Golden Age of Arcade Games
Encyclopedia
The golden age of video arcade games was a peak era
of video arcade game
popularity, innovation, and earnings. Although there is no consensus as to its exact time period, most sources place it around the early 1980s.
were not yet available, and only a few games used spoken voice) and so the success of a game had to rely on simple and fun gameplay. This emphasis on the gameplay is why many of these games continue to be enjoyed today despite their technology being vastly outdated by modern computing technology.
of Twin Galaxies
places it as lasting from January 18, 1982 to January 5, 1986. Technology journalist Jason Whittaker, in The Cyberspace Handbook, places the beginning of the golden age in 1978, with the release of Space Invaders
, which he credits for bringing an end to the video game crash of 1977, sparking a renaissance for the video game industry, and starting a video game revolution.
Video game journalist Steven L. Kent
, in his book The Ultimate History of Video Games, places it at 1979 to 1983. The book pointed out that 1979 was the year that Space Invaders, which he credits for ushering in the golden age, was released in the United States
, and the year that saw the advent of vector graphics
technology, which in turn spawned many of the popular early arcade games. However, 1983 was the period that began "a fairly steady decline" in the coin-operated video game business and when many arcades started disappearing.
The History of Computing Project places the golden age of video games between 1971 and 1983, covering the “mainsteam appearance of video games as a consumer market” and “the rise of dedicated hardware systems and the origin of multi-game cartridge based systems”. 1971 was chosen as an earlier start date by the project for two reasons: the creator of Pong
filed a pivotal patent regarding video game technology, and it was the release of the first arcade video game machine, Computer Space
.
Other opinions place this period's beginning in the late 1970s, when color arcade games became more prevalent and video arcade
s themselves started appearing outside of their traditional bowling alley and bar locales, through to its ending in the mid-1980s.
while developers had to work within strict limits of available processor power and memory. Prior to the golden age, the video game industry was flooded with Pong clones, which led to the video game crash of 1977. The crash eventually came to an end following the success of Taito
's Space Invaders
, which sparked a renaissance for the video game industry. The era saw the rapid spread of video arcade
s across North America
, Europe
, and Asia
. The number of video game arcades in North America, for example, more than doubled between 1980 and 1982; reaching a peak of 13,000 video game arcades across the region (compared to 4,000 as of 1998.) Beginning with Space Invaders, video arcade games also started to appear in supermarket
s, restaurants, liquor store
s, gas stations and many other retail establishments looking for extra income. Video game arcades at the time became as common as convenience store
s, while arcade games like Pac-Man and Space Invaders would appear in most locations across the United States, including even funeral home
s. The sales of arcade video game machines increased significantly during this period, from $50 million in 1978 to $900 million in 1981, with 500,000 arcade machines sold in the United States at prices ranging as high as $3000 in 1982 alone.
In 1980, the arcade video game industry's revenue generated from quarters
tripled to $2.8 billion. By 1981, the arcade video game industry in the United States was generating an annual revenue of over $5 billion (equivalent to $12.3 billion in 2011), with some estimates as high as $10.5 billion for all video games (arcade and home) in the US that year, which would be three times the amount spent on movie tickets in 1981, and equivalent to over $25.8 billion in 2011. The total revenue for the worldwide arcade video game industry in 1981 had estimates ranging between $7 billion and $35 billion, which would be between $17.2 and $86 billion in 2011. In 1982, the arcade video game industry's revenue in quarters was estimated at $8 billion (equivalent to $18.5 billion in 2011), surpassing the annual gross revenue of both pop music
($4 billion) and Hollywood
films ($3 billion) combined that year, as well as exceeding the revenues of all major sports combined at the time. This was also more than twice as much revenue as the $3.8 billion generated by the home video game industry (during the second generation of consoles
) that same year; both the arcade and home markets combined added up to a total revenue between $11.8 billion and $12.8 billion for the video game industry in 1982, equivalent to between $27.3 billion and $30 billion in 2011. In the following years, the arcade video game industry would continue to generate an annual revenue of at least $5 billion in quarters through to 1985.
Prior to the golden age, the best selling arcade video game, Pong, had sold over 19,000 arcade cabinets, and generated a revenue of $14 million in 1974. In contrast, the best-selling arcade games of the golden age, Space Invaders and Pac-Man
, had sold over 360,000 and 350,000 cabinets, respectively, with each machine costing between $2000 and $3000 (specifically $2400 in Pac-Man's case). In addition, Space Invaders had grossed $2 billion in quarters by 1982 (equivalent to $4.6 billion in 2011), while Pac-Man had grossed over $1 billion within a year by 1981 and $2.5 billion by the late 1990s (equivalent to over $3.4 billion in 2011). In 1982, Space Invaders was considered the highest-grossing entertainment product of its time, with comparisons made to the then highest-grossing film Star Wars
, which had grossed $486 million, while Pac-Man is today considered the highest-grossing video game of all time. Many other arcade games during the golden age also had hardware unit sales at least in the tens of thousands, including Ms. Pac-Man
with over 115,000 units, Asteroids with 70,000, Donkey Kong
with over 60,000, Defender with 55,000, Galaxian
with 40,000, Donkey Kong Junior with 35,000, Mr. Do!
with 30,000,
and Popeye with 20,000 units. A number of arcade games also generated revenues (from quarters) in the hundreds of millions, including Defender with more than $100 million and Donkey Kong with $280 million, in addition to many more with revenues in the tens of millions, including Dragon's Lair
with $48 million and Space Ace
with $13 million.
The most successful arcade game companies of this era included Taito (which ushered in the golden age with the shooter game
Space Invaders and produced other successful arcade action game
s such as Gun Fight
and Jungle King
), Namco
(the Japanese company that created Galaxian, Pac-Man, Pole Position
and Dig Dug
) and Atari
(the company that introduced video games into arcades with Computer Space and Pong, and later produced Asteroids). These companies wrestled for the top slot in American arcades for several years. Other companies such as Sega
(who later entered the home console market against its former arch rival, Nintendo), Nintendo
(whose mascot
, Mario
, was introduced in 1981's Donkey Kong), Bally Midway Manufacturing Company
(which was later purchased by Williams), Cinematronics
, Konami
, Centuri
, Williams
and SNK
also entered around this era.
(1978
), Gee Bee
(1978), and Galaxian
(1979
), and became widespread in 1980
with Pac-Man
, Rally-X
, Missile Command
, Defender, and others. The central processing unit
in these games allowed for more complexity than earlier discrete circuitry
games such as Atari's Pong
(1972
).
During this period, arcade video games began shifting away from single-screen
titles towards scrolling games. Early examples were Sega
's side-scrolling shooters Bomber (1977) and Secret Base (1978). Namco
's Rally-X in 1980 introduced multi-directional scrolling
, as well as a radar tracking the player position. Sega's Space Tactics that year was a space combat
game allowing multi-directional scrolling from a first-person
perspective. The following year, Namco's Bosconian
allowed the player's ship to freely move across open space that scrolls in all directions. By the early 1980s, scrolling had become popular among arcade video games and would make its way to third-generation consoles
, where it would prove nearly as pivotal as the move to 3D graphics
on later fifth-generation consoles
.
The Golden Age also saw developers experimenting with vector displays
, which produced crisp lines that couldn't be duplicated by raster display
s. An early example of vector graphics
was Sega's 1978 release Space Ship, a multi-directional shooter space combat game. A few of these vector games became great hits, such as 1980
's Battlezone and Tempest and 1983
's Star Wars from Atari, as well as 1982's Star Trek
from Sega. Another notable example was Sega's 1981 release Eliminator, the only four-player vector game ever created, and featuring color vector graphics as well as both cooperative and competitive multiplayer. Sega's Space Fury
that year also featured colour vector graphics, in addition to speech synthesis
. However, vector technology fell out of favor with arcade game companies due to the high cost of repairing vector displays.
Several developers at the time were also experimenting with pseudo-3D
and stereoscopic 3D using 2D sprites
on raster displays
. Sega's racing video game Moto-Cross
, also released as Fonz (under license from Happy Days
), introduced a three-dimensional third-person perspective, displaying scaling sprites on a forward-scrolling road. In 1979, Nintendo
's Radar Scope
introduced a three-dimensional third-person perspective
to the shoot 'em up
genre, later imitated by shooters
such as Konami
's Juno First
and Activision
's Beamrider
in 1983. In 1981, Sega's Turbo
was the first racing game to feature a third-person rear view format, and use sprite
scaling with full-colour graphics. Namco's Pole Position featured an improved rear-view racer format in 1982 that would remain the standard for the genre; the game provided a perspective view of the track, with its vanishing point swaying side to side as the player approaches corners, accurately simulating forward movement into the distance. That same year, Sega released Zaxxon
, which introduced the use of isometric graphics and shadows; SubRoc-3D
, which introduced the use of stereoscopic 3D through a special eyepiece; and Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, which introduced fast pseudo-3D scaling. By 1985, Space Harrier
introduced Sega's "Super Scaler" technology that allowed pseudo-3D
sprite-scaling at high frame rate
s, with the ability to scale 32,000 sprites
and fill a moving landscape with them.
This period also saw significant advances in digital audio
technology. Space Invaders in 1978 was the first game to use a continuous background soundtrack, with four simple chromatic
descending bass note
s repeating in a loop, though it was dynamic and changed pace during stages. Rally-X in 1980 was the first game to feature continuous background music, which was generated using a dedicated sound chip
, a Namco 3-channel PSG
. That same year saw the introduction of speech synthesis
, which was first used in Stratovox
, released by Sun Electronics in 1980, followed soon after by Namco's King & Balloon
, which was an early example of dual-core processing, using two Z80
microprocessor
s, the second to drive a DAC
for speech. Multi-core processing was used by several arcade games the following year, including Frogger
, which used two Z80 microprocessors and an AY-3-8910
PSG sound chip, and Scramble, which used two Z80 microprocessors and two AY-3-8910 sound chips. In 1982, Gyruss
, known for its stereo
sound and musical score, utilized multi-core processing, which included two Z80 microprocessors, one 6809
microprocessor, and one 8039
microprocessor, along with five AY-3-8910 sound chips and a DAC for the sound. That same year, the Namco Pole Position
system used two Z8002 microprocessors and one Z80 microprocessor, along with a Namco 6-channel stereo PSG sound chip for the sound.
Developers also experimented with laserdisc
players for delivering full motion video based games with movie-quality animation. The first laserdisc video game
to exploit this technology was 1983
's Astron Belt
from Sega, soon followed by Dragon's Lair
from Cinematronics
; the latter was a sensation when it was released (and, in fact, the laserdisc players in many machines broke due to overuse). While laserdisc games were usually either shooter game
s with full-motion video backdrops like Astron Belt or interactive movie
s like Dragon's Lair, Data East
's 1983 game Bega's Battle introduced a new form of video game storytelling: using brief full-motion video cutscene
s to develop a story between the game's shooting stages, which would years later become the standard approach to video game storytelling. By the mid-1980s, the genre dwindled in popularity, as laserdiscs were losing out to the VHS
format and the laserdisc games themselves were losing their novelty, due to their linearity and, in many cases, depending less on reflexes than on memorizing sequences of moves.
New controls cropped up in a few games, though, arguably, joystick
s and buttons remained the favorites for most manufacturers. A racing wheel
was included in racing games such as Road Race and Night Driver
, while Fonz
introduced a motorcycle handlebar
with vibrating force feedback technology, Atari introduced the trackball
with 1978
's Atari Football
, Paperboy
used a bicycle handlebar
, and tethered optical light gun
s were popularized by Nintendo's 1984 light gun shooter
s Wild Gunman
, Duck Hunt
and Hogan's Alley
. Other specialty controls, such as pedals in racing games, and a crossbow-shaped light gun in Crossbow
, also debuted in this era.
jumped into the development and manufacturing of video arcade games. Some simply copied the "invading alien hordes" idea of Space Invaders
and turned out successful imitators like Namco's Galaxian
, Galaga
, and Gaplus
, though they took the shoot 'em up
genre further with new gameplay mechanics, more complex enemy patterns, and richer graphics. Galaxian introduced levels
and boss encounters, the "risk-reward" concept and was the first game to have all of its graphics in RGB colour, while Galaga was one of the first games with a bonus stage
. Sega's Secret Base in 1978 introduced two-player cooperative gameplay
, while their 1980 release Space Tactics was an early first-person
space combat
game with multi-directional scrolling
as the player moved the cross-hairs on the screen.
Others tried new concepts and defined new genres. Rapidly evolving hardware allowed new kinds of games which allowed for different styles of gameplay. In 1980, Namco released Pac-Man
, which established the maze chase genre, and Rally-X
, the earliest multi-directional scrolling game with a radar tracking the player position on the map. Games such as the pioneering 1981 games Donkey Kong and Qix
in 1981 introduced new types of games where skill and timing are more important than shooting as fast as possible, with Nintendo
's Donkey Kong in particular setting the template for the platform game
genre. Namco's Bosconian
in 1981 introduced a free-roaming
style of gameplay where the player's ship freely moves across open space, while also including a radar tracking player & enemy positions. Bega's Battle in 1983 introduced a new form of video game storytelling: using brief full-motion video cutscene
s to develop a story between the game's shooting stages. Other examples of innovative games are Atari Games
' Paperboy in 1984 where the goal is to successfully deliver newspaper
s to customers, and Namco's Phozon
where the object is to duplicate a shape shown in the middle of the screen. The theme of Exidy
's Venture is dungeon
exploration and treasure-gathering. One innovative game, Q*Bert, played upon the user's sense of depth perception
to deliver a novel experience.
