Jump to content

Golden age of arcade video games

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Golden age of video games)

Part of a series on the
History of video games
Early history
Consoles
Arcade video games
Personal computer
Mobile games
Virtual reality
Cloud gaming
Other platforms
Genres
Lists

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 release of Space Invaders in 1978 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 switched from black-and-white to color, with titles such as Frogger and Centipede 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 that followed the design established by Pac-Man, driving and racing games which more frequently used 3D perspectives such as Turbo and Pole Position, character action games 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, 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.

The golden age of arcade games began to wane in 1983 due to a plethora of clones of popular titles that saturated arcades, the rise of home video game consoles, both coupled with a moral panic on the influence of arcades and video games on children. This fall occurred during the same time as the video game crash of 1983 but for different reasons, though both marred revenues within the North American video game industry for several years. The arcade game sector revitalized later during the early 1990s particularly with the mainstream success of fighting games.

Time period

[edit]

Although the exact years differ, most sources agree the period lasted 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.[1] Video game journalist Steven L. Kent argues in his book The Ultimate History of Video Games that it began the following year, when Space Invaders gained popularity in the United States[2] and when vector display technology, first seen in arcades in 1977's Space Wars, rose to prominence via Atari's Asteroids. Kent says the period ended in 1983, which saw "a fairly steady decline" in the coin-operated video game business and arcades.[3][4]

RePlay magazine in 1985 dated the arcade industry's "video boom" years from 1979 to 1982.[5] The golden age of arcade games largely coincided with, and partly fueled, the second generation of game consoles and the microcomputer revolution.

Business

[edit]

The golden age was a time of great technical and design creativity in arcade games. The era saw the rapid spread of video arcades across North America, Europe, and Asia. The number of video game arcades in North America was doubled between 1980 and 1982;[6] reaching a peak of 10,000 video game arcades across the region (compared to 4,000 as of 1998).[7] Beginning with Space Invaders, video arcade games also started to appear in supermarkets, restaurants, liquor stores, gas stations, and many other retail establishments looking for extra income.[8] 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.[9] The sales of arcade video game machines increased during this period from $50 million in 1978 to $900 million in 1981,[6] with 500,000 arcade machines sold in the United States at prices ranging as high as $3,000 in 1982 alone.[10] By 1982, there were 24,000 full arcades, 400,000 arcade street locations and 1.5 million arcade machines active in North America.[11] 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. Qix 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".[12] Around this time, the home video game industry (second-generation video game consoles and early home computer games) emerged as "an outgrowth of the widespread success of video arcades".[13]

In 1980, the U.S. arcade video game industry's revenue generated from quarters tripled to $2.8 billion.[14] By 1981, the arcade video game industry in the United States was generating more than $5 billion a year[1][15] 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.[16] The total revenue for the U.S. arcade video game industry in 1981 was estimated at more than $7 billion[17] though some analysts estimated the real amount may have been much higher.[17] By 1982, video games accounted for 87% of the $8.9 billion in commercial games sales in the United States.[18] In 1982, the arcade video game industry's revenue in quarters was estimated at $8 billion[19] surpassing the annual gross revenue of both pop music ($4 billion) and Hollywood films ($3 billion) combined that year.[19][20] It also exceeded the revenues of all major sports combined at the time,[20] 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.[21] 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;[19] 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.[22]

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.[18] In comparison, the best-selling arcade games[citation needed] of the golden age, Space Invaders and Pac-Man, had each sold over 360,000[23] and 400,000[24] cabinets, respectively, with each machine costing between $2000 and $3000 (specifically $2400 in Pac-Man's case).[25] In addition, Space Invaders had grossed $2 billion in quarters by 1982,[20] while Pac-Man had grossed over $1 billion by 1981[26] and $2.5 billion by the late 1990s.[27][28] 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,[20][29] which had grossed $486 million,[29] while Pac-Man is today considered the highest-grossing arcade game of all time.[30] 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,[9] Donkey Kong with over 60,000,[31] Defender with 55,000,[32] Galaxian with 40,000,[33] Donkey Kong Junior with 35,000,[31] Mr. Do! with 30,000,[34] and Tempest with 29,000 units.[35] A number of arcade games also generated revenues (from quarters) in the hundreds of millions, including Defender with more than $100 million[15] 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.[36]

The most successful arcade game companies of this era included Taito (which ushered in the golden age with the shooter game Space Invaders[4] and produced other successful arcade action games 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). 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 as "Jumpman"), Bally Midway Manufacturing Company (which was later purchased by Williams), Cinematronics, Konami, Centuri, Williams and SNK 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.[37] Japanese companies eventually moved beyond licensing their games to American companies such as Midway, and by 1981 instead began directly importing machines to the North American market as well as building manufacturing facilities in the United States.[38] 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.[39]

Technology

[edit]

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, 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.[40]

While color monitors had been used by several racing video games before (such as Indy 800[41] and Speed Race Twin[42]), it was during this period that RGB color graphics became widespread, following the release of Galaxian in 1979.[43] 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.[44] This allowed Galaxian to render multi-color sprites,[45] which were animated atop a scrolling starfield backdrop, providing the basis for the hardware developed by Nintendo for arcade games such as Radar Scope (1980) and Donkey Kong followed by the Nintendo Entertainment System console.[46]

The golden age also saw developers experimenting with vector displays, which produce crisp lines that can't be duplicated by raster displays. A few of these vector games became great hits, such as 1979's Asteroids, 1980's Battlezone, 1981's Tempest and 1983's Star Wars from Atari. However, vector technology fell out of favor with arcade game companies due to the high cost of repairing vector displays.[citation needed]

Several developers at the time were also experimenting with pseudo-3D and stereoscopic 3D using 2D sprites on raster displays. 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.[47] In 1981, Sega's Turbo was the first racing game to feature a third-person rear view format,[48] and use sprite scaling with full-colour graphics.[49] Namco's Pole Position 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.[50] That same year, Sega released Zaxxon, which introduced the use of isometric graphics and shadows;[51] and SubRoc-3D, which introduced the use of stereoscopic 3D through a special eyepiece.[52]

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 notes repeating in a loop, though it was dynamic and changed tempo during stages.[53] Rally-X in 1980 was the first game to feature continuous background music,[54] which was generated using a dedicated sound chip, a Namco 3-channel PSG.[55] That same year saw the introduction of speech synthesis, which was first used in Stratovox, released by Sun Electronics in 1980,[54] followed soon after by Namco's King & Balloon.

