Arcade Game Machine - What You Need to Know
Arcade Game Machine History
The first arcade games popularized in the past were amusement park midway games like ball toss games, shooting galleries, and coin-operated machines. The amusement parks launched in the midways of the 1920 era provided the idea, inspiration, and atmosphere of the arcade games we have today.
The earliest pinball machines operated by coins became popular in the 1930s. These devices were different from their electronic cousins because they did not have lit-up bonus surfaces or plungers on the game field, and they used mechanical scoring readouts. Around 1977, most game machines switched to using electronics for both scoring and operation.
First coin operated Video Arcade Machine
In 1971, Stanford University students set up Galaxy Game, a Spacewar computer game operated with coins. This is the very first coin-operated video game in the history. Also in 1971, Nolan Bushnell mass manufactured such kind of game in the form of Computer Space, for the company Nutting Associates.
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In 1972, Ted Dabney and Nolan Bushnell established the company Atari. Atari became very successful in their introduction of the coin-operated video game Pong, the smash hit ping pong electronic video game. While Pong had becomes so popular, imitations prevented Atari from dominating the coin-operated video game market.
Video and arcade game machine sprang up in major shopping malls and small gaming machines touted as "corner arcades" appeared in grocery stores, restaurants, movie theaters and bars all over the U.S. and other countries from late 70s to early 80s. Games including Space Invaders, Galaxian, Pac-Man, Battlezone, and Donkey Kong were very popular during this period.
During the late 1970s and 1980s, fast food chains such as Ground Round, Chuck E. Cheese's, Gatti's Pizza, and Dave and Busters combined the traditional bar and/or restaurant environment with arcades by putting a small space for an arcade game machine.
Arcade Game Machine in the 80's and 90's
By the late 80s, the craze on arcade video games began to fade due to the bad reputation of arcades as being unsafe and seedy places, as well as the advancement in the home video game console technology. There was resurgence in arcade video games with the introduction of 2-player fighting games including Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Fatal Fury, Killer Instinct, and The King of Fighters. Once again, arcade game machines had been visible in many public places.
However in 1996, computers and home video game consoles with 3D accelerator cards became almost equal as the arcade game machine. Arcade games had always been developed through commodity technology; however, their advantage over the previous generations of home video game systems was their ability to allow the customization and usage of the latest sound and graphics chips, like the PC games available today.
The declines in the sales volume of arcade games mean that the approach was not cost-effective anymore. Moreover, by the late 90s and early 2000s, network gaming through computers and consoles across the Web also became popular, replacing the social atmosphere and head to head competition once exclusively provided by an arcade game machine.
To remain viable and visible in the gaming industry, arcades incorporated other elements to go together with video games such as merchandisers, redemption games, and food service. Now touted as family fun centers or amusement centers, some of the venerable chains such as Gatti's Pizza and Chuck E. Cheese's also changed and converted their business to this format.
Today, arcades have specialized in a niche in video games that use special controllers practically inaccessible to any home users. Because of this, arcades are now known to as socially-oriented hangout, offering games that focus more on individual performance instead of the game being played. Examples of popular genres played in an arcade game machine today are Dance Dance Revolution, DrumMania, Virtua Cop, Team Crisis, and House of the Dead.
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Related topics about arcade game machine
80s Arcade Games
The concept of arcade games was started in 1972, with the introduction of the Atari ping-pong game, Pong by the Japanese. Though Atari was the pioneer in 80s arcade games, they could not maintain their supremacy in arcade games because of the introduction of a large number of competitors to the market.
Real Arcade Games
Real arcade games are very well accepted in public places where there are many people waiting for something. These games are great way to kill boredom and these can be found in arcades, bowling alleys, restaurants, Laundromat, college campuses, supermarkets, movie theaters, airports, bars, and shopping malls.
Arcade Games For Sale
Many years ago, there were the classic arcade games that could actually be played simply by pressing a few buttons in a controller. Some people, from a certain age bracket, often remember the good old yesteryear of arcade games with nostalgia.