. The first to do so was Space Invaders
. Following its release in 1978, the game caused a national shortage of 100 yen coin
s in Japan, leading to a production increase of coins to meet demand for the game. It would soon have a similar impact in North America, where it has appeared or is referenced in numerous facets of popular culture. The game that had the biggest impact on popular culture in North America was Pac-Man
. Its release in 1980
caused such a sensation that it initiated what is now referred to as "Pac-Mania" (which later became the title of the last coin-operated game in the series, released in 1987
). Released by Namco
, the game featured a yellow, circle-shaped creature trying to eat dots through a maze while avoiding pursuing enemies. Though no one could agree what the "hero" or enemies represented (they were variously referred to as ghosts, goblins or monsters), the game was extremely popular; there are anecdotes to the effect that some game owners had to empty the game's coin bucket every hour in order to prevent the game's coin mechanism from jamming from having too many coins in the receptacle. The game spawned an animated television series
, numerous clones, Pac-Man-branded foods, toys, and a hit pop song, Pac-Man Fever
. The game's popularity was such that President Ronald Reagan
congratulated a player for setting a record score in Pac-Man. Though many popular games quickly entered the lexicon of popular culture, most have since left, and Pac-Man is unusual in remaining a recognized term in pop culture, along with Space Invaders, Donkey Kong
, Mario Bros.
, and Frogger
.
Arcade games at the time had an impact, both positive and negative, on the music industry, revenues for which had declined by $400 million between 1978 and 1981 (from $4.1 billion to $3.7 billion), a decrease that was directly credited to the rise of arcade games at the time. Successful songs based on video games also began appearing. The pioneering electronic music
band Yellow Magic Orchestra
(YMO) sampled
Space Invaders sounds in their 1978 self-titled album and the hit single "Computer Game" from the same album, the latter selling over 400,000 copies in the United States. In turn, YMO would have a major influence on much of the video game music produced during the 8-bit
and 16-bit eras
. Other pop songs based on Space Invaders soon followed, including "Disco Space Invaders" (1979) by Funny Stuff, "Space Invaders" (1980) by Playback, and the hit songs "Space Invader
" (1980) by The Pretenders and "Space Invaders" (1980) by Uncle Vic. The "Pac-Man Fever
" song reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100
and sold over a million singles in 1982, while the Pac-Man Fever
album sold over a million records, with both receiving Gold certifications
. That same year, R. Cade and the Video Victims also produced an arcade-inspired album, Get Victimized, featuring songs such as "Donkey Kong". In 1984, former YMO member Haruomi Hosono
produced an album entirely from Namco arcade game samples entitled Video Game Music, an early example of a chiptune
record and the first video game music album. Arcade game sounds also had a strong influence on the hip hop
, pop music
(particularly synthpop
) and electro music genres during the early 1980s. The booming success of video games at the time led to music magazine Billboard
listing the 15 top-selling video games alongside their record charts by 1982.
Arcade games also had an impact on the film industry
; beginning with Space Invaders, arcade games began appearing at many movie theater
s, while early films based on video games were also produced, most notably Tron
which grossed over $33 million in 1982 (equivalent to over $76 million in 2011), inspired the use of CGI
by Hollywood film studios such as Pixar
, and began the Tron franchise
which included a video game adptation that grossed more than the film. Other films based on video games included the 1983 films WarGames
(where Matthew Broderick
plays Galaga
at an arcade), Nightmares
, and Joysticks
, the 1984 film The Last Starfighter
, and the anime
Super Mario Bros.: Peach-Hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen! in 1986. Arcades also appeared in many other films at the time, such as Dawn of the Dead (where they play Gun Fight
and F-1
) in 1978, Used Cars
and Midnight Madness in 1980, Take This Job and Shove It
and Puberty Blues
in 1981, the 1982 releases Rocky III
, Fast Times At Ridgemont High
, Koyaanisqatsi
and The Toy, the 1983 releases Psycho II, Spring Break
and Never Say Never Again
, the 1984 releases Footloose, The Karate Kid (where Elisabeth Shue
plays Pac-Man), The Terminator
and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
, the 1985 releases Back to the Future
, The Goonies
and The Boys Next Door
, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off
and Something Wild in 1986. In more recent years, there have been critically acclaimed films based on the golden age of arcade games, such as The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
and Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade
in 2007.
s. The enormous popularity of video arcade games led to the very first video game strategy guides; these guides (rare to find today) discussed in detail the patterns and strategies of each game, including variations, to a degree that few guides seen since can match. "Turning the machine over"—making the score counter overflow and reset to zero—was often the final challenge of a game for those who mastered it, and the last obstacle to getting the highest score.
Some of these strategy guides sold hundreds of thousands of copies at prices ranging from $1.95 to $3.95 in 1982 (equivalent to between $4.52 and $9.15 in 2011). That year, Ken Uston's Mastering Pac-Man sold 750,000 copies, reaching #5 on B. Dalton
's mass-market bestseller
list, while Bantam's How To Master the Video Games sold 600,000 copies, appearing on the The New York Times
mass-market paperback list.
The games below are some of the most popular and/or influential games of the era.
, which started the golden age of beat 'em up
games, a genre that would peak in popularity with Final Fight
two years later. After yet another relative decline, the arcades would experience its last major resurgence in 1991 with the release of Street Fighter II
, which popularized competitive fighting game
s and revived the arcade industry to a level of popularity not seen since the days of Pac-Man, with even many of the best-selling home video games in the early 1990s often being arcade ports. Following the rise of 3D graphics
soon after, racing game
s and light gun shooter
s would gain more popularity, after which arcade video games would decline in popularity once again by the late 1990s. Most arcade video games since then have been fighting games, shooters
, maze games, racing games, and other variations on old familiar themes.
One of the causes of decline was new generations of home computer
s and video game console
s that sapped interest from arcades. Earlier consoles, such as the Atari 2600
and Mattel
's Intellivision
, were general-purpose and were meant to play a variety of games, and often could not measure up to video arcade game hardware, which was built for the singular purpose of providing a single game well. In fact, the glut of poor-quality home video game systems contributed in no small way to the video game crash of 1983. However, the debut of the Nintendo Entertainment System
(released 1983 in Japan and 1985
in North America) began to level the playing field by providing a reasonably good video arcade experience at home, an experience the Sega Master System
would replicate to a greater degree. In the early to mid 1990s, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
and the Sega Mega Drive (Sega Genesis in North America) greatly improved home play and some of the technology was even integrated into a few video arcade machines. By the time of the PlayStation
(1995
) and the Nintendo 64
(1996
), both of which boasted true 3D graphics
, many video game arcades across the country had gone out of business.
The video arcade game industry still exists today, but in a greatly reduced form. Video arcade game hardware is often based on home game consoles to facilitate porting
a video arcade game to a home system; there are video arcade versions of Dreamcast (NAOMI, Atomiswave
), PlayStation 2
(System 246
), Nintendo GameCube
(Triforce), and Microsoft
Xbox
(Chihiro) home consoles. Some arcades have survived by expanding into ticket-based prize redemption and more physical games with no home console equivalent, such as skee ball
and whack-a-mole. Some genres, such as dancing
and rhythm game
s (such as Dance Dance Revolution
) continue to be popular in arcades.
The relative simplicity yet solid gameplay of many of these early games has inspired a new generation of fans who can play them on mobile phone
s or with emulator
s such as MAME
. Some classic arcade games are reappearing in commercial settings, such as Namco's Ms. Pac-Man 20 Year Reunion / Galaga Class of 1981 two-in-one game, or integrated directly into controller hardware (joysticks) with replaceable flash drives storing game ROMs.
, Pac-Man
, Donkey Kong, Frogger
, and Centipede
are still recognized in today's popular culture.
Pac-Man
and Dragon's Lair
joined Pong
for permanent display at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. for their cultural impact in the United States. No video game has been inducted since.
The success of these early video games has led many hobbyists who were teenagers during the Golden Age to collect some of these classic games. Since few have any commercial value any longer, they can be acquired for US$
200 to US$750 (though fully restored games can cost much more).
Some fans of these games have companies devoted to restoring the classic games, and others, such as Arcade Renovations, which produces reproduction art for classic arcade games, focus solely on one facet of the restoration activity. Many of these restorers have set up websites full of tips and advice on restoring games to mint condition
. There are also several newsgroup
s devoted to discussion around these games, and a few conventions, such as California Extreme,
dedicated to classic arcade gaming.
Golden Age (metaphor)
A golden age is a period in a field of endeavour when great tasks were accomplished. The term originated from early Greek and Roman poets who used to refer to a time when mankind lived in a better time and was pure .-Golden Age in society:...
of video arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
popularity, innovation, and earnings. Although there is no consensus as to its exact time period, most sources place it around the early 1980s.
Overview
During the late 1970s, video arcade game technology had become sophisticated enough to offer good-quality graphics and sounds, but it was still fairly basic (realistic images and full motion videoFMV game
- 1983 :* Astron Belt* Cliff Hanger* Dragon's Lair* Firefox- 1984 :* Cobra Command* Ninja Hayate* Space Ace* Thayer's Quest- 1991 :* Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp* Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective* Time Traveler* Who Shot Johnny Rock?- 1992 :...
were not yet available, and only a few games used spoken voice) and so the success of a game had to rely on simple and fun gameplay. This emphasis on the gameplay is why many of these games continue to be enjoyed today despite their technology being vastly outdated by modern computing technology.
Relevant time period
Walter DayWalter Day
Walter Aldro Day, Jr. is the founder of Twin Galaxies, an international organization based in Fairfield, Iowa, that tracks high score statistics for the worldwide electronic video gaming hobby...
of Twin Galaxies
Twin Galaxies
Twin Galaxies is an American organization that tracks video game world records and conducts a program of electronic-gaming promotions. It operates the Twin Galaxies website and publishes the Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records, with the Arcade Volume released on June...
places it as lasting from January 18, 1982 to January 5, 1986. Technology journalist Jason Whittaker, in The Cyberspace Handbook, places the beginning of the golden age in 1978, with the release of Space Invaders
Space Invaders
is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to...
, which he credits for bringing an end to the video game crash of 1977, sparking a renaissance for the video game industry, and starting a video game revolution.
Video game journalist Steven L. Kent
Steven L. Kent
Steven L. Kent is an American writer, known for both video game journalism and military science fiction novels. In 1993, Steven started work as a freelance journalist, writing monthly video game reviews for the Seattle Times...
, in his book The Ultimate History of Video Games, places it at 1979 to 1983. The book pointed out that 1979 was the year that Space Invaders, which he credits for ushering in the golden age, was released in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and the year that saw the advent of vector graphics
Vector graphics
Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based on mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics...
technology, which in turn spawned many of the popular early arcade games. However, 1983 was the period that began "a fairly steady decline" in the coin-operated video game business and when many arcades started disappearing.
The History of Computing Project places the golden age of video games between 1971 and 1983, covering the “mainsteam appearance of video games as a consumer market” and “the rise of dedicated hardware systems and the origin of multi-game cartridge based systems”. 1971 was chosen as an earlier start date by the project for two reasons: the creator of Pong
Pong
Pong is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity...
filed a pivotal patent regarding video game technology, and it was the release of the first arcade video game machine, Computer Space
Computer Space
Computer Space is a video arcade game released in November 1971 by Nutting Associates. Created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, who would both later found Atari, Inc., it is generally accepted that it was the world's first commercially sold coin-operated video game — and indeed, the first...
.
Other opinions place this period's beginning in the late 1970s, when color arcade games became more prevalent and video arcade
Video arcade
An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
s themselves started appearing outside of their traditional bowling alley and bar locales, through to its ending in the mid-1980s.
Business
The golden age was a time of great technical and design creativity in arcade games. Games were designed in a wide variety of genresComputer and video game genres
Video game genres are used to categorize video games based on their gameplay interaction rather than visual or narrative differences. A video game genre is defined by a set of gameplay challenges. They are classified independent of their setting or game-world content, unlike other works of fiction...
while developers had to work within strict limits of available processor power and memory. Prior to the golden age, the video game industry was flooded with Pong clones, which led to the video game crash of 1977. The crash eventually came to an end following the success of Taito
Taito Corporation
The is a Japanese publisher of video game software and arcade hardware wholly owned by publisher Square Enix. Taito has their headquarters in the Shinjuku Bunka Quint Building in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, sharing the facility with its parent company....
's Space Invaders
Space Invaders
is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to...
