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Game Guru or Arcade Amateur?

by Cate Murway

Be you beginner or seasoned, welcome to GAME ZOMBIE,

the ultimate video gamers' dream at 315 Mill Street

in historic Bristol on the Delaware.

Your mission may be to save the galaxy in an eternally existing cyber world full of danger or perhaps even to find romance. At this place where fantasies can be fulfilled and one's noble or dark side can be explored, you will get the opportunity to reveal your gaming prowess to your friends and family.

“Game Zombie” owners David “Dave” Sabolcik, gaming has been his hobby throughout his life, and Diana M. Kolick, the “supporting factor through this whole thing” started selling games online on Amazon and eBay.

Dave shares, “I love the art in it! ‘Gears of War’ is a favorite.”

The first step to better times is to imagine them.

They were looking for just a warehouse but fortunately they located a storefront with a warehouse on Mill Street.

“We liked it, we saw it, and it is perfect!”

Together they have 4 children: guitarist Rachel is preparing to graduate from Levittown Beauty Academy, LLC; Melissa is an aspiring dermatologist attending Rowan University and sons, Ian and Kage are both ten.

Dave previously did collision work for 28 years. His grandfather, Ralph South, a WWII Marine once owned “Auto Recon” on Radcliffe Street.

Dave participates in the car show to exhibit his ‘87 black Monte Carlo SS and his father’s reconditioned 63 teal Ford Galaxy. His dad, John Sabolcik grew up in Bristol.

Dave and Diana carry almost every type of game and accessories one may desire and can repair any gaming system! Their specialty store is located in picturesque historic Bristol on the Delaware where the wharf and Bristol Lions Park is great for a "Family" day. They trade, buy, and sell new and used gaming systems, games, controllers and much more.

Their goal is to offer a “unique as possible experience”.

An electronic game involves interaction with a user interface to generate the visual feedback on a video device. It is a unique hybrid of other creative media, such as music and animation.

The first interactive electronic game example was developed in 1947, a "Cathode ray tube Amusement Device". The patent was filed on January 25, 1947 by Thomas Toliver Goldsmith Jr. [1910 – 2009], an early television pioneer and a professor of physics at Furman University in Greenville, SC and Estle Ray Mann. The patent was issued on December 14, 1948 for this game involving aiming missiles at a target, inspired by the radar displays used in World War II. [Television station WTTG, formerly in the DuMont network, is named for Goldsmith’s initials.]

Inspired by radar display tech, it consisted of an analog device that allowed a user to control a vector-drawn dot on the screen to simulate a missile being fired at targets, merely drawings fixed to the screen.

Video games have come a long way since the days of ghost gobbling and asteroid annihilating. They are now a more expressive, impressive line of storytelling that involves sight, sound, touch and feel and a large gap exists between the public's perception of video games and what the research actually shows. Video games have gotten a bad reputation. Separate the fact from fiction.

Fiction: Video game play is socially isolating. Statistics claim 97% of teens play video or computer games.

Much of the video game play is actually social as nearly 60% of frequent gamers play with friends. Thirty-three percent

play with siblings and 25 percent play with spouses or parents.

Even games designed for single players are frequently played socially, with one person giving advice to another who is controlling the joystick. Many of the newer games are designed for multiple players,

for either cooperative play in the same shared space or online play with distributed players.

Fact: Your Brain Works Better

Today’s games are full of fast-paced, visual action that challenges our minds. Studies find that gamers succeed in detail-oriented careers in fast paced environments. Studies suggest that gamers make better surgeons, drivers, and soldiers, and possibly anything else you could think to add to the list. Games can improve your brain in all sorts of ways: reaction time, visual processing skills, concentration, and motor skills. Teamwork can be enhanced when strategy becomes a team effort and it can be one of the most important things in the game. It’s hard to become a top player in anything without a few friends!

Gaming, like anything else, is best done in balance. Enjoying something doesn’t have to be an addiction.

Months of planning and preparation, script writing, casting, character development, cutting-edge technology and massive computing power go into making games that can portray beauty, reality, illusion, emotion, fantasy or relief from the banality of life.

Game designers are inhibited only by their creativity and the available technology. The potential will continue to grow as their capability to move more polygons cheaply comes to fruition, something that the computer industry is most likely working on every day.

The line between the creator and participant is blurring, as players are allowed to create their own worlds, control destinies and discover their own creative selves. The game itself is merely a tool, a simple foundation, and the imagination is the playing field, making the possibilities endless.

The future is still being shaped with momentum and acclaim but it's easy to predict that video games will continue to own space.

Over the past 30 years, video games have become an integral part of our culture and there have been both memorable triumphs and spectacular failures. You decide. Run down to Game Zombie and share in some “Gaming Banter” with Dave.

Can you name the first arcade game manufactured by Atari? An ex-circus barker named Nolan Bushnell produced “Pong”, a bouncing dot and it was released by Atari in 1972.

Did you know that Russian composer [Pyotr Ilyich] Tchaikovsky’s [1840-1893] “Coronation March” is played when a high score is achieved in Battlezone?

Join the “Game Zombie Club” for just $25.00 per month; that is less than $1.00 a day. Membership for Bristol Borough youths, 13 years old and up with their parents’ permission, provides use of any open video game in the store. Members just show their lanyard with their Game Zombie card to enter the “Game Zombie Room.”

Devon Carmody, BHS ’14 enjoys the store.

“I belong to the ‘Game Zombie Club’ and I get to play Xbox.”

Patrick Henson, BCTHS ’11, another member of the ‘Game Zombie Club’ is learning about robotics.

The members can join in on “Guitar Hero” parties where posters glow under the black lights. The players match notes that scroll on-screen to the colored fret buttons on their Gibson Les Paul controller.

Dave and Diana even hosted a New Years Eve party and all the guests signed the Game Zombie shirt that now hangs in their store.

Dave designed the logo himself and Steve’s Tees and DeSigns on 207 Mill Street screen-printed their fluorescent shirts.

If a Game Zombie Club member trades in a game, Dave and Diana put the value of the trade in points or credits on their card that can be used for system or game repairs, or to purchase ‘wall scrolls’ or posters. Cash is given for trade-ins on Fridays only.

Good grades get points: 4 points for an earned ‘A’ and 2 points for a ‘B’.

Game Zombie stocks favorites that have become the classics, including ‘Legend of Zelda’, a tried and true formula of puzzle solving adventure; ‘Mario’, with its untold amount of creativity; ‘Super Metroid’, [no there is no 8-bit sequel]; and notable interactive Play Station and Atari systems.

Croydon residents Jessica R. [Skidmore] and Raymond W. Pica and their sons Aidan and Liam were on their way to the Margaret R. Grundy Memorial Library to borrow the “Dairy of a Wimpy Kid” and they noticed the Game Zombie store on their drive. They purchased two NES games ‘Rampage’ and ‘Three Stooges’.

Enter “Game Zombie” for anything gaming from role-playing to fantasy battle.

If your life were an endless vacation, what would you do?

In Animal Crossing: City Folk, life moves at a relaxed pace, but the world brims with endless possibilities.

Life is like a video game. No matter how good you get, you can still get zapped.

Read the guide, then play the game!

10% discount for any service personnel including military, policeman, firefighters, and Rescue Squad members.

Game Zombie

315 Mill Street

Bristol, PA 19007-4810

215.778.1566

www.gamezombiezone.com

gamezombiezone@gmail.com