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,[56][57] 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 games with full-motion video backdrops like Astron Belt or interactive movies 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.[58]

16-bit processors began appearing in several arcade games during this era. Universal's Get A Way (1978) was a sit-down racing game that used a 16-bit CPU,[59] for which it was advertised as the first game to use a 16-bit microcomputer.[60] Another racing game, Namco's Pole Position (1982), used the 16-bit Zilog Z8000 processor.[61] Atari's Food Fight (1983) was one of the earliest games to use the Motorola 68000 processor.[62]

3D computer graphics 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,[63][64] demonstrated pre-rendered 3D computer graphics.[65] Simutrek's Cube Quest, another laserdisc game introduced at the same Tokyo AM Show in September 1983,[64] combined laserdisc animation with 3D real-time computer graphics.[66] Star Rider, introduced by Williams Electronics at the Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) in October 1983,[67] also demonstrated pre-rendered 3D graphics.[68] Atari's I, Robot, developed and released in 1984,[69][70] was the first arcade game to be rendered entirely with real-time 3D computer graphics.[71]

Gameplay

[edit]

Space Invaders (1978) established the "multiple life, progressively difficult level paradigm" used by many classic arcade games.[72] Designed by Tomohiro Nishikado at Taito, he drew inspiration from Atari'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.[73] In contrast to earlier arcade games which often had a timer, Space Invaders introduced the "concept of going round after round."[74] It also gave the player multiple lives before the game ends,[75] and saved the high score.[76] 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.[77]

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.[78][79] Galaxian introduced a "risk-reward" concept,[80] while Galaga was one of the first games with a bonus stage.[81] Sega's 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.[82]

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" 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 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.[83][84][85] The emphasis on character-driven gameplay in turn enabled a wider variety of subgenres.[84] In 1980, Namco released Pac-Man, which popularized the maze chase genre, and Rally-X, which featured a radar tracking the player position on the map.[55] Games such as the pioneering 1981 games Donkey Kong and Qix 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.[86]

The two most popular genres during the golden age were space shooters and character action games.[83] 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.[83] 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)[83] and Robotron: 2084 (1982)[87] as well as Atari's Asteroids (1979).[88]

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.[89] 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.[58] Other examples of innovative games are Atari Games' Paperboy 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's Venture is dungeon exploration and treasure-gathering. Q*bert plays upon the user's sense of depth perception to deliver a novel experience.

[edit]
Donkey Kong

Some games of this era were so widely played that they entered popular culture. The first was Space Invaders, released in 1978. A widely believed, yet false, urban legend held that its popularity caused a national shortage of 100 yen coins in Japan.[90][91][92][93] Its release in North America led to hundreds of favorable articles and stories about the emerging medium of video games printed in newspapers and magazines and aired on television. 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 as a mainstream hobby.[94] By 1980, 86% of the 13–20 year old population in the United States had played arcade video games,[95] and by 1981, there were more than 35 million gamers visiting video game arcades in the United States.[96]

The game that most affected 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. 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.[97] Pac-Man was also responsible for expanding the arcade game market to involve large numbers of female audiences across all age groups.[98] 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 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 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, 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.[99] 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,[100] the latter selling over 400,000 copies in the United States.[101] In turn, YMO had a major influence on much of the video game music produced during the 8-bit and 16-bit eras.[102] Other pop songs based on Space Invaders soon followed, including "Disco Space Invaders" (1979) by Funny Stuff,[100] "Space Invaders" (1980) by Player One (known as Playback in the US),[103] and the hit songs "Space Invader" (1980) by The Pretenders[100] and "Space Invaders" (1980) by Uncle Vic.[104] The game was also the basis for Player One's "Space Invaders" (1979), which in turn provided the baseline for Jesse Saunders's "On and On" (1984),[105][106] the first Chicago house music track.[107] The song "Pac-Man Fever" reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold over a million singles in 1982,[108] while the album Pac-Man Fever sold over a million records, with both receiving Gold certifications.[109] That same year, R. Cade and the Video Victims also produced an arcade-inspired album, Get Victimized, featuring songs such as "Donkey Kong".[110] 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[111] and the first video game music album.[112] Arcade game sounds also had a strong influence on the hip hop,[113] pop music (particularly synthpop)[114] and electro music genres during the early 1980s.[115] 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.[13] 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",[116] particularly Space Invaders which it was named after.[117]

Arcade games also influenced the film industry; beginning with Space Invaders, arcade games began appearing at many movie theaters.[9] Early films based on video games were also produced, most notably Tron, which grossed over $33 million in 1982[118] which began the Tron franchise which included a video game adaptation that grossed more than the film.[119] Other films based on video games included the 1983 films WarGames (where Matthew Broderick plays Galaga at an arcade),[120] 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,[121] 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, Strange Brew, Terms of Endearment and Never Say Never Again, the 1984 releases Footloose, The Karate Kid (where Elisabeth Shue plays Pac-Man), The Terminator, Night of the Comet and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, the 1985 releases The Goonies, The Heavenly Kid, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, The Boys Next Door[122] and Ferris Bueller's Day Off[120] as well as the 1986 films Something Wild, The Color of Money, River's Edge and Psycho III (where Norman Bates stands next to a Berzerk cabinet).[122] Over the Top, Can't Buy Me Love, Light of Day and Project X showcase 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 and also appear in Miracle Mile.

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 (2018) and Ready Player One (2018) which is based upon the novel by Ernest Cline and directed by Steven Spielberg. Television shows have exhibited arcade games including The Goldbergs and Stranger Things (both of which feature Dragon's Lair among other games).

Strategy guides

[edit]

The period saw the emergence of a gaming media, publications dedicated to video games, in the form of video game journalism and strategy guides.[20] The enormous popularity of video arcade games led to the very first video game strategy guides;[123] 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[123] (equivalent to between $6.00 and $12.00 in 2024).[124] That year, Ken Uston's Mastering Pac-Man sold 750,000 copies, reaching No. 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 New York Times mass-market paperback list.[123] By 1983, 1.7 million copies of Mastering Pac-Man had been printed.[125]

[edit]
See also: Timeline of arcade video game history, 1970s in video games, and 1980s in video games

The games below are some of the most popular and/or influential games of the era.[126]