, which sparked a renaissance for the video game industry. The era saw the rapid spread of video arcade
Video arcade
An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
s across North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. The number of video game arcades in North America, for example, more than doubled between 1980 and 1982; reaching a peak of 13,000 video game arcades across the region (compared to 4,000 as of 1998.) Beginning with Space Invaders, video arcade games also started to appear in supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
s, restaurants, liquor store
Liquor store
In the United States, Australia and Canada, a liquor store is a type of store that specializes in the sale of alcoholic beverages. In South Africa and Namibia these stores are generally called bottle stores....
s, gas stations and many other retail establishments looking for extra income. Video game arcades at the time became as common as convenience store
Convenience store
A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...
s, while arcade games like Pac-Man and Space Invaders would appear in most locations across the United States, including even funeral home
Funeral home
A funeral home, funeral parlor or mortuary, is a business that provides burial and funeral services for the deceased and their families. These services may include aprepared wake and funeral, and the provision of a chapel for the funeral....
s. The sales of arcade video game machines increased significantly during this period, from $50 million in 1978 to $900 million in 1981, with 500,000 arcade machines sold in the United States at prices ranging as high as $3000 in 1982 alone.
In 1980, the arcade video game industry's revenue generated from quarters
Quarter (United States coin)
A quarter dollar, commonly shortened to quarter, is a coin worth ¼ of a United States dollar, or 25 cents. The quarter has been produced since 1796. The choice of 25¢ as a denomination, as opposed to 20¢ which is more common in other parts of the world, originated with the practice of dividing...
tripled to $2.8 billion. By 1981, the arcade video game industry in the United States was generating an annual revenue of over $5 billion (equivalent to $12.3 billion in 2011), with some estimates as high as $10.5 billion for all video games (arcade and home) in the US that year, which would be three times the amount spent on movie tickets in 1981, and equivalent to over $25.8 billion in 2011. The total revenue for the worldwide arcade video game industry in 1981 had estimates ranging between $7 billion and $35 billion, which would be between $17.2 and $86 billion in 2011. In 1982, the arcade video game industry's revenue in quarters was estimated at $8 billion (equivalent to $18.5 billion in 2011), surpassing the annual gross revenue of both pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
($4 billion) and Hollywood
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
films ($3 billion) combined that year, as well as exceeding the revenues of all major sports combined at the time. This was also more than twice as much revenue as the $3.8 billion generated by the home video game industry (during the second generation of consoles
History of video game consoles (second generation)
In the history of computer and video games, the second generation began in 1976 with the release of the Fairchild Channel F and Radofin 1292 Advanced Programmable Video System....
) that same year; both the arcade and home markets combined added up to a total revenue between $11.8 billion and $12.8 billion for the video game industry in 1982, equivalent to between $27.3 billion and $30 billion in 2011. In the following years, the arcade video game industry would continue to generate an annual revenue of at least $5 billion in quarters through to 1985.
Prior to the golden age, the best selling arcade video game, Pong, had sold over 19,000 arcade cabinets, and generated a revenue of $14 million in 1974. In contrast, the best-selling arcade games of the golden age, Space Invaders and Pac-Man
Pac-Man
is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
, had sold over 360,000 and 350,000 cabinets, respectively, with each machine costing between $2000 and $3000 (specifically $2400 in Pac-Man's case). In addition, Space Invaders had grossed $2 billion in quarters by 1982 (equivalent to $4.6 billion in 2011), while Pac-Man had grossed over $1 billion within a year by 1981 and $2.5 billion by the late 1990s (equivalent to over $3.4 billion in 2011). In 1982, Space Invaders was considered the highest-grossing entertainment product of its time, with comparisons made to the then highest-grossing film Star Wars
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
, which had grossed $486 million, while Pac-Man is today considered the highest-grossing video game of all time. Many other arcade games during the golden age also had hardware unit sales at least in the tens of thousands, including Ms. Pac-Man
Ms. Pac-Man
Ms. Pac-Man is an arcade video game produced by Midway as an unauthorized sequel to Pac-Man. It was released in North America in 1981 and became one of the most popular video games of all time, leading to its adoption by Pac-Man licensor Namco as an official title...
with over 115,000 units, Asteroids with 70,000, Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong (video game)
is an arcade game released by Nintendo in 1981. It is an early example of the platform game genre, as the gameplay focuses on maneuvering the main character across a series of platforms while dodging and jumping over obstacles. In the game, Jumpman must rescue a damsel in distress, Lady, from a...
with over 60,000, Defender with 55,000, Galaxian
Galaxian
is an arcade game developed by Namco in 1979. It was published by Namco in Japan and was imported to North America by Midway in 1980. A fixed shooter-style game in which the player controls a spaceship at the bottom of the screen and shoots enemies descending in various directions, it was designed...
with 40,000, Donkey Kong Junior with 35,000, Mr. Do!
Mr. Do!
Mr. Do! is an arcade game created by Universal in 1982. Remotely similar in gameplay to Namco's popular Dig Dug title, Mr. Do! was also popular and saw release on a variety of home video game consoles and systems. It is the first game in the Mr...
with 30,000,
and Popeye with 20,000 units. A number of arcade games also generated revenues (from quarters) in the hundreds of millions, including Defender with more than $100 million and Donkey Kong with $280 million, in addition to many more with revenues in the tens of millions, including Dragon's Lair
Dragon's Lair
Dragon's Lair is a laserdisc video game published by Cinematronics in 1983. It featured animation created by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth....
with $48 million and Space Ace
Space Ace
Space Ace is a laserdisc video game produced by Don Bluth Studios, Cinematronics, and Advanced Microcomputer Systems...
with $13 million.
The most successful arcade game companies of this era included Taito (which ushered in the golden age with the shooter game
Shooter game
Shooter games are a sub-genre of action game, which often test the player's speed and reaction time. It includes many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing "on the actions of the avatar using some sort of weapon. Usually this weapon is a gun, or some other long-range weapon". A common...
Space Invaders and produced other successful arcade action game
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
s such as Gun Fight
Gun Fight
Gun Fight, known as Western Gun in Japan and Europe, is a 1975 arcade shooter game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released by Taito in Japan and Europe and by Midway Games in the United States. It was a historically significant game, and a success in the arcades. It was later ported to the...
and Jungle King
Jungle Hunt
Jungle Hunt is a one- or two-player side-scrolling arcade platform game produced by Taito in 1982.The player controls a jungle explorer who sports a pith helmet and a safari suit. The player must rescue his girl from a tribe of hungry cannibals...
), Namco
Namco
is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...
(the Japanese company that created Galaxian, Pac-Man, Pole Position
Pole Position
Pole Position is a racing video game released in 1982 by Namco. It was published by Namco in Japan and by Atari, Inc. in the United States...
and Dig Dug
Dig Dug
is an arcade game developed and published by Namco in Japan in 1982 for Namco Galaga hardware. It was later published outside of Japan by Atari. A popular game based on a simple concept, it was also released as a video game on many consoles.-Objective:...
) and Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
(the company that introduced video games into arcades with Computer Space and Pong, and later produced Asteroids). These companies wrestled for the top slot in American arcades for several years. Other companies such as Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
(who later entered the home console market against its former arch rival, Nintendo), Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
(whose mascot
Mascot
The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...
, Mario
Mario
is a fictional character in his video game series, created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the main protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation...
, was introduced in 1981's Donkey Kong), Bally Midway Manufacturing Company
Midway Games
Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...
(which was later purchased by Williams), Cinematronics
Cinematronics
Cinematronics Incorporated was a pioneering arcade game developer that had its heyday in the era of vector display games. While other companies released games based on raster displays, early in their history, Cinematronics and Atari released vector-display games, which offered a distinctive look...
, Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
, Centuri
Centuri
Centuri, based in Hialeah, Florida, was one of the top six suppliers of coin operated video game machinery in the United States. Many of the machines distributed in the US under the Centuri name were licensed from overseas manufacturers, particularly Konami....
, Williams
Williams (gaming company)
WMS Industries, Inc. is an American electronic gaming and amusement company based in Waukegan, Illinois. The company's main operating subsidiaries are WMS Gaming and Orion Gaming. WMS traces its roots as far back as 1943, the Williams Manufacturing Company, founded by Harry E. Williams...
and SNK
SNK Playmore
SNK Playmore Corporation is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. SNK is an acronym of , which was SNK's original name. The company's legal and trading name became SNK in 1986....
also entered around this era.
Technology
Arcades catering to video games began to gain momentum in the late 1970s with games such as Space InvadersSpace Invaders
is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to...
(1978
1978 in video gaming
-Notable releases:* June - Taito Corporation releases the Space Invaders arcade game in Japan.* October - Namco releases their first arcade game, Gee Bee, in Japan.* Cinematronics releases the Space Wars vector graphics arcade game....
), Gee Bee
Gee Bee (arcade game)
Gee Bee is Namco's first internally designed arcade game, released in 1978. It was developed by Tōru Iwatani, who went on to create Pac-Man...
(1978), and Galaxian
Galaxian
is an arcade game developed by Namco in 1979. It was published by Namco in Japan and was imported to North America by Midway in 1980. A fixed shooter-style game in which the player controls a spaceship at the bottom of the screen and shoots enemies descending in various directions, it was designed...
(1979
1979 in video gaming
-Notable releases:* Richard Garriott creates Akalabeth, a computer role-playing game for the Apple IIe. It launches Garriott's career and is a precursor to his highly successful Ultima series....
), and became widespread in 1980
1980 in video gaming
-Notable releases:* May 22, Namco releases Pac-Man, which is their biggest selling game of all time* December, Nintendo releases the Radar Scope arcade game...
with Pac-Man
Pac-Man
is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
, Rally-X
Rally-X
Rally-X is a maze driving arcade game that was released by Namco in 1980. It runs on Namco Pac-Man hardware, and was the first Namco game to feature "Special Flags", which would become a recurring object in later games .It was the first game to ever feature a "bonus round." The object is to...
, Missile Command
Missile Command
Missile Command is a 1980 arcade game by Atari, Inc. that was also licensed to Sega for European release. It is considered one of the most notable games from the Golden Age of Video Arcade Games...
, Defender, and others. The central processing unit
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
in these games allowed for more complexity than earlier discrete circuitry
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...
games such as Atari's Pong
Pong
Pong is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity...
(1972
1972 in video gaming
-Events:*Pong was the first commercially successful video arcade game, as well as the first video game to be subject to a lawsuit*Following the poor sales of Computer Space, Nolan Bushnell leaves Nutting Associates to move his coin-op engineering and design firm with Ted Dabney in to a full fledged...
).
During this period, arcade video games began shifting away from single-screen
Flip-screen
In video games, flip-screen is a principle whereby the playing environment is divided into single-screen portions...
titles towards scrolling games. Early examples were Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
's side-scrolling shooters Bomber (1977) and Secret Base (1978). Namco
Namco
is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...
's Rally-X in 1980 introduced multi-directional scrolling
Scrolling
In computer graphics, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display. "Scrolling", as such, does not change the layout of the text or pictures, or but incrementally moves the user's view across what is...
, as well as a radar tracking the player position. Sega's Space Tactics that year was a space combat
Space flight simulator game
A space flight simulator game is a genre of simulation video games that lets players experience space flight. Highly realistic examples lacking any sort of combat include Orbiter and Microsoft Space Simulator...
game allowing multi-directional scrolling from a first-person
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
perspective. The following year, Namco's Bosconian
Bosconian
is a free-roaming multi-directional scrolling shooter arcade game that was developed by Namco and released in 1981. In contrast to the more linear shooter games of its time, Bosconian allows the player's ship to freely move across open space that scrolls in all directions. The game also features a...
allowed the player's ship to freely move across open space that scrolls in all directions. By the early 1980s, scrolling had become popular among arcade video games and would make its way to third-generation consoles
History of video game consoles (third generation)
In the history of computer and video games, the third generation began on July 15, 1983, with the Japanese release of both the Nintendo Family Computer and Sega SG-1000...
, where it would prove nearly as pivotal as the move to 3D graphics
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
on later fifth-generation consoles
History of video game consoles (fifth generation)
The fifth-generation era refers to the computer and video games, video game consoles, and video game handhelds available at stores...
.
The Golden Age also saw developers experimenting with vector displays
Vector monitor
A vector monitor or vector display is a display device used for early computers. It is a type of CRT, similar to the oscilloscope, but typically uses magnetic, rather than electrostatic, deflection...
, which produced crisp lines that couldn't be duplicated by raster display
Raster graphics
In computer graphics, a raster graphics image, or bitmap, is a data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color, viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium...
s. An early example of vector graphics
Vector graphics
Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based on mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics...
was Sega's 1978 release Space Ship, a multi-directional shooter space combat game. A few of these vector games became great hits, such as 1980
1980 in video gaming
-Notable releases:* May 22, Namco releases Pac-Man, which is their biggest selling game of all time* December, Nintendo releases the Radar Scope arcade game...
's Battlezone and Tempest and 1983
1983 in video gaming
-Events:* A major shakeout of the video game industry begins. By 1986, total video games sales will decrease from US$3.2 billion to US$0.1 billion.* MCA Universal files suit against Nintendo, claiming that the latter company's video arcade hit Donkey Kong violated Universal's copyright on King Kong...
's Star Wars from Atari, as well as 1982's Star Trek
Star Trek (arcade game)
Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator is a space combat simulation arcade game based on the original Star Trek television program, and released by Sega in 1982. It is a vector game, with both a two-dimensional display and a three-dimensional first-person perspective...
from Sega. Another notable example was Sega's 1981 release Eliminator, the only four-player vector game ever created, and featuring color vector graphics as well as both cooperative and competitive multiplayer. Sega's Space Fury
Space Fury
Space Fury a multi-directional shooter arcade game created by Sega released on June 17, 1981. The game was an early example of color vector graphics and it also featured speech synthesis.-Gameplay:...
that year also featured colour vector graphics, in addition to speech synthesis
Speech synthesis
Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware...
