#REDIRECT Golden age of arcade games
[[Image:Spaceinvaders.png|thumb|220px|In ''Space Invaders'', the player controls the firing and horizontal position of the green cannon at the bottom, fending off constant attack by echelons of eponymous enemies.]] The Golden Age of Arcade Games was a peak era of arcade game popularity and innovation. Some opinions place this period's beginning in late 1979 or 1980 when the first color arcade games appeared and arcades began to become prevalent, and its ending in the mid-1980s. More generous definitions place its start at the 1978 release of ''Space Invaders'' and its end in the mid-1990s with the release of video game console which were more powerful than typical arcade hardware. ==Overview== During the early 1980s, 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 This emphasis on the gameplay is why many of these games continue to be enjoyed today despite having been vastly outdated by modern computing technology.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 (subjective) 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 Computer and video game 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, arcade games started to appear in supermarkets, 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. Probably the most successful arcade game companies of this era were Namco (especially in Japan) and Atari Games (especially in the United States). Other notables include Nintendo (whose mascot, Mario, was introduced in 1981's ''Donkey Kong (arcade game)''), Midway Games (who later merged with Bally), Capcom, Cinematronics, Konami, Sega, Taito Corporation, Williams (gaming company), and SNK. ==Technology== [[Image:Dragonslair-arcadescreenshot.jpg|thumb|220px|''Dragon's Lair'' was the first game to deliver movie-quality animation. Here the hero, Dirk the Daring, battles a wraith.]] Arcades began to gain momentum in the late 1970s with games such as ''Space Invaders'' (1978) and ''Asteroids'' (1979) and became widespread in 1980 with ''Pac-Man,'' ''Centipede (video game),'' ''Defender (arcade game),'' and others. The digital and central processing unit in these games allowed for more complexity than earlier analog 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 graphicss as opposed to standard raster graphicss. A few of these games became great hits, such as 1980's ''Battlezone'' and ''Tempest (game)'' and 1983's ''Star Wars (arcade game)'', 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 computer 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 (arcade game)''. ''Spy Hunter'' included a life-like steering wheel and ''Hogan's Alley (arcade game)'' 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 (arcade game)'', also debuted in this era. ==Gameplay== [[Image:Galaga.png|thumb|220px|''Galaga'', a successful game of the Golden Age, borrows its theme from ''Space Invaders'' and adds twists of its own. Some enemies attempt to "capture" the player's fighter and he can try to retrieve it later.]] With the enormous success of the early games, dozens of video game developer jumped into the development and manufacturing of arcade video games. Some simply copied the "invading alien hordes" idea of ''Space Invaders'' and turned out successful imitators like ''Galaxian,'' ''Galaga,'' and ''Gyruss'', 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 (arcade game)'' 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's ''Paperboy (game)'' where the goal is to successfully deliver newspapers to customers, and Sega's ''Frogger'' where the object is to safely guide frogs through traffic. The theme of Exidy's Venture (arcade game) is dungeon exploration and treasure-gathering. One innovative game, ''QBert'', played upon the