Legend
Vector display
Raster display
Name Year Manufacturer Legacy Notes
Space Invaders 1978 Taito (Japan) / Midway (U.S.) Considered the game that revolutionized the video game industry.[127] The first blockbuster video game,[128] it established the shoot 'em up genre,[129] and has influenced most shooter games since.[130]
Galaxian 1979 Namco (Japan) / Midway (U.S.) Created to compete with Space Invaders. The first game to use multi-colored, animated sprites.[131][132] Aliens move in a swooping formation and attack by dive bombing the player's ship.
Lunar Lander 1979 Atari Arcade version of an earlier minicomputer game concept. First Atari coin-op to use vector graphics.
Asteroids 1979 Atari Atari's most successful coin-operated game. It is one of the first to allow players to enter their initials for a high score.
Battlezone 1980 Atari Custom cabinet with novel 2-way dual-joystick controls incorporating top-fire button, and periscope-like viewer.[133] Early use of first-person pseudo 3-D vector graphics. It is widely considered the first virtual reality arcade game.[134] Also used as the basis for a military simulator.[135]
Berzerk 1980 Stern Electronics Early use of speech synthesis was also translated into other languages in Europe. Indestructible adversary appears in order to eliminate lingering players. This became an oft-employed device (e.g. Hallmonsters in Venture) to increase challenge and limit play duration of arcade games.
Missile Command 1980 Atari Theme of the game was influenced by the Cold War era.
Pac-Man 1980 Namco (Japan) / Midway (U.S.) One of the most popular and influential games, it had the first gaming mascot, established maze chase genre, opened gaming to female audiences,[136] and introduced power-ups[137] and cutscenes.[138]
Phoenix 1980 Amstar Electronics / Centuri (U.S.) / Taito (Japan) One of the first games with a boss battle.
Rally-X 1980 Namco Driving game with overhead, scrolling maze. First game with a bonus round, background music,[139] and a radar.[55] When released, was predicted to outsell two other new releases: Pac-Man and Defender.
Star Castle 1980 Cinematronics The colors of the rings and screen are provided by a transparent plastic screen overlay.
Wizard of Wor 1980 Midway Allowed two-player competitive or cooperative fighting of monsters in maze-like dungeons.
Centipede 1981 Atari Co-created by programmer Dona Bailey.
Defender 1981 Williams Electronics Horizontal scrolling space shooting game that was praised for its audio-visuals and gameplay. Was predicted to be outsold by Rally-X, but Defender trounced it, going on to sell 60,000 units.
Tempest 1981 Atari One of the first games to use a color vector display.
Donkey Kong 1981 Nintendo Laid foundations for platform game genre as well as visual storytelling in video games,[86] and introduced a carpenter protagonist named Jumpman, a character who evolved into Nintendo's mascot, Mario, in subsequent games.
Frogger 1981 Konami (Japan) / Sega-Gremlin (North America) Novel gameplay notable for being free of fighting and shooting.
Scramble 1981 Konami (Japan) / Stern (North America) First scrolling shooter game, featuring forced horizontal scrolling motion.
Galaga 1981 Namco (Japan) / Midway (North America) Space shooting game that leapfrogged its predecessor, Galaxian, in popularity.
Gorf 1981 Midway Multiple-mission fixed shooter game. Some of the levels were clones of other popular games. Notable for featuring robotic synthesized speech.
Qix 1981 Taito The objective is to fence off a supermajority of the play area. Unique gameplay that didn't have shooting, racing, or mazes.
Vanguard 1981 SNK (Japan) / Centuri (US) Early scrolling shooter that scrolls in multiple directions, and allows shooting in four directions,[140][141] using four direction buttons, similar to dual-stick controls.[142] Along with Fantasy, Super Cobra and Bosconian, is significant as being among the first video games with a continue screen.[143]
BurgerTime 1982 Data East (Japan) / Bally Midway (US) Platform game where the protagonist builds hamburgers while being pursued by food. Original title changed from Hamburger when brought to the U.S. from Japan.
Dig Dug 1982 Namco (Japan) / Atari (North America) Novel gameplay where underground adversaries were defeated by inflating them or dropping rocks on them. Rated the sixth most popular coin-operated video game of all time.[144]
Donkey Kong Jr. 1982 Nintendo Jumpman was renamed Mario in this sequel. This was the only time Nintendo's mascot was featured as an antagonist in any of their games.
Front Line 1982 Taito One of the first of many 1980s games with commando-style infantry ground combat (guns, grenades and tanks) as the theme.
Joust 1982 Williams Electronics Allowed two-player cooperative or competitive play.
Jungle King 1982 Taito An early side-scrolling (and diagonal-scrolling) platformer with vine-swinging mechanics, run & jump sequences, climbing hills, and swimming. Almost immediately re-released as Jungle Hunt due to a lawsuit from the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate claiming character copyright infringement on the character of Tarzan. This version changed the Tarzan character to a pith helmet-wearing white explorer.[145]
Kangaroo 1982 Sunsoft (Japan) / Atari (US) Unusual for a platform game, there is no jump button. Instead, the player pushes up—or up and diagonally—to jump.
Moon Patrol 1982 Irem (Japan) / Williams Electronics (U.S.) Along with Jungle Hunt, one of the first arcade games with parallax scrolling.[146]
Ms. Pac-Man 1982 Midway (North America) / Namco One of the most popular of all time, this game was created from a bootlegged hack of Pac-Man. It has four different mazes and moving bonus fruit.
Pengo 1982 Sega 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.[147]
Pole Position 1982 Namco (Japan) / Atari (U.S.) After Sega's Turbo revolutionized sprite scaling with their third-person cockpit racer, Namco brought 16-bit graphics to the arcade, dropped the player's perspective closer to being directly behind the car, and added dramatic curves to the track. The game also incorporated product placements for companies (including licensee Atari) on passing billboards.
Popeye 1982 Nintendo Nintendo used higher resolution foreground sprites displayed over lower resolution backgrounds,[148] achieving comparable visuals to many games in the Midway Card Rack (MCR) system.[149] This display method was previously used on Nintendo's Sky Skipper, from which many Popeye cabinets were converted. Donkey Kong was originally intended to be made with Popeye characters, but at the time, Nintendo was unsuccessful at securing the licensing from King Features Syndicate.[150]
Q*bert 1982 Gottlieb Became one of the most merchandised arcade games behind Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.[151][152]
Robotron 2084 1982 Williams Electronics Popularized the dual joystick control scheme.
Gravitar 1982 Atari Not popular in the arcades due to its difficulty, but the gameplay inspired many clones like Thrust and Oids.
Time Pilot 1982 Konami (Japan) / Centuri (U.S.) Time travel themed aerial combat game with free-roaming gameplay in open air space that scrolls indefinitely in all directions, with player's plane always remaining centered.[153][154][155]
Tron 1982 Bally Midway Earned more than the film it was based on.[156] Gameplay consists of four subgames.
Xevious 1982 Namco (Japan) / Atari (U.S.) The first arcade video game to have a TV commercial.[157] It was also responsible for popularizing vertical scrolling shooters.[78]
Zaxxon 1982 Sega First game to employ isometric axonometric projection, which the game was named after.
Crystal Castles 1983 Atari Among the first arcade games which do not loop back to earlier stages as the player progresses, but instead offers a defined ending.[158]
Champion Baseball 1983 Sega A sports video game that became a major arcade success in Japan, with Sega comparing its success there to that of Space Invaders.[159] It was a departure from the "space games" and "cartoon games" that had previously dominated the arcades,[159] and went on to serve as the prototype for later baseball video games.[160][161]
Dragon's Lair 1983 Cinematronics (U.S.) / Atari (Europe) / Sidam (Italy) An early laserdisc video game, which allowed film-quality animation. The first arcade video game in the United States to charge two quarters per play.[162] It was also the first video game to employ what became known as the quick time event. This game is one of three arcade games that are part of the Smithsonian's permanent collection, along with Pac-Man and Pong.
Elevator Action 1983 Taito An action game that is a mix of platformer, puzzle and shooter genres.
Gyruss 1983 Konami (Japan) / Centuri (U.S.) Often remembered for its musical score that plays throughout the game, Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor".[163]
Mappy 1983 Namco (Japan) / Bally Midway (U.S.) Side-scrolling platform game
Mario Bros. 1983 Nintendo A game featuring simultaneous play with Mario and his brother Luigi as Italian-American plumbers in pest-inhabited sewers. Introduced Luigi for the first time, while also establishing he and Mario as plumbers.
Sinistar 1983 Williams Electronics First game to use stereo sound. It was also the first to use the 49-way, custom-designed optical joystick that Williams had produced specifically for this game. Notable for appearance of menacing villain.
Spy Hunter 1983 Bally Midway Overhead view, vehicular combat game that is memorable for its music, "The Peter Gunn Theme", that plays throughout the game.
Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator 1983 Sega Space combat sim featuring five different controls, six different enemies, and 40 different simulation levels. Features voice of Spock and Scotty. One of the most elaborate vector games released.[164]
Star Wars 1983 Atari Uses several digitized samples of actors' voices from the film.
Tapper 1983 Bally Midway Originally aligned with American beer Budweiser, was revamped as Root Beer Tapper, so as not to be construed as attempting to peddle alcohol to minors.
Track & Field 1983 Konami (Japan) / Centuri (North America) The first arcade Olympic sports video game. It helped popularize arcade sports games, which began being produced at levels not seen since the days of Pong and its clones a decade earlier.[165]
1942 1984 Capcom Capcom's first arcade hit. Features Pacific War air combat. Standardized the template for aerial shoot 'em ups featuring vertical scrolling.
Karate Champ 1984 Technōs Japan/ Data East (US) The first popular player vs. player fighting game for arcades.[166] Initially released as a dual joystick game with alternating play. The subsequent Player vs. Player version featured four 4-way joysticks.
Kung-Fu Master 1984 Irem (Japan) / Data East (US) The first side-scrolling beat-em-up arcade game.[167]
Punch-Out!! 1984 Nintendo A boxing fighting game featuring digitized voices, dual monitors, and a third-person perspective.
Paperboy 1985 Atari Novel controls and high resolution display.