. However, vector technology fell out of favor with arcade game companies due to the high cost of repairing vector displays.
Several developers at the time were also experimenting with pseudo-3D
2.5D
2.5D , 3/4 perspective and pseudo-3D are terms used to describe either:* 2D graphical projections and techniques which cause a series of images or scenes to fake or appear to be three-dimensional when in fact they are not, or* gameplay in an otherwise three-dimensional video game that is...
and stereoscopic 3D using 2D sprites
2D computer graphics
2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...
on raster displays
Raster graphics
In computer graphics, a raster graphics image, or bitmap, is a data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color, viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium...
. Sega's racing video game Moto-Cross
Fonz (arcade)
Fonz is a 1976 arcade racing video game developed by Sega and published by Sega-Gremlin. The game was based on the hit TV show Happy Days and the slogan was "TV's hottest name, Your hottest game." The game itself was simply a rebranded variant of Sega's earlier 1976 game Moto-Cross in a customized...
, also released as Fonz (under license from Happy Days
Happy Days
Happy Days is an American television sitcom that originally aired from January 15, 1974, to September 24, 1984, on ABC. Created by Garry Marshall, the series presents an idealized vision of life in mid-1950s to mid-1960s America....
), introduced a three-dimensional third-person perspective, displaying scaling sprites on a forward-scrolling road. In 1979, Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
's Radar Scope
Radar Scope
is an early cabinet arcade game developed and published by Nintendo in November 1980. Some sources claim that Ikegami Tsushinki also did design work on Radar Scope. It is a shooter that can be viewed as a cross between Taito's Space Invaders and Namco's Galaxian...
introduced a three-dimensional third-person perspective
Third-person shooter
Third-person shooter is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting.-Definition:...
to the shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what...
genre, later imitated by shooters
Shooter game
Shooter games are a sub-genre of action game, which often test the player's speed and reaction time. It includes many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing "on the actions of the avatar using some sort of weapon. Usually this weapon is a gun, or some other long-range weapon". A common...
such as Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
's Juno First
Juno First
Juno First is a shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Konami and released in 1983. It was licensed to Gottlieb in the United States. The game is a vertical scrolling shooter, with a third-person perspective like Radar Scope. It follows in the tradition of space-themed shooting-galleries such as...
and Activision
Activision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
's Beamrider
Beamrider
Beamrider is a scrolling shooter designed for the Intellivision by Activision programmer David Rolfe. The game was then ported to the Atari 2600 , Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum as well as the MSX platform.-Summary:Beamrider takes place above Earth's atmosphere,...
in 1983. In 1981, Sega's Turbo
Turbo (video game)
Turbo is a racing game released in 1981 by Sega. The game was brought into arcades in both the standard upright cabinet format, and a semi-enclosed sit-down version to better simulate driving a real car.. The cars in the game resemble Formula 1 race cars. It was the first game to feature the now...
was the first racing game to feature a third-person rear view format, and use sprite
Sprite (computer graphics)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...
scaling with full-colour graphics. Namco's Pole Position featured an improved rear-view racer format in 1982 that would remain the standard for the genre; the game provided a perspective view of the track, with its vanishing point swaying side to side as the player approaches corners, accurately simulating forward movement into the distance. That same year, Sega released Zaxxon
Zaxxon
Zaxxon is a 1982 arcade game developed and released by Sega. Some sources claim that Japanese electronics company Ikegami Tsushinki also worked on the development of Zaxxon...
, which introduced the use of isometric graphics and shadows; SubRoc-3D
Subroc-3D
SubRoc-3D is an arcade game released in 1982 by Sega, and the first such game to provide a three-dimensional image to the player, using a display that delivers individual images to each eye...
, which introduced the use of stereoscopic 3D through a special eyepiece; and Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, which introduced fast pseudo-3D scaling. By 1985, Space Harrier
Space Harrier
is a third-person rail shooter game, released by Sega in 1985. It was produced by Yu Suzuki, responsible for many popular Sega games. It spawned several sequels: Space Harrier 3-D , Space Harrier II , and the spin-off Planet Harriers ....
introduced Sega's "Super Scaler" technology that allowed pseudo-3D
2.5D
2.5D , 3/4 perspective and pseudo-3D are terms used to describe either:* 2D graphical projections and techniques which cause a series of images or scenes to fake or appear to be three-dimensional when in fact they are not, or* gameplay in an otherwise three-dimensional video game that is...
sprite-scaling at high frame rate
Frame rate
Frame rate is the frequency at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. The term applies equally well to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems...
s, with the ability to scale 32,000 sprites
Sprite (computer graphics)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...
and fill a moving landscape with them.
This period also saw significant advances in digital audio
Digital audio
Digital audio is sound reproduction using pulse-code modulation and digital signals. Digital audio systems include analog-to-digital conversion , digital-to-analog conversion , digital storage, processing and transmission components...
technology. Space Invaders in 1978 was the first game to use a continuous background soundtrack, with four simple chromatic
Diatonic and chromatic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony...
descending bass note
Bass note
In music theory, the bass note of a chord or sonority is the lowest note played or notated. If there are multiple voices it is the note played or notated in the lowest voice. While the bass note is often the root or fundamental of the chord, it does not have to be, and sometimes one of the other...
s repeating in a loop, though it was dynamic and changed pace during stages. Rally-X in 1980 was the first game to feature continuous background music, which was generated using a dedicated sound chip
Sound chip
A sound chip is an integrated circuit designed to produce sound . It might be doing this through digital, analog or mixed-mode electronics...
, a Namco 3-channel PSG
Programmable sound generator
A Programmable Sound Generator is a sound chip that generates sound waves by synthesizing multiple basic waveforms, and often some kind of noise generator, and combining and mixing these waveforms into a complex waveform, then shaping the amplitude of the resulting waveform using...
. That same year saw the introduction of speech synthesis
Speech synthesis
Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware...
, which was first used in Stratovox
Stratovox
Stratovox AKA Speak & Rescue is an arcade shoot 'em up developed by Sun Electronics and published by Taito in 1980. It was the first video game to feature voice synthesis.-Gameplay:...
, released by Sun Electronics in 1980, followed soon after by Namco's King & Balloon
King & Balloon
King & Balloon is a fixed shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1980. It was an early example of dual-core processing, running on Namco Galaxian hardware, based on the Z80 microprocessor, with an extra Z80 microprocessor to drive a DAC for speech; the King speaks when he is captured ,...
, which was an early example of dual-core processing, using two Z80
Zilog Z80
The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog and sold from July 1976 onwards. It was widely used both in desktop and embedded computer designs as well as for military purposes...
microprocessor
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
s, the second to drive a DAC
Digital-to-analog converter
In electronics, a digital-to-analog converter is a device that converts a digital code to an analog signal . An analog-to-digital converter performs the reverse operation...
for speech. Multi-core processing was used by several arcade games the following year, including Frogger
Frogger
Frogger is an arcade game introduced in 1981. It was developed by Konami, and licensed for worldwide distribution by Sega/Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct frogs to their homes one by one. To do this, each frog must avoid cars while crossing a busy road and navigate a river full of...
, which used two Z80 microprocessors and an AY-3-8910
General Instrument AY-3-8910
The AY-3-8910 is a 3-voice Programmable Sound Generator designed by General Instrument, initially for use with their 16-bit CP1610 or one of the PIC1650 series of 8-bit microcomputers...
PSG sound chip, and Scramble, which used two Z80 microprocessors and two AY-3-8910 sound chips. In 1982, Gyruss
Gyruss
is a shoot 'em up video arcade game developed by Konami, and released in 1983. It was designed by Yoshiki Okamoto, who had earlier created Time Pilot for Konami. Gyruss was licensed to Centuri in the United States, and was ported to numerous games consoles and home computers...
, known for its stereo
Stereophonic sound
The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...
sound and musical score, utilized multi-core processing, which included two Z80 microprocessors, one 6809
Motorola 6809
The Motorola 6809 is an 8-bit microprocessor CPU from Motorola, designed by Terry Ritter and Joel Boney and introduced 1978...
microprocessor, and one 8039
Intel MCS-48
The MCS-48 microcontroller series, Intel's first microcontroller, was originally released in 1976. Its first members were 8048, 8035 and 8748....
microprocessor, along with five AY-3-8910 sound chips and a DAC for the sound. That same year, the Namco Pole Position
Namco Pole Position
Namco Pole Position is the name of Namco's 8-bit arcade system board, first used in 1982 for the Pole Position video games.-Namco Pole Position specifications:* Main CPU : Zilog Z80* Secondary CPUs : 2 x Z8002...
system used two Z8002 microprocessors and one Z80 microprocessor, along with a Namco 6-channel stereo PSG sound chip for the sound.
Developers also experimented with laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
players for delivering full motion video based games with movie-quality animation. The first laserdisc video game
Laserdisc video game
A laserdisc video game is an arcade game that uses pre-recorded video played from a laserdisc, either as the entirety of the graphics, or as part of the graphics.-History:...
to exploit this technology was 1983
1983 in video gaming
-Events:* A major shakeout of the video game industry begins. By 1986, total video games sales will decrease from US$3.2 billion to US$0.1 billion.* MCA Universal files suit against Nintendo, claiming that the latter company's video arcade hit Donkey Kong violated Universal's copyright on King Kong...
's Astron Belt
Astron Belt
Astron Belt is an early laserdisc video game and third-person space combat rail shooter, released in 1983 by Sega in Japan and licensed to Bally Midway for release in the United States. Developed in 1982, it is commonly cited as the first laserdisc game...
from Sega, soon followed by Dragon's Lair
Dragon's Lair
Dragon's Lair is a laserdisc video game published by Cinematronics in 1983. It featured animation created by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth....
from Cinematronics
Cinematronics
Cinematronics Incorporated was a pioneering arcade game developer that had its heyday in the era of vector display games. While other companies released games based on raster displays, early in their history, Cinematronics and Atari released vector-display games, which offered a distinctive look...
; the latter was a sensation when it was released (and, in fact, the laserdisc players in many machines broke due to overuse). While laserdisc games were usually either shooter game
Shooter game
Shooter games are a sub-genre of action game, which often test the player's speed and reaction time. It includes many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing "on the actions of the avatar using some sort of weapon. Usually this weapon is a gun, or some other long-range weapon". A common...
s with full-motion video backdrops like Astron Belt or interactive movie
Interactive movie
An interactive movie is a video game that features highly cinematic presentation and heavy use of scripting, often through the use of full-motion video of either animated or live-action footage.-Philosophy:...
s like Dragon's Lair, Data East
Data East
also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game developer and publisher. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, when it declared bankruptcy...
's 1983 game Bega's Battle introduced a new form of video game storytelling: using brief full-motion video cutscene
Cutscene
A cutscene is a sequence in a video game over which the player has no or only limited control, breaking up the gameplay and used to advance the plot, strengthen the main character's development, introduces enemy characters, and provide background information, atmosphere, dialogue, and clues...
s to develop a story between the game's shooting stages, which would years later become the standard approach to video game storytelling. By the mid-1980s, the genre dwindled in popularity, as laserdiscs were losing out to the VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
format and the laserdisc games themselves were losing their novelty, due to their linearity and, in many cases, depending less on reflexes than on memorizing sequences of moves.
New controls cropped up in a few games, though, arguably, joystick
Joystick
A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks, also known as 'control columns', are the principal control in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a center stick or...
s and buttons remained the favorites for most manufacturers. A racing wheel
Racing wheel
A racing wheel is the preferred method of control for use in racing video games, racing simulators, and driving simulators. They are usually packaged with a large paddle styled as a steering wheel, along with a set of pedals for gas, brake, and sometimes clutch actuation, as well as various shifter...
was included in racing games such as Road Race and Night Driver
Night Driver
Night Driver is a 1976 arcade game by Atari Inc. It was one of the earliest first-person racing games, and is believed to be one of the first published games to display real-time first-person graphics....
, while Fonz
Fonz (arcade)
Fonz is a 1976 arcade racing video game developed by Sega and published by Sega-Gremlin. The game was based on the hit TV show Happy Days and the slogan was "TV's hottest name, Your hottest game." The game itself was simply a rebranded variant of Sega's earlier 1976 game Moto-Cross in a customized...
introduced a motorcycle handlebar
Motorcycle handlebar
Motorcycle handlebar refers to the steering mechanism for motorcycles. Handlebars often support part of the rider's weight, and provide a mounting place for controls such as brake, throttle, clutch, horn, light switch, and rear view mirrors....
with vibrating force feedback technology, Atari introduced the trackball
Trackball
A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect a rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down mouse with an exposed protruding ball. The user rolls the ball with the thumb, fingers, or the palm of the hand to move a cursor...
with 1978
1978 in video gaming
-Notable releases:* June - Taito Corporation releases the Space Invaders arcade game in Japan.* October - Namco releases their first arcade game, Gee Bee, in Japan.* Cinematronics releases the Space Wars vector graphics arcade game....
's Atari Football
Atari Football
Atari Football is a 2-player 1978 arcade game. It was developed and published by Atari, Inc.. In this game, the sport of American football is accurately emulated, with players represented by Xs and Os. The game was one of the most popular arcade games in its day...
