Arcade

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A row of arcade games.

An arcade game, for the purposes of this site, is a pay-to-play stand-alone video game. The earliest arcade games were just games in an arcade setting and included ring tosses, target shooting with pellets guns, and the like. In the 1960s, coin-operated arcade electro-mechanical games became popular including pinball machines, pool tables, slot machines, and the like. It wasn't until the 1970s that true fully electronic video games arose. Arcade video games are the pioneer of many genres in the video game industry. Arcades saw their golden years in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but declined in the late 1980s when home video game consoles became popular. There was a slight resurgence in the early 1990s when arcade hardware surpassed the 8-bit era, but, by the time 16-bit and 32-bit home consoles became popular, arcades returned to obscurity. Most modern arcades survive because of ticket redemption games rather than their video games. While modern video game consoles are powerful enough to duplicate the visual effects of any arcade game, those games with haptic feedback are still difficult to simulate at home.

Personal

My earliest memories of arcade games are of an arcade at the Summit Place Mall in the mid to late 1980s and the arcade room at the Lakeland Arena in the late 1980s, although I also have memories of arcade games at various movie theaters, bowling alleys, hotels, bars, and laundromats, and many after I started playing Dance Dance Revolution in the early 2000s. During my childhood, these games were so much more advanced than the home video games I was playing on the Atari 2600 and NES that I was very enamored by them. My parents rarely gave me money to play arcade games, but, because the games were so difficult, I was usually just content to watch the attract demos and look over the shoulder of other people who played. When I got older, I found that arcade games don't really offer an enjoyable experience since they are primarily designed, not to create a memorable game, but to entice players to drop in as many quarters as possible.

Games

See all Arcade Games.

These are the arcade games that are important to me.

Cabinet Terminology

Arcade cabinet diagram.
  • Bezel - The area around the monitor. This was usually decorated since players would always be looking at it.
  • Cabinet - The entire arcade unit.
  • Coin box - A box or bin which collects coins that are inserted into the coin acceptor.
  • Coin door - Some cabinets featured an additional door beneath the service door which gives easier access to the coin box.
  • Coin mechanism - The mechanism which accepts and verifies a coin.
  • Coin switch - The mechanism which is activated when a proper coin in inserted.
  • Control panel - The section where all of the game's controls are. This may include buttons, joysticks, track balls, spinners, etc. This panel is often on hinges allowing a technician to flip it up and have easy access to the wires underneath it.
  • Conversion kit - A product which can convert one arcade game into another.
  • Daughter board - A secondary circuit board attached to the motherboard.
  • DIP switch - A bank of usually eight switches on a circuit board which affects how the game operates.
  • Marquee - The title of the game, usually placed at the top of the cabinet for the highest visibility.
  • Monitor - The video display of the cabinet.
  • Motherboard - The main circuit board inside the cabinet. It typically houses the CPU, RAM, and ROM chips.
  • Power supply - The electrical box which converts the electricity from the wire to what the cabinet requires. Typically placed at the bottom of the cabinet.
  • Rear panel - A removable panel on the backside of the cabinet which allows access to the internals.
  • Reject button - A button which, when pressed before they start a game, returns a coin to the player. It's typically red and illuminated.
  • Service button - A special button, typically behind the service door, which sets the cabinet into service mode.
  • Service door - A locking door beneath the control panel which can be opened to access the internals of the cabinet, especially the coin box. The service door usually also houses the coin acceptor and coin return and doubles as the coin door.
  • Side art - The art on the side of the cabinet. The more expensive cabinets used this, but it was often ignored since cabinets are usually placed side-to-side hiding them.
  • Topper - Something attached to the top of the cabinet to further advertise for the game. Often used in cabinets with interchangeable games to show which game is currently installed.


Arcade Architecture

These pages are about arcade architectures that were designed to support multiple games.

Porting

When home video game console and computers entered popularity in the late 1970s, arcade developers began porting their games to these platforms. Over the years, the vast majority of games made for the arcade were ported to home video game and computer systems. In the early years, home ports that were released within a few years of the arcade originals were vastly inferior because the arcade games were released on dedicated hardware, while the home ports were made on much cheaper generic hardware. However, around the 2010s, it became affordable for home computers and video game platforms to have comparable hardware, and arcade and home ports were effectively equal. Arcade games also often create a unique experience by integrating control systems that can't cheaply be duplicated like dancing stages or motorcycles.

Media

Fan Art

Videos

Did You Know Gaming?

Links

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