List of best-selling arcade games

[edit]
Further information: List of highest-grossing arcade games

For arcade games, success was usually judged by either the number of arcade hardware units sold to operators, or the amount of revenue generated, from the number of coins (such as quarters or 100 yen coins) inserted into machines,[168] 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.

Decline and aftermath

[edit]
Main article: History of arcade video games
See also: Video game crash of 1983

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,[184] reaching a low of $4 billion in 1984.[185][186] 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), and advanced motion simulator games (such as Sega's "taikan" games including Hang-On, Space Harrier, Out Run and After Burner).[185]

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.[187] In 1988, arcade game revenues in the United States rose back to $6.4 billion, largely due to the rising popularity of violent action games in the beat 'em up and run and gun shooter genres.[186] However, the growth of home video game systems such as the Nintendo Entertainment System led to another brief arcade decline toward the end of the 1980s.[185][187][188] In the early 1990s, the Genesis (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's Street Fighter II established the modern style of fighting games and led to a number of similar games, resulting in a renaissance for the arcades.[189][190] Another factor was realism,[191] including the "3D Revolution" from 2D and pseudo-3D graphics to true real-time 3D polygon graphics.[84][187] This was largely driven by a technological arms race between Sega and Namco.[192]

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.[193] One of the causes of decline was new generations of video game consoles 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.[194] 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.[195]

Legacy

[edit]

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, Donkey Kong, Frogger, and Centipede 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 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.[196]

