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The golden age of arcade video games was the period of rapid growth, technological development and cultural influence of arcade video games, from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The period began with the release of '' Space Invaders'' in 1978, which led to a wave of shoot 'em up games such as '' Galaxian'' and the vector graphics-based '' Asteroids'' in 1979, made possible by new computing technology that had greater power and lower costs. Arcade video games transitioned from black-and-white to color, with titles such as '' Frogger'' and ''
Centipede Centipedes (from New Latin , "hundred", and Latin , " foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', lip, and New Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, an ...
'' taking advantage of the visual opportunities of bright palettes. Video game arcades became a part of popular culture and a primary channel for new games. Video game genres were still being established, but included space-themed shooter games such as '' Defender'' and '' Galaga'', maze chase games which followed the design established by ''
Pac-Man originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
'', driving and racing games which more frequently used 3D perspectives such as '' Turbo'' and ''
Pole Position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...
'', character
action games An action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes a large variety of sub-genres, such as fighting games, beat 'em ups, shooter games, and platform gam ...
such as ''Pac-Man'' and '' Frogger'', and the beginning of what would later be called platform games touched off by '' Donkey Kong''. Games began starring named player characters, such as
Pac-Man originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
, Mario and '' Q*bert'', and some of these characters crossed over into other media including songs, cartoons, and movies. The 1982 film '' Tron'' was closely tied to an arcade game of the same name.


Relevant time period

Although the exact years differ, most sources agree the period was from about the late 1970s to early 1980s. Technology journalist Jason Whittaker, in ''The Cyberspace Handbook'', places the beginning of the golden age in 1978, with the release of '' Space Invaders''. 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 gaining considerable popularity in the United States, and the year that saw vector display technology, first seen in arcades in 1977 with '' Space Wars'', rise to prominence via Atari's '' Asteroids''. However, 1983 was the period that began "a fairly steady decline" in the coin-operated video game business and when many arcades started disappearing. Walter Day of Twin Galaxies places this period's beginning in the late 1970s, when color arcade games became more prevalent and arcade video games started appearing outside of their traditional bowling alley and
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locales, through to its ending in the mid-1980s. ''RePlay'' magazine in 1985 dated the arcade industry's "video boom" years from 1979 to 1982. The golden age of arcade games largely coincided with, and partly fueled, the second generation of game consoles and the microcomputer revolution. In contrast to most other sources, the ''History of Computing Project'' website places the golden age of video games between 1971 and 1983, covering the "mainstream 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 ''Computer Space'' is a space combat arcade game developed in 1971. Created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in partnership as Syzygy Engineering, it was the first arcade video game as well as the first commercially available video game. ''Comput ...
''.


