Arcade video games

Arcade video games are coin-operated entertainment machines typically installed in businesses such as restaurants, pubs, and arcades, especially video arcades. Most arcade games are video games, electro-mechanical games, pinball machines, redemption games, and merchandisers (such as claw cranes).

The golden age of arcade video games lasted from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. While arcade games were still relatively popular during the late 1990s, the entertainment medium saw a continuous decline in popularity in the Western hemisphere when home-based video game consoles made the transition from 2D graphics to 3D graphics. Despite this, arcades remain popular in many parts of Asia as late as the early 2010s.

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
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 first coin-operated pinball machines were made. These early amusement machines were distinct from their later electronic cousins in that they were made of wood, also they 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.

Electro-mechanical arcade games
Electro-mechanical (EM) games were arcade games that predated and were similar to arcade video games, but relied on electro-mechanical components to produce sounds or images rather than a cathode ray tube screen. These were popular during the electro-mechanical golden age of the 1960s and 1970s, but video games eventually overtook them in popularity during the golden age of arcade video games that began with Space Invaders in 1978.

Electro-mechanical golden age
The electro-mechanical golden age began with the 1959 arcade hit Mini Drive, a racing game where the player used a steering wheel to control a miniature car across a scrolling conveyor belt inside an arcade cabinet. It was manufactured by Kasco (Kansei Seiki Seisakusho) and became a hit in Japan.

Periscope, released by Namco in 1965, and then by SEGA in 1966, was an early submarine simulator and light gun shooter, which used lights and plastic waves to simulate sinking ships from a submarine. It became an instant success in Japan, Europe, and North America, where it was the first arcade game to cost a quarter per play, which would remain the standard price for arcade games for many years to come. Periscope revived the North American arcade industry in the late 1960s. The game was cloned by Midway as Sea Raider (1969) and Sea Devil (1970). Midway later adapted it into an arcade video game, Sea Wolf (1976).

In 1967, Taito's EM arcade game Crown Soccer Special was a two-player sports game that simulated association football, using various electronic components, including electronic versions of pinball flippers. SEGA's 1970 multiplayer EM shooter game Gun Fight was a direct precedent to Taito's 1975 arcade video game Gun Fight, which in turn was influential on shooter video games.

Video projection games
In the late 1960s, Japanese arcade manufacturers Kasco and SEGA introduced a new type of electro-mechanical game, video projection games. They were similar to, and anticipated, arcade video games, using rear video image projection to display moving animations on a video screen. Video projection games became common in arcades of the 1970s. They combined electro-mechanical and video elements, laying the foundations for arcade video games, which adapted cabinet designs and gameplay mechanics from earlier video projection games.

The first video projection games were Kasco's Indy 500, released in the late 1960s, and SEGA's Duck Hunt, released in January 1969. Duck Hunt was a light gun shooter that featured animated moving targets on a screen, printed out the player's score on a ticket, and had sound effects that were volume controllable.

Indy 500 was a rear-projection racing game designed by Kenzou Furukawa. It used rear image projection to display a first-person scrolling track on a video screen, along with rival cars the player needs to avoid crashing into, while the controls consisted of a steering wheel and accelerator pedal. It became a hit in Japan, selling 2,000 cabinets there, and inspired several clones in 1969, including SEGA's Grand Prix and Chicago Coin's Speedway, which became an even bigger hit in North America, selling 10,000 cabinets there and winning a prize. SEGA's clone Grand Prix also had a first-person view, electronic sound, a dashboard with a racing wheel and accelerator, and a similar forward-scrolling road projected on a screen. Indy 500 laid the foundations for racing video games.

Another 1969 SEGA release, Missile, a shooter and vehicle-combat simulation, featured electronic sound and a moving film strip to represent the targets on a projection screen. It was the earliest known arcade game to feature a joystick with a fire button, which formed 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 animated explosion appears on screen, accompanied by the sound of an explosion. Midway released the game in North America as S.A.M.I. in 1970.

In the late 1960s, SEGA developed Jet Rocket, which eventually released in 1970, and was cloned shortly after by three Chicago manufacturers. Jet Rocket was 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. It featured shooting and flight movement in a 3D environment from a first-person perspective, a precursor to first-person vehicle combat video games such as Battlezone (1980) and Hovertank 3D (1991), and the first-person shooter video game genre.

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. 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. It was the first interactive movie game, and the first game to use full motion video (FMV). The quick time event (QTE) mechanic also has origins in Wild Gunman. Alternate film footage was played depending on the player's quick draw reaction. It paved the way for later QTE laserdisc video games. In the 1970s, Kasco released a hit electro-mechanical arcade game with live-action FMV, projecting car footage filmed by Toei.

In 1975, Kasco released the first holographic 3-D game, Gun Smoke, a light gun shooter. It was a hit in Japan, selling 6,000 cabinets there, but only 750 cabinets were sold in the US. It was followed by two more holographic Kasco gun games, Samurai and Bank Robber, released between 1975 and 1977, as well as a 1976 Midway clone, Top Gun. They predated the first holographic video games, SEGA's Time Traveler (1991) and Holosseum (1992).

One of the last successful electro-mechanical arcade games was F-1, a racing game developed by Namco and distributed by Atari in 1976. This game appeared in the films Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Midnight Madness (1980), as did SEGA's Jet Rocket in the latter film.