Emulators such as the Internet Archive Virtual Arcade are able to run these classic games inside a web browser window on a modern computer.[197] Computers have gotten faster per Moore's Law. JavaScript emulators can now run copies of the original console ROMs without porting the code to the new systems.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Jason Whittaker (2004), The cyberspace handbook, Routledge, p. 122, ISBN 0-415-16835-X
  2. ^ Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokémon. Three Rivers Press. p. 116. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4.
  3. ^ Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokémon. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4.
  4. ^ a b Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokémon. Three Rivers Press. p. 500. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4.
  5. ^ "The Replay Years: Our First Dynamic Decade In Words & Pix". RePlay. Vol. 11, no. 2. November 1985. pp. 120–32.
  6. ^ a b Mark J. P. Wolf (2008), The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to PlayStation and Beyond, ABC-CLIO, p. 105, ISBN 978-0-313-33868-7
  7. ^ Mark Stephen Pierce (Atari Games Corporation) (1998). Coin-Op: The Life (Arcade Videogames). ACM Press. p. 444. ISBN 0-201-84780-9. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  8. ^ Edge Staff (August 13, 2007). "The 30 Defining Moments in Gaming". Edge. Future plc. Archived from the original on October 29, 2011. Retrieved September 18, 2008.
  9. ^ a b c Mark J. P. Wolf (2001), The medium of the video game, University of Texas Press, p. 44, ISBN 0-292-79150-X, going into virtually every location in the country [..] even a few funeral homes had video games in the basements
  10. ^ James A. Inciardi; Robert A. Rothman (1990), Sociology: principles and applications (2 ed.), Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, p. 540, ISBN 0-15-582290-X, To cash in on the Pac-Man video mania, game developers also introduced Asteroids, Frogger, Donkey Kong, Tron, and hundreds more. By 1982, arcade games had become a multi-billion dollar industry. In that year alone, almost 500,000 machines were sold at prices ranging as high as $3000 each.
  11. ^ Steve L. Kent (2001), The ultimate history of video games: from Pong to Pokémon and beyond: the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world, Prima, p. 152, ISBN 0-7615-3643-4, retrieved March 15, 2012
  12. ^ Pearl, Rick (June 1983). "Closet Classics". Electronic Games. p. 82. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
  13. ^ a b Earl g. Graves, Ltd (December 1982), "Cash In On the Video Game Craze", Black Enterprise, vol. 12, no. 5, pp. 41–2, ISSN 0006-4165
  14. ^ Electronic Education, vol. 2, Electronic Communications, 1983, p. 41, In 1980 alone, according to Time, $2.8 billion in quarters, triple the amount of the previous years, were fed into video games. That represents 11.2 billion games, an average of almost 50 games for every person in the US.
  15. ^ a b Mark J. P. Wolf (2008), The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to PlayStation and Beyond, ABC-CLIO, p. 103, ISBN 978-0-313-33868-7
  16. ^ James W. Chesebro; Donald G. Bonsall (1989), Computer-mediated communication: human relationships in a computerized world, University of Alabama Press, p. 130, ISBN 0-8173-0460-6, In 1981, $10.5 billion was spent on all features of video games, 3 times the amount spent on movie tickets that year (Surrey, 1982, p. 74).
  17. ^ a b Edward S. Roschild (June 21, 1982), "Videodisks, microcomputers form integrated systems", InfoWorld, vol. 4, no. 24, InfoWorld Media Group, p. 16, ISSN 0199-6649, retrieved February 25, 2012, The figure of more than $7 billion for last year's video arcade game revenues is a conservative one. Some industry analysts estimate that the real amount spent on video games was as much as five times higher.
  18. ^ a b Citron, Alan (December 14, 1982). "The Rise And Fall Of Pinball". Pittsburgh Press. p. 13. Retrieved March 13, 2012.
  19. ^ a b c Everett M. Rogers; Judith K. Larsen (1984), Silicon Valley fever: growth of high-technology culture, Basic Books, p. 263, ISBN 0-465-07821-4, Video game machines have an average weekly take of $109 per machine. The video arcade industry took in $8 billion in quarters in 1982, surpassing pop music (at $4 billion in sales per year) and Hollywood films ($3 billion). Those 32 billion arcade games played translate to 143 games for every man, woman, and child in America. A recent Atari survey showed that 86 percent of the US population from 13 to 20 has played some kind of video game and an estimated 8 million US homes have video games hooked up to the television set. Sales of home video games were $3.8 billion in 1982, approximately half that of video game arcades.
  20. ^ a b c d e "Making millions, 25 cents at a time". The Fifth Estate. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. November 23, 1982. Archived from the original on October 30, 2008. Retrieved June 21, 2021.
  21. ^ "Games That Play People". Time. January 18, 1982. pp. 50–53 [51]. Archived from the original on October 4, 2008. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  22. ^ Gilbert, Ben (January 12, 2012). "NPD 2011: Sales across industry between $16.3 and $16.6 billion, Ubi tops software sales list". Joystiq. Joystiq. Retrieved March 17, 2012.
  23. ^ Jiji Gaho Sha, inc. (2003), Asia Pacific perspectives, Japan, vol. 1, University of Virginia, p. 57, At that time, a game for use in entertainment arcades was considered a hit if it sold 1000 units; sales of Space Invaders topped 300,000 units in Japan and 60,000 units overseas.
  24. ^ a b Kao, John J. (1989). Entrepreneurship, creativity & organization: text, cases & readings. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. p. 45. ISBN 0-13-283011-6. Retrieved February 12, 2012. Estimates counted 7 billion coins that by 1982 had been inserted into some 400,000 Pac Man machines worldwide, equal to one game of Pac Man for every person on earth. US domestic revenues from games and licensing of the Pac Man image for T-shirts, pop songs, to wastepaper baskets, etc. exceeded $1 billion.
  25. ^ "Video arcades rival Broadway theatre and girlie shows in NY", InfoWorld, vol. 4, no. 14, p. 15, April 12, 1982, ISSN 0199-6649
  26. ^ Bill Loguidice; Matt Barton (2009), Vintage games: an insider look at the history of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the most influential games of all time, Focal Press, p. 181, ISBN 978-0-240-81146-8, The machines were well worth the investment; in total they raked in over a billion dollars worth of quarters in the first year alone.
  27. ^ Mark J. P. Wolf (2008). "Video Game Stars: Pac-Man". The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to PlayStation and Beyond. ABC-CLIO. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-313-33868-7. It became arguably the most famous video game of all time, with the arcade game alone taking in more than a billion dollars, and one study estimated that it had been played more than 10 billion times during the twentieth century.
  28. ^ Chris Morris (May 10, 2005). "Pac Man turns 25: A pizza dinner yields a cultural phenomenon – and millions of dollars in quarters". CNN. In the late 1990s, Twin Galaxies, which tracks video game world record scores, visited used game auctions and counted how many times the average Pac Man machine had been played. Based on those findings and the total number of machines that were manufactured, the organization said it believed the game had been played more than 10 billion times in the 20th century.
  29. ^ a b "Space Invaders vs. Star Wars", Executive, vol. 24, Southam Business Publications, p. 9, 1982, They compare this to the box office movie top blockbuster Star Wars, which has taken in only $486 million, for a net of $175 million.
  30. ^ Steve L. Kent (2001), The ultimate history of video games: from Pong to Pokémon and beyond: the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world, Prima, p. 143, ISBN 0-7615-3643-4, Rumors emerged that the unknown creator of Pac-Man had left the industry when he received only a $3500 bonus for creating the highest-grossing video game of all time.
  31. ^ a b c Steven L. Kent (2001), The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story behind the Craze that Touched Our Lives and Changed the World, Prima, p. 352, ISBN 9780761536437, With more than 60,000 units sold in the United States, Donkey Kong was Nintendo's biggest arcade hit. ... Nintendo released Donkey Kong Junior in 1982 and sold only 30,000 machines, 20,000 Popeye machines (also 1982), and a mere 5000 copies of Donkey J (1983).