Business

The golden age was a time of great technical and design creativity in arcade games. The era saw the rapid spread of
video arcade An amusement arcade (often referred to as a video arcade, amusements or simply arcade) is a venue where people play arcade games, including arcade video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers (such as c ...
s across North America, Europe, and Asia. The number of video game arcades in North America was doubled between 1980 and 1982; reaching a peak of 10,000 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 supermarkets, restaurants, liquor stores,
gas station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasoline ...
s and many other retail establishments looking for extra income. Video game arcades at the time became as common as convenience stores, while arcade games like ''Pac-Man'' and ''Space Invaders'' appeared in most locations across the United States, including even funeral homes. 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. By 1982, there were 24,000 full arcades, 400,000 arcade street locations and 1.5 million arcade machines active in North America. The market was very competitive; the average life span of an arcade game was four to six months. Some games like '' Robby Roto'' failed because they were too complex to learn quickly, and others like ''
Star Fire ''Star Fire'' is a first-person arcade coin-operated space combat video game created by Technical Magic for Midway-Bally and licensed for manufacture to Exidy in December 1978. It was distributed in Japan by Taito and Esco Trading in 1979. Desi ...
'' because they were too unfamiliar to the audience. ''
Qix is a 1981 puzzle video game developed by husband and wife team Randy and Sandy Pfeiffer and published in arcades by Taito America. ''Qix'' is one of a handful of games made by Taito's American division. At the start of each level, the playing f ...
'' was briefly very popular but, Taito's Keith Egging later said, "too mystifying for gamers ... impossible to master and when the novelty wore off, the game faded". At around this time, the home video game industry ( second-generation video game consoles and early
home computer games A personal computer game, also known as a PC game or computer game, is a type of video game played on a personal computer (PC) rather than a video game console or arcade machine. Its defining characteristics include: more diverse and user-deter ...
) emerged as "an outgrowth of the widespread success of video arcades" at the time. In 1980, the U.S. 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 with some estimates as high as $10.5 billion for all video games (arcade and home) in the U.S. that year, which was three times the amount spent on movie tickets in 1981. The total revenue for the U.S. arcade video game industry in 1981 was estimated at more than $7 billion though some analysts estimated the real amount may have been much higher. By 1982, video games accounted for 87% of the $8.9 billion in commercial games sales in the United States. In 1982, the arcade video game industry's revenue in quarters was estimated at $8 billion surpassing the annual gross revenue of both pop music ($4 billion) and
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...
films ($3 billion) combined that year. It also exceeded the revenues of all major sports combined at the time, earning three times the combined ticket and television revenues of Major League Baseball, basketball, and American football, as well as earning twice as much as all the casinos in Nevada combined. 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 U.S. video game industry in 1982. In comparison, the U.S. video game industry in 2011 generated total revenues between $16.3 billion and $16.6 billion. Prior to the golden age, pinball machines were more popular than video games. The pinball industry reached a peak of 200,000 machine sales and $2.3 billion revenue in 1979, which had declined to 33,000 machines and $464 million in 1982. In comparison, the best-selling arcade games of the golden age, ''Space Invaders'' and ''
Pac-Man originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
'', had each sold over 360,000 and 400,000 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, while ''Pac-Man'' had grossed over $1 billion by 1981 and $2.5 billion by the late 1990s. In 1982, ''Space Invaders'' was considered the highest-grossing entertainment product of its time, with comparisons made to the then
highest-grossing film Films generate income from several revenue streams, including theatrical exhibition, home video, television broadcast rights, and merchandising. However, theatrical box-office earnings are the primary metric for trade publications in asse ...
''
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'', which had grossed $486 million, while ''Pac-Man'' is today considered the highest-grossing arcade 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 is a 1982 maze arcade game developed by General Computer Corporation and published by Midway. It is the first sequel to '' Pac-Man'' (1980) and the first entry in the series to not be made by Namco. Controlling the title character, Pac-Man's ...
'' 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 is a 1982 arcade platform game that was released by Nintendo. It is the sequel to ''Donkey Kong'', but with the roles reversed compared to its predecessor: Mario (previously named "Jumpman") is now the villain and Donkey Kong Jr. is trying to ...
'' with 35,000, '' Mr. Do!'' with 30,000, and '' Tempest'' with 29,000 units. A number of arcade games also generated revenues (from quarters) in the hundreds of millions, including ''Defender'' with more than $100 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 An action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes a large variety of sub-genres, such as fighting games, beat 'em ups, shooter games, and platform gam ...
s such as '' Gun Fight'' and '' Jungle King''), Namco (the Japanese company that created ''Galaxian'', ''Pac-Man'', ''
Pole Position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...
'' and '' Dig Dug'') and
Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...
(the company that introduced video games into arcades with ''Computer Space'' and ''Pong'', and later produced ''Asteroids''). Other companies such as
Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...
(who later entered the home console market against its former arch rival, Nintendo),
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
(whose mascot, Mario, was introduced in 1981's '' Donkey Kong'' as "Jumpman"), Bally Midway Manufacturing Company (which was later purchased by Williams),
Cinematronics Cinematronics Incorporated was an arcade game developer that primarily released vector graphics games in the late 1970s and early 1980s. While other companies released games based on raster displays, early in their history, Cinematronics and A ...
, Konami, Centuri, Williams and
SNK is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. It is the successor to the company Shin Nihon Kikaku and presently owns the SNK video game brand and the Neo Geo video game platform. SNK's predecessor Shin Nihon Kikaku was founded in 1978 ...
also gained popularity around this era. During this period, Japanese video game manufacturers became increasingly influential in North America. By 1980, they had become very influential through licensing their games to American manufacturers. Jonathan Greenberg of '' Forbes'' predicted in early 1981 that Japanese companies would eventually dominate the North American video game industry, as American video game companies were increasingly licensing products from Japanese companies, who in turn were opening up North American branches. By 1982-1983, Japanese manufacturers had more directly captured a large share of the North American arcade market, which Gene Lipkin of Data East USA partly attributed to Japanese companies having more finances to invest in new ideas.


