Golden age of arcade video games

8092: 26: 8096: 1832: 1734:

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

715:. The sales of arcade video game machines increased during this period from $ 50 million in 1978 to $ 900 million in 1981, with 500,000 arcade machines sold in the United States at prices ranging as high as $ 3,000 in 1982 alone. By 1982, there were 24,000 full arcades, 400,000 arcade street locations and 1.5 million arcade machines active in North America. The market was very competitive; the average life span of an arcade game was four to six months. Some games like 2515:. The enormous popularity of video arcade games led to the very first video game strategy guides; these guides (rare to find today) discussed in detail the patterns and strategies of each game, including variations, to a degree that few guides seen since can match. "Turning the machine over" - making the score counter overflow and reset to zero - was often the final challenge of a game for those who mastered it, and the last obstacle to getting the highest score. 4823: 747:

1981. The total revenue for the U.S. arcade video game industry in 1981 was estimated at more than $ 7 billion though some analysts estimated the real amount may have been much higher. By 1982, video games accounted for 87% of the $ 8.9 billion in commercial games sales in the United States. In 1982, the arcade video game industry's revenue in quarters was estimated at $ 8 billion surpassing the annual gross revenue of both pop music ($ 4 billion) and

4809: 10212: 4795: 10222: 5591:

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.

10088: 1884:, 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 6117:

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

1009:

manufacturers became increasingly influential in North America. By 1980, they had become very influential through licensing their games to American manufacturers. Japanese companies eventually moved beyond licensing their games to American companies such as Midway, and by 1981 instead began directly

9490:

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

5778:

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

4690:

Since the 2000s, arcade games have taken different routes globally. In the United States, arcades have become niche markets as they compete with the home console market, and they adapted other business models, such as providing other entertainment options or adding prize redemptions. In Japan, some

4535:

The golden age cooled around the mid-1980s as copies of popular games began to saturate the arcades. Arcade video game revenues in the United States had declined from $ 8 billion in 1981 to $ 5 billion in 1983, reaching a low of $ 4 billion in 1984. The arcade market had recovered by 1986, with the

1733:

The two most popular genres during the golden age were space shooters and character action games. While Japanese developers were creating a character-driven action game genre in the early 1980s, American developers largely adopted a different approach to game design at the time. According to Eugene

1685:

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

3515:

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

1298:

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. That same year,

10176:

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.

9574:

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

5590:

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

8032: 746:

tripled to $ 2.8 billion. By 1981, the arcade video game industry in the United States was generating more than $ 5 billion a year 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

10157: 1439:

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.

771:) that same year; both the arcade and home markets combined added up to a total revenue between $ 11.8 billion and $ 12.8 billion for the U.S. video game industry in 1982. In comparison, the U.S. video game industry in 2011 generated total revenues between $ 16.3 billion and $ 16.6 billion. 2736:

Custom cabinet with novel 2-way dual-joystick controls incorporating top-fire button, and periscope-like viewer. Early use of first-person pseudo 3-D vector graphics. It is widely considered the first virtual reality arcade game. Also used as the basis for a military simulator.

6118:

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.

778:

machines were more popular than video games. The pinball industry reached a peak of 200,000 machine sales and $ 2.3 billion revenue in 1979, which had declined to 33,000 machines and $ 464 million in 1982. In comparison, the best-selling arcade games of the golden age,

1977:, revenues for which had declined by $ 400 million between 1978 and 1981 (from $ 4.1 billion to $ 3.7 billion), a decrease that was directly credited to the rise of arcade games at the time. Successful songs based on video games also began appearing. The pioneering 1938:

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.

1956:

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

1010:

importing machines to the North American market as well as building manufacturing facilities in the United States. By 1982–1983, Japanese manufacturers had more directly captured a large share of the North American arcade market, which Gene Lipkin of

1858:. 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 9786: 8353:

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

686:

across North America, Europe, and Asia. The number of video game arcades in North America was doubled between 1980 and 1982; reaching a peak of 10,000 video game arcades across the region (compared to 4,000 as of 1998). Beginning with

3536:

Nintendo used higher resolution foreground sprites displayed over lower resolution backgrounds, achieving comparable visuals to many games in the Midway Card Rack (MCR) system. This display method was previously used on Nintendo's

1686:

these new character-driven action games from the space shooters that had previously dominated the video game industry. The emphasis on character-driven gameplay in turn enabled a wider variety of subgenres. In 1980, Namco released

565:

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

1908:

was also responsible for expanding the arcade game market to involve large numbers of female audiences across all age groups. Though many popular games quickly entered the lexicon of popular culture, most have since left, and

1866:

as a mainstream hobby. By 1980, 86% of the 13–20 year old population in the United States had played arcade video games, and by 1981, there were more than 35 million gamers visiting video game arcades in the United States.

