6/13/2005
Arcades Are No Longer king, But Doris Self, 79, Is Still A High-Scoring Queen
Doris Self of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., shows her mastery of Q*bert.
By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff June 11, 2005
WEIRS BEACH, N.H.-- As she flailed away at the video arcade console, Doris Self found it hard to concentrate. It wasn't a matter of age; she's sharp as ever at 79. It was all the distractions -- camera crews, reporters, curious onlookers of every age. They'd come to the Funspot arcade to see Self in action. You'd think they'd never seen an old lady playing a video game before.
In fact, they probably hadn't seen anyone Self's age playing so well. She sat at the console, one of those tabletop-style arcade games that let you pull up a chair, and ran up hundred-thousand-point scores with casual ease. It helped that she'd spent eight hours playing the previous day. ''Then I went next door and played poker for four hours," Self said with a laugh.
It was an unusual regimen for a player who'd come all the way from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to set a world record -- two of them, in fact. Self came to Funspot last weekend to reclaim her old titles from the 1980s -- world's highest score on the classic video arcade game Q*bert, and world's oldest person to hold a video arcade record.
Born in Boston, raised in Cambridge, Self has a knack for making history. At 19, she became one of the first female flight attendants at Eastern Airlines. ''The DC-3 I used to fly on is hanging from the ceiling of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum," she said. She later married an Eastern pilot and raised two children.
Then in her 50s, Self discovered video arcades. Her husband had passed away. To cheer her up, Self's daughter took her to a movie and then to a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant for pizza. The Chuck E. Cheese chain was launched by Nolan Bushnell, cofounder of video game maker Atari, and each restaurant has a video arcade.
Self's daughter goaded Doris into trying a few games. Soon she was hooked. It was the 1980s, the peak of the arcade craze, and Self soon discovered a large game room near her Florida home. It was full of younger kids during the day, and she preferred an older crowd. So she'd wait till 11 p.m. before heading for the arcade to play all night.
Q*bert was her favorite game -- an odd little title featuring a goofy-looking creature who hops around on a grid made up of dozens of cubes. The cubes change color with each hop, and the goal is to make them all the same color, while dodging a variety of critters who are trying to devour poor little Q*bert.
The young adults at the arcade welcomed their middle-age rival. ''Everybody wanted to adopt me," said Self. ''They couldn't have been nicer." And Self got so good at Q*bert she developed a reputation as a sort of hustler. ''They got to the point where they'd trick kids to play against me," she said.
WEIRS BEACH, N.H.-- As she flailed away at the video arcade console, Doris Self found it hard to concentrate. It wasn't a matter of age; she's sharp as ever at 79. It was all the distractions -- camera crews, reporters, curious onlookers of every age. They'd come to the Funspot arcade to see Self in action. You'd think they'd never seen an old lady playing a video game before.
In fact, they probably hadn't seen anyone Self's age playing so well. She sat at the console, one of those tabletop-style arcade games that let you pull up a chair, and ran up hundred-thousand-point scores with casual ease. It helped that she'd spent eight hours playing the previous day. ''Then I went next door and played poker for four hours," Self said with a laugh.
It was an unusual regimen for a player who'd come all the way from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to set a world record -- two of them, in fact. Self came to Funspot last weekend to reclaim her old titles from the 1980s -- world's highest score on the classic video arcade game Q*bert, and world's oldest person to hold a video arcade record.
Born in Boston, raised in Cambridge, Self has a knack for making history. At 19, she became one of the first female flight attendants at Eastern Airlines. ''The DC-3 I used to fly on is hanging from the ceiling of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum," she said. She later married an Eastern pilot and raised two children.
Then in her 50s, Self discovered video arcades. Her husband had passed away. To cheer her up, Self's daughter took her to a movie and then to a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant for pizza. The Chuck E. Cheese chain was launched by Nolan Bushnell, cofounder of video game maker Atari, and each restaurant has a video arcade.
Self's daughter goaded Doris into trying a few games. Soon she was hooked. It was the 1980s, the peak of the arcade craze, and Self soon discovered a large game room near her Florida home. It was full of younger kids during the day, and she preferred an older crowd. So she'd wait till 11 p.m. before heading for the arcade to play all night.
Q*bert was her favorite game -- an odd little title featuring a goofy-looking creature who hops around on a grid made up of dozens of cubes. The cubes change color with each hop, and the goal is to make them all the same color, while dodging a variety of critters who are trying to devour poor little Q*bert.
The young adults at the arcade welcomed their middle-age rival. ''Everybody wanted to adopt me," said Self. ''They couldn't have been nicer." And Self got so good at Q*bert she developed a reputation as a sort of hustler. ''They got to the point where they'd trick kids to play against me," she said.