Technology

Arcades catering to video games began to gain momentum in the late 1970s, with '' Space Invaders'' (1978) followed by games such as '' Asteroids'' (1979) and '' Galaxian'' (1979). Arcades became more widespread in 1980 with ''
Pac-Man originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
'', '' Missile Command'' and '' Berzerk'', and in 1981 with '' Defender'', '' Donkey Kong'', '' Frogger'' and others. The central processing unit (CPU) microprocessors in these games allowed for more complexity than earlier transistor-transistor logic (TTL) discrete circuitry games such as Atari's '' Pong'' (1972). The arcade boom that began in the late 1970s is credited with establishing the basic techniques of interactive entertainment and for driving down hardware prices to the extent of allowing the personal computer (PC) to become a technological and economic reality. While color monitors had been used by several racing video games before (such as ''
Indy 800 ''Indy 800'' is an arcade racing video game released in 1975 by Atari Inc. It was distributed in Japan by Nakamura Seisakusho (Namco). Technology The game is housed in a large custom rectangular cabinet that takes up . Each side of the cabinet h ...
'' and '' Speed Race Twin''), it was during this period that RGB color graphics became widespread, following the release of ''Galaxian'' in 1979. ''Galaxian'' introduced a tile-based video game graphics system, which reduced processing and memory requirements by up to 64 times compared to the previous framebuffer system used by ''Space Invaders''. This allowed ''Galaxian'' to render multi-color sprites, which were animated atop a scrolling starfield backdrop, providing the basis for the hardware developed by
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
for arcade games such as '' Radar Scope'' (1980) and ''Donkey Kong'' followed by the
Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...
console. * The Golden Age also saw developers experimenting with vector displays, which produced crisp lines that couldn't be duplicated by raster displays. A few of these vector games became great hits, such as 1979's '' Asteroids'', 1980's '' Battlezone'' and '' Tempest'' and 1983's ''
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' from Atari. 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 (two-and-a-half dimensional) perspective refers to gameplay or movement in a video game or virtual reality environment that is restricted to a two-dimensional (2D) plane with little to no access to a third dimension in a space that otherwise ...
and stereoscopic 3D using 2D sprites on raster displays. In 1979,
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
'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 is an arcade video game developed by Konami and released in 1983. It was licensed to Gottlieb in the United States. ''Juno First'' combines elements of vertically scrolling shooters and fixed shooters, using a slightly tilted perspective simil ...
'' and Activision's ''
Beamrider ''Beamrider'' is a fixed shooter written for the Intellivision by David Rolfe and published by Activision in 1983. The game was ported to the Atari 2600 (with a slightly reduced feature set), Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit family, ColecoVision, Commodor ...
'' 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.IGN Presents the History of SEGA
IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
Namco's ''
Pole Position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...
'' featured an improved rear-view racer format in 1982 that remained 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.Bernard Perron & Mark J. P. Wolf (2008), ''Video game theory reader two'', p. 157, Taylor & Francis, That same year, Sega released '' Zaxxon'', which introduced the use of isometric graphics and shadows;Bernard Perron & Mark J. P. Wolf (2008), ''Video game theory reader two''
p. 158
Taylor & Francis,
and ''
SubRoc-3D ''SubRoc-3D'' (サブ・口ック3D ''SabuRokku-3D'') is a first-person arcade shooter game released in 1982 by Sega. It is the first commercial video game in stereoscopic 3-D, using a periscope-shaped display with a different image for each eye ...
'', which introduced the use of stereoscopic 3D through a special eyepiece; This period also saw significant advances in
digital audio Digital audio is a representation of sound recorded in, or converted into, digital form. In digital audio, the sound wave of the audio signal is typically encoded as numerical samples in a continuous sequence. For example, in CD audio, sa ...
technology. ''Space Invaders'' in 1978 was the first game to use a continuous background soundtrack, with four simple
chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, ...
descending bass notes repeating in a loop, though it was dynamic and changed tempo 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 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 products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system converts normal languag ...
, which was first used in ''
Stratovox ''Stratovox'', known in Japan as ''Speak & Rescue'' (スピーク&レスキュー), is a 1980 Arcade game, arcade fixed shooter developed and published in Japan by Sunsoft, Sun Electronics and released in North America by Taito. It is the first ...
'', released by Sun Electronics in 1980, followed soon after by Namco's ''
King & Balloon is a fixed shooter arcade video game released by Namco in 1980 and licensed to GamePlan for U.S. manufacture and distribution. It runs upon the Namco Galaxian hardware, based on the Z80 microprocessor, with an extra Zilog Z80 microprocessor to ...
''. Developers also experimented with
laserdisc The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diam ...
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 ''Astron Belt'' (アストロンベルト) is a LaserDisc video game in the form of a third-person, space combat rail shooter, released in arcades in 1983 by Sega in Japan, and licensed to Bally Midway for release in North America. Developed in ...
'' from Sega, soon followed by '' Dragon's Lair'' from
Cinematronics Cinematronics Incorporated was an arcade game developer that primarily released vector graphics games in the late 1970s and early 1980s. While other companies released games based on raster displays, early in their history, Cinematronics and A ...
; 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 games with full-motion video backdrops like ''Astron Belt'' or
interactive movie Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...
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 cutscenes to develop a story between the game's shooting stages, which years later became 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.
16-bit 16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors. A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two mos ...
processors began appearing in several arcade games during this era.
Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a t ...
's ''Get A Way'' (1978) was a sit-down racing game that used a 16-bit CPU, for which it was advertised as the first game to use a 16-bit
microcomputer A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PC ...
. Another racing game, Namco's ''
Pole Position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...
'' (1982), used the 16-bit Zilog Z8000 processor.
Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...
's ''
Food Fight A food fight is a form of chaotic collective behavior, in which foodstuffs are thrown at others in the manner of projectiles. These projectiles are not made nor meant to harm others, but to simply ignite a fight filled with spontaneous food t ...
'' (1983) was one of the earliest games to use the
Motorola 68000 The Motorola 68000 (sometimes shortened to Motorola 68k or m68k and usually pronounced "sixty-eight-thousand") is a 16/32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, introduced in 1979 by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector ...
processor.
3D computer graphics 3D computer graphics, or “3D graphics,” sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for th ...
began appearing in several arcade games towards the end of the golden age. Funai's ''Interstellar'', a laserdisc game introduced at Tokyo's Amusement Machine Show (AM Show) in September 1983, demonstrated pre-rendered 3D computer graphics. Simutrek's '' Cube Quest'', another laserdisc game introduced at the same Tokyo AM Show in September 1983, combined laserdisc animation with 3D real-time computer graphics. ''
Star Rider ''Star Rider'' is a racing LaserDisc video game developed by Computer Creations and Williams Electronics, and released for arcades in 1983. The object of the game is to win a futuristic motorcycle race that takes place in surrealistic settings. ...
'', introduced by Williams Electronics at the Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) in October 1983, also demonstrated pre-rendered 3D graphics. Atari's ''
I, Robot ''I, Robot'' is a fixup (compilation) novel of science fiction short stories or essays by American writer Isaac Asimov. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines ''Super Science Stories'' and ''Astounding Science Fiction'' betw ...
'', developed and released in 1984, was the first arcade game to be rendered entirely with real-time 3D computer graphics.