, Paperboy
Paperboy (video game)
Paperboy is a 1984 arcade game by Atari Games. The players take the role of a paperboy who delivers newspapers along a suburban street on his bicycle. This game was innovative for its theme and novel controls.-Gameplay:...
used a bicycle handlebar
Bicycle handlebar
Bicycle handlebar or often bicycle handlebars refers to the steering mechanism for bicycles; the equivalent of a steering wheel. Besides steering, handlebars also often support a portion of the rider's weight, depending on their riding position, and provide a convenient mounting place for brake...
, and tethered optical light gun
Light gun
A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games.Modern screen-based light guns work by building a sensor into the gun itself, and the on-screen target emit light rather than the gun...
s were popularized by Nintendo's 1984 light gun shooter
Light gun shooter
Light gun shooter, also called light gun game or simply gun game, is a shooter video game genre in which the primary design element is aiming and shooting with a gun-shaped controller. Light gun shooters revolve around the protagonist shooting targets, either antagonists or inanimate objects...
s Wild Gunman
Wild Gunman
is a light gun shooter game created by Nintendo.-Early version:The original version of Wild Gunman was one of Nintendo's electro-mechanical arcade games created by Gunpei Yokoi and released in 1974. It consisted of a light gun connected to a 16mm projection screen...
, Duck Hunt
Duck Hunt
is a video game for the Nintendo Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System game console system in which players use the NES Zapper to shoot ducks on screen for points. The game was developed and published by Nintendo, and was released in 1984 in Japan...
and Hogan's Alley
Hogan's Alley (arcade game)
Hogan's Alley is a 1984 arcade game by Nintendo. It was one of the first games to use a light gun as an input device.-Overview:"Hogan's Alley" is the FBI's training camp tool to train new recruits...
. Other specialty controls, such as pedals in racing games, and a crossbow-shaped light gun in Crossbow
Crossbow (video game)
Crossbow is a video arcade game released by Exidy in 1983. It was later published by Absolute Entertainment for the Commodore 64, DOS and by Atari for the 2600, 7800 and XE Game System starting in 1987.-Description:...
, also debuted in this era.
Gameplay
With the enormous success of the early games, dozens of developersVideo game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
jumped into the development and manufacturing of video arcade games. Some simply copied the "invading alien hordes" idea of Space Invaders
Space Invaders
is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to...
and turned out successful imitators like Namco's Galaxian
Galaxian
is an arcade game developed by Namco in 1979. It was published by Namco in Japan and was imported to North America by Midway in 1980. A fixed shooter-style game in which the player controls a spaceship at the bottom of the screen and shoots enemies descending in various directions, it was designed...
, Galaga
Galaga
is a fixed shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco in Japan and published by Midway in North America in 1981. It is the sequel to Galaxian, released in 1979. The gameplay of Galaga puts the player in control of a space ship which is situated on the bottom of the screen...
, and Gaplus
Gaplus
, far more commonly known as Galaga 3 , is a fixed shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1984. It runs on Namco Phozon hardware and was only known as Gaplus in Japan...
, though they took the shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what...
genre further with new gameplay mechanics, more complex enemy patterns, and richer graphics. Galaxian introduced levels
Level (video gaming)
A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...
and boss encounters, the "risk-reward" concept and was the first game to have all of its graphics in RGB colour, while Galaga was one of the first games with a bonus stage
Bonus stage
A bonus stage is a special level within a video game designed to reward the player or players, and typically allows the player to collect extra points or power-ups. Often a bonus stage will have no enemies or hazards, or may contain them but the player character is invulnerable to attack from them...
. Sega's Secret Base in 1978 introduced two-player cooperative gameplay
Cooperative gameplay
Cooperative gameplay is a feature in video games that allows players to work together as teammates. It is distinct from other multiplayer modes, such as competitive multiplayer modes like player versus player or deathmatch...
, while their 1980 release Space Tactics was an early first-person
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
space combat
Space flight simulator game
A space flight simulator game is a genre of simulation video games that lets players experience space flight. Highly realistic examples lacking any sort of combat include Orbiter and Microsoft Space Simulator...
game with multi-directional scrolling
Scrolling
In computer graphics, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display. "Scrolling", as such, does not change the layout of the text or pictures, or but incrementally moves the user's view across what is...
as the player moved the cross-hairs on the screen.
Others tried new concepts and defined new genres. Rapidly evolving hardware allowed new kinds of games which allowed for different styles of gameplay. In 1980, Namco released Pac-Man
Pac-Man
is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
, which established the maze chase genre, and Rally-X
Rally-X
Rally-X is a maze driving arcade game that was released by Namco in 1980. It runs on Namco Pac-Man hardware, and was the first Namco game to feature "Special Flags", which would become a recurring object in later games .It was the first game to ever feature a "bonus round." The object is to...
, the earliest multi-directional scrolling game with a radar tracking the player position on the map. Games such as the pioneering 1981 games Donkey Kong and Qix
Qix
Qix is an arcade game, released by Taito America Corporation in 1981.-Gameplay:The objective of Qix is to fence off, or “claim”, a supermajority of the playfield...
in 1981 introduced new types of games where skill and timing are more important than shooting as fast as possible, with Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
's Donkey Kong in particular setting the template for the platform game
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
genre. Namco's Bosconian
Bosconian
is a free-roaming multi-directional scrolling shooter arcade game that was developed by Namco and released in 1981. In contrast to the more linear shooter games of its time, Bosconian allows the player's ship to freely move across open space that scrolls in all directions. The game also features a...
in 1981 introduced a free-roaming
Open world
An open world is a type of video game level design where a player can roam freely through a virtual world and is given considerable freedom in choosing how to approach objectives...
style of gameplay where the player's ship freely moves across open space, while also including a radar tracking player & enemy positions. Bega's Battle in 1983 introduced a new form of video game storytelling: using brief full-motion video cutscene
Cutscene
A cutscene is a sequence in a video game over which the player has no or only limited control, breaking up the gameplay and used to advance the plot, strengthen the main character's development, introduces enemy characters, and provide background information, atmosphere, dialogue, and clues...
s to develop a story between the game's shooting stages. Other examples of innovative games are Atari Games
Atari Games
Atari Games Corporation was an American producer of arcade games, and originally part of Atari, Inc..-History:When, in 1984, Warner Communications sold the Atari Consumer division of Atari Inc...
' Paperboy in 1984 where the goal is to successfully deliver newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s to customers, and Namco's Phozon
Phozon
Phozon is an arcade game that was released in by Namco in 1983 only in Japan.-Gameplay:The player controls a small black atom with red spikes called a Chemic, which can adhere itself to passing Moleks, which come in four different colours: cyan, green, pink and yellow. It must use these to...
where the object is to duplicate a shape shown in the middle of the screen. The theme of Exidy
Exidy
Exidy was one of the largest creators of arcade video games during the early period of video games, from 1974 until at least 1986 . The company was founded by H.R."Pete" Kauffman...
's Venture is dungeon
Dungeon
A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period...
exploration and treasure-gathering. One innovative game, Q*Bert, played upon the user's sense of depth perception
Depth perception
Depth perception is the visual ability to perceive the world in three dimensions and the distance of an object. Depth sensation is the ability to move accurately, or to respond consistently, based on the distances of objects in an environment....
to deliver a novel experience.
Popular culture
Some games of this era were so popular that they entered the popular culturePopular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
. The first to do so was Space Invaders
Space Invaders
is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to...
. Following its release in 1978, the game caused a national shortage of 100 yen coin
100 yen coin
The 100 yen coin is a denomination of Japanese yen. The current design was first minted in silver in 1959 and saw a change of metal in 1967. It is the second-highest denomination coin in Japan.-History:...
s in Japan, leading to a production increase of coins to meet demand for the game. It would soon have a similar impact in North America, where it has appeared or is referenced in numerous facets of popular culture. The game that had the biggest impact on popular culture in North America was Pac-Man
Pac-Man
is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
. Its release in 1980
1980 in video gaming
-Notable releases:* May 22, Namco releases Pac-Man, which is their biggest selling game of all time* December, Nintendo releases the Radar Scope arcade game...
caused such a sensation that it initiated what is now referred to as "Pac-Mania" (which later became the title of the last coin-operated game in the series, released in 1987
1987 in video gaming
-Notable releases:* January 14, Nintendo releases Zelda II: The Adventure of Link in January for the Famicom Disk System in Japan only. The game would go unreleased in America for nearly two years afterwards.* February 20, Konami releases Contra...
). Released by Namco
Namco
is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...
, the game featured a yellow, circle-shaped creature trying to eat dots through a maze while avoiding pursuing enemies. Though no one could agree what the "hero" or enemies represented (they were variously referred to as ghosts, goblins or monsters), the game was extremely popular; there are anecdotes to the effect that some game owners had to empty the game's coin bucket every hour in order to prevent the game's coin mechanism from jamming from having too many coins in the receptacle. The game spawned an animated television series
Pac-Man (TV series)
Pac-Man is an animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera based on the video game Pac-Man by Namco, which premiered on ABC and ran from 1982 to 1983. During the first airing of the show, the large number of advertisers sponsoring it caused commercial breaks to be double their normal length...
, numerous clones, Pac-Man-branded foods, toys, and a hit pop song, Pac-Man Fever
Pac-Man Fever (album)
Pac-Man Fever is a 1982 concept album recorded by Buckner & Garcia. It is also the name of the first song on that album. Each song on the album is about a different classic arcade game, and uses sound effects from that game. The album was released as an LP, a cassette, an 8-track tape, and later...
. The game's popularity was such that President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
congratulated a player for setting a record score in Pac-Man. Though many popular games quickly entered the lexicon of popular culture, most have since left, and Pac-Man is unusual in remaining a recognized term in pop culture, along with Space Invaders, Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong
is a fictional gorilla in the Donkey Kong and Mario series. He is roughly twice the size of a normal gorilla, weighing approximately 800 pounds. Donkey Kong first appeared in Nintendo's popular 1981 video game of the same name. Since then he has appeared in over 20 games in his own series, as well...
, Mario Bros.
Mario Bros.
is an arcade game published and developed by Nintendo in 1983. It was developed by Shigeru Miyamoto. It has been commonly featured as a minigame in the Super Mario Advance series and other games...
, and Frogger
Frogger
Frogger is an arcade game introduced in 1981. It was developed by Konami, and licensed for worldwide distribution by Sega/Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct frogs to their homes one by one. To do this, each frog must avoid cars while crossing a busy road and navigate a river full of...
.
Arcade games at the time had an impact, both positive and negative, on the music industry, revenues for which had declined by $400 million between 1978 and 1981 (from $4.1 billion to $3.7 billion), a decrease that was directly credited to the rise of arcade games at the time. Successful songs based on video games also began appearing. The pioneering electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
band Yellow Magic Orchestra
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Sakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976, while Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in 1977 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band...
(YMO) sampled
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
Space Invaders sounds in their 1978 self-titled album and the hit single "Computer Game" from the same album, the latter selling over 400,000 copies in the United States. In turn, YMO would have a major influence on much of the video game music produced during the 8-bit
History of video game consoles (third generation)
In the history of computer and video games, the third generation began on July 15, 1983, with the Japanese release of both the Nintendo Family Computer and Sega SG-1000...
and 16-bit eras
History of video game consoles (fourth generation)
In the history of computer and video games, the fourth generation began on October 30, 1987 with the Japanese release of Nippon Electric Company's PC Engine...
. Other pop songs based on Space Invaders soon followed, including "Disco Space Invaders" (1979) by Funny Stuff, "Space Invaders" (1980) by Playback, and the hit songs "Space Invader
Pretenders (album)
Pretenders is the debut studio album by the British New Wave band The Pretenders, released on 19 January 1980 on Real Records . A combination of rock, punk, and pop music, this album made the band famous...
" (1980) by The Pretenders and "Space Invaders" (1980) by Uncle Vic. The "Pac-Man Fever
Pac-Man Fever (song)
"Pac-Man Fever" is a hit single by Buckner & Garcia. Capitalizing on the video game craze of the early 1980s, the song, about the classic video game Pac-Man, peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US in March 1982. That same month, it was certified Gold by the RIAA for over 1,000,000 units...
" song reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
and sold over a million singles in 1982, while the Pac-Man Fever
Pac-Man Fever (album)
Pac-Man Fever is a 1982 concept album recorded by Buckner & Garcia. It is also the name of the first song on that album. Each song on the album is about a different classic arcade game, and uses sound effects from that game. The album was released as an LP, a cassette, an 8-track tape, and later...
album sold over a million records, with both receiving Gold certifications
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
. That same year, R. Cade and the Video Victims also produced an arcade-inspired album, Get Victimized, featuring songs such as "Donkey Kong". In 1984, former YMO member Haruomi Hosono
Haruomi Hosono
, also known as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese popular musician, best known internationally as a key member of the rock band Happy End and the pioneering electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra.-Biography:...
produced an album entirely from Namco arcade game samples entitled Video Game Music, an early example of a chiptune
Chiptune
A chiptune, also known as chip music, is synthesized electronic music often produced with the sound chips of vintage computers and video game consoles, as well as with other methods such as emulation. In the early 1980s, personal computers became cheaper and more accessible than they had previously...
record and the first video game music album. Arcade game sounds also had a strong influence on the hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
(particularly synthpop
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
) and electro music genres during the early 1980s. The booming success of video games at the time led to music magazine Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
listing the 15 top-selling video games alongside their record charts by 1982.
