How Pinball Gave Video Games Their Bad Reputation

When I was a kid, the "pool room" downtown was the place you shouldn't go (we didn't have bars). Shady characters hung around there! That was the only place that had pinball machines, so pinball was seen as shady as well. Then the local college installed both pool tables and pinball (and later Pong), and you could play without hanging out with shady characters. What fun! Now, if you want to hang out with shady characters, you have to go to a bar, but even they don't have the atmosphere they used to.