Gameplay

'' Space Invaders'' (1978) established the "multiple life, progressively difficult
level Level or levels may refer to: Engineering *Level (instrument), a device used to measure true horizontal or relative heights *Spirit level, an instrument designed to indicate whether a surface is horizontal or vertical *Canal pound or level *Regr ...
paradigm" used by many classic arcade games. Designed by
Tomohiro Nishikado is a Japanese people, Japanese video game developer and engineer. He is the creator of the arcade shoot 'em up game ''Space Invaders'', released to the public in 1978 by the Taito of Japan, often credited as the first shoot 'em up and for beginn ...
at Taito, he drew inspiration from
Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...
's block-breaker game '' Breakout'' (1976) and several science fiction works. Nishikado added several interactive elements to ''Space Invaders'' that he found lacking in earlier video games, such as the ability for enemies to react to the player's movement and fire back, with a game over triggered by enemies killing the player (either by getting hit or enemies reaching the bottom of the screen) rather than a timer running out. In contrast to earlier arcade games which often had a timer, ''Space Invaders'' introduced the "concept of going round after round." It also gave the player multiple lives before the game ends, and saved the high score. It also had a basic story with animated characters along with a "crescendo of action and climax" which laid the groundwork for later video games, according to Eugene Jarvis. With the enormous success of ''Space Invaders'', dozens of developers jumped into the development and manufacturing of arcade video games. Some simply copied the "invading alien hordes" idea of ''Space Invaders'' and turned out successful imitators like Namco's '' Galaxian'' and '' Galaga'', which extended the fixed shooter genre with new gameplay mechanics, more complex enemy patterns, and richer graphics.Game Genres: Shmups
Professor Jim Whitehead, January 29, 2007, Retrieved June 17, 2008
''Galaxian'' introduced a "risk-reward" concept, while ''Galaga'' was one of the first games with a bonus stage. Sega's 1980 release '' Space Tactics'' was an early first-person
space combat Space warfare is hypothetical combat in which one or more belligerents are situated in outer space. The scope of space warfare therefore includes ''ground-to-space warfare'', such as attacking satellites from the Earth; ''space-to-space warfare ...
game with multi-directional scrolling as the player moved the
cross-hair A reticle, or reticule also known as a graticule, is a pattern of fine lines or markings built into the eyepiece of an optical device such as a telescopic sight, spotting scope, theodolite, optical microscope or the screen of an oscilloscope, ...
s 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. The term "
action games An action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes a large variety of sub-genres, such as fighting games, beat 'em ups, shooter games, and platform gam ...
" began being used in the early 1980s, in reference to a new genre of character action games that emerged from Japanese arcade developers, drawing inspiration from
manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
and anime culture. According to Eugene Jarvis, these new character-driven Japanese action games emphasized "character development, hand-drawn animation and backgrounds, and a more deterministic, scripted, pattern-type" of play. Terms such as "action games" or "character games" began being used to distinguish these new character-driven action games from the space shooters that had previously dominated the video game industry. The emphasis on character-driven gameplay in turn enabled a wider variety of subgenres. In 1980, Namco released ''
Pac-Man originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
'', which popularized the maze chase genre, and '' Rally-X'', which featured a radar tracking the player position on the map. Games such as the pioneering 1981 games '' Donkey Kong'' and ''
Qix is a 1981 puzzle video game developed by husband and wife team Randy and Sandy Pfeiffer and published in arcades by Taito America. ''Qix'' is one of a handful of games made by Taito's American division. At the start of each level, the playing f ...
'' in 1981 introduced new types of games where skill and timing are more important than shooting as fast as possible, with
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
's ''Donkey Kong'' in particular setting the template for the platform game genre. The two most popular genres during the golden age were space shooters and character action games. While Japanese developers were creating a character-driven action game genre in the early 1980s, American developers largely adopted a different approach to game design at the time. According to Eugene Jarvis, American arcade developers focused mainly on space shooters during the late 1970s to early 1980s, greatly influenced by Japanese space shooters but taking the genre in a different direction from the "more deterministic, scripted, pattern-type" gameplay of Japanese games, towards a more "programmer-centric design culture, emphasizing algorithmic generation of backgrounds and enemy dispatch" and "an emphasis on random-event generation, particle-effect explosions and physics" as seen in arcade games such as his own '' Defender'' (1981) and ''
Robotron: 2084 ''Robotron: 2084'' (also referred to as ''Robotron'') is a multidirectional shooter developed by Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar of Vid Kidz and released in arcades by Williams Electronics in 1982. The game is set in the year 2084 in a fictional wo ...
'' (1982) as well as
Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...
's '' Asteroids'' (1979). Namco's ''
Bosconian is a multidirectional scrolling shooter arcade game which was developed and released by Namco in Japan in 1981. In North America, it was manufactured and distributed by Midway Games. The goal of the game is to earn as many points as possible by ...
'' 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 cutscenes to develop a story between the game's shooting stages. Other examples of innovative games are
Atari Games Atari Games Corporation, known as Midway Games West Inc. after 1999, was an American producer of Arcade game, arcade Video game, games. It was formed in 1985 when the coin-operated Arcade game, arcade game division of Atari, Inc. was transfered ...
' ''
Paperboy A paperboy is someoneoften an older child or adolescentwho distributes printed newspapers to homes or offices on a regular route, usually by bicycle or automobile. In Western nations during the heyday of print newspapers during the early 20th ...
'' in 1984 where the goal is to successfully deliver newspapers 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 Exidy was a developer and manufacturer of coin-operated amusements. The company was founded by H.R. "Pete" Kauffman and Samuel Hawes in 1973. The name "Exidy" was a portmanteau of the words "Excellence in Dynamics". Notable games released by Exid ...
's '' Venture'' is dungeon exploration and treasure-gathering. '' Q*bert'' plays upon the user's sense of
depth perception Depth perception is the ability to perceive distance to objects in the world using the visual system and visual perception. It is a major factor in perceiving the world in three dimensions. Depth perception happens primarily due to stereopsis an ...
to deliver a novel experience.


