Thegolden age of arcade video games was the period of rapid growth, technological development, and cultural influence ofarcade video games from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The release ofSpace Invaders in 1978 led to a wave ofshoot-'em-up games such asGalaxian and thevector graphics-basedAsteroids 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 asFrogger andCentipede 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-themedshooter games such asDefender andGalaga,maze chase games that followed the design established byPac-Man, driving andracing games which more frequently used 3D perspectives such asTurbo andPole Position, characteraction games such asPac-Man andFrogger, and the beginning of what would later be calledplatform games touched off byDonkey Kong. Games began starring namedplayer characters, such asPac-Man,Mario, andQ*bert, and some of these characters crossed over into other media including songs, cartoons, and movies. The 1982 filmTron was closely tied to an arcadegame of the same name.
The golden age of arcade games began to wane in 1983 due to a plethora ofclones of popular titles that saturated arcades, and the rise of home video game consoles, both coupled with amoral panic on the influence of arcades and video games on children. This fall occurred during the same time as thevideo 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 offighting games.
Although the exact years differ, most sources agree the period lasted from about the late 1970s to early 1980s.
Technology journalist Jason Whittaker, inThe Cyberspace Handbook, places the beginning of thegolden age in 1978, with the release ofSpace Invaders.[1] Video game journalistSteven L. Kent argues in his bookThe Ultimate History of Video Games that it began the following year, whenSpace Invaders gained popularity in the United States[2] and whenvector display technology, first seen in arcades in 1977'sSpace Wars, rose to prominence via Atari'sAsteroids. 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, thesecond generation of game consoles and themicrocomputer revolution.
The golden age was a time of great technical and design creativity in arcade games. The era saw the rapid spread of not onlyvideo 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 withSpace 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 asconvenience stores, while arcade games likePac-Man andSpace Invaders appeared in most locations across the United States, including evenfuneral 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 likeRobby 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-generationvideo game consoles and earlyhome 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 fromquarters 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) andHollywood 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 ofMajor League Baseball, basketball, andAmerican football, as well as earning twice as much as all thecasinos inNevada combined.[21] This was also more than twice as much revenue as the $3.8 billion generated by the home video game industry (during thesecond 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 andPac-Man, had each sold over 360,000[23] and 400,000[24] cabinets, respectively, with each machine costing between $2000 and $3000 (specifically $2400 inPac-Man's case).[25] In addition,Space Invaders had grossed $2 billion in quarters by 1982,[20] whilePac-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 thenhighest-grossing filmStar Wars,[20][29] which had grossed $486 million,[29] whilePac-Man is today considered thehighest-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, includingMs. 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] andTempest with 29,000 units.[35] A number of arcade games also generated revenues (from quarters) in the hundreds of millions, includingDefender with more than $100 million[15] in addition to many more with revenues in the tens of millions, includingDragon's Lair with $48 million andSpace Ace with $13 million.[36]
The most successful arcade game companies of this era includedTaito (who ushered in the golden age with theshooter gameSpace Invaders[4] and produced other successful arcadeaction games such asGun Fight andJungle King),Namco (the Japanese company that createdGalaxian,Pac-Man,Pole Position andDig Dug) andAtari, Inc. (who introduced video games into arcades withComputer Space andPong, and later producedAsteroids). Other companies such asSega (who later entered the home console market against its former arch rival, Nintendo),Nintendo (whosemascot,Mario, was introduced in 1981'sDonkey Kong as "Jumpman"),Bally Midway Manufacturing Company (which was later purchased by Williams),Cinematronics,Konami,Centuri,Williams andSNK 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 ofData East USA partly attributed to Japanese companies having more finances to invest in new ideas.[39]