  32. ^ Steven L. Kent (2001), The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story behind the Craze that Touched Our Lives and Changed the World, Prima, p. 147, ISBN 9780761536437, Defender was Williams Electronics' biggest seller. More than 55,000 units were placed worldwide.
  33. ^ Bureau of National Affairs (1983), "United States Patents Quarterly, Volume 216", United States Patents Quarterly, vol. 216, Associated Industry Publications, Since February 1980, Midway has sold in excess of 40,000 Galaxian games
  34. ^ a b Steve L. Kent (2001), The ultimate history of video games: from Pong to Pokémon and beyond: the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world, Prima, p. 352, ISBN 0-7615-3643-4, In 1982, Universal Sales made arcade history with a game called Mr Do! Instead of selling dedicated Mr Do! machines, Universal sold the game as a kit. The kit came with a customized control panel, a computer board with Mr Do! read-only memory (ROM) chips, stickers that could be placed on the side of stand-up arcade machines for art, and a plastic marquee. It was the first game ever sold as a conversion only. According to former Universal Sales western regional sales manager Joe Morici, the company sold approximately 30,000 copies of the game in the United States alone.
  35. ^ a b c d e Fujihara, Mary (November 2, 1983). "Inter Office Memo". Atari. Retrieved March 18, 2012.
  36. ^ "Rick Dyer: Biography". Allgame. Archived from the original on February 10, 2010. Retrieved April 19, 2011.
  37. ^ Adlum, Eddie (November 1985). "The Replay Years: Reflections from Eddie Adlum". RePlay. Vol. 11, no. 2. pp. 134-175 (160-3).
  38. ^ Greenberg, Jonathan (April 13, 1981). "Japanese invaders: Move over Asteroids and Defenders, the next adversary in the electronic video game wars may be even tougher to beat" (PDF). Forbes. Vol. 127, no. 8. pp. 98, 102.
  39. ^ "Special Report: Gene Lipkin (Data East USA)". RePlay. Vol. 16, no. 4. January 1991. p. 92.
  40. ^ Mark Stephen Pierce (Atari Games Corporation) (1998). "Chapter 30: Coin-Op: The Life (Arcade Videogames)". Digital illusion: entertaining the future with high technology. ACM Press. ISBN 0-201-84780-9.
  41. ^ Indy 800 at the Killer List of Videogames
  42. ^ Speed Race Twin at the Killer List of Videogames
  43. ^ "Arcade Games". Joystick. 1 (1): 10. September 1982.
  44. ^ Mark J. P. Wolf (June 15, 2012). Before the Crash: Early Video Game History. Wayne State University Press. p. 173. ISBN 978-0814337226.
  45. ^ Good, Owen S. (January 30, 2017). "Namco's founder and 'father of Pac-Man' dies at 91". Polygon. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  46. ^ "【任天堂「ファミコン」はこうして生まれた】 第6回：業務用ゲーム機の挫折をバネにファミコンの実現に挑む" [How the Famicom Was Born – Part 6: Making the Famicom a Reality]. Nikkei Electronics (in Japanese). Nikkei Business Publications. September 12, 1994. Archived from the original on October 6, 2008. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  47. ^ Where Were They Then: The First Games of Nintendo, Konami, and More (Nintendo) Archived October 17, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, 1UP
  48. ^ Turbo at the Killer List of Videogames
  49. ^ IGN Presents the History of SEGA, IGN
  50. ^ Bernard Perron & Mark J. P. Wolf (2008), Video game theory reader two, p. 157, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 0-415-96282-X
  51. ^ Bernard Perron & Mark J. P. Wolf (2008), Video game theory reader two, p. 158, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 0-415-96282-X
  52. ^ SubRoc-3D at the Killer List of Videogames
  53. ^ Karen Collins (2008). From Pac-Man to pop music: interactive audio in games and new media. Ashgate. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-7546-6200-6.
  54. ^ a b "Gaming's Most Important Evolutions". GamesRadar. October 8, 2010. p. 2. Archived from the original on June 15, 2011.
  55. ^ a b c Rally-X at the Killer List of Videogames
  56. ^ "ASTRON BELT". Atari HQ.
  57. ^ "Astron Belt". AllGame. Archived from the original on January 1, 2014.
  58. ^ a b Travis Fahs (March 3, 2008). "The Lives and Deaths of the Interactive Movie". IGN.
  59. ^ Forster, Winnie (2008). Computer- und Video-Spielmacher (in German). Gameplan. p. 341. ISBN 978-3-00-021584-1. Sit-Down-Rennspiel Get A Way (1978) mit 16-bit-CPU. [Sit-down racing game Get A Way (1978) with 16-bit-CPU.]
  60. ^ "Video Game Flyers: Get A Way, Universal (USA)". The Arcade Flyer Archive. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  61. ^ "バンダイナムコ知新「第2回 カーレースゲームの変遷 前編」大杉章氏、岡本進一郎氏、岡本達郎氏インタビュー". Bandai Namco Entertainment. April 25, 2019. Archived from the original on May 14, 2019. Retrieved October 13, 2019.
  62. ^ Stulir, Mike. "Charley Chuck's Food Fight". American Classic Arcade Museum. Archived from the original on July 17, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
  63. ^ "Overseas Readers Column: 21st AM Show Of Tokyo Held Heralding The Age Of The Video Disk" (PDF). Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 223. Amusement Press, Inc. November 1, 1983. p. 34. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 31, 2020.
  64. ^ a b ""Somber" JAMMA Show Hosts Five Laser Disc Games" (PDF). Cash Box. October 15, 1983. pp. 32, 34. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 13, 2020.
  65. ^ "立体CGを駆使したVDゲーム 〜 未来の宇宙戦争 〜 フナイから 『インターステラー』" [VD Game That Makes Full Use of 3D CG – Future Space War: "Interstellar" from Funai] (PDF). Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 226. Amusement Press, Inc. December 15, 1983. p. 24. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 31, 2020.
  66. ^ "Video Game Flyers: Cube Quest, Simutrek". The Arcade Flyer Archive. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
  67. ^ "Cash Machine" (PDF). Cash Box. November 12, 1983. pp. 30–4. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 13, 2020.
  68. ^ Gorzelany, Jim (April 1984). "Going Full Cycle". Video Games. Vol. 2, no. 7. pp. 24–29.
  69. ^ a b c "Production Numbers" (PDF). Atari. 1999. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 20, 2013. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  70. ^ Herman, Leonard (1997). "1984". Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames. Rolenta Press. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-9643848-2-8. I, Robot was the first game that featured state-of-the-art 3D polygon graphics, a technique that was nearly ten years ahead of its time. This bizarre game which borrowed features from earlier arcade games like Galaga and Pac-Man even had an option where players could doodle their own abstract polygon generated art.
  71. ^ Hague, James (1997). "Eugene Jarvis". Halcyon Days: Interviews with Classic Computer and Video Game Programmers. Dadgum Games. Archived from the original on June 22, 2002. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
  72. ^ "Nishikado-San Speaks". Retro Gamer. No. 3. Live Publishing. April 15, 2004. p. 35.
  73. ^ "San Diego's Gremlin: how video games work". San Diego Reader. July 15, 1982. Retrieved October 25, 2020.
  74. ^ Records, Guinness World (November 6, 2014). Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2015 Ebook. Guinness World Records. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-908843-71-5.
  75. ^ Shannon Symonds (November 19, 2010). "The Changing Face of Winning in Video Games". International Center for the History of Electronic Games. Archived from the original on December 5, 2010. Retrieved March 27, 2011.
  76. ^ Obsessions (December 18, 2013). "This Game Industry Pioneer Never Gave Up on the Video Arcade". WIRED. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  77. ^ a b Game Genres: Shmups[permanent dead link‍], Professor Jim Whitehead, January 29, 2007, Retrieved June 17, 2008
  78. ^ Buchanan, Levi, Galaxian Mini Archived July 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, IGN, April 21, 2003, Retrieved June 17, 2008
  79. ^ Galaxian at the Killer List of Videogames
  80. ^ Galaga at the Killer List of Videogames
  81. ^ Space Tactics at the Killer List of Videogames
  82. ^ a b c d Thorpe, Nick (March 2014). "The 80s: The Golden Age of the Arcade". Retro Gamer. No. 127. pp. 28–31.
  83. ^ a b c Williams, Andrew (March 16, 2017). History of Digital Games: Developments in Art, Design and Interaction. CRC Press. pp. 79–84, 143–6, 152–4. ISBN 978-1-317-50381-1.
