Golden Age of Video Arcade Games

The Golden Age of Video Arcade Games was a peak era of video arcade game popularity, innovation, and earnings. The consensus as to its exact time period varies. Walter Day of Twin Galaxies places it as lasting from January 18, 1982 to January 5, 1986. [ [http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=17&id=620 The Golden Age of Video Game Arcades, Ch. 01 - The Golden Age of Video Game Arcades, February 8, 1998] Retrieved August 21, 2007.] Video game journalist Steven L. Kent, in his book "The Ultimate History of Video Games", places it from 1979 to 1983. Other opinions place this period's beginning in the late 1970s, when color arcade games became more prevalent and video arcades themselves started appearing outside of their traditional bowling alley and bar locales, through to its ending in the mid-1980s. [ [http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=17&id=1327 The Golden Age of Video Game Arcades, Ch. 13 - The Golden Age Ends, February 8, 1998] Retrieved August 21, 2007.]

Overview

During the late 1970s, video arcade game technology had become sophisticated enough to offer good-quality graphics and sounds, but it was still fairly basic (realistic images and full motion video were not yet available, and only a few games used spoken voice) and so the success of a game had to rely on simple and fun gameplay. This emphasis on the gameplay is why many of these games continue to be enjoyed today despite having been vastly outdated by modern computing technology.

The Killer List of Videogames (KLOV) web site has compiled a list of the "Top 100 (arcade) Video Games." Fifty of them (including all the games on its Top 10 list) were introduced during the period from 1979 to 1984.

Business

The Golden Age was a time of great technical and design creativity in arcade games. Games were designed in a wide variety of genres while developers had to work within strict limits of available processor power and memory. The era also saw the rapid spread of video arcades across North America and Japan.

At this time, video arcade games started to appear in supermarkets, restaurants, liquor stores, gas stations and many other retail establishments looking for extra income. Popular games occasionally caused a crush of teenagers, eager to try the latest entertainment entry.Fact|date=September 2007

Probably the most successful arcade game companies of this era were Namco (especially in Japan) and Atari (especially in the United States). Other notables include Nintendo (whose mascot, Mario, was introduced in 1981's "Donkey Kong"), Bally Midway Manufacturing Company (who later was purchased by Williams), Capcom, Cinematronics, Konami, Sega, Taito, Williams, and SNK.

Technology

Arcades catering to video games began to gain momentum in the late 1970s with games such as "Gee Bee" (1978) and "Galaxian" (1979) and became widespread in 1980 with "Pac-Man", "King and Balloon", "Tank Battalion", and others. The central processing unit in these games allowed for more complexity than earlier discrete circuitry games such as Atari's "Pong" (1972).

The Golden Age saw developers experimenting with new hardware, creating games which used the crisp lines of vector displays as opposed to standard raster displays. A few of these games became great hits, such as 1980's "Battlezone" and "Tempest" and 1983's "Star Wars", all from Atari, but vector technology fell out of favor with arcade game companies due to the high cost of repairing vector displays (Vectrex, a home video game system with a built-in vector display, was released in 1982).

Developers also experimented with laserdisc players for delivering movie-quality animation. The first game to exploit this technology, 1983's "Dragon's Lair" from Cinematronics, was three years in the making. It was a sensation when it was released (and, in fact, the laserdisc players in many machines broke due to overuse), but the genre dwindled in popularity because the games were fairly linear and depended less on reflexes than on memorizing sequences of moves.

New controls cropped up in a few games, though, arguably, joysticks and buttons remained the favorites for most manufacturers. Atari introduced the trackball with 1978's "Football". "Night Driver" included a life-like steering wheel, "Paperboy" used a bicycle handlebar and "Hogan's Alley" introduced tethered light guns to the arcade market. Other specialty controls, such as pedals in racing games and a crossbow-shaped light gun in "Crossbow", also debuted in this era.

Gameplay

With the enormous success of the early games, dozens of developers jumped into the development and manufacturing of video arcade games. Some simply copied the "invading alien hordes" idea of "Space Invaders" and turned out successful imitators like "Galaxian," "Galaga," and "Gaplus", while others tried new concepts and defined new genres. Rapidly evolving hardware allowed new kinds of games which surpassed the shoot-em-up gameplay of the earliest games.

Games such as "Donkey Kong" and "Qix" introduced new types of games where skill and timing are more important than shooting as fast as possible. Other examples of innovative games are Atari Games' "Paperboy" where the goal is to successfully deliver newspapers to customers, and Namco's "Phozon" where the object is to duplicate a shape shown in the middle of the screen. The theme of Exidy's "Venture" is dungeon exploration and treasure-gathering. One innovative game, "Q*Bert", played upon the user's sense of depth perception to deliver a novel experience.