5876:

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

5408:

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

9967: 6140: 2757:

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

674:, was released. It defines the era as covering the "mainstream appearance of video games as a consumer market" and "the rise of dedicated hardware systems and the origin of multi-game cartridge based systems". 727:

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". Around this time, the home video game industry

3981:

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.

5899:

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

4261:) inserted into machines, and/or the hardware sales (with arcade hardware prices often ranging from $ 1000 to $ 4000). This list only includes arcade games that have sold more than 10,000 hardware units. 9057: 1585:

triggered by enemies killing the player (either by getting hit or enemies reaching the bottom of the screen) rather than a timer running out. In contrast to earlier arcade games which often had a timer,

5518:

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

7090:

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

4163:

The first popular player vs. player fighting game for arcades. Initially released as a dual joystick game with alternating play. The subsequent Player vs. Player version featured four 4-way joysticks.

6196: 5030: 9794: 4679:

By the early 2000s, the sales of arcade machines in North America had declined, with 4,000 unit sales being considered a hit by the time. One of the causes of decline was new generations of

3843:, which allowed film-quality animation. The first arcade video game in the United States to charge two quarters per play. It was also the first video game to employ what became known as the 2518:

Some of these strategy guides sold hundreds of thousands of copies at prices ranging from $ 1.95 to $ 3.95 in 1982 (equivalent to between $ 6.00 and $ 12.00 in 2024). That year, Ken Uston's

6238: 6423: 5294:, 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. 751:

films ($ 3 billion) combined that year. It also exceeded the revenues of all major sports combined at the time, earning three times the combined ticket and television revenues of

5731:

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.

8051:

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.

3195:

Early scrolling shooter that scrolls in multiple directions, and allows shooting in four directions, using four direction buttons, similar to dual-stick controls. Along with

9610:

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

3267:

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.

436:

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

1409:; 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 9870: 6902: 6834: 2310: 1996:

and the hit single "Computer Game" from the same album, the latter selling over 400,000 copies in the United States. In turn, YMO had a major influence on much of the

141: 8839: 8817: 7227: 6604: 635:

places this period's beginning in the late 1970s, when color arcade games became more prevalent and arcade video games started appearing outside of their traditional

8005: 1677:" 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 7231: 9273: 6961: 6871: 1673:

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 "

1602:. 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 647:

magazine in 1985 dated the arcade industry's "video boom" years from 1979 to 1982. The golden age of arcade games largely coincided with, and partly fueled, the

9161: 9065: 7458: 7435: 2012:

soon followed, including "Disco Space Invaders" (1979) by Funny Stuff, "Space Invaders" (1980) by Player One (known as Playback in the US), and the hit songs "

9425: 7818: 7724: 7691: 5344: 3351:(and diagonal-scrolling) platformer with vine-swinging mechanics, run & jump sequences, climbing hills, and swimming. Almost immediately re-released as 3037:

genre as well as visual storytelling in video games, and introduced a carpenter protagonist named Jumpman, a character who evolved into Nintendo's mascot,

8374: 8274: 5648: 7800: 4583:

Arcades remained commonplace through to the 1990s as there were still new genres being explored. In 1987, arcades experienced a short resurgence with

10374: 4741:

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.

6760: 7481: 5895:

In the late 1990s, Twin Galaxies, which tracks video game world record scores, visited used game auctions and counted how many times the average

4649:

and led to a number of similar games, resulting in a renaissance for the arcades. Another factor was realism, including the "3D Revolution" from

10016:

machines in 1983, for an average price of $ 4300. Coleco purchased the home rights to the game, giving Cinematronics an additional $ 2 million.

8552: 4711:

The Golden Age of Video Arcade Games spawned numerous cultural icons and even gave some companies their identity. Elements from games such as

4138:

Capcom's first arcade hit. Features Pacific War air combat. Standardized the template for aerial shoot 'em ups featuring vertical scrolling.

3961:

as Italian-American plumbers in pest-inhabited sewers. Introduced Luigi for the first time, while also establishing he and Mario as plumbers.

3150:

Multiple-mission fixed shooter game. Some of the levels were clones of other popular games. Notable for featuring robotic synthesized speech.

9994: