circuitface wrote:Excuse my language but what the fuck, St? I didn't know about that. What a cockshot. Want us to come down there and rip him a new one?
Neon wrote:Wow St, that's really unbelievable. What's his reasoning?
Yes, I'm afraid this is very true!
In late 2001-2002, he basically accused all Arcade PCBs that they can easily be converted to illegal betting "Fruit machines" thus being a threat to Greek society as a lot of people would spend all their money savings on them.
Basically he saw it as very convenient way to raise his TV ratings/marks, so he started all these TV shows & campaigns (In two different TV channels) accusing all those old poor Cave, Psikyo, Toaplan & SEGA, PCBs as well as all Daytona USA, Tekken, Scud Race, Virtua Fighter, etc… PCBs, that they’re the tools of the devil and that the evil Arcade owners were making huge profits from illegal bets taking place in their halls, by converting the PCBs to fruit machines on the fly, by just a press a button!
“People would sell their houses and spend all their life savings on these devil machines”, as he said back then!
Soon after the government & local authorities were informed and troubled by the huge publicity of the matter, they decided to take drastic measures and close them all down as a threat & plague against society!
They didn’t even bother to send technicians and check which ones could and which could not be converted; they just closed them all down and declared them illegal as if they were drugs!
What’s funny (Or tragic, depending how you see it!) is that at the time of the said events, if you were caught playing your GBA, Atari Lynx, or Game Gear in public, you could very well be accused/prosecuted for conducting illegal bets in public, jailed and fined!
That of course didn’t last too long, but in theory this law still applies in Greece even today!
Of course the government and local authorities didn’t really give jack shit about the people’s wallets, what they really cared about was that if those “illegal” Arcade-PCB bets were taking place, they would be losing a lot of money from taxes not being paid and so would the Greek Casinos’ with their “Legal Fruit Machines” since they would be losing customers.
The government wouldn’t want to lose votes either.
So, as a result a lot of legitimate Arcade owners who had invested legal money on opening Arcade Halls, saw their businesses ruined and shut down in the name “of the common good”! As the bitch said at the time.
Ultimately, the only one that profited from all this, was the bitch!
After that, he raised his TV ratings / marks so high that he is now considered one of the most well paid reporters in the Greek show-biz and runs his own two TV shows.
Today there are absolutely no Arcade Halls or Gallerias in Greece, so I never got to play Tekken 5, Under Defeat, nor any of the newer cool SNK beat em ups like KOF 2002, 2003, Samurai Shodown 5, Rage of the Dragons, Matrimelee, Metal Slug 5, SNK VS Capcom: Chaos, non of the newer Capcom arcades or any newer arcade shooter and of course no Mushihimesama!
One of the reasons I have not tried ordering any Arcade PCBs from abroad, is because they are considered illegal and when it passes through customs, I’ll probably be jailed or fined as if I was smuggling drugs or weapons!
My most vivid childhood memories are from the 80s & 90s playing all those cool arcades at my local Halls & gallerias.
I remember having to wait in line to play Marvel Vs Capcom 1 & 2, Metal Slug 3, Carrier Airwing, Varth, U.N Squadron... all those moments, priceless.
Now they’re all gone!
What can I say, that sucks!
. I stand strong with my list 