Some games of this era were so popular that they entered the popular culture. The release of "Pac-Man" in 1980 caused such a sensation that it initiated what is now referred to as "Pac-Mania" (which later became the title of the last coin-operated game in the series, released in 1987). Released by Namco, 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 (sometimes they were referred to as ghosts, goblins or monsters), the game was extremely popular; there are anecdotes to the effect that some game owners had to empty the game's coin bucket every hour in order to prevent the game's coin mechanism from jamming from having too many coins in the receptacle. The game spawned an animated television series, numerous clones, "Pac-Man"-branded foods, and a hit pop song, "Pac-Man Fever". Though many popular games quickly entered the lexicon of popular culture, most have since left, and "Pac-Man" is unusual in remaining a recognized term in pop culture, along with "Donkey Kong", "Mario Bros.", and "Frogger".

The enormous popularity of video arcade games also 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" by 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.

Most popular games

The games below were some of the most popular and influential games of the era. All occupy a position in the KLOV's "Top 100 Videogames" list. [ [http://www.klov.com/TOP100.html The Top Coin-Operated Videogames of All Time] from the KLOV]

1978 * "Space Invaders"1979 * "Asteroids" * "Galaxian" * "Lunar Lander"1980 * "Battlezone" * "Berzerk" * "Centipede" * "Defender" * "Missile Command" * "Pac-Man" * "Phoenix" * "Star Castle" * "Tempest" * "Warlords" * "Wizard of Wor"1981 * "Donkey Kong" * "Frogger" * "Scramble * "Galaga" * "Ms. Pac-Man" * "Qix" * "Vanguard"

1982 * "Burgertime" * "Dig Dug" * "Joust" * "Moon Patrol" * "Pole Position" * "Q*bert" * "Robotron 2084" * "Time Pilot" * "Tron" * "Xevious" * "Zaxxon"1983 * "Dragon's Lair" * "Elevator Action" * "Gyruss" * "Mario Bros." * "Spy Hunter" * "Star Wars" * "Tapper"

The end of the era

The Golden Age cooled as copies of popular games began to saturate the arcades. Arcades remained commonplace through the early 1990s and there were still new genres being explored, but most new games were shooters, maze games, and other variations on old familiar themes.

New generations of home computers and home video game consoles also sapped interest from arcades. Earlier consoles, such as the Atari 2600 and Mattel's Intellivision, were general-purpose and were meant to play a variety of games, and often could not measure up to video arcade game hardware, which was built for the singular purpose of providing a single game well. In fact, the glut of poor-quality home video game systems contributed in no small way to the video game crash of 1983.

But the debut of the Nintendo Entertainment System (1985) began to level the playing field by providing a reasonably good video arcade experience at home. In the early to mid 1990s, the Super Nintendo and the Sega Mega Drive greatly improved home play and some of the technology was even integrated into a few video arcade machines. By the time of the Sony PlayStation (1995) and the Nintendo 64 (1996), both of which boasted true 3D graphics, many video game arcades across the country had gone out of business.

The video arcade 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 Sega Dreamcast (NAOMI), Sony PlayStation 2, 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, such as dancing and rhythm games (such as "Dance Dance Revolution," part of the Bemani series) continue to be popular in arcades.

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,cite web|url=http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8784|title=Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga — Class Of 1981|accessmonthday=September 10|accessyear=2006] or integrated directly into controller hardware (joysticks) with replaceable flash drives storing game ROMs.

Legacy

The Golden Age of Video Arcade Games spawned numerous cultural icons and even gave some companies their identity. Elements from games such as "Space Invaders", "Pac-Man", "Donkey Kong", "Frogger", and "Centipede" are still recognized in today's popular culture.

The success of these early video games has led many hobbyists who were teenagers during the Golden Age to collect some of these classic games. Since few have any commercial value any longer, they can be acquired for US$200 to US$750 (though fully restored games can cost much more).

Some fans of these games have companies devoted to restoring the classic games, and others, such as Arcade Renovations, which produces reproduction art for classic arcade games, focus solely on one facet of the restoration activity. Many of these restorers have set up websites full of tips and advice on restoring games to mint condition. There are also several newsgroups devoted to discussion around these games, and a few conventions such as California Extremecite web|url=http://www.caextreme.org|title=California Extreme|accessmonthday=November 24|accessyear=2006] dedicated to classic arcade gaming.

References

*"The Official Price Guide to Classic Video Games" by David Ellis (2004), ISBN 0-375-72038-3
*"The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokémon--The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World" by Steven L. Kent (2001), ISBN 0-7615-3643-4
*"The Golden Age of Video Game Arcades (a 200-page story contained within Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records)" by Walter Day (1998), ISBN 1-887472-25-8

ee also

* Arcade cabinet
* List of video arcade games
* List of video game consoles

External links

* [http://www.klov.com/TOP100.html The KLOV Top Video Games Lists]
* [http://www.s-t.com/daily/03-96/03-09-96/2arcade.htm Reference to the term 'Golden Age']
* [http://www.thedoteaters.com The Dot Eaters] , Videogame History 101