Arcades catering to video games began to gain momentum in the late 1970s, withSpace Invaders (1978) followed by games such asAsteroids (1979) andGalaxian (1979). Arcades became more widespread in 1980 withPac-Man,Missile Command andBerzerk, and in 1981 withDefender,Donkey Kong,Frogger and others. Thecentral processing unit (CPU)microprocessors in these games allowed for more complexity than earliertransistor-transistor logic (TTL)discrete circuitry games such as Atari'sPong (1972). The arcade boom that began in the late 1970s is credited with establishing the basic techniques ofinteractive entertainment and for driving down hardware prices to the extent of allowing thepersonal computer (PC) to become a technological and economic reality.[40]
While color monitors had been used by severalracing video games before (such asIndy 800[41] andSpeed Race Twin[42]), it was during this period thatRGB color graphics became widespread, following the release ofGalaxian in 1979.[43]Galaxian introduced atile-based video game graphics system, which reduced processing and memory requirements by up to 64 times compared to the previousframebuffer system used bySpace Invaders.[44] This allowedGalaxian to render multi-colorsprites,[45] which were animated atop ascrolling starfield backdrop, providing the basis for the hardware developed byNintendo for arcade games such asRadar Scope (1980) andDonkey Kong followed by theNintendo Entertainment System console.[46]
The golden age also saw developers experimenting withvector displays, which produce crisp lines that can't be duplicated byraster displays. A few of these vector games became great hits, such as 1979'sAsteroids, 1980'sBattlezone, 1981'sTempest and 1983'sStar 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 withpseudo-3D andstereoscopic 3D using2Dsprites onraster displays. In 1979,Nintendo'sRadar Scope introduced a three-dimensionalthird-person perspective to theshoot 'em up genre, later imitated byshooters such asKonami'sJuno First andActivision'sBeamrider in 1983.[47] In 1981, Sega'sTurbo was the first racing game to feature a third-person rear view format,[48] and usesprite scaling with full-colour graphics.[49]Namco'sPole 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 releasedZaxxon, which introduced the use ofisometric graphics and shadows;[51] andSubRoc-3D, which introduced the use ofstereoscopic 3D through a special eyepiece.[52]
This period also saw significant advances indigital audio technology.Space Invaders in 1978 was the first game to use a continuousbackground soundtrack, with four simplechromatic descendingbass 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 continuousbackground music,[54] which was generated using a dedicatedsound chip, a Namco 3-channelPSG.[55] That same year saw the introduction ofspeech synthesis, which was first used inStratovox, released bySun Electronics in 1980,[54] followed soon after by Namco'sKing & Balloon.
Developers also experimented withlaserdisc players for deliveringfull motion video based games with movie-quality animation. The firstlaserdisc video game to exploit this technology was 1983'sAstron Belt from Sega,[56][57] soon followed byDragon's Lair fromCinematronics; 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 eithershooter games with full-motion video backdrops likeAstron Belt orinteractive movies likeDragon's Lair,Data East's 1983 gameBega's Battle introduced a new form of video game storytelling: using brief full-motion videocutscenes 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'sGet A Way (1978) was a sit-downracing game that used a 16-bit CPU,[59] for which it was advertised as the first game to use a 16-bitmicrocomputer.[60] Another racing game, Namco'sPole Position (1982), used the 16-bitZilog Z8000 processor.[61]Atari'sFood Fight (1983) was one of the earliest games to use theMotorola 68000 processor.[62]
3D computer graphics began appearing in several arcade games towards the end of the golden age.Funai'sInterstellar, a laserdisc game introduced at Tokyo'sAmusement Machine Show (AM Show) in September 1983,[63][64] demonstratedpre-rendered 3D computer graphics.[65] Simutrek'sCube Quest, another laserdisc game introduced at the same Tokyo AM Show in September 1983,[64] combined laserdisc animation with 3Dreal-time computer graphics.[66]Star Rider, introduced byWilliams Electronics at the Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) in October 1983,[67] also demonstrated pre-rendered 3D graphics.[68] Atari'sI, Robot, developed and released in 1984,[69][70] was the first arcade game to be rendered entirely with real-time 3D computer graphics.[71]