Popular culture

Some games of this era were so popular that they entered popular culture. The first to do so was ''Space Invaders''. The game was so popular upon its release in 1978 that an urban legend blamed it for a national shortage of
100 yen coin The 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 after the 500 yen coin. The current 100 yen coin is one of two ...
s in Japan, leading to a production increase of coins to meet demand for the game (although 100 yen coin production was lower in 1978 and 1979 than in previous or subsequent years, and the claim does not withstand logical scrutiny: arcade operators would have emptied out their machines and taken the money to the bank, thus keeping the coins in circulation). It soon had a similar impact in North America, where it has appeared or is referenced in numerous facets of popular culture. Soon after the release of ''Space Invaders'', hundreds of favourable articles and stories about the emerging video game medium aired on television and were printed in newspapers and magazines. The Space Invaders Tournament held by Atari in 1980 was the first video game competition and attracted more than 10,000 participants, establishing
video gaming Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedback m ...
as a mainstream hobby. By 1980, 86% of the 13–20 population in the United States had played arcade video games, and by 1981, there were more than 35 million gamers visiting video game arcades in the United States. The game that most affected popular culture in North America was ''
Pac-Man originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
''. It was released 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. The game spawned an
animated television series An animated series is a set of Animation, animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can ...
, 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 Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
congratulated a player for setting a record score in ''Pac-Man''.Ramsey, David.
The Perfect Man – How Billy Mitchell became a video-game superstar and achieved Pac-Man bliss
" ''Oxford American'', issue 53. Spring 2006.
''Pac-Man'' was also responsible for expanding the arcade game market to involve large numbers of female audiences across all age groups. 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 popular culture, along with ''Space Invaders'', '' Donkey Kong'', '' Mario'' and '' Q*bert''. Seen as an additional source of revenue, arcade games began popping up outside of dedicated arcades, including bars, restaurants, movie theaters, bowling alleys, convenience stores, laundromats, gas stations, supermarkets, airports, even dentist and doctor offices. Showbiz Pizza and
Chuck E. Cheese Chuck E. Cheese (formerly known as Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre, Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza and simply Chuck E. Cheese's) is an American family entertainment center and pizza restaurant chain founded in 1977 by Atari's co-founder Nolan Bu ...
were founded specifically as restaurants focused on featuring the latest arcade titles. In 1982, the game show '' Starcade'' premiered. The program focused on players competing to achieve high scores on the latest arcade titles, with the chance to win the grand prize of their own arcade machine if they could hit a target score within a specific time frame. The show ran until 1984 on TBS and syndication. In 1983, an animated television series produced for Saturday mornings called
Saturday Supercade ''Saturday Supercade'' is an American animated television series produced for Saturday mornings by Ruby-Spears Productions. It ran for two seasons on CBS. Premise Each episode is composed of several shorter segments featuring video game characte ...
featured video game characters from the era, such as Frogger, Donkey Kong, Q*bert, Donkey Kong Jr., Kangaroo, Space Ace, and Pitfall Harry. Arcade games at the time affected the
music industry The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...
, 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 had a major influence on much of the video game music produced during the
8-bit In computer architecture, 8-bit Integer (computer science), integers or other Data (computing), data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet (computing), octet). Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) arc ...
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 Player One (known as Playback in the US), and the hit songs " Space Invader" (1980) by The Pretenders and "Space Invaders" (1980) by Uncle Vic. The game was also the basis for Player One's " Space Invaders" (1979), which in turn provided the bassline for
Jesse Saunders Jesse Saunders (born March 10, 1962) is an American house music artist, DJ, record producer, film producer, and entrepreneur. His 1984 single, "On & On", co-written with Vince Lawrence, was the first record with a house DJ as the artist that ...
' "On and On" (1984), the first Chicago
house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...
