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An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses, such as restaurants, bars, and particularly amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers (such as claw cranes).

The golden age of arcade video games was from the late 1970s to the 1980s. While arcade games were still relatively popular during the 1990s, this type of media saw a continuous decline in popularity in the Western world when video game consoles made the transition from 2D to 3D. Despite this, arcades remain popular in Asia through to the present day.

The term "arcade game" is also, in recent times, used to refer to a video game that was designed to look like a classic arcade game (adopting an isometric view, 2D graphics, scores, lives, etc.) but instead released on platforms such as XBLA or PC.

History[link]

The first popular "arcade games" were early amusement park midway games such as shooting galleries, ball toss games, and the earliest coin-operated machines, such as those that claim to tell a person their fortune or played mechanical music. The old midways of 1920s-era amusement parks (such as Coney Island in New York) provided the inspiration and atmosphere of later arcade games.

In the 1930s, the earliest coin-operated pinball machines were made. These early amusement devices were distinct from their later electronic cousins in that they were made of wood, did not have plungers or lit-up bonus surfaces on the playing field, and used mechanical instead of electronic scoring readouts. By around 1977, most pinball machines in production switched to using solid state electronics for both operation and scoring.^[1]

Electro-mechanical games[link]

In 1966, Sega introduced an electro-mechanical game called Periscope.^[2] It was an early submarine simulator and light gun shooter,^[3] which used lights and plastic waves to simulate sinking ships from a submarine.^[4] It became a worldwide success in Japan, Europe, and North America,^[5] where it was the first arcade game to cost a quarter per play,^[2] which would remain the standard price for arcade games for many years to come.^[5] In 1967, Taito released an electro-mechanical arcade game of their own, Crown Soccer Special, a two-player sports game that simulated association football, using various electronic components, including electronic versions of pinball flippers.^[6]

Sega later produced gun games which resemble first-person shooter video games, but were in fact electro-mechanical games that used rear image projection in a manner similar to the ancient zoetrope to produce moving animations on a screen.^[7] The first of these was the light gun game Duck Hunt,^[8] which Sega released in 1969;^[9] it featured animated moving targets on a screen, printed out the player's score on a ticket, and had sound effects that were volume controllable.^[8] That same year, Sega released an electro-mechanical arcade racing game Grand Prix, which had a first-person view, electronic sound, a dashboard with a racing wheel and accelerator,^[10] and a forward-scrolling road projected on a screen.^[11] Another Sega release that year was Missile, a shooter and vehicle combat simulation that featured electronic sound and a moving film strip to represent the targets on a projection screen. It was also the earliest known arcade game to feature a joystick with a fire button, which was used as part of an early dual-control scheme, where two directional buttons are used to move the player's tank and a two-way joystick is used to shoot and steer the missile onto oncoming planes displayed on the screen; when a plane is hit, an explosion is animated on screen along with an explosion sound.^[12] In 1970,^[13] the game was released in North America as S.A.M.I. by Midway.^[12] That same year, Sega released Jet Rocket, a combat flight simulator featuring cockpit controls that could move the player aircraft around a landscape displayed on a screen and shoot missiles onto targets that explode when hit.^[14]

Throughout the 1970s, electro-mechanical arcade games were gradually replaced by electronic video games, following the release of Pong in 1972.^[15] In 1972, Sega released an electro-mechanical game called Killer Shark, a first-person light gun shooter known for appearing in the 1975 film Jaws.^[7] In 1974, Nintendo released Wild Gunman, a light gun shooter that used full-motion video projection from 16 mm film to display live-action cowboy opponents on the screen.^[16] One of the last successful electro-mechanical arcade games was F-1, a racing game developed by Namco and distributed by Atari in 1976;^[17] the game was shown in the films Dawn of the Dead (1978)^[18] and Midnight Madness (1980), as was Sega's Jet Rocket in the latter film. The 1978 video game Space Invaders, however, dealt a yet more powerful blow to the popularity of electro-mechanical games.^[19]

Arcade video games[link]

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v t e

In 1971, students at Stanford University set up the Galaxy Game, a coin-operated version of the Spacewar video game. This is the earliest known instance of a coin-operated video game. Later in the same year, Nolan Bushnell created the first mass-manufactured such game, Computer Space, for Nutting Associates.

In 1972, Atari was formed by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari essentially created the coin-operated video game industry with the game Pong, the first successful electronic ping pong video game. Pong proved to be popular, but imitators helped keep Atari from dominating the fledgling coin-operated video game market.