In the course of the 1970s, following the release of Pong in 1972, arcade video games began competing with electro-mechanical games in the arcades. The gradual shift was not abrupt, as early arcade video games were largely modelled after earlier video projection games, which continued to thrive up until the 1978 video game Space Invaders, which dealt a powerful blow to the popularity of electro-mechanical games. Kasco, one of the biggest electro-mechanical arcade manufacturers at the time, declined due to its reluctance to make the transition to arcade video games. The 1978 release of Space Invaders marked the end of the electro-mechanical golden age, and the beginning of the golden age of arcade video games.

Arcade video games
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
Taito's Space Invaders, in 1978, proved to be the first blockbuster arcade video game. 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 Bosconian (1981) were especially popular. By 1981, the arcade video game industry was worth $8 billion ($ in 2024).

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. 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.

SEGA AM2's Hang-On, designed by Yu Suzuki and running on the SEGA Space Harrier hardware, was the first of SEGA's "Super Scaler" arcade system boards that allowed pseudo-3D sprite-scaling at high frame rates. The pseudo-3D sprite/tile scaling was handled in a similar manner to textures in later texture-mapped polygonal 3D games of the 1990s. Designed by SEGA AM2's Yu Suzuki, he stated that his "designs were always 3D from the beginning. All the calculations in the system were 3D, even from Hang-On. I calculated the position, scale, and zoom rate in 3D and converted it backwards to 2D. So I was always thinking in 3D." It was controlled using a video game arcade cabinet resembling a motorbike, which the player moves with their body. This began the "Taikan" trend, the use of motion-controlled hydraulic arcade cabinets in many arcade games of the late 1980's, two decades before motion controls became popular on video game consoles.

Renaissance
In the early 1990s, the arcades experienced a major resurgence with the 1991 release of Capcom's Street Fighter II, which popularized competitive fighting games and revived the arcade industry to a level of popularity not seen since the days of Pac-Man, setting off a renaissance for the arcade game industry in the early 1990s. Its success led to a wave of other popular games which mostly were in the fighting genre, such as Pit-Fighter (1990) by Atari, Mortal Kombat by Midway Games, Fatal Fury: King of Fighters (1992) by SNK, Virtua Fighter (1993) by SEGA, Killer Instinct (1994) by Rare, and The King of Fighters (1994–2005) by SNK.

3D polygon graphics were popularized by the SEGA Model 1 games Virtua Racing (1992) and Virtua Fighter (1993), followed by racing games like the Namco System 22 title Ridge Racer (1993) and SEGA Model 2 title Daytona USA, and light gun shooters like SEGA's Virtua Cop (1994) and Mesa Logic's Area 51 (1995), gaining considerable popularity in the arcades. By 1994, arcade games in the United States were generating revenues of $7 billion in quarters (equivalent to $ in 2024), in comparison to home console game sales of $6 billion, with many of the best-selling home video games in the early 1990s often being arcade ports. Combined, total US arcade and console game revenues of $13 billion in 1994 ($ in 2024) was nearly two and a half times the $5 billion revenue grossed by movies in the United States at the time.

Around the mid-1990s, the fifth-generation home consoles, SEGA Saturn, PlayStation, and Nintendo 64, began offering true 3D graphics. By 1995, personal computers followed, with 3D accelerator cards. While arcade systems such as the SEGA Model 3 remained more advanced than home systems, 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 the SEGA Naomi arcade machine. After producing the more powerful SEGA Hikaru in 1999 and SEGA Naomi 2 in 2000, SEGA eventually stopped manufacturing custom arcade system boards, with their subsequent arcade boards being based on either consoles or commercial PC components.

Decline
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, and reached a low of $866 million in 2004. Furthermore, by the early 2000s, networked gaming via computers and then consoles across the Internet had also appeared, replacing the venue of head-to-head competition and social atmosphere once provided solely by arcades.

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.

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", some of the longstanding chains such as Chuck E. Cheese's and Gatti's Pizza ("GattiTowns") 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
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. In 2005, arcade ownership and operation accounted for a majority of Namco's revenues, for example. 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 ($6.2 billion) in 2010.

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. In particular, arcade video games are a thriving industry in China, where arcades are widespread across the country. 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. In the early 2000's, consumers in the United Kingdom spent £58 million on arcade games each year, equivalent to $120 million then (or $160 million in 2014 dollars).

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, 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.

Technology
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. Coin-operated arcade video games generally use multiple CPUs, additional sound and graphics chips and/or boards, and the latest in computer graphics display technology.

Throughout the latter 20th century, the arcade platform was known for featuring the most advanced graphics and cutting-edge technology in the video game industry, up until it was overtaken by the PC platform in the 21st century; recent arcade game hardware is often based on modified video game console hardware or high-end PC components.

The newest arcade video games tend to also have interactivity as part of the game design, making the game player feel like they are more kinesthetically connected to the game itself. One form of interactive technology, virtual reality, has failed to truly become popular in arcade games, but this is due to the technical limitations of truly being able to achieve real virtual reality by any means.

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.

Emulation
Many older arcade games are enjoying a revival among fans, thanks to emulators such as MAME, which can be run on modern computers and a number of other devices.

Locations
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, bars/pubs and even bakeries. In short, arcade games are popular in places open to the public where people are likely to be waiting on something.

List of highest-grossing arcade video games
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, 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 500 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 many are also from before and after the golden age.

Best-selling arcade video game franchises
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.

Evolution of arcade video game hardware
Throughout the late 20th century, arcade video game hardware was most often considerably more powerful than contemporary consoles and home computers of their time. In the early 2000s, however, this no longer remained the case, as powerful graphics boards previously limited to arcade systems became widely available for the PC platform, which eventually overtook arcade systems as the platform of choice for the most powerful graphics cards.