Arcade Game History Part 1

1980's

The first remarkable success of video arcade games refers to 1980's and found its peak in the 1990's.  This began in 1980 with the release of the game Pac-Man.  This uncomplicated game quickly became extremely popular, resulting in the developers creating a sequel, Ms. Pac-Man.

Both Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man would become so huge that people of all ages and genders crowded the arcades playing the game.  These games, with some others like Space Invaders, Galaga, Defender, Missile Command, and Donkey Kong, kept the arcade scene alive in the early 1980's.

By the mid 1980's the popularity of video games in general began to drop.  This began to affect the arcade scene.  This however, soon changed in 1985 when Nintendo released their sequel to one of their mildly popular arcade games Mario Brothers.  The game was called Super Mario Brothers.  Super Mario Bros became a phenomenon and would arguably put video games on the map.  After the game made a killing on Nintendo's own console, a special arcade version named VS: Super Mario Brothers appeared in the arcades.

The arcade version had levels that were different, and more challenging than the console version.  From Super Mario Brothers onward, video game developers released innovative and fun video games in arcades that would create a lasting effect for over a decade in the United States.  Developers like Sega, Namco, Midway, Capcom, and Konami became household names because of their great games.

Influence of Arcade Industry Saviors

It is a well-known fact that Nintendo has made the ''Play-Choice.''  "Play-Choice," which offers you the opportunity to play all sorts of NES games at Arcade did quite well.  When Nintendo made the decision to get concrete Super Nintendo Entertainment System titles, they offered only a limited release and then stopped.  Despite this fact, some companies did well, meanwhile others did not.

The large successes really lasted only until the middle of 1990's.  Luckily, around 1997 Konami turned out to be a ''Savior,'' thanks to their highly unique and innovative titles.  Titles such as ''Dance, Dance Revolution,'' it is important to note that this game attracted an absolutely different variety of gamers, along with a lot of non-gamers back into Arcades.

The problem with these ''Arcade Industry Saviors'' is that they relied so much on the mainstream attention, unlike the ''Golden Age'' where each game was given a lot of attention from avid gamers.

After a couple of years,  DDR (Direct Disk Recorder) players remained the only gamers in the Arcade Industry, and Capcom started getting more attention from their 2D fighter/Marvel Comic Book games, the ''Marvel Vs.'' series which appeared at the same time.

Most Successful Arcade Game Companies of 1970s – 1980s

During the period of 70s – 80s years of previous century video arcade games were living their best times. At those times the processor power and memory were creating strict limits for the arcade game developers. That is why developers had to provide creatively decision for technical and design aspects of arcade games.

Since the arcade games were young, a wide variety of genres had being explored at that time. During this period video arcade games had being spread rapidly across North America, Japan, and Europe.

In those times, video arcade games started to appear in restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, liquor stores, and many other retail establishments looking for extra income.

During that time there were two most successful arcade game companies:

Namco – the Japanese company that was founded in 1955 as Nakamura Manufacturing. This company is the creator of such arcade games as Pole Position, DigDug, and the legendary Pac-Man;

Atari – the American company that was founded in 1972. It is the company that introduced video games into arcades.

During several years, these two arcade game companies wrestled for the first and second slots in American arcades.

Other famous companies of those times are: Nintendo, Sega, Bally Midway Manufacturing Company, Capcom, Konami, Williams, Cinematronics, Taito, and SNK.