Experiments of Arcade Game Developers

At the end of 70-ies – 80-ies arcade game developers were experimenting with new hardware. For example, they were creating video arcade games with non-video technology such as vector displays. Vector displays, unlike the raster displays, produced crisp lines.

Some of these arcade games gained a big popularity. Among them are created by Atari in 1980 Battlezone and Tempest and 1983’s Star Wars, also from Atari.

But vector technology fell out of favor with arcade game companies. This happened because the vector displays are very expensive in repairing.

In order to provide games with movie-quality animation, arcade game developers were also experimented with laserdisc players. The very first video arcade game that used this technology is Dragon's Lair. It was released in 1983. The whole process of creation of this game took three years.

The release of Dragon's Lair was true sensation. But, in result, the popularity of the genre was dwindled. The reasons for this were the following:

• these arcade games were fairly linear;
• they depended less on reflexes than on memorizing sequences of moves.

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.