Golden age[link]

Taito's Space Invaders, in 1978, proved to be the first blockbuster arcade video game.^[20] Its success marked the beginning of the golden age of arcade video games. Video game arcades sprang up in shopping malls, and small "corner arcades" appeared in restaurants, grocery stores, bars and movie theaters all over the United States, Japan and other countries during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Space Invaders (1978), Galaxian (1979), Pac-Man (1980), Battlezone (1980), Defender (1980), and Donkey Kong (1981) were especially popular. By 1981, the arcade video game industry was worth $8 billion.^[21]

During the late 1970s and 1980s, chains such as Chuck E. Cheese's, Ground Round, Dave and Busters, and Gatti's Pizza combined the traditional restaurant and/or bar environment with arcades.^[22] By the late-1980s, the arcade video game craze was beginning to fade due to advances in home video game console technology. By 1991, US arcade video game revenues had fallen to $2.1 billion.^[23]

Resurgence[link]

In the early 1990s, the arcades experienced a major resurgence with the 1991 release of Capcom's Street Fighter II,^[24] which popularized competitive fighting games and revived the arcade industry to a level of popularity not seen since the days of Pac-Man.^[25] Its success led to a wave of other popular fighting games, such as Mortal Kombat by Midway Games,^[26] Fatal Fury: King of Fighters (1992) by SNK, Killer Instinct (1994) by Rare, and The King of Fighters (1994–2005) by SNK. Arcade video games thus experienced a resurgence with the advent of two-player fighting games.

Following the rise of 3D graphics in the early-mid 1990s, racing games^[25] and light gun shooters^[27] would also gain considerable popularity in the arcades.^[25] By 1994, arcade games in the United States were generating revenues of $7 billion^[28] in quarters (equivalent to $11 billion in 2011),^[29] in comparison to home console game sales of $6 billion,^[28] with many of the best-selling home video games in the early 1990s often being arcade ports.^[30] Combined, total arcade and console game revenues in 1994 was nearly two and a half times the $5 billion revenue grossed by movies in the United States at the time.^[28]

Around the mid-1990s, the fifth-generation home consoles, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and Nintendo 64, began offering true 3D graphics. By 1996, personal computers followed, with 3D accelerator cards. While arcade systems such as the Sega Model 3 remained more advanced than home systems,^[31] consoles and computers began approaching technological parity with arcade equipment. The technological advantage that arcade games had, in their ability to customize and use the latest graphics and sound chips, narrowed, and the convenience of home games caused a rapid decline in arcade gaming. By 1998, Sega's 128-bit console, the Dreamcast, could produce 3D graphics on-par with arcade machines at the time.

Decline[link]

Arcade video games had declined in popularity so much by the late 1990s, that revenues in the United States dropped to $1.33 billion in 1999,^[32] and reached a low of $866 million in 2004.^[33] Furthermore, by the early 2000s, networked gaming via computers and then consoles across the Internet had also appeared,^[34] replacing the venue of head to head competition and social atmosphere once provided solely by arcades.^[35]

The arcades also lost their status as the forefront of new game releases. Given the choice between playing a game at an arcade three or four times (perhaps 15 minutes of play for a typical arcade game), and renting, at about the same price, exactly the same game—for a video game console—the console became the preferred choice. Fighting games were the most attractive feature for arcades, since they offered the prospect of face-to-face competition and tournaments, which correspondingly led players to practice more (and spend more money in the arcade), but they could not support the business all by themselves.

Recent 20th anniversary arcade machine, combining two classic video games.

To remain viable, arcades added other elements to complement the video games such as redemption games, merchandisers, and food service. Referred to as "fun centers" or "family fun centers",^[36] some of the longstanding chains such as Chuck E. Cheese's and Gatti's Pizza ("GattiTowns")^[37] also changed to this format. Many old video game arcades have long since closed, and classic coin-operated games have become largely the province of dedicated hobbyists.

Today[link]

Today's arcades have found a niche in games that use special controllers largely inaccessible to home users. An alternative interpretation (one that includes fighting games, which continue to thrive and require no special controller) is that the arcade game is now a more socially-oriented hangout, with games that focus on an individual's performance, rather than the game's content, as the primary form of novelty. Examples of today's popular genres are rhythm games such as Dance Dance Revolution (1998) and DrumMania (1999), and rail shooters such as Virtua Cop (1994), Time Crisis and House of the Dead (1996).

In the Western world, the arcade video game industry still exists today but in a greatly reduced form. Video arcade game hardware is often based on home game consoles to facilitate porting a video arcade game to a home system; there are video arcade versions of Dreamcast (NAOMI, Atomiswave), PlayStation 2 (System 246), Nintendo GameCube (Triforce), and Microsoft Xbox (Chihiro) home consoles. Some arcades have survived by expanding into ticket-based prize redemption and more physical games with no home console equivalent, such as skee ball and whack-a-mole. Some genres, particularly dancing and rhythm games (such as Konami's Dance Dance Revolution), continue to be popular in arcades.

