History of arcade video games
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An
The first arcade game,
Early arcade games
Since the early 20th century,
Following the arrival of Sega's EM game Periscope (1966), the arcade industry was experiencing a "technological renaissance" driven by "audio-visual" EM novelty games, establishing the arcades as a healthy environment for the introduction of commercial video games in the early 1970s.[5] In the late 1960s, a college student Nolan Bushnell had a part-time job at an arcade where he became familiar with EM games through watching customers play and helping to maintain the machinery, while learning how it worked and developing his understanding of how the game business operates.[6]
Arrival of arcade video games (1971−1977)
While
Around 1970, Nolan Bushnell was invited by a colleague to see Spacewar! running on Stanford University's PDP-6 computer. Bushnell got the idea of recreating the game on a smaller computer, a Data General Nova, connected to multiple coin-operated terminals. He and fellow Ampex employee Ted Dabney, under the company name Syzygy, worked with Nutting Associates to create Computer Space, the first commercial arcade game, with location tests in August 1971 and production starting in November.[4] More than 1300 units of the game were sold, and while not as large of a hit game as hoped, it proved the potential for the coin-operated computer game.[4] At Stanford University, students Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck used a PDP-11 mainframe to build two prototypes of Galaxy Game, which they demonstrated at the university starting in November 1971, but were unable to turn into a commercial game.[7]
Bushnell got the idea for his next game after seeing a demonstration of a table tennis game on the
With Pong's success, numerous other coin-operated manufacturers, most who were making
By the end of 1974, more than fifteen companies, both in the United States and Japan, were in the development of arcade games.[4] A key milestone was the introduction of microprocessor technology to arcade games with Midway's Gun Fight (an adaptation of Taito's Western Gun as released in Japan), which could be programmed more directly rather than relying on the complex interaction of integrated circuitry (IC) chips.[4]
Video games were still considered to be adult entertainment at this point, and treated as with pinball machines as games of skill, "For Amusement Only", and placed in locations that children would likely not be at such as bar and lounges. However, the same stigma that pinball machines had seen in the prior decades became to appear for video games. Notably, the release of Death Race in 1976, which involved driving over gremlins on screen, drew criticism in the United States for being too violent, and created the first major debate on violence and video games.[4][10]
After the "paddle game" trend came to an end around 1975, the arcade video game industry entered a period of stagnation in the "post paddle game era" over the next several years up until 1977.[11]
Golden age of arcade games (1978–1983)
In 1978, Taito released
Space Invaders led to a string of popular arcade games over the next five years that are considered the "Golden Years" for arcade games. Among these titles include:[4]
Of these, Pac-Man had an even larger impact on
These games, along with numerous others, created
Arcade machines also found their way into any area where they could be placed and would be able to draw children or young adults, such as supermarkets and drug stores.
Jonathan Greenberg of Forbes predicted in early 1981 that Japanese companies would eventually dominate the North American video game industry, as American video game companies were increasingly licensing products from Japanese companies, who in turn were opening up North American branches.[25] By 1982–1983, Japanese manufacturers had 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.[26]
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End of the golden age (1984)
Though 1982 was recognized as the height of success of the video game arcade, many in the industry knew the success could not last too long. Walter Day had commented in 1982 that there were "too many arcades" by that point for what was really needed.[4] Additionally, players required novelty and new games, and thus required older games to be discontinued and replaced with new ones, but not all new games were as successful as those at the height of the Golden Age. Knowing that players were seeking more challenge, game manufacturers designed the newer games to be harder, but this caused less-skilled mainstream players to be turned away.[4]
Coupled with this was an increased pressure on possible harmful impacts of video games on children. Arcades had taken steps to make their venues as "family fun centers" alleviate some concerns, but parents and activists still saw video games as potentially addictive and leading to aggressive behavior. The
Arcade games became relatively dormant in the United States for a while, declining from the peak financial success of the golden age.[4] The US arcade industry had declined from a peak of $8.9 billion in 1982 down to $4.5 billion in 1984.[28] The US arcade video game market was sluggish in 1984, but Sega president Hayao Nakayama was confident that good games "can surely be sold in the U.S. market, if done adequately." Sega announced plans to open a new US subsidiary for early 1985, which Game Machine magazine predicted would "most probably enliven" the American video game business.[29] Despite the downturn in 1984, John Lotz of Betson Pacific Distributing predicted that another arcade boom could potentially happen by the early 1990s.[30]
Market recovery (1985−1990)
The arcade industry began recovering in 1985 and made a comeback by 1986,
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By 1985, the arcade industry was largely dominated by Japanese manufacturers, with the number of American manufacturers having declined.