  84. ^ "Video Game Explosion! We rate every game in the world". Electronic Fun with Computers & Games. Vol. 1, no. 2. December 1982. pp. 12–7.
  85. ^ a b "Gaming's most important evolutions". GamesRadar. October 8, 2010. p. 3. Archived from the original on June 15, 2011.
  86. ^ Rollings, Andrew; Ernest Adams (2006). Fundamentals of Game Design. Prentice Hall. Archived from the original on December 31, 2017. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
  87. ^ Nate Ahearn (November 29, 2007). "Asteroids Deluxe Review". IGN. Archived from the original on March 7, 2012. Retrieved February 17, 2009.
  88. ^ "Bosconian". AllGame. Archived from the original on January 1, 2014.
  89. ^ Craig Glenday, ed. (March 11, 2008). "Record Breaking Games: Shooting Games Roundup". Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2008. Guinness World Records. Guinness. pp. 106–107. ISBN 978-1-904994-21-3.
  90. ^ Richards, Giles (July 24, 2005). "A life through video games". The Observer. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved May 22, 2008.
  91. ^ "JAPAN 100 Yen Y# 82 Yr.42(1967)-Yr.63(1988)". World Coin price Guide. Numismatic Guaranty Corporation. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  92. ^ Fox, Mark (2012). "Space Invaders targets coins". World Coin News. 39 (2). Krause Publications: 35–37. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
  93. ^ "Players Guide To Electronic Science Fiction Games". Electronic Games. 1 (2): 35–45 [36]. March 1982. Retrieved February 1, 2012.
  94. ^ Trachtman, Paul (September 1981). "A generation meets computers on the playing fields of Atari". Smithsonian. pp. 50–53 [52]. Archived from the original on March 19, 2006. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  95. ^ Wojahn, Ellen (2003). The General Mills/Parker Brothers merger: playing by different rules. Washington, D.C.: Beard Books. p. 120. ISBN 1-58798-182-3. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
  96. ^ Ramsey, David. "The Perfect Man – How Billy Mitchell became a video-game superstar and achieved Pac-Man bliss". Oxford American, issue 53. Spring 2006.
  97. ^ Worley, Joyce (May 1982). "Women Join the Arcade Revolution". Electronic Games. 1 (3): 30–33. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
  98. ^ "Movie Studios Purchase Piece Of Video Game Action", The Durant Daily Democrat, p. 22, July 14, 1982
  99. ^ a b c The Wire, Volumes 221-226. 2002. p. 44. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  100. ^ "Computer rock music gaining fans". Sarasota Journal: 8. August 18, 1980.
  101. ^ Daniel Robson (February 29, 2008). "YMCK takes 'chiptune' revolution major". The Japan Times. Archived from the original on August 22, 2010.
  102. ^ Playback – Space Invaders at Discogs
  103. ^ Lovelace, Craven (August 27, 2010). "Take a waka-waka-waka on the wild side". Grand Junction Free Press.
  104. ^ "Jesse Saunders – On And On". Discogs. January 20, 1984. Retrieved May 23, 2012.
  105. ^ Church, Terry (February 9, 2010). "Black History Month: Jesse Saunders and house music". BeatPortal. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  106. ^ Bracelin, Jason (May 22, 2007). "House music finds a home". Las Vegas Review-Journal. p. 1E. Retrieved September 12, 2013. A native of Chicago, where house was first popularized, Saunders is credited for producing and releasing the first house single, "On and On", on his own Jes Say Records label.
  107. ^ "Popular Computing". Vol. 2. McGraw-Hill. 1982. Archived from the original on November 7, 2007. Retrieved August 14, 2010. Pac-Man Fever went gold almost instantly with 1 million records sold.
  108. ^ "RIAA Gold & Platinum Searchable Database – Pac-Man Fever". RIAA.com. Archived from the original on September 4, 2015. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  109. ^ "R. Cade And The Video Victims – Get Victimized". Discogs. 1982.
  110. ^ Haruomi Hosono – Video Game Music at Discogs (list of releases)
  111. ^ Carlo Savorelli. "Xevious". Hardcore Gaming 101. p. 2. Archived from the original on July 31, 2010. Retrieved June 12, 2011.
  112. ^ David Toop (2000). Rap attack 3: African rap to global hip hop, Issue 3 (3rd ed.). Serpent's Tail. p. 129. ISBN 1-85242-627-6.
  113. ^ Stout, Andrew (June 24, 2011). "Yellow Magic Orchestra on Kraftwerk and How to Write a Melody During a Cultural Revolution". SF Weekly.
  114. ^ "Electro". Allmusic. Archived from the original on December 8, 2011. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  115. ^ D. Lynskey (March 22, 2002), "Out with the old, in with the older", Guardian.co.uk, archived from the original on October 15, 2014
  116. ^ "I-f – Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass". Discogs. 1998. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
  117. ^ Tron (1982) at Box Office Mojo
  118. ^ Jack B. Rochester; John Gantz (1983), The naked computer: a layperson's almanac of computer lore, wizardry, personalities, memorabilia, world records, mind blowers, and tomfoolery, William Morrow and Company, p. 164, ISBN 0-688-02450-5, Although the Disney Studios expected to make over $400 million from this siliconic extravaganza, our source at Variety tells us that its North American rentals were $15 million and estimated total gross, $30 million. The arcade game Tron, made by Bally, grossed more.
  119. ^ a b Kevin Bowen, "Galaga: Game of The Week", GameSpy, archived from the original on March 9, 2012
  120. ^ Mall Arcade (Dawn Of The Dead) on YouTube
  121. ^ a b "Browse". The Electronic Playground. Archived from the original on November 1, 2011. Retrieved July 15, 2011.
  122. ^ a b c "Learn The Code Book And Beat Video Games". Ludington Daily News. March 1, 1982. p. 25.
  123. ^ "CPI Inflation Calculator". Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved March 17, 2012.
  124. ^ Uston, Ken (Fall 1983). "Mastering Pac-Man Plus and Super Pac-Man". Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games. 1 (2): 32. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  125. ^ Greg McLemore; the KLOV team. "The Top Coin-Operated Videogames of all Times". Killer List of Videogames.
  126. ^ Sayre, Carolyn (July 19, 2007). "10 Questions for Shigeru Miyamoto". Time. Archived from the original on August 26, 2007. Retrieved September 4, 2007.
  127. ^ Chris Kohler (2005), Power-up: how Japanese video games gave the world an extra life, BradyGames, p. 18, ISBN 0-7440-0424-1
  128. ^ "Essential 50: Space Invaders". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on October 18, 2012. Retrieved April 1, 2011.
  129. ^ Edwards, Benj. "Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Space Invaders". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on February 26, 2009. Retrieved July 11, 2008.
  130. ^ Smith, Keith (September 11, 2012). "What Was The First 'True' Color Arcade Video Game?". The Golden Age Arcade Historian. Retrieved July 8, 2018.
  131. ^ TAS Videos (2022). "Galaxian - TAS Videos". TAS Videos. Retrieved September 14, 2022.
  132. ^ Battlezone at the Killer List of Videogames
  133. ^ Purcaru, John B. (March 13, 2014). "Games vs. Hardware. The History of PC videogames". Retrieved July 24, 2018.
  134. ^ "Bradley Trainer"
  135. ^ The Essential 50 – Pac-Man Archived January 6, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, 1UP
  136. ^ Playing With Power: Great Ideas That Have Changed Gaming Forever Archived November 12, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, 1UP
  137. ^ Gaming's Most Important Evolutions Archived June 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, GamesRadar
  138. ^ Gaming's Most Important Evolutions (Page 2) Archived June 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, GamesRadar
  139. ^ Vanguard at the Killer List of Videogames
  140. ^ Where Were They Then: The First Games of Nintendo, Konami, and More (SNK), 1UP
  141. ^ Matt Barton & Bill Loguidice, The History of Robotron: 2084 – Running Away While Defending Humanoids, Gamasutra
  142. ^ "The Origins of the Video Game Continue Screen". denofgeek.com. March 29, 2018. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
  143. ^ McLemore, Greg. "The Top Coin-Operated Videogames of All Time". Killer List of Videogames. Retrieved July 17, 2007.
  144. ^ Jungle King at the Killer List of Videogames
  145. ^ "History of Computing: Video games – Golden Age". Thocp.net. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  146. ^ Pengo at the Killer List of Videogames
  147. ^ Ribbon Black. "DOWNGRADED: Popeye (Nintendo, 1982-1983)". Ribbon Black. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