Space Invaders (1978) established the "multiplelife, progressively difficultlevel paradigm" used by many classic arcade games.[72] Designed byTomohiro Nishikado atTaito, he drew inspiration fromAtari's block-breaker gameBreakout (1976) and severalscience fiction works. Nishikado added several interactive elements toSpace 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 agame 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 goinground after round."[74] It also gave the player multiplelives before the game ends,[75] and saved thehigh 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 toEugene Jarvis.[77]
With the enormous success ofSpace Invaders, dozens ofdevelopers jumped into the development and manufacturing of arcade video games. Some simply copied the "invading alien hordes" idea ofSpace Invaders and turned out successful imitators like Namco'sGalaxian andGalaga, which extended thefixed shooter genre with new gameplay mechanics, more complex enemy patterns, and richer graphics.[78][79]Galaxian introduced a "risk-reward" concept,[80] whileGalaga was one of the first games with abonus stage.[81] Sega's 1980 releaseSpace Tactics was an earlyfirst-personspace combat game with multi-directionalscrolling as the player moved thecross-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 frommanga andanime 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 releasedPac-Man, which popularized themaze chase genre, andRally-X, which featured aradar tracking the player position on the map.[55] Games such as the pioneering 1981 gamesDonkey Kong andQix introduced new types of games where skill and timing are more important than shooting as fast as possible, withNintendo'sDonkey Kong in particular setting the template for theplatform 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 ownDefender (1981)[83] andRobotron: 2084 (1982)[87] as well asAtari'sAsteroids (1979).[88]
Namco'sBosconian in 1981 introduced afree-roamingstyle 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 brieffull-motion videocutscenes to develop a story between the game's shooting stages.[58] Other examples of innovative games areAtari Games'Paperboy in 1984 where the goal is to successfully deliver newspapers to customers, and Namco'sPhozon where the object is to duplicate a shape shown in the middle of the screen. The theme ofExidy'sVenture isdungeon exploration and treasure-gathering.Q*bert plays upon the user's sense ofdepth perception to deliver a novel experience.
Some games of this era were so widely played that they enteredpopular culture. The first wasSpace Invaders, released in 1978. A widely believed, yet false, urban legend held that its popularity caused a national shortage of100 yen coinsin 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 firstvideo game competition and attracted more than 10,000 participants, establishingvideo 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 wasPac-Man. Its release in 1980 caused such a sensation that it initiated what is now referred to as "Pac-Mania" (which later becamethe title of the last coin-operated game in the series, released in 1987). Released byNamco, 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 ananimated television series, numerous clones,Pac-Man-branded foods, toys, and a hit pop song, "Pac-Man Fever". The game's popularity was such that PresidentRonald Reagan congratulated a player for setting a record score inPac-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, andPac-Man is unusual in remaining a recognized term in popular culture, along withSpace Invaders,Donkey Kong,Mario andQ*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 andChuck E. Cheese were founded specifically as restaurants focused on featuring the latest arcade titles.
In 1982, the game showStarcade 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 onTBS and syndication.
In 1983, an animated television series produced for Saturday mornings calledSaturday 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 themusic 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 pioneeringelectronic music bandYellow Magic Orchestra (YMO)sampledSpace Invaders sounds in their 1978self-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 thevideo game music produced during the8-bit and16-bit eras.[102] Other pop songs based onSpace 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) byThe 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 forJesse Saunders's "On and On" (1984),[105][106] the firstChicagohouse music track.[107] The song "Pac-Man Fever" reached No. 9 on theBillboard Hot 100 and sold over a million singles in 1982,[108] while the albumPac-Man Fever sold over a million records, with both receivingGold 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 memberHaruomi Hosono produced an album entirely from Namco arcade game samples entitledVideo Game Music, an early example of achiptune record[111] and the first video game music album.[112] Arcade game sounds also had a strong influence on thehip hop,[113]pop music (particularlysynthpop)[114] andelectro music genres during the early 1980s.[115] The booming success of video games at the time led to music magazineBillboard listing the 15 top-selling video games alongside their record charts by 1982.[13] More than a decade later, the firstelectroclash record,I-F's "Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass" (1997), has been described as "burbling electro in avocodered homage to Atari-era hi-jinks",[116] particularlySpace Invaders which it was named after.[117]