Various technological advances were made in arcades during this era. Sega's
One format of arcade video games that briefly expanded during this period were quiz-style or trivia-based arcade games. Besides the other avenues of technical advances, the hardware for arcade machines had shrunk small enough that the core electronics could be fitted into cocktail-style cabinets or half-height bartop or countertop versions, making them ideal for placement in more adult venues. Coupled with waning interest in traditional arcade games due to the 1983 video game crash and the rising popularity of the board game
Resurgence and 3D revolution (1991−1999)
Fighting game boom
Arcade games gained a resurgence with the introduction of Street Fighter II by Capcom in 1991. The original Street Fighter in 1987 had already introduced a fighting game game format that allowed two players to challenge each other, but the characters were generic combatants. Street Fighter II introduced modern elements to the genre and created the fundamental one-on-one fighting game template, featuring numerous characters with backgrounds and personalities to select from and a wide range of special moves to use.[4] Street Fighter II sold more than 200,000 cabinets worldwide,[49] and drew other arcade manufacturers to make similar fighting games,[4] including Mortal Kombat in 1992, Virtua Fighter in 1993, and Tekken in 1994.[4] The period was referred to as a "boom"[50] or "renaissance" for the arcade industry,[4][51] with the success of Street Fighter II drawing comparisons to that of arcade golden age blockbusters Space Invaders and Pac-Man.[52][51]
By 1993, arcade games in the United States were generating an annual revenue of $7,000,000,000 (equivalent to $14,800,000,000 in 2023), larger than both the home video game market ($6 billion) as well as the film
3D revolution
Another factor that contributed to the arcade "renaissance" was increasingly realistic games,
Other arcade manufacturers were also manufacturing 3D arcade hardware by this time, including Midway, Konami, and Taito,[66] as well as Mesa Logic with light gun shooter Area 51 (1995).[67] The new, more realistic 3D games gained considerable popularity in arcades, especially in more family-family fun centers.[50][51] Virtual reality (VR) also began appearing in arcades during the early 1990s. The Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) in the United States held its second largest AMOA show ever in 1994, after the 1982 AMOA show.[68]
Home console competition
Around the mid-1990s, the
During the late 1990s, arcade video games declined, while console games overtook arcade video games for the first time around 1997–1998. Up until then, the arcade video game market had larger revenue than consoles.
Regional divergences (2000−2019)
Worldwide arcade video game revenue stabilized in the early 2000s after years of declining revenue in the late 1990s, during which time it had been surpassed in revenue by the console,
United States
Since the 2000s, arcade games and arcades in the United States have generally had to continue as
The relative simplicity yet solid gameplay of many of these early games has inspired a new generation of fans who can play them on mobile phones or with emulators such as MAME. Some classic arcade games are reappearing in commercial settings, such as Namco's Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga: Class of 1981 two-in-one game,[73] or integrated directly into controller hardware (joysticks) with replaceable flash drives storing game ROMs. Arcade classics have also been reappearing as mobile games, with Pac-Man in particular selling over 30 million downloads in the United States by 2010.[74] Arcade classics also began to appear on replica multi-game arcade machines for home users, using emulation on modern hardware.[75]
Japan
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In the Japanese gaming industry, arcades have remained popular since the 2000s. Much of the consistent popularity and growing industry is due to several factors such as support for continued innovation and that developers of machines own the arcades. Additionally, Japan arcade machines are notably more unique as to US machines, where Japanese arcades can offer experiences that players could not get at home. This is constant throughout Japanese arcade history.[76] As of 2009, out of Japan's US$20 billion gaming market, US$6 billion of that amount is generated from arcades, which represent the largest sector of the Japanese video game market, followed by home console games and mobile games at US$3.5 billion and US$2 billion, respectively.[77] According to in 2005, arcade ownership and operation accounted for a majority of Namco's for example.[78] With considerable withdrawal from the arcade market from companies such as Capcom, Sega became the strongest player in the arcade market with 60% marketshare in 2006.[79] Despite the global decline of arcades, Japanese companies hit record revenue for three consecutive years during this period.[80] However, due to the country's economic recession, the Japanese arcade industry has also been steadily declining, from ¥702.9 billion (US$8.7 billion) in 2007 to ¥504.3 billion (US$6.2 billion) in 2010.[81] In 2013, estimation of revenue is ¥470 billion.[81]
The layout of an arcade in Japan greatly differs from an arcade in America. The arcades of Japan are multi-floor complexes (often taking up entire buildings), split into sections by game types. On the ground level the arcade typically hosts physically demanding games that draw crowds of onlookers, like music rhythm games. Another floor is often a maze of multi-player games and battle simulators. These multi-player games often have online connectivity tracking rankings and reputation of each player; top players are revered and respected in arcades. The top floor of the arcade is typically for rewards where Players can trade credits or tickets for prizes.[82]
In the Japanese market, network and card features introduced by Virtua Fighter 4 and World Club Champion Football, and novelty cabinets such as Gundam Pod machines have caused revitalizations in arcade profitability in Japan. The reason for the continued popularity of arcades in comparison to the west, are heavy population density and an infrastructure similar to casino facilities.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/Outside_of_Akihabara.jpg/220px-Outside_of_Akihabara.jpg)
Former rivals in the Japanese arcade industry,
COVID-19 pandemic and decline (2020- present)
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 onward on arcades financially harmed many arcades that were still operating. In Japan, arcades did not qualify for funding to recover from lost revenue from the Japanese government. In the wake of the pandemic, several long-standing arcades were forced to close; notably, Sega sold off most of its arcade business.[84] Financial analysis firm Teikoku Databank reported in 2024 that they estimated that over 8000 arcades had closed in the previous decade, with arcade games being shifted away in favor of redemption games.[85] Large game companies view the remaining arcade businesses "as a rapidly sinking ship", and regard future investment in arcade titles as "fruitless". The decline was experienced strongly among gambling oriented games such as Pachislot.[86] A UK arcade owner described a similar situation there, saying that "All arcades are either closed or suffering hardships."[87]
See also
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Hollywood's aim, of course, is to tap into the $7 billion that Americans pour into arcade games each year – and the $6 billion they spend on home versions for Nintendo and Sega game machines. Combined, it is a market nearly 2 ½ times the size of the $5 billion movie box office.
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