Arcade games also had an impact on the film industry
Film industry
The film industry consists of the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking: i.e. film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, distribution; and actors, film directors and other film crew...
; beginning with Space Invaders, arcade games began appearing at many movie theater
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
s, while early films based on video games were also produced, most notably Tron
Tron
-Film:*Tron , a franchise that began in 1982 with the Walt Disney Pictures film Tron** Tron , a 1982 science fiction film by Disney, starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, Cindy Morgan, Dan Shor and David Warner...
which grossed over $33 million in 1982 (equivalent to over $76 million in 2011), inspired the use of CGI
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
by Hollywood film studios such as Pixar
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
, and began the Tron franchise
Tron (franchise)
The Tron franchise began in 1982 with the Walt Disney Pictures film Tron. It was followed by various film tie-ins, a comic series and the 2010 sequel Tron: Legacy...
which included a video game adptation that grossed more than the film. Other films based on video games included the 1983 films WarGames
WarGames
WarGames is a 1983 American Cold War suspense/science-fiction film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film stars Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy....
(where Matthew Broderick
Matthew Broderick
Matthew Broderick is an American film and stage actor who, among other roles, played the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Adult Simba in The Lion King film series, and Leo Bloom in the film and Broadway productions of The Producers.He has won two Tony Awards, one in 1983 for his...
plays Galaga
Galaga
is a fixed shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco in Japan and published by Midway in North America in 1981. It is the sequel to Galaxian, released in 1979. The gameplay of Galaga puts the player in control of a space ship which is situated on the bottom of the screen...
at an arcade), Nightmares
Nightmares (1983 film)
Nightmares is a 1983 film with four tales of horror, starring Emilio Estevez, Lance Henriksen, Cristina Raines, Veronica Cartwright and Richard Masur. The film is directed by T.V. veteran Joseph Sargent and began as a television project of four horror stories. The results were deemed too strong for...
, and Joysticks
Joysticks (film)
Joysticks is a 1983 American comedy film directed by Greydon Clark.-Plot:Jefferson Bailey runs the most popular video arcade in town, much to the chagrin of local businessman Joseph Rutter . With his two bumbling nephews, Rutter aims to frame Bailey and have his business shut down...
, the 1984 film The Last Starfighter
The Last Starfighter
The Last Starfighter is a 1984 science fiction adventure film directed by Nick Castle. The film tells the story of Alex Rogan , an average teenage boy recruited by an alien defense force to fight in an interstellar war. It also featured Dan O'Herlihy, Catherine Mary Stewart, Robert Preston, Norman...
, and the anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
Super Mario Bros.: Peach-Hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen! in 1986. Arcades also appeared in many other films at the time, such as Dawn of the Dead (where they play Gun Fight
Gun Fight
Gun Fight, known as Western Gun in Japan and Europe, is a 1975 arcade shooter game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released by Taito in Japan and Europe and by Midway Games in the United States. It was a historically significant game, and a success in the arcades. It was later ported to the...
and F-1
F-1 (arcade game)
F-1 is a racing arcade game developed by Namco and distributed by Atari Inc., originally released in 1976.-Technology:F-1 is based on electromechanical projection technology. The race track is a pre-rendered animation stored on film and projected on the screen...
) in 1978, Used Cars
Used Cars
Used Cars is a 1980 comedy satire film. It stars Kurt Russell, Jack Warden , Deborah Harmon, and Gerrit Graham.Kurt Russell portrays a devious car salesman working for affable but monumentally unsuccessful used car dealer Luke Fuchs . Luke's principal rival, located directly across the street, is...
and Midnight Madness in 1980, Take This Job and Shove It
Take This Job and Shove It (film)
Take This Job and Shove It is a 1981 film starring Robert Hays, Barbara Hershey, Art Carney, and David Keith, and directed by Gus Trikonis....
and Puberty Blues
Puberty Blues
Puberty Blues is a 1981 Australian film directed by Bruce Beresford. The film is based on the 1979 novel Puberty Blues, by Gabrielle Carey and Kathy Lette, which is a proto-feminist teen novel about two 13 year-old girls from the Sutherland Shire in Sydney, Australia...
in 1981, the 1982 releases Rocky III
Rocky III
Rocky III is a 1982 American film that is the third installment in the Rocky film series. It is written and directed by and stars Sylvester Stallone as the title character, with Carl Weathers as former boxing rival Apollo Creed, Burgess Meredith as Rocky's trainer Mickey, and Talia Shire as Rocky's...
, Fast Times At Ridgemont High
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a 1982 American coming-of-age teen comedy film written by Cameron Crowe and adapted from his 1981 book of the same name...
, Koyaanisqatsi
Koyaanisqatsi
Koyaanisqatsi also known as Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance, is a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke....
and The Toy, the 1983 releases Psycho II, Spring Break
Spring Break (film)
Spring Break is a 1983 comedy film, starring David Knell and Perry Lang.Tagline: Like it's really, totally, the most fun a couple of bodies can have. You know?-Plot summary:...
and Never Say Never Again
Never Say Never Again
Never Say Never Again is a 1983 spy film based on the James Bond novel Thunderball, which was previously filmed in 1965 as Thunderball...
, the 1984 releases Footloose, The Karate Kid (where Elisabeth Shue
Elisabeth Shue
Elisabeth Judson Shue is an American actress and producer, most famous for her roles in the films The Karate Kid, Adventures in Babysitting, Cocktail, Back to the Future Parts II and III and Leaving Las Vegas, for which she won five acting awards and was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden...
plays Pac-Man), The Terminator
The Terminator
The Terminator is a 1984 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, co-written by Cameron and William Wisher Jr., and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, and Linda Hamilton. The film was produced by Hemdale Film Corporation and distributed by Orion Pictures, and filmed in Los...
and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension!, often shortened to Buckaroo Banzai, is an American spoof science fiction film that was released in 1984. It was directed and produced by W. D. Richter, and concerns the efforts of the multi-talented Dr...
, the 1985 releases Back to the Future
Back to the Future
Back to the Future is a 1985 American science-fiction adventure film. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, produced by Steven Spielberg, and starred Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson. The film tells the story of...
, The Goonies
The Goonies
The Goonies is a 1985 American adventure-comedy film directed by Richard Donner. The screenplay was written by Chris Columbus from a story by executive producer Steven Spielberg. The premise surrounds a band of pre-teens who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon hoping to save...
and The Boys Next Door
The Boys Next Door (1985 film)
The Boys Next Door is a 1985 independent adventure-drama film about two aimless young men who embark on an orgy of sex, drugs, and murder.-Plot:...
, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a 1986 American teen coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by John Hughes.The film follows high school senior Ferris Bueller , who decides to skip school and spend the day in downtown Chicago...
and Something Wild in 1986. In more recent years, there have been critically acclaimed films based on the golden age of arcade games, such as The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is a 2007 American documentary film that follows Steve Wiebe as he tries to take the world high score for the arcade game Donkey Kong from reigning champion Billy Mitchell...
and Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade
Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade
Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade is a documentary film directed by Lincoln Ruchti about the golden age of video arcade games. The film premiered January 22, 2007 at the Sundance Film Festival and has also been shown at the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival, as well as other film...
in 2007.
Strategy guides
The period saw the emergence of a gaming media, publications dedicated to video games, in the form of video game journalism and strategy guideStrategy guide
Strategy guides are instruction books that contain hints or complete solutions to specific video games. The line between strategy guides and walkthroughs is somewhat blurred, with the former often containing or being written around the latter. Strategy guides are often published in print, both in...
s. The enormous popularity of video arcade games led to the very first video game strategy guides; these guides (rare to find today) discussed in detail the patterns and strategies of each game, including variations, to a degree that few guides seen since can match. "Turning the machine over"—making the score counter overflow and reset to zero—was often the final challenge of a game for those who mastered it, and the last obstacle to getting the highest score.
Some of these strategy guides sold hundreds of thousands of copies at prices ranging from $1.95 to $3.95 in 1982 (equivalent to between $4.52 and $9.15 in 2011). That year, Ken Uston's Mastering Pac-Man sold 750,000 copies, reaching #5 on B. Dalton
B. Dalton
B. Dalton Bookseller was an American retail bookstore chain founded in 1966 by the Dayton's department store chain. Located primarily in shopping malls, B. Dalton competed primarily with Waldenbooks, and operated 798 stores at its peak...
's mass-market bestseller
Bestseller
A bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on lists of currently top selling titles that are based on publishing industry and book trade figures and published by newspapers, magazines, or bookstore chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and...
list, while Bantam's How To Master the Video Games sold 600,000 copies, appearing on the The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
mass-market paperback list.
List of most popular games
| Vector display Vector monitor A vector monitor or vector display is a display device used for early computers. It is a type of CRT, similar to the oscilloscope, but typically uses magnetic, rather than electrostatic, deflection... |
| Raster display Raster graphics In computer graphics, a raster graphics image, or bitmap, is a data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color, viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium... |
| Name | Year | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Space Invaders Space Invaders is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to... |
1978 | Taito Taito Corporation The is a Japanese publisher of video game software and arcade hardware wholly owned by publisher Square Enix. Taito has their headquarters in the Shinjuku Bunka Quint Building in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, sharing the facility with its parent company.... (Japan) / Midway Midway Games Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the... (U.S.) |
Considered the game that revolutionized the video game industry. The first blockbuster Blockbuster (entertainment) Blockbuster, as applied to film or theatre, denotes a very popular or successful production. The entertainment industry use was originally theatrical slang referring to a particularly successful play but is now used primarily by the film industry... video game, it established the shoot 'em up Shoot 'em up Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what... genre, and has influenced most shooter game Shooter game Shooter games are a sub-genre of action game, which often test the player's speed and reaction time. It includes many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing "on the actions of the avatar using some sort of weapon. Usually this weapon is a gun, or some other long-range weapon". A common... s since. |
| Galaxian Galaxian is an arcade game developed by Namco in 1979. It was published by Namco in Japan and was imported to North America by Midway in 1980. A fixed shooter-style game in which the player controls a spaceship at the bottom of the screen and shoots enemies descending in various directions, it was designed... |
1979 | Namco Namco is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of... (Japan) / Midway Midway Games Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the... (U.S.) |
Created to compete with Space Invaders. Featured a color screen and had aliens attack in swooping formation. It also featured levels Level (video gaming) A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective... and boss encounters. |
| Lunar Lander Lunar Lander (arcade game) Lunar Lander is an arcade game released by Atari, Inc. in 1979, which uses a vector monitor to display vector graphics. Although not particularly successful, a vector-graphics generator was the impetus of Atari's most successful coin-operated game: Asteroids. The object of the game is to pilot a... |
1979 | Atari | First Atari game to use vector graphics |
| Asteroids Asteroids (computer game) Asteroids is a video arcade game released in 1979 by Atari Inc. It was one of the most popular and influential games of the Golden Age of Arcade Games. Asteroids uses a vector display and a two-dimensional view that wraps around in both screen axes. The player controls a spaceship in an asteroid... |
1979 | Atari | Atari's most successful coin-operated game. |
| Battlezone | 1980 | Atari | Custom cabinet with novel dual-joystick controls, using two 2-way joysticks for movement, and periscope-like viewer. |
| Berzerk Berzerk Berzerk is a multi-directional shooter video arcade game, released in 1980 by Stern Electronics of Chicago.-Gameplay:The player controls a green stick-figure, representing a "humanoid." Using a joystick , the player navigates a simple maze filled with many robots, who fire lasers back at the... |
1980 | Stern Electronics | Early use of speech synthesis was also translated into other languages in Europe. |
| Centipede Centipede (video game) Centipede is a vertically-oriented shoot 'em up arcade game produced by Atari, Inc. in 1980. The game was designed by Ed Logg along with Dona Bailey, one of the few female game programmers in the industry at this time. It was also the first arcade coin-operated game to have a significant female... |
1980 | Atari | One of the first games to use trackball Trackball A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect a rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down mouse with an exposed protruding ball. The user rolls the ball with the thumb, fingers, or the palm of the hand to move a cursor... control, vertical monitor orientation. |
| Defender | 1980 | Williams Electronics | Was predicted to be outsold by Rally-X Rally-X Rally-X is a maze driving arcade game that was released by Namco in 1980. It runs on Namco Pac-Man hardware, and was the first Namco game to feature "Special Flags", which would become a recurring object in later games .It was the first game to ever feature a "bonus round." The object is to... , but Defender trounced it, going on to sell 60,000 units |
| Missile Command Missile Command Missile Command is a 1980 arcade game by Atari, Inc. that was also licensed to Sega for European release. It is considered one of the most notable games from the Golden Age of Video Arcade Games... |
1980 | Atari | One of the first games to use trackball Trackball A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect a rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down mouse with an exposed protruding ball. The user rolls the ball with the thumb, fingers, or the palm of the hand to move a cursor... control. Originally to have a localities-option that named the cities, but was determined too complicated. |
| Pac-Man Pac-Man is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,... |
1980 | Namco Namco is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of... (Japan) / Midway Midway Games Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the... (U.S.) |
