks video game records; creating the basis of eSports (Sports)

 

About The Author: Chris Billows

Chris Billows is a knowledge seeker who believes in social responsibility, a health care professional, and a business dabbler. The Journals of Doc Surge is his personal blog. Doc Surge (a cool synonym for Billows) is inspired by Doc Brass from the Planetary Comic series who in turn was inspired by the 1930s pulp hero Doc Savage.
Toys/Playgrounds, Simulations, and Emergence
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