track. The song " Pac-Man Fever" reached No. 9 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and sold over a million singles in 1982, while the album '' Pac-Man Fever'' 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 Chiptune, also known as chip music or 8-bit music, is a style of synthesized electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles. The t ...
record and the first video game music album. Arcade game sounds also had a strong influence on the hip hop, pop music (particularly
synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...
) and
electro music Electro (or electro- funk)Rap meets ...
genres during the early 1980s. The booming success of video games at the time led to music magazine ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' listing the 15 top-selling video games alongside their record charts by 1982. More than a decade later, the first electroclash record, I-F's "Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass" (1997), has been described as "burbling electro in a vocodered homage to Atari-era hi-jinks", particularly ''Space Invaders'' which it was named after. Arcade games also influenced the film industry; beginning with ''Space Invaders'', arcade games began appearing at many movie theaters, while early
films based on video games A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...
were also produced, most notably '' Tron'', which grossed over $33 million in 1982 which began the ''Tron'' franchise which included a
video game adaptation An adaptation is a transfer of a work of art from one style, culture or medium to another. Some common examples are: * Film adaptation, a story from another work, adapted into a film (it may be a novel, non-fiction like journalism, autobiography, ...
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 films '' The Last Starfighter'', as well as '' Cloak & Dagger'' (in which an Atari 5200 cartridge implausibly containing the eponymous arcade game becomes the film's '' MacGuffin''). 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, 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'','' Terms of Endearment'' and ''
Never Say Never Again ''Never Say Never Again'' is a 1983 spy film directed by Irvin Kershner. The film is based on the 1961 James Bond novel '' Thunderball'' by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Flemi ...
'', the 1984 releases '' Footloose'', '' The Karate Kid'' (where Elisabeth Shue plays ''Pac-Man''), ''
The Terminator ''The Terminator'' is a 1984 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cyborg assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whos ...
'', ''
Night of the Comet ''Night of the Comet'' is a 1984 American science fiction comedy horror film written and directed by Thom Eberhardt. It stars Catherine Mary Stewart, Robert Beltran, and Kelli Maroney as survivors of a comet that has turned most people into ei ...
'' and '' The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension'', the 1985 releases ''
The Goonies ''The Goonies'' is a 1985 American adventure comedy film co-produced and directed by Richard Donner from a screenplay by Chris Columbus, based on a story by Steven Spielberg. In the film, kids who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astori ...
'', '' The Heavenly Kid'', '' The Boys Next Door'' and '' Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' as well as the 1986 films '' Something Wild'', '' The Color of Money'' and '' Psycho III'' (where Norman Bates stands next to a '' Berzerk'' cabinet). '' Over the Top'' and '' Can't Buy Me Love'' showcase several arcade game cabinets as well. Coin-operated games (both video and mechanical) are central to the plots of the 1988 films '' Big'' and '' Kung-Fu Master''. In more recent years, there have been critically acclaimed documentaries based on the golden age of arcade games, such as '' The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters'' (2007) and '' Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade'' (2007). Since 2010, many arcade-related features or films incorporating 1980's nostalgia have been released including '' Tron: Legacy'' (2010), '' Wreck-It Ralph'' (2012), '' Ping Pong Summer'' (2014), '' Pixels'' (2015), '' Everybody Wants Some!!'' (2016),''
Summer of 84 ''Summer of 84'' is a 2018 teen horror film directed by François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell and written by Matt Leslie and Stephen J. Smith. The film stars Graham Verchere, Judah Lewis, Caleb Emery, Cory Gruter-Andrew, Jaso ...
'' (2018) and '' Ready Player One'' (2018) which is based upon the novel by Ernest Cline and directed by
Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spie ...
. Television shows and streaming series have exhibited arcade games including '' The Goldbergs'' and the Netflix series ''
Stranger Things ''Stranger Things'' is an American science fiction horror drama television series created by the Duffer Brothers, who also serve as showrunners and are executive producers along with Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen. Produced by Monkey Massacre Prod ...
'' (both of which feature '' Dragon's Lair'' among other games).