One of the most popular and influential games, it had the first gaming mascot Mascot The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name... , established maze chase genre, opened gaming to female audiences, and introduced power-up Power-up In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player... s and cutscene Cutscene A cutscene is a sequence in a video game over which the player has no or only limited control, breaking up the gameplay and used to advance the plot, strengthen the main character's development, introduces enemy characters, and provide background information, atmosphere, dialogue, and clues... s. |
| Phoenix Phoenix (arcade game) Phoenix is a shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Amstar Electronics in 1980, released by Centuri in the United States and by Taito in Japan. Bootleg versions of Phoenix were released by TPN and others... |
1980 | Amstar Electronics / Centuri Centuri Centuri, based in Hialeah, Florida, was one of the top six suppliers of coin operated video game machinery in the United States. Many of the machines distributed in the US under the Centuri name were licensed from overseas manufacturers, particularly Konami.... (U.S.) / Taito Taito Taito may mean:*Taito Corporation, a Japanese developer of video game software and arcade hardware*Taito, Tokyo, a special ward located in Tokyo, Japan*Taito, also known as matai, paramount chiefs according to Fa'a Samoa... (Japan) |
Notable for its haunting melody accompaniment. Introduced the concept of a boss battle. |
| Rally-X Rally-X Rally-X is a maze driving arcade game that was released by Namco in 1980. It runs on Namco Pac-Man hardware, and was the first Namco game to feature "Special Flags", which would become a recurring object in later games .It was the first game to ever feature a "bonus round." The object is to... |
1980 | Namco Namco is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of... |
First game to feature a "bonus Bonus stage A bonus stage is a special level within a video game designed to reward the player or players, and typically allows the player to collect extra points or power-ups. Often a bonus stage will have no enemies or hazards, or may contain them but the player character is invulnerable to attack from them... " round, background music, multi-directional scrolling Scrolling In computer graphics, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display. "Scrolling", as such, does not change the layout of the text or pictures, or but incrementally moves the user's view across what is... , and a radar. When released, was predicted to outsell two other new releases: Pac-Man and Defender. |
| Star Castle Star Castle Star Castle is a 1980 vector arcade game by Cinematronics. The game involves obliterating a series of defenses orbiting a stationary turret in the center of the screen. The game was designed by Tim Skelly and programmed by Scott Boden. Tim Skelly also created a number of other Cinematronics... |
1980 | Cinematronics Cinematronics Cinematronics Incorporated was a pioneering arcade game developer that had its heyday in the era of vector display games. While other companies released games based on raster displays, early in their history, Cinematronics and Atari released vector-display games, which offered a distinctive look... |
The colors of the rings and screen are provided by a transparent plastic screen overlay |
| Tempest | 1980 | Atari | One of the first games to use a color vector display |
| Wizard of Wor Wizard Of Wor Wizard of Wor is an arcade game from 1981 , developed by Midway. Other systems it was ported to include the Atari 800, Commodore 64, the Atari 2600, Atari 5200 and the Bally Astrocade as "The Incredible Wizard". The title of the game is often misspelled as "Wizard of War"... |
1980 | Midway Midway Games Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the... |
Game featured maze-like dungeons infested with monsters. |
| Donkey Kong Donkey Kong (video game) is an arcade game released by Nintendo in 1981. It is an early example of the platform game genre, as the gameplay focuses on maneuvering the main character across a series of platforms while dodging and jumping over obstacles. In the game, Jumpman must rescue a damsel in distress, Lady, from a... |
1981 | Nintendo Nintendo is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel.... |
Laid foundations for platform game Platform game A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps... genre as well as visual storytelling in video games, and introduced Mario Mario is a fictional character in his video game series, created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the main protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation... , the character who would become Nintendo's mascot. |
| Frogger Frogger Frogger is an arcade game introduced in 1981. It was developed by Konami, and licensed for worldwide distribution by Sega/Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct frogs to their homes one by one. To do this, each frog must avoid cars while crossing a busy road and navigate a river full of... |
1981 | Konami Konami is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games... |
Novel gameplay free of fighting and shooting |
| Scramble | 1981 | Konami Konami is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games... / Stern (North America) |
Horizontal scrolling shooter game |
| Galaga Galaga is a fixed shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco in Japan and published by Midway in North America in 1981. It is the sequel to Galaxian, released in 1979. The gameplay of Galaga puts the player in control of a space ship which is situated on the bottom of the screen... |
1981 | Namco Namco is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of... (Japan) / Midway Midway Games Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the... (North America) |
Leapfrogged its predecessor, Galaxian Galaxian is an arcade game developed by Namco in 1979. It was published by Namco in Japan and was imported to North America by Midway in 1980. A fixed shooter-style game in which the player controls a spaceship at the bottom of the screen and shoots enemies descending in various directions, it was designed... , in popularity |
| Gorf Gorf Gorf is an arcade game released in 1981 by Midway Mfg., whose name was advertised as an acronym for "Galactic Orbiting Robot Force". It is a multiple-mission fixed shooter with five distinct modes of play, essentially making it five games in one... |
1981 | Midway Midway Games Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the... |
Consisted of several levels, all clones of other popular games. Featured synthesized speech. |
| Ms. Pac-Man Ms. Pac-Man Ms. Pac-Man is an arcade video game produced by Midway as an unauthorized sequel to Pac-Man. It was released in North America in 1981 and became one of the most popular video games of all time, leading to its adoption by Pac-Man licensor Namco as an official title... |
1981 | Midway Midway Games Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the... (North America) / Namco Namco is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of... |
Created from a bootlegged Counterfeit To counterfeit means to illegally imitate something. Counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the superior value of the imitated product... hack of Pac-Man. |
| Qix Qix Qix is an arcade game, released by Taito America Corporation in 1981.-Gameplay:The objective of Qix is to fence off, or “claim”, a supermajority of the playfield... |
1981 | Taito Taito Corporation The is a Japanese publisher of video game software and arcade hardware wholly owned by publisher Square Enix. Taito has their headquarters in the Shinjuku Bunka Quint Building in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, sharing the facility with its parent company.... |
The objective is to fence off a supermajority of the play area |
| Vanguard | 1981 | SNK SNK SNK is a former name of SNK Playmore, a Japanese video game company . This may also refer to:* SNK European Democrats* SNK Union of Independents* Southeast Airlines ICAO code... (Japan) / Centuri Centuri Centuri, based in Hialeah, Florida, was one of the top six suppliers of coin operated video game machinery in the United States. Many of the machines distributed in the US under the Centuri name were licensed from overseas manufacturers, particularly Konami.... (US) |
Early scrolling shooter that scrolls in multiple directions, and allows shooting in four directions, using four direction buttons, similar to dual-stick controls. |
| BurgerTime Burgertime is a 1982 arcade game created by Data East for its DECO Cassette System. The game's original title, Hamburger, was changed to BurgerTime before its introduction to the US. The player is chef Peter Pepper, who must walk over hamburger ingredients located across a maze of platforms while avoiding... |
1982 | Data East Data East also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game developer and publisher. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, when it declared bankruptcy... (Japan) / Bally Midway (US) |
Original title changed from Hamburger when brought to the U.S. from Japan |
| Dig Dug Dig Dug is an arcade game developed and published by Namco in Japan in 1982 for Namco Galaga hardware. It was later published outside of Japan by Atari. A popular game based on a simple concept, it was also released as a video game on many consoles.-Objective:... |
1982 | Namco Namco is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of... (Japan) / Atari (North America) |
Rated the sixth most popular coin-operated video game of all time |
| Donkey Kong Junior | 1982 | Nintendo Nintendo is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel.... |
The last time Nintendo's mascot, Mario, was featured as an antagonist in a Nintendo game |
| Joust Joust (arcade game) Joust is an arcade game developed by Williams Electronics and released in 1982. It is a platform game that features two-dimensional graphics. The player uses a button and joystick to control a knight riding a flying ostrich... |
1982 | Williams Electronics | Contained a design flaw so popular it was intentionally touted by producers as a "hidden feature" |
| Jungle King Jungle Hunt Jungle Hunt is a one- or two-player side-scrolling arcade platform game produced by Taito in 1982.The player controls a jungle explorer who sports a pith helmet and a safari suit. The player must rescue his girl from a tribe of hungry cannibals... |
1982 | Taito Taito Corporation The is a Japanese publisher of video game software and arcade hardware wholly owned by publisher Square Enix. Taito has their headquarters in the Shinjuku Bunka Quint Building in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, sharing the facility with its parent company.... |
An early horizontal and diagonal scrolling platformer, featuring vine-swinging mechanics, run & jump sequences, climbing hills, and swimming. |
| Moon Patrol Moon Patrol is a classic arcade game by Irem that was first released in 1982. It was licensed to Williams for distribution in North America.The player controls a moon buggy, viewing it from the side, that travels over the moon's surface. While driving it, obstacles such as craters and mines must be avoided.... |
1982 | Irem (Japan) / Williams Electronics (U.S.) | The first arcade game to feature parallax scrolling Parallax scrolling Parallax scrolling is a special scrolling technique in computer graphics, popularized in the 1982 arcade game Moon Patrol. In this pseudo-3D technique, background images move by the camera slower than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth in a 2D video game and adding to the immersion... . |
| Pengo | 1982 | Sega Sega , usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world... |
A maze game set in an environment full of ice blocks, which can be used by the player's penguin, who can slide them to attack enemies. |
| Pole Position Pole Position Pole Position is a racing video game released in 1982 by Namco. It was published by Namco in Japan and by Atari, Inc. in the United States... |
1982 | Namco Namco is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of... (Japan) / Atari (U.S.) |
Popularized the "rear-view racer format" player perspective |
| Q*bert | 1982 | Gottlieb Gottlieb Gottlieb was an arcade game corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. The company was established by David Gottlieb in 1927, initially producing pinball machines while later expanding into various other games including pitch-and-bats, bowling games, and eventually video arcade games .Like other... |
Became one of the most merchandised arcade games behind Pac-Man Pac-Man is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,... and Donkey Kong Donkey Kong (video game) is an arcade game released by Nintendo in 1981. It is an early example of the platform game genre, as the gameplay focuses on maneuvering the main character across a series of platforms while dodging and jumping over obstacles. In the game, Jumpman must rescue a damsel in distress, Lady, from a... . |
| Robotron 2084 | 1982 | Williams Electronics | Featured novel dual joystick gameplay |
| Star Trek Star Trek (arcade game) Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator is a space combat simulation arcade game based on the original Star Trek television program, and released by Sega in 1982. It is a vector game, with both a two-dimensional display and a three-dimensional first-person perspective... |
1982 | Sega Sega , usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world... |
Space combat sim Space flight simulator game A space flight simulator game is a genre of simulation video games that lets players experience space flight. Highly realistic examples lacking any sort of combat include Orbiter and Microsoft Space Simulator... featuring five different controls, six different enemies, and 40 different simulation Simulation video game A simulation video game describes a diverse super-category of computer and video games, generally designed to closely simulate aspects of a real or fictional reality.-Sub-genres:-Construction and management simulation:... levels. One of the most elaborate vector games released. |
| Time Pilot Time Pilot Time Pilot is a multi-directional scrolling shooter and free-roaming aerial combat arcade game designed by Yoshiki Okamoto, released by Konami in 1982, and distributed in the United States by Centuri... |
1982 | Konami Konami is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games... (Japan) / Centuri Centuri Centuri, based in Hialeah, Florida, was one of the top six suppliers of coin operated video game machinery in the United States. Many of the machines distributed in the US under the Centuri name were licensed from overseas manufacturers, particularly Konami.... (U.S.) |
Time travel Time travel Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the... themed aerial combat Combat flight simulator Combat flight simulators are video games used to simulate military aircraft and their operations... game with free-roaming Open world An open world is a type of video game level design where a player can roam freely through a virtual world and is given considerable freedom in choosing how to approach objectives... gameplay in open air space that scrolls indefinitely in all directions, with player's plane always remaining centered. |
| Tron | 1982 | Bally Midway | Earned more than the film it was based on |
| Xevious Xevious is a vertical scrolling shooter arcade game by Namco, released in 1982. It was designed by Masanobu Endō. In the U.S., the game was manufactured and distributed by Atari. Xevious runs on Namco Galaga hardware. In Brazil the arcade cabinet was printed with the name 'COLUMBIA' for the game, while the... |
1982 | Namco Namco is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of... (Japan) / Atari (U.S.) |
The first arcade video game to have a TV commercial |
| Zaxxon Zaxxon Zaxxon is a 1982 arcade game developed and released by Sega. Some sources claim that Japanese electronics company Ikegami Tsushinki also worked on the development of Zaxxon... |
1982 | Sega Sega , usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world... |
First game to employ isometric axonometric projection, which the game was named after |
| Dragon's Lair Dragon's Lair Dragon's Lair is a laserdisc video game published by Cinematronics in 1983. It featured animation created by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth.... |
1983 | Cinematronics Cinematronics Cinematronics Incorporated was a pioneering arcade game developer that had its heyday in the era of vector display games. While other companies released games based on raster displays, early in their history, Cinematronics and Atari released vector-display games, which offered a distinctive look... (U.S.) / Taito Taito Taito may mean:*Taito Corporation, a Japanese developer of video game software and arcade hardware*Taito, Tokyo, a special ward located in Tokyo, Japan*Taito, also known as matai, paramount chiefs according to Fa'a Samoa... (Japan) |
An early laserdisc video game Laserdisc video game A laserdisc video game is an arcade game that uses pre-recorded video played from a laserdisc, either as the entirety of the graphics, or as part of the graphics.-History:... , which allowed film-quality animation in the game |
