Monday, September 30, 2013

Back to the beginning, a blast to the past where it all started, the Arcades!

As the title insinuates, where best to start than at the beginning of the popular boom of video gaming.

Arcade halls were highly successful and popular all the way through the 1980s, but what you might not remember or realize is the Arcade-version entertainment really first started in the 1920s with old midway style amusement centers.  These centers provided the foundation for arcade centers of later years, with ball tosses, strength tests and shooting accuracy games.



 
 
 
In the 1930s saw the emergence of pinball machines, which still exist as a staple today. Granted, the pinball machines back then were nothing as glamorous as the ones of todays. They didn't have any bells, whistles, flashing lights, etc., but they did lay the foundation for current pinball machines.
 
Then in 1966, the next breakthrough of video gaming broke with the familiar video gaming namesake, Sega, led this charge. They developed Electro-mechanical games with the game Periscope, which was a submarine simulation using a light gun and mechanical waves that simulated a sinking ship when a hit was scored.
 

This sparked a few other game developers to make their own versions, and Taito released a sports game using the same general settings called Crown Soccer Special.

Out of this era, we got the classic game Duck Hunt, released by Sega in 1969, and reintroduced in the Nintendo Entertainment Systems dual game Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt.
 
 
This was merely the beginning though, and the 1980s, also known as the "Golden Age of Arcades."
 
Over the next decade, Arcades saw a booming increase in popularity with great classic titles as Pac-Man and Spaced Invaders, just to name a few. Arcade establishments popped up in shopping malls, convenience stores and even entire arcade shops on some street corners.
 
By 1981, the arcade video gaming industry exceeded $8 billion in the U.S.
 
Pac-Man alone was a blockbuster success, in and of itself.
 
"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." according to Kao, John J. (1989). Entrepreneurship, creativity & organization: text, cases & readings. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. p. 45. ISBN 0-13-283011-6.
 
For a neat chart of arcade games and their past performance in a ranking go to:
 
 


2 comments:

  1. I won't never forget how I like this game, I remember when I was young, I was played this game in computer, although I never play with real machine. I love this game so much. Bring me back to memory. Very awesome post.

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  2. I know it! But I never know we cannot play this game in a real machine! When I was young, the computer in my home cannot surfing, I played it to spend time, for me, this game is a nice memory!

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