  148. ^ Toby Broyad. "BALLY MIDWAY MCR-2 HARDWARE". System16. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
  149. ^ "Fun Nintendo Facts You Probably Didn't Know About". Stuff.tv. Archived from the original on October 26, 2018. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
  150. ^ Sellers, John (August 2001). Arcade Fever: The Fan's Guide to The Golden Age of Video Games. Running Press. pp. 108–109. ISBN 0-7624-0937-1.
  151. ^ Wild, Kim (September 2008). "The Making of Q*bert". Retro Gamer (54). Imagine Publishing: 70–73.
  152. ^ "Time Pilot". AllGame. Archived from the original on January 1, 2014.
  153. ^ "Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits – NDS – Review". GameZone. April 9, 2007. Archived from the original on August 9, 2011.
  154. ^ "Konami Arcade Classics: Well, at least it's classic". IGN. January 7, 2000.
  155. ^ "Trivia for TRON". imdb.com. Retrieved September 15, 2007.
  156. ^ Xevious at the Killer List of Videogames
  157. ^ Sky, Aggro (July 15, 2015). "The End: A Brief History of Video Game Endings". 1 More Castle. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  158. ^ a b c "#1 Game In Japan: Sega Electronics To Bring 'Champion Baseball' Vid to U.S." (PDF). Cash Box. June 16, 1983. pp. 33–4. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 13, 2020.
  159. ^ "1983". Sega Arcade History. Famitsu DC (in Japanese). Enterbrain. 2002. p. 47.
  160. ^ "チャンピオンベースボール" [Champion Baseball]. Sega (in Japanese). Retrieved May 2, 2021.
  161. ^ "Local Amusement Facilities Planning To Get Dragon's Lair". Spartanburg Herald-Journal. August 18, 1983.
  162. ^ Gyruss at the Killer List of Videogames
  163. ^ Mark J. P. Wolf (2008), The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to PlayStation and Beyond, p. 70, ABC-CLIO, ISBN 0-313-33868-X
  164. ^ Lendino, Jamie (September 27, 2020). Attract Mode: The Rise and Fall of Coin-Op Arcade Games. Steel Gear Press. pp. 272, 334.
  165. ^ Dart Adams. "Press Start: A Cross Cultural Examination Via Influential Video Games (1984–1992)". Retrieved July 20, 2018.
  166. ^ "First side-scrolling beat-em-up". Guinness World Records. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
  167. ^ Mark J. P. Wolf (2008), The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to PlayStation and Beyond, ABC-CLIO, p. 275, ISBN 978-0-313-33868-7, What are the best-selling video games? There are a number of factors to consider when attempting to answer this question. First, there are several different types of video games, which makes comparisons difficult, or perhaps unfair. Arcade games are played for a quarter a play (although some are 50 cents, or even more), while home games are bought outright, and their systems must be purchased as well.
  168. ^ "After Pong". ACE. No. 6 (March 1988). February 4, 1988. pp. 29–32 (29).
  169. ^ a b Donkey Kong sales:
    • Japan: 65,000 of Donkey Kong
    • United States: 67,000 of Donkey Kong
      • Bienaimé, Pierre (January 13, 2012). "Square Roots: Donkey Kong (NES)". Nintendojo. Retrieved April 8, 2012. Donkey Kong sold some 67,000 arcade cabinets in two years, making two of its American distributors sudden millionaires thanks to paid commission. As a barometer of success, know that Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man are the only arcade games to have sold over 100,000 units in the United States.
    • United States: 30,000 of Donkey Kong Jr.
  170. ^ "Bally Will Quit Making Pinball, Video Machines". Toledo Blade. July 11, 1988. p. 22.
  171. ^ Steve L. Kent (2001), The ultimate history of video games: from Pong to Pokémon and beyond: the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world, Prima, p. 132, ISBN 0-7615-3643-4, Atari sold more than 70,000 Asteroids machines in the United States. The game did not do as well in Europe and Asia, however. Only about 30,000 units were sold overseas.
  172. ^ Horowitz, Ken (August 6, 2020). Beyond Donkey Kong: A History of Nintendo Arcade Games. McFarland & Company. p. 200. ISBN 978-1-4766-8420-8.
  173. ^ a b c d "Atari Production Numbers Memo". Atari Games. January 4, 2010. Archived from the original on January 20, 2013. Retrieved March 18, 2012.
  174. ^ Bloom, Steve (1982). Video Invaders. Arco Publishing. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-668-05520-8.
  175. ^ RePlay. January 1984.
  176. ^ "Overseas Readers Column" (PDF). Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 259. Amusement Press, Inc. May 1, 1985. p. 22. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 31, 2020.
  177. ^ Steve L. Kent (2001). The ultimate history of video games: from Pong to Pokémon and beyond: the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world. Prima. p. 224. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. Gottlieb sold approximately 25,000 Q*Bert arcade machines.
  178. ^ Jeff Fulton; Steve Fulton (2010). "A short history of Missile Command". The essential guide to Flash games: building interactive entertainment with ActionScript 3.0 (New ed.). [Berkeley, Calif.]: Friends of ED. p. 138. ISBN 978-1-4302-2614-7. Retrieved February 7, 2012. While certainly not the size of Asteroids, the game was still a huge hit with almost 20,000 units sold.
  179. ^ Fujihara, Mary (July 25, 1983). "Inter Office Memo". Atari. Retrieved March 18, 2012.
  180. ^ Steve L. Kent (2001), The ultimate history of video games: from Pong to Pokémon and beyond: the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world, Prima, p. 225, ISBN 0-7615-3643-4, Cinematronics sold more than 16,000 Dragon's Lair machines in 1983, for an average price of $4300. Coleco purchased the home rights to the game, giving Cinematronics an additional $2 million.
  181. ^ a b c "Stern Production Numbers and More CCI Photos". May 1, 2012. Retrieved July 21, 2013.
  182. ^ Kurokawa, Fumio (March 17, 2018). "ビデオゲームの語り部たち 第4部：石村繁一氏が語るナムコの歴史と創業者・中村雅哉氏の魅力". 4Gamer (in Japanese). Aetas. Archived from the original on August 1, 2019. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
  183. ^ "Can Lasers Save Video Arcades?". The Philadelphia Inquirer. February 3, 1984. Retrieved March 13, 2012. Last year, arcade game revenues were approximately $5 billion, compared to $8 billion in 1981 and $7 billion in 1982.
  184. ^ a b c "Coin-Op history – 1975 to 1997 – from the pages of RePlay". RePlay. 1998. Archived from the original on April 28, 1998. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  185. ^ a b "Video Games Are an Exercise In Annihilation". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. May 30, 1989. Retrieved March 13, 2012. In 1988, players dropped enough change at video arcades to generate revenues of $6.4 billion, up from $4 billion in 1986. Many of those quarters were powering machine guns and fists of fury. According to the April issue of RePlay magazine, 29 of the 45 most popular video games are action games. Three of the top five games listed by PlayMeter were ones with war or fighting themes.
  186. ^ a b c Spencer, Spanner, The Tao of Beat-'em-ups (part 2), EuroGamer, Feb 12, 2008, Retrieved Mar 18, 2009
  187. ^ Johnson, Tracy (April 3, 1992). "Are Arcades Archaic? Business down, owners add zip and zap to lure players". The Boston Globe. p. 89. Archived from the original on May 12, 2012. Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  188. ^ Compton, Shanna (2004). Gamers: writers, artists & programmers on the pleasures of pixels. Soft Skull Press. p. 119. ISBN 1-932360-57-3.
  189. ^ Carter, Jay (July 1993). "Insert Coin Here: Getting a Fighting Chance". Electronic Games.
  190. ^ Perry, Dave (November 1994). "Arcades: Ready for a Renaissance?". Games World. No. 7 (January 1995). Paragon Publishing. p. 6.
  191. ^ Thorpe, Nick (March 2014). "The 90s: The Decade of Rivalries". Retro Gamer. No. 127. pp. 32–5.
  192. ^ Horwitz, Jeremy (July 8, 2002). "Technology: Mortal Apathy?". The New York Times. Retrieved March 4, 2012.
  193. ^ Fuller, Brad. "Awakening the Arcade". Archived from the original on October 3, 2011. Retrieved September 21, 2007.
  194. ^ Ashcraft, Brian (February 15, 2017). "Why Arcades Haven't Died in Japan". Kotaku. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
  195. ^ History of Computing: Video games – Golden Age from The History of Computing Project Archived July 4, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  196. ^ "Virtual Arcade". Internet Archive. Retrieved November 25, 2020.

Further reading

[edit]
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Golden_age_of_arcade_video_games&oldid=1256111158"