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 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. Str ...
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 $ and $ in ). That year, Ken Uston's ''Mastering Pac-Man'' sold 750,000 copies, reaching No. 5 on
B. Dalton B. Dalton Bookseller (often called B. Dalton or B. Dalton's) was an American retail bookstore chain founded in 1966 by Bruce Dayton, a member of the same family that operated the Dayton's department store chain. B. Dalton expanded to become the ...
's mass-market
bestseller A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and specialties (novel, nonfiction book, cookb ...
list, while Bantam's ''
How to Master the Video Games ''How to Master the Video Games'' is a paperback book written by Tom Hirschfeld and published by Bantam Books in 1981. It is a guide to the 30 most popular coin-operated arcade games of its time. Hisrchfeld divides the included games into broad c ...
'' sold 600,000 copies, appearing on '' The New York Times'' mass-market paperback list. By 1983, 1.7 million copies of ''Mastering Pac-Man'' had been printed.


List of popular arcade games

The games below are some of the most popular and/or influential games of the era.


List of best-selling arcade games

For arcade games, success was usually judged by either the number of
arcade hardware Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games ...
units sold to operators, or the amount of revenue generated, from the number of coins (such as quarters or
100 yen coin The 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 after the 500 yen coin. The current 100 yen coin is one of two ...
s) inserted into machines, and/or the hardware sales (with arcade hardware prices often ranging from $1000 to $4000). This list only includes arcade games that have sold more than 10,000 hardware units. *'' Space Invaders'' (750,000) *''
Pac-Man originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
'' (400,000) *'' Donkey Kong'' (132,000)''Donkey Kong'' sales: *Japan: 65,000 of '' Donkey Kong'' ** *United States: 67,000 of ''Donkey Kong'' ** *United States: 30,000 of ''
Donkey Kong Jr. is a 1982 arcade platform game that was released by Nintendo. It is the sequel to ''Donkey Kong'', but with the roles reversed compared to its predecessor: Mario (previously named "Jumpman") is now the villain and Donkey Kong Jr. is trying to ...
'' **
*''
Ms. Pac-Man is a 1982 maze arcade game developed by General Computer Corporation and published by Midway. It is the first sequel to '' Pac-Man'' (1980) and the first entry in the series to not be made by Namco. Controlling the title character, Pac-Man's ...
'' (125,000) *'' Asteroids'' (100,000) *'' Defender'' (70,000) *''
Centipede Centipedes (from New Latin , "hundred", and Latin , " foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', lip, and New Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, an ...
'' (55,988) *'' Galaxian'' (50,000 in the US) *''
Hyper Olympic ''Track & Field'', also known as in Japan and Europe, is a 1983 Olympic-themed sports video game developed by Konami for arcades. The Japanese release sported an official license for the 1984 Summer Olympics. In Europe, the game was initially ...
'' (''Track & Field'') (38,000 in Japan) *''
Donkey Kong Jr. is a 1982 arcade platform game that was released by Nintendo. It is the sequel to ''Donkey Kong'', but with the roles reversed compared to its predecessor: Mario (previously named "Jumpman") is now the villain and Donkey Kong Jr. is trying to ...
'' (30,000 in the US) *'' Karate Champ'' (30,000 in the US) *'' Mr. Do!'' (30,000 in the US) *'' Tempest'' (29,000) *'' Q*bert'' (25,000) *''
Robotron: 2084 ''Robotron: 2084'' (also referred to as ''Robotron'') is a multidirectional shooter developed by Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar of Vid Kidz and released in arcades by Williams Electronics in 1982. The game is set in the year 2084 in a fictional wo ...
'' (23,000) *'' Dig Dug'' (22,228 in the US) *''
Pole Position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...
'' (21,000 in the US) *'' Popeye'' (20,000 in the US) *'' Missile Command'' (20,000) *'' Jungle Hunt'' (18,000 in the US) *'' Dragon's Lair'' (16,000) *'' Berzerk'' (15,780) *''
Scramble Scramble, Scrambled, or Scrambling may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * ''Scramble'' (video game), a 1981 arcade game Music Albums * ''Scramble'' (album), an album by Atlanta-based band the Coathangers * ''Scrambles'' (album) ...
'' (15,136 in the US) *'' Battlezone'' (15,122) *'' Champion Baseball'' (15,000 in Japan) *''
Stargate ''Stargate'' (often stylized in all caps) is a military science fiction media franchise based on the Stargate (film), film directed by Roland Emmerich, which he co-wrote with producer Dean Devlin. The franchise is based on the idea of an alien E ...
'' (15,000) *''
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' (12,695) *''
Super Cobra ''Super Cobra'' is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed by Konami, originally released as a coin-operated arcade video game in 1981. It was published by Konami in Japan in March 1981 and manufactured and distributed by Stern in North Amer ...
'' (12,337 in the US) *'' Space Duel'' (12,038) *''
Atari Football ''Football'' (also known as ''Atari Football'') is a 1978 American football video game developed and released by Atari, originally for arcades and then the Atari 2600 console. In this game, the sport of American football is emulated, with pla ...
'' (11,306) *'' Gee Bee'' (10,000)