Arcade games also influenced thefilm industry; beginning withSpace Invaders, arcade games began appearing at many movie theaters.[9] Earlyfilms based on video games were also produced, most notablyTron, which grossed over $33 million in 1982[118] which began theTron franchise which included avideo game adaptation that grossed more than the film.[119] Other films based on video games included the 1983 filmsWarGames (whereMatthew Broderick playsGalaga at an arcade),[120]Nightmares, andJoysticks, the 1984 filmsThe Last Starfighter, as well asCloak & Dagger (in which an Atari 5200 cartridge implausibly containing the eponymous arcade game becomes the film'sMacGuffin). Arcades also appeared in many other films at the time, such asDawn of the Dead (where they playGun Fight andF-1) in 1978,[121] andMidnight Madness in 1980,Take This Job and Shove It andPuberty Blues in 1981, the 1982 releasesRocky III,Fast Times At Ridgemont High,Koyaanisqatsi andThe Toy, the 1983 releasesPsycho II,Spring Break,Strange Brew,Terms of Endearment andNever Say Never Again, the 1984 releasesFootloose,The Karate Kid (whereElisabeth Shue playsPac-Man),The Terminator,Night of the Comet andThe Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, the 1985 releasesThe Goonies,The Heavenly Kid,Pee Wee's Big Adventure,The Boys Next Door[122] andFerris Bueller's Day Off[120] as well as the 1986 filmsSomething Wild,The Color of Money,River's Edge andPsycho III (where Norman Bates stands next to aBerzerk cabinet).[122]Over the Top,Can't Buy Me Love,Light of Day andProject X showcase arcade game cabinets as well. Coin-operated games (both video and mechanical) are central to the plots of the 1988 filmsBig andKung-Fu Master and also appear inMiracle Mile.
In more recent years, there have been critically acclaimed documentaries based on the golden age of arcade games, such asThe King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007) andChasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade (2007). Since 2010, many arcade-related features or films incorporating 1980s nostalgia have been released includingTron: Legacy (2010),Wreck-It Ralph (2012),Ping Pong Summer (2014),Pixels (2015),Everybody Wants Some!! (2016),Summer of 84 (2018) andReady Player One (2018) which is based upon the novel byErnest Cline and directed bySteven Spielberg. Television shows have exhibited arcade games includingThe Goldbergs andStranger Things (both of which featureDragon's Lair among other games).
The period saw the emergence of a gaming media, publications dedicated to video games, in the form ofvideo game journalism andstrategy 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 $13.00 in 2024).[124] That year, Ken Uston'sMastering Pac-Man sold 750,000 copies, reaching No. 5 onB. Dalton's mass-marketbestseller list, while Bantam'sHow to Master the Video Games sold 600,000 copies, appearing onThe New York Times mass-market paperback list.[123] By 1983, 1.7 million copies ofMastering Pac-Man had been printed.[125]
The games below are some of the most popular and/or influential games of the era.[126]
| Vector display |
| Raster display |
| Name | Year | Manufacturer | Legacy Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Space Invaders | 1978 | Taito (Japan) /Midway (U.S.) | Considered the game that revolutionized thevideo game industry.[127] The firstblockbuster video game,[128] it established theshoot 'em up genre,[129] and has influenced mostshooter games since.[130] |
| Galaxian | 1979 | Namco (Japan) /Midway (U.S.) | Created to compete withSpace 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 inVenture) to increase challenge and limit play duration of arcade games. |
| Missile Command | 1980 | Atari | Theme of the game was influenced by theCold War era. |
| Pac-Man | 1980 | Namco (Japan) /Midway (U.S.) | One of the most popular and influential games, it had the first gamingmascot, establishedmaze chase genre, opened gaming to female audiences,[136] and introducedpower-ups[137] andcutscenes.[138] |
| Phoenix | 1980 | Amstar Electronics /Centuri (U.S.) /Taito (Japan) | One of the first games with aboss battle. |
