@[email protected] All of the billionares that weren't in on the recent insider trading scam lost a large fraction of their wealth. It's the same principle as the CCP - terrorize the wealthy into compliance and paying off the top authoritarian. You think China paid off Trump for the Apple/Google tariff exemption? Of course not. Apple/Google paid off Trump.

@[email protected] We are finding out in real time what will happen when the authoritarian regime in the USA is too harsh on billionaires.

Don't assume this power will be used for the benefit of the people. It will be used for the benefit of the authoritarians.

China's model is not one we should wish to copy, but we are.

@atomicpoet @retrogaming After that, Radio Shack, as a lot of them would have a game running on their display computer (for example, the PC compatible Tandy 1000 might be showing King's Quest, or later Prince of Persia).

Between arcades, Sears, school computers, and Radio Shack, there were a lot of chances to be exposed to video games without convincing your parents to spend a lot of money on a "Nintendo" or home computer.

@atomicpoet @retrogaming By far the format that the largest percentage of North American folks would have been exposed to was arcade games. No contest. Videogame consoles and home computers were relatively pricey items, but everyone ran across arcade games here and there.

After that, Sears had display units of their branded Atari VCS running Air Sea Battle.

After that, school computers, which explains exposure to Apple ][ and TRS-80 games despite relatively low sales compared to C64 etc.