In the Japanese gaming industry, on the other hand, arcades have remained popular through to the present day. As of 2009, out of Japan's $20 billion gaming market, $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 $3.5 billion and $2 billion, respectively.^[38] In 2005, arcade ownership and operation accounted for a majority of Namco's revenues, for example.^[39] However, due to the country's economic recession, the Japanese arcade industry has also been steadily declining, from ¥702.9 billion (US$8.7 million) in 2007 to ¥504.3 billion ($6.2 billion) in 2010.^[40]

Worldwide, arcade game revenues gradually increased from $1.8 billion in 1998 to $3.2 billion in 2002, rivalling PC game sales of $3.2 billion that same year.^[41] In particular, arcade video games are a thriving industry in China, where arcades are widespread across the country.^[42] The US market has also experienced a slight resurgence, with the number of video game arcades across the nation increasing from 2,500 in 2003 to 3,500 in 2008, though this is significantly less than the 10,000 arcades in the early 1980s. As of 2009, a successful arcade game usually sells around 4000 to 6000 units worldwide.^[43]

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 20 Year Reunion / Galaga Class of 1981 two-in-one game,^[44] 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.^[45]

Zynga, the social gaming giant launched its first arcade game, Bubble Safari.^[46]

Technology[link]

Inside of a Neo Geo

Virtually all modern arcade games (other than the very traditional midway-type games at county fairs) make extensive use of solid state electronics and integrated circuits. In the past coin-operated arcade video games generally used custom per-game hardware often with multiple CPUs, highly specialized sound and graphics chips, and the latest in computer graphics display technology. Recent arcade game hardware is often based on modified video game console hardware or high-end PC components.

Arcade games frequently have more immersive and realistic game controls than either PC or console games, including specialized ambiance or control accessories: Fully enclosed dynamic cabinets with force feedback controls, dedicated lightguns, rear-projection displays, reproductions of automobile or airplane cockpits, motorcycle or horse-shaped controllers, or highly dedicated controllers such as dancing mats and fishing rods. These accessories are usually what set modern video games apart from other games, as they are usually too bulky, expensive, and specialized to be used with typical home PCs and consoles.

Arcade genre[link]

Arcade games often have short levels, simple and intuitive control schemes, and rapidly increasing difficulty. This is due to the environment of the Arcade, where the player is essentially renting the game for as long as their in-game avatar can stay alive (or until they run out of tokens).

Games on consoles or PCs can be referred to as "arcade games" if they share these qualities or are direct ports of arcade titles. Many independent developers are now producing games in the arcade genre that are designed specifically for use on the Internet. These games are usually designed with Flash/Java/DHTML and run directly in web-browsers.

Arcade racing games have a simplified physics engine and do not require much learning time when compared with racing simulators. Cars can turn sharply without braking or understeer, and the AI rivals are sometimes programmed so they are always near the player (rubberband effect).

Arcade flight games also use simplified physics and controls in comparison to flight simulators. These are meant to have an easy learning curve, in order to preserve their action component. Increasing numbers of console flight video games, from Crimson Skies to Ace Combat and Secret Weapons Over Normandy indicate the falling of manual-heavy flight sim popularity in favor of instant arcade flight action.^[47]

Emulation[link]

Emulators such as MAME, which can be run on modern computers and a number of other devices, aim to preserve the games of the past.

Legitimate emulated titles started to appear on the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn, with CD-ROM compilations such as Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 1, and on the PlayStation 2 and GameCube with DVD-ROM titles such as Midway Arcade Treasures.

Arcade games are currently being downloaded and emulated through the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console Service starting in 2009 with Gaplus, Mappy, Space Harrier, Star Force, The Tower of Druaga, Tecmo Bowl, Altered Beast and many more. Other classic arcade games such as Asteroids, Tron, Discs of Tron, Yie Ar Kung-Fu, Pac-Man, Joust, Battlezone, Dig Dug, Robotron: 2084, and Missile Command are emulated on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.

Locations[link]

In addition to restaurants and video arcades, arcade games are also found in bowling alleys, college campuses, dormitories, laundromats, movie theatres, supermarkets, shopping malls, airports, ice rinks, corner shops, truck stops, bar/pubs, hotels, and even bakeries. In short, arcade games are popular in places open to the public where people are likely to have free time.

List of highest-grossing arcade video games[link]

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,^[48] and/or the hardware sales (with arcade hardware prices often ranging from $1000 to $4000). This list only includes arcade games that have either sold more than 1000 hardware units or generated a revenue of more than US$1 million. Most of the games in this list date back to the golden age of arcade video games, though some are also from before and after the golden age.

Best-selling arcade video game franchises[link]

These are the combined hardware sales of at least two or more arcade games that are part of the same franchise. This list only includes franchises that have sold at least 5,000 hardware units or grossed at least $10 million revenues.

See also[link]

Video games portal

Footnotes[link]