| Elevator Action Elevator Action is a 1983 arcade game by Taito. It debuted during the "Golden Age of Arcade Games". Innovative in gameplay, this game was very popular for many years, with game music created by musician Yoshino Imamura... |
1983 | Taito Taito Taito may mean:*Taito Corporation, a Japanese developer of video game software and arcade hardware*Taito, Tokyo, a special ward located in Tokyo, Japan*Taito, also known as matai, paramount chiefs according to Fa'a Samoa... |
Protagonist must traverse the building's numerous levels via a series of elevators and escalators while acquiring documents |
| Gyruss Gyruss is a shoot 'em up video arcade game developed by Konami, and released in 1983. It was designed by Yoshiki Okamoto, who had earlier created Time Pilot for Konami. Gyruss was licensed to Centuri in the United States, and was ported to numerous games consoles and home computers... |
1983 | Konami Konami is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games... (Japan) / Centuri Centuri Centuri, based in Hialeah, Florida, was one of the top six suppliers of coin operated video game machinery in the United States. Many of the machines distributed in the US under the Centuri name were licensed from overseas manufacturers, particularly Konami.... (U.S.) |
Often remembered for its musical score that plays throughout the game, Bach Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity... 's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 538 The Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 538, is an organ piece by Johann Sebastian Bach. Like the better-known BWV 565, BWV 538 also bears the title Toccata and Fugue in D minor, although it is often referred to by the nickname Dorian - a reference to the fact that the piece is written with a key... " |
| Mappy Mappy is a 1983 arcade game by Namco. In the United States, it was manufactured and distributed by Bally/Midway. Mappy is a side-scrolling platformer that features cartoon-like characters, primarily cats and mice. The game's main character itself is a mouse. Mappy runs on Namco Super Pac-Man hardware,... |
1983 | Namco Namco is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of... (Japan) / Bally Midway (U.S.) |
Featured early side-scrolling platforming action |
| Mario Bros. Mario Bros. is an arcade game published and developed by Nintendo in 1983. It was developed by Shigeru Miyamoto. It has been commonly featured as a minigame in the Super Mario Advance series and other games... |
1983 | Nintendo Nintendo is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel.... |
The first game featuring Nintendo's mascot, Mario, along with his brother, Luigi Luigi is a fictional character, featured in video games and related media released by Nintendo. Created by prominent game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Luigi is portrayed as the slightly younger fraternal twin brother of Nintendo's mascot Mario, and appears in many games throughout the Mario series,... |
| Spy Hunter Spy Hunter Spy Hunter is a 1983 arcade game developed and released by Bally Midway. It has also been ported to various home computers and video game systems.... |
1983 | Bally Midway | Memorable for its music, "The Peter Gunn Theme", that plays throughout the game |
| Star Wars Star Wars (arcade game) Star Wars is an arcade game produced by Atari Inc. and released in 1983. The game is a first person space simulator, simulating the attack on the Death Star from the final act of Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope... |
1983 | Atari | Features several digitized samples of actors' voices from the movie |
| Tapper Tapper Tapper, also known as Root Beer Tapper, is a 1983 arcade game released by Bally Midway. The goal of the game is to serve beer and collect empty mugs and tips.-Overview:... |
1983 | Bally Midway | Originally aligned with American beer Budweiser Budweiser Budweiser is a German adjective describing something or someone from the city of České Budějovice in Southern Bohemia, Czech Republic.Beer brewing in České Budějovice dates back to the 13th century... , was revamped as Root Beer Tapper, so as not to be construed as attempting to peddle alcohol to minors |
| 1942 | 1984 | Capcom Capcom is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its... |
Capcom's first hit game |
| Paperboy Paperboy (video game) Paperboy is a 1984 arcade game by Atari Games. The players take the role of a paperboy who delivers newspapers along a suburban street on his bicycle. This game was innovative for its theme and novel controls.-Gameplay:... |
1984 | Atari | Novel controls and high resolution display |
| Punch-Out!! | 1984 | Nintendo Nintendo is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel.... |
Digitized voice and dual monitors |
The end of the era
The golden age cooled around the mid-1980s as copies of popular games began to saturate the arcades, though arcades would remain commonplace through to the early 1990s as there were still new genres being explored. In 1987, arcades experienced a short resurgence with Double DragonDouble Dragon
is a classic beat 'em up video game series initially developed by Technos Japan Corporation, who also developed the Kunio-kun series ....
, which started the golden age of beat 'em up
Beat 'em up
Beat 'em up is a video game genre featuring melee combat between the protagonist and a large number of underpowered antagonists. These games typically take place in urban settings and feature crime-fighting and revenge-based plots, though some games may employ historical or fantasy themes...
games, a genre that would peak in popularity with Final Fight
Final Fight
is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up game originally released by Capcom as a coin-operated video game in . It was the seventh game released by Capcom for their CP System arcade game hardware...
two years later. After yet another relative decline, the arcades would experience its last major resurgence in 1991 with the release of Street Fighter II
Street Fighter II
is a competitive fighting game originally released for the arcades in . It is the arcade sequel to the original Street Fighter released in and was Capcom's fourteenth title that ran on the CP System arcade hardware...
, which popularized competitive fighting game
Fighting game
Fighting game is a video game genre where the player controls an on-screen character and engages in close combat with an opponent. These characters tend to be of equal power and fight matches consisting of several rounds, which take place in an arena. Players must master techniques such as...
s and revived the arcade industry to a level of popularity not seen since the days of Pac-Man, with even many of the best-selling home video games in the early 1990s often being arcade ports. Following the rise of 3D graphics
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
soon after, racing game
Racing game
A racing video game is a genre of video games, either in the first-person or third-person perspective, in which the player partakes in a racing competition with any type of land, air, or sea vehicles. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings...
s and light gun shooter
Light gun shooter
Light gun shooter, also called light gun game or simply gun game, is a shooter video game genre in which the primary design element is aiming and shooting with a gun-shaped controller. Light gun shooters revolve around the protagonist shooting targets, either antagonists or inanimate objects...
s would gain more popularity, after which arcade video games would decline in popularity once again by the late 1990s. Most arcade video games since then have been fighting games, shooters
Shooter game
Shooter games are a sub-genre of action game, which often test the player's speed and reaction time. It includes many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing "on the actions of the avatar using some sort of weapon. Usually this weapon is a gun, or some other long-range weapon". A common...
, maze games, racing games, and other variations on old familiar themes.
One of the causes of decline was new generations of home computer
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
s and video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
s that sapped interest from arcades. Earlier consoles, such as the Atari 2600
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
and Mattel
Mattel
Mattel, Inc. is the world's largest toy company based on revenue. The products it produces include Fisher Price, Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox toys, Masters of the Universe, American Girl dolls, board games, and, in the early 1980s, video game consoles. The company's name is derived from...
's Intellivision
Intellivision
The Intellivision is a video game console released by Mattel in 1979. Development of the console began in 1978, less than a year after the introduction of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. The word intellivision is a portmanteau of "intelligent television"...
, were general-purpose and were meant to play a variety of games, and often could not measure up to video arcade game hardware, which was built for the singular purpose of providing a single game well. In fact, the glut of poor-quality home video game systems contributed in no small way to the video game crash of 1983. However, the debut of the Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
(released 1983 in Japan and 1985
1985 in video gaming
-Notable releases:* Brøderbund releases Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, the first game of the prolific Carmen Sandiego series* Nintendo releases Super Mario Bros. on September 13, 1985, which eventually sells 40 million copies making it the best-selling video game of all time until 2008.*...
in North America) began to level the playing field by providing a reasonably good video arcade experience at home, an experience the Sega Master System
Sega Master System
The is a third-generation video game console that was manufactured and released by Sega in 1985 in Japan , 1986 in North America and 1987 in Europe....
would replicate to a greater degree. In the early to mid 1990s, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
and the Sega Mega Drive (Sega Genesis in North America) greatly improved home play and some of the technology was even integrated into a few video arcade machines. By the time of the PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
(1995
1995 in video gaming
-Events:*May 11 – Introduction of trade magazine GameWeek *May 11-16 — The 1st annual Electronic Entertainment Expo is held in Los Angeles, California...
) and the Nintendo 64
Nintendo 64
The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...
(1996
1996 in video gaming
-Notable releases:*January 29 — Duke Nukem 3D, successor to the simple side-scrolling originals, and a genre-redefining title for first person shooters....
), both of which boasted true 3D graphics
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
, many video game arcades across the country had gone out of business.
The video arcade game industry still exists today, but in a greatly reduced form. Video arcade game hardware is often based on home game consoles to facilitate porting
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
a video arcade game to a home system; there are video arcade versions of Dreamcast (NAOMI, Atomiswave
Atomiswave
The Atomiswave is a custom arcade system board and cabinet from Sammy Corporation. It is based on Sega's NAOMI system board...
), PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
(System 246
Namco System 246
The Namco System 246 is a development of the Sony PlayStation 2 technology as a basis for an arcade system board. It was released in 2001 on its first game Ridge Racer V. Like the Sega NAOMI, it is widely licensed for use by other manufacturers...
), Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
(Triforce), and Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
(Chihiro) home consoles. Some arcades have survived by expanding into ticket-based prize redemption and more physical games with no home console equivalent, such as skee ball
Skee ball
Skee ball is a common arcade game and one of the first redemption games. It is similar to bowling except it is played on an inclined lane and the player aims to get the ball to fall into a hole rather than knock down pins...
and whack-a-mole. Some genres, such as dancing
Music video game
A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs...
and rhythm game
Rhythm game
Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to press buttons in a sequence dictated on the screen...
s (such as Dance Dance Revolution
Dance Dance Revolution
Dance Dance Revolution, abbreviated DDR, and previously known as Dancing Stage in Europe and Australasia, is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, Dance Dance Revolution is the...
) continue to be popular in arcades.
The relative simplicity yet solid gameplay of many of these early games has inspired a new generation of fans who can play them on mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s or with emulator
Emulator
In computing, an emulator is hardware or software or both that duplicates the functions of a first computer system in a different second computer system, so that the behavior of the second system closely resembles the behavior of the first system...
s such as MAME
MAME
MAME is an emulator application designed to recreate the hardware of arcade game systems in software on modern personal computers and other platforms. The intention is to preserve gaming history by preventing vintage games from being lost or forgotten...
. Some classic arcade games are reappearing in commercial settings, such as Namco's Ms. Pac-Man 20 Year Reunion / Galaga Class of 1981 two-in-one game, or integrated directly into controller hardware (joysticks) with replaceable flash drives storing game ROMs.
Legacy
The Golden Age of Video Arcade Games spawned numerous cultural icons and even gave some companies their identity. Elements from games such as Space InvadersSpace Invaders
is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to...
, Pac-Man
Pac-Man
is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
, Donkey Kong, Frogger
Frogger
Frogger is an arcade game introduced in 1981. It was developed by Konami, and licensed for worldwide distribution by Sega/Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct frogs to their homes one by one. To do this, each frog must avoid cars while crossing a busy road and navigate a river full of...
, and Centipede
Centipede (video game)
Centipede is a vertically-oriented shoot 'em up arcade game produced by Atari, Inc. in 1980. The game was designed by Ed Logg along with Dona Bailey, one of the few female game programmers in the industry at this time. It was also the first arcade coin-operated game to have a significant female...
are still recognized in today's popular culture.
Pac-Man
Pac-Man
is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
and Dragon's Lair
Dragon's Lair
Dragon's Lair is a laserdisc video game published by Cinematronics in 1983. It featured animation created by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth....
joined Pong
Pong
Pong is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity...
for permanent display at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. for their cultural impact in the United States. No video game has been inducted since.
The success of these early video games has led many hobbyists who were teenagers during the Golden Age to collect some of these classic games. Since few have any commercial value any longer, they can be acquired for US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
200 to US$750 (though fully restored games can cost much more).
Some fans of these games have companies devoted to restoring the classic games, and others, such as Arcade Renovations, which produces reproduction art for classic arcade games, focus solely on one facet of the restoration activity. Many of these restorers have set up websites full of tips and advice on restoring games to mint condition
Mint condition
Mint condition is an expression used in the description of pre-owned goods. Originally, the phrase comes from the way collectors describe the condition of coins. As the name given to a coin factory is a "mint", then mint condition is the condition a coin is in as it leaves the mint...
. There are also several newsgroup
Newsgroup
A usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...
s devoted to discussion around these games, and a few conventions, such as California Extreme,
dedicated to classic arcade gaming.
See also
- Arcade cabinetArcade cabinetA video game arcade cabinet, also known as a video arcade machine or video coin-op, is the housing within which a video arcade game's hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the JAMMA wiring standard...
- Arcade gameArcade gameAn arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
- List of video arcade games
- List of video game consoles
- Video arcadeVideo arcadeAn amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
- Timeline of video arcade game history