Decline and aftermath

The golden age cooled around the mid-1980s as copies of popular games began to saturate the arcades. Arcade video game revenues in the United States had declined from $8 billion in 1981 to $5 billion in 1983, reaching a low of $4 billion in 1984. The arcade market had recovered by 1986, with the help of software conversion kits, the arrival of popular beat 'em up games (such as '' Kung-Fu Master'' and ''
Renegade Renegade or The Renegade may refer to: Aircraft *Lake Renegade, an American amphibious aircraft design *Murphy Renegade, a Canadian ultralight biplane design *Southern Aeronautical Renegade, an American racing aircraft design Games *'' Comman ...
''), and advanced motion simulator games (such as Sega's "taikan" games including '' Hang-On'', '' Space Harrier'', '' Out Run'' and '' After Burner''). Arcades remained commonplace through to the 1990s as there were still new genres being explored. In 1987, arcades experienced a short resurgence with '' Double Dragon'', which started the golden age of beat 'em up games, a genre that peaked in popularity with '' Final Fight'' two years later.Spencer, Spanner
The Tao of Beat-'em-ups (part 2)
''EuroGamer'', Feb 12, 2008, Retrieved Mar 18, 2009
In 1988, arcade game revenues in the United States rose back to $6.4 billion, largely due to the rising popularity of violent
action game An action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes a large variety of sub-genres, such as fighting games, beat 'em ups, shooter games, and platform gam ...
s in the beat 'em up and run and gun shooter genres. However, the growth of home video game systems such as the
Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...
led to another brief arcade decline toward the end of the 1980s. In the early 1990s, the
Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...
(Mega Drive outside most of North America) and Super NES (Super Famicom in Japan) greatly improved home play and some of their technology was even integrated into a few video arcade machines. In the early 1990s, the release of
Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...
's ''
Street Fighter II is a fighting game developed by Capcom and originally released for arcades in 1991. It is the second installment in the ''Street Fighter'' series and the sequel to 1987's ''Street Fighter''. It is Capcom's fourteenth game to use the CP Syst ...
'' established the modern style of
fighting game A fighting game, also known as a versus fighting game, is a video game genre, genre of video game that involves combat between two or more players. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as Blocking (martial arts), blocking, grappli ...
s and led to a number of similar games, resulting in a renaissance for the arcades. Another factor was realism, including the "3D Revolution" from 2D and
pseudo-3D 2.5D (two-and-a-half dimensional) perspective refers to gameplay or movement in a video game or virtual reality environment that is restricted to a two-dimensional (2D) plane with little to no access to a third dimension in a space that otherwise ...
graphics to true real-time 3D polygon graphics. This was largely driven by a technological
arms race An arms race occurs when two or more groups compete in military superiority. It consists of a competition between two or more states to have superior armed forces; a competition concerning production of weapons, the growth of a military, and t ...
between
Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...
and Namco. By the early 2000s, the sales of arcade machines in North America had declined, with 4,000 unit sales being considered a hit by the time. One of the causes of decline was new generations of
video game consoles A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to a t ...
and personal computers that sapped interest from arcades. Since the 2000s, arcade games have taken different routes globally. In the United States, arcades have become niche markets as they compete with the home console market, and they adapted other business models, such as providing other entertainment options or adding prize redemptions. In Japan, some arcades continue to survive in the early 21st century, with games like '' Dance Dance Revolution'' and '' The House of the Dead'' tailored to experiences that players cannot easily have at home.


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 Invaders'', ''
Pac-Man originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
'', '' Donkey Kong'', '' Frogger'', and ''
Centipede Centipedes (from New Latin , "hundred", and Latin , " foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', lip, and New Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, an ...
'' are still recognized in today's popular culture, and new entries in the franchises for some golden age games continued to be released decades later. ''
Pac-Man originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
'' 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 other video game has been inducted since. Emulators such as the Internet Archive Virtual Arcade are able to run these classic games inside a web browser window on a modern computer. Computers have gotten faster per
Moore's Law Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. Moore's law is an observation and projection of a historical trend. Rather than a law of physics, it is an empir ...
. JavaScript emulators can now run copies of the original console ROMs without porting the code to the new systems.


See also

*
Arcade cabinet An arcade cabinet, also known as an arcade machine or a coin-op cabinet or coin-op machine, is the housing within which an arcade game's electronic hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the Japanese Amusement Ma ...
* List of arcade video games


References


Further reading

*''The Official Price Guide to Classic Video Games'' by David Ellis (2004),


External links


The KLOV Top Video Games Lists by Greg McLemore and friends



The Dot Eaters
Videogame History 101
Internet Archive
Virtual Arcade {{DEFAULTSORT:Golden Age Of Video Arcade Games Arcade video games History of video games