page_title: Video (magazine)
section_title: Arcade Alley
hierarchical_section_title: Video (magazine) / Content / Arcade Alley
caption_attribution_description: English: 2nd revision (from issue Video January 1980 V3N3 to Video September 1982 V6N6) of the logo of the column Arcade Alley of the US video magazine Video
context_page_description: Video is a discontinued American consumer electronics magazine that was published from 1977 to 1999 by Reese Communications with a focus on video and audio devices. The magazine showcases new audiovisual products, analyzes current practices and trends in the field, and provides critical reviews of newly marketed products and equipment. During its early years, it competed fiercely with contemporary journals like Video Review and Video Buyer's Review—ultimately culminating in a 1980 trademark infringement suit over use of the term "Video Buyer's Guide". In March 1995, Video was acquired from Reese by Hachette Filipacchi, and in 1999 it was merged with their bi-monthly Sound & Image magazine to become Sound & Vision.
  Today, the legacy of Video lies in the history of video game journalism as its regular column, "Arcade Alley", represents the earliest example of a video game column in a mainstream publication. Arcade Alley is credited with having popularized the nascent medium, leading its two main writers to create the first US video game magazine, Electronic Games.
context_section_description: "Arcade Alley – A Critical Look at Video Cartridge Games & Programs" was a regular column in Video magazine, appearing quarterly in 1979 and monthly beginning in 1980, and ran until issue August 1984 (Volume VIII, Number 5). It was created by Bill Kunkel, Arnie Katz, and Joyce Worley, three New York-based friends with a common background in comics, professional wrestling, freelance journalism, and fanzine culture. Through professional connections, they became acquainted with Video's director of public relations, Bruce Apar, in the late 1970s and pitched to him the idea of a regular video game review column for Video which, under the oversight of editor Deeny Kaplan, had been publishing a series of articles called "VideoTest Reports" that sporadically covered video game topics and reviewed collections of games. Apar was enthusiastic about the idea and approached Reese's publisher, Jay Rosenfield. He initially expressed concerns over whether there was enough interest in the new "sport" of "electronic gamesmanship" to justify a regular column on the topic. Despite these concerns, Rosenfield green-lighted the column which was inaugurated under the ambivalent philosophy of "we have nothing to lose", and the column proved to be a success among readers.
  Working in direct consultation with game designers, Kunkel, Katz, and Worley are credited with popularizing video games for commercial markets and normalizing the pastime of gaming in its earliest years. During their time writing "Arcade Alley", both Kunkel and Katz contributed other articles to Video as well. Kunkel wrote one-off features and pieces on the then-new ESPN cable channel and the interactive gaming programs of the QUBE cable channel, and Katz wrote "Televiews"—a television-specific column for Video. Katz additionally wrote for and served as associate editor for the trade journal, Chain Store Age, so for contractual reasons and to avoid tarnishing his name as a serious tech journalist, writing credits for Arcade Alley were given to Kunkel and Katz under the pseudonym Frank T. Laney II. Aiming to review three games per column, Kunkel and Katz often found that their biggest difficulty was the size of the market which often failed to produce enough new titles to review and forced the reviewers to accept any and all games for review. In an interview with Gamasutra, Katz recalled that "we had to review every single game that Atari made because that was all there were". The depth of coverage given to the few titles available was notable for its time, and aspects interesting to the reader such as "easter eggs"—a term for hidden messages and inside jokes left by game programmers—were emphasized.
  Bruce Apar became editor-in-chief in 1980 and "Arcade Alley" grew from a quarterly to a monthly column in parallel with the expansion of Video's publishing frequency. This year also marked the launch of the Arkie Awards—a yearly award naming a Game of the Year for both home console and PC platforms, and honoring video games from the previous year for excellence in categories such as Innovation, Gameplay (Competition, Solitaire-play, etc.), Audio-visual effects, and Genre (Science fiction, Sports, Adventure, etc.). Due to overwhelming reader support for the column, Kunkel, Katz, and Worley pitched the publication of the United States' first dedicated video game magazine to Jay Rosenfield and in October 1981 Electronic Games was launched. Electronic Games was tested as a one-off issue, but proved popular enough that it became a regular bi-monthly and then a monthly magazine. Despite this outlet, however, the three founders of Arcade Alley continued working for Video, jointly hosting the Arkie Awards between the two Reese publications. By 1982 Video was considered the "number one magazine in the industry", and Katz dropped his pseudonym to write under his real name.
caption: Best-known version of the logo of the "Arcade Alley" column
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