| Rally-X | 1980 | Namco | Driving game with overhead, scrolling maze. First game with abonus round,background music,[139] and aradar.[55] When released, was predicted to outsell two other new releases:Pac-Man andDefender. |
| 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 programmerDona Bailey. |
| Defender | 1981 | Williams Electronics | Horizontal scrolling space shooting game that was praised for its audio-visuals and gameplay. Was predicted to be outsold byRally-X, butDefender 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 forplatform 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) | Firstscrolling 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 withFantasy,Super Cobra andBosconian, 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 fromHamburger 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 Hunt | 1982 | Taito | An earlyside-scrolling (and diagonal-scrolling) platformer with vine-swinging mechanics, run & jump sequences, climbing hills, and swimming. Almost immediately re-released asJungle Hunt due to a lawsuit from theEdgar Rice Burroughs estate claiming character copyright infringement on the character ofTarzan. This version changed the Tarzan character to apith 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 withJungle Hunt, one of the first arcade games withparallax scrolling.[146] |
| Ms. Pac-Man | 1982 | Midway (North America) /Namco | One of the most popular of all time, this game was created from abootleggedhack ofPac-Man. It has four different mazes and moving bonus fruit. |
| Pengo | 1982 | Sega | Amaze 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'sTurbo 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 more impressive visuals. |
| Q*bert | 1982 | Gottlieb | Became one of the most merchandised arcade games behindPac-Man andDonkey Kong.[149][150] |
| 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 likeThrust andOids. |
| Time Pilot | 1982 | Konami (Japan) /Centuri (U.S.) | Time travel themedaerial combat game withfree-roaminggameplay in open air space that scrolls indefinitely in all directions, with player's plane always remaining centered.[151][152][153] |
| Tron | 1982 | Bally Midway | Earned more than the film it was based on.[154] Gameplay consists of four subgames. |
| Xevious | 1982 | Namco (Japan) /Atari (U.S.) | The first arcade video game to have a TV commercial.[155] It was also responsible for popularizing verticalscrolling shooters.[78] |
| Zaxxon | 1982 | Sega | First game to employisometric 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.[156] |
| Champion Baseball | 1983 | Sega | Asports video game that became a major arcade success in Japan, with Sega comparing its success there to that ofSpace Invaders.[157] It was a departure from the "space games" and "cartoon games" that had previously dominated the arcades,[157] and went on to serve as the prototype for laterbaseball video games.[158][159] |
| Dragon's Lair | 1983 | Cinematronics (U.S.) /Atari (Europe) / Sidam (Italy) | An earlylaserdisc video game, which allowed film-quality animation. The first arcade video game in the United States to charge two quarters per play.[160] It was also the first video game to employ what became known as thequick time event. This game is one of three arcade games that are part of the Smithsonian's permanent collection, along withPac-Man andPong. |
| Elevator Action | 1983 | Taito | Anaction 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".[161] |
| 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 brotherLuigi 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 differentsimulation levels. Features voice of Spock and Scotty. One of the most elaboratevector games released.[162] |
| Star Wars | 1983 | Atari | Uses several digitized samples of actors' voices from the film. |
| Tapper | 1983 | Bally Midway | Originally aligned with American beerBudweiser, was revamped asRoot 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 arcadeOlympic sports video game. It helped popularize arcade sports games, which began being produced at levels not seen since the days ofPong and its clones a decade earlier.[163] |
| 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.[164] 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.[165] |
| Punch-Out!! | 1984 | Nintendo | A boxingfighting game featuring digitized voices, dual monitors, and a third-person perspective. |
| Paperboy | 1985 | Atari | Novel controls and high resolution display. |
For arcade games, success was usually judged by either the number ofarcade hardware units sold to operators, or the amount of revenue generated, from the number of coins (such asquarters or100 yen coins) inserted into machines,[166] 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.
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,[182] reaching a low of $4 billion in 1984.[183][184] The arcade market had recovered by 1986, with the help of software conversion kits, the arrival of popularbeat 'em up games (such asKung-Fu Master andRenegade), and advancedmotion simulator games (such as Sega's "taikan" games includingHang-On,Space Harrier,Out Run andAfter Burner).[183]
Arcades remained commonplace through to the 1990s as there were still new genres being explored. In 1987, arcades experienced a short resurgence withDouble Dragon, which started the golden age ofbeat 'em up games, agenre that peaked in popularity withFinal Fight two years later.[185] In 1988, arcade game revenues in the United States rose back to $6.4 billion, largely due to the rising popularity ofviolentaction games in the beat 'em up andrun and gunshootergenres.[184] However, the growth of home video game systems such as theNintendo Entertainment System led to another brief arcade decline toward the end of the 1980s.[183][185][186] In the early 1990s, theGenesis (Mega Drive outside most of North America) andSuper 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 ofCapcom'sStreet Fighter II established the modern style offighting games and led to a number of similar games, resulting in a renaissance for the arcades.[187][188] Another factor was realism,[189] including the "3D Revolution" from2D andpseudo-3D graphics to truereal-time3D polygon graphics.[84][185] This was largely driven by a technologicalarms race betweenSega andNamco.[190]
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.[191] One of the causes of decline was new generations ofvideo game consoles andpersonal 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.[192] In Japan, some arcades continue to survive in the early 21st century, with games likeDance Dance Revolution andThe House of the Dead tailored to experiences that players cannot easily have at home.[193]
The Golden Age of Video Arcade Games spawned numerous cultural icons and even gave some companies their identity. Elements from games such asSpace Invaders,Pac-Man,Donkey Kong,Frogger, andCentipede 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 andDragon's Lair joinedPong for permanent display at theSmithsonian in Washington, D.C. for their cultural impact in the United States. No other video game has been inducted since.[194]
Emulators such as theInternet Archive Virtual Arcade are able to run these classic games inside a web browser window on a modern computer.[195] Computers have gotten faster perMoore's Law soJavaScript emulators can now run copies of the original console ROMs without porting the code to the new systems.
going into virtually every location in the country [..] even a few funeral homes had video games in the basements
To cash in on the Pac-Man video mania, game developers also introducedAsteroids,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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
The machines were well worth the investment; in total they raked in over a billion dollars worth of quarters in the first year alone.
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.
In the late 1990s, Twin Galaxies, which tracks video game world record scores, visited used game auctions and counted how many times the averagePac 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.
They compare this to the box office movie top blockbusterStar Wars, which has taken in only $486 million, for a net of $175 million.
Rumors emerged that the unknown creator ofPac-Man had left the industry when he received only a $3500 bonus for creating the highest-grossing video game of all time.
With more than 60,000 units sold in the United States,Donkey Kong was Nintendo's biggest arcade hit. ... Nintendo releasedDonkey Kong Junior in 1982 and sold only 30,000 machines, 20,000Popeye machines (also 1982), and a mere 5000 copies ofDonkey J (1983).
Defender was Williams Electronics' biggest seller. More than 55,000 units were placed worldwide.
Since February 1980, Midway has sold in excess of 40,000 Galaxian games
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.
Sit-Down-Rennspiel Get A Way (1978) mit 16-bit-CPU.[Sit-down racing game Get A Way (1978) with 16-bit-CPU.]
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 likeGalaga andPac-Man even had an option where players could doodle their own abstract polygon generatedart.
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.
Pac-Man Fever went gold almost instantly with 1 million records sold.
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 gameTron, made by Bally, grossed more.
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.
Jumpman hopped over barrels, climbed ladders, and jumped from suspended platform to suspended platform as he tried to rescue a damsel from his pissed-off pet gorilla. The game was a smash, and sixty-five thousand cabinets were sold in Japan, propping up the then-struggling Nintendo and laying the groundwork for Nintendo andDonkey Kong creator Shigeru Miyamoto to dominate gaming throughout the 1980s and beyond.
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 thatPac-Man andMs. Pac-Man are the only arcade games to have sold over 100,000 units in the United States.
With more than 60,000 units sold in the United States,Donkey Kong was Nintendo's biggest arcade hit. The arcade industry began its long collapse the year afterDonkey Kong was released, and Nintendo's arcade fortunes eroded quickly. Nintendo releasedDonkey Kong Junior in 1982 and sold only 30,000 machines, 20,000Popeye machines (also 1982), and a mere 5000 copies ofDonkey Kong 3 (1983).
Atari sold more than 70,000Asteroids 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.
Gottlieb sold approximately 25,000 Q*Bert arcade machines.
While certainly not the size ofAsteroids, the game was still a huge hit with almost 20,000 units sold.
Cinematronics sold more than 16,000Dragon'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.
Last year, arcade game revenues were approximately $5 billion, compared to $8 billion in 1981 and $7 billion in 1982.
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.
