When Blaise Tarr has a tough day, he diverts himself down to the HUB basement to escape from a prisoner of war camp, or compete in a professional wrestling championship.

For less than a dollar, Tarr can do all this and more in the HUB's video arcade.

Open until midnight every night, Electric Diversions is a special service of the HUB where many students pass the time between classes or just free their brains from the 47 other things they really should be doing.

"It takes my mind off of physics classes," said Tarr (freshman-aerospace engineering). Tarr saw Electric Diversions during freshman orientation and now comes often with his friend Phuc Phan (freshman-electrical engineering) to play his favorite game, "Robocop."

"I guess we come for two reasons, just for leisure, and to get our frustrations out," Tarr said.

For those who prefer pinball, like Deana Skowood (sophomore-business) there are many choices, from "Bad Girls" to "WARNING. . .ROBO*WAR." Skowood praised pinball over video games because she gets more turns for a quarter.

"Sometimes on the video games there can be five or six different buttons to push!" she exclaimed. "With pinball, all you have to deal with is two flippers."

Classic driving games also can be found in the HUB basement, like "Power Drift," "Off Road," "Out Run," and "Chase H.Q." There are sports games, like the soccer-based "Kick and Run," and the newest high thrill sci-fi games, like "Robocop."

Today's video games feature types of thermonuclear mutilation kung-fu gang wars, complete with chains. But if you wonder what happened to carefree games where the object was to get five frogs across the road without smooshing them, Philip Ponish can explain where the simplicity went.

It has been rotated, he said.

Ponish, manager at Houser Vending, 2437 E. College Ave., said a game usually has a grabbing span of about one month, and then people seem to lose interest in favor of something newer.

The popularity of fighting games seems to have peaked, while driving games and sports games remain steady, he said.

When a game does not bring in enough revenue, it is rotated in favor of something more popular, Ponish said. And the popularity of the games is what generates a sizable 22 percent of the operating costs of the HUB. The HUB provides the space and electricity, while Houser Vending provides the games and their upkeep.

"It's what waxes the HUB floors and buys the toilet paper," says Richard Davis, associate director for union and student activities and HUB treasurer. Although Davis would not cite specific figures, he said the 22 percent revenue helps pay HUB paychecks, buy the papers and magazines for the students to borrow, and keep the phones in order.

For Kenneth Siegel (junior-nuclear biophysical science), Electric Diversions provides a handy place for him to spend a spare 15 minutes to play his favorite driving or space games, before he goes back to some of those nuclear biophysical science classes. But he does not play the games to relieve stress or pass the time.

"I play them just because they are neat, they are video games," Siegel said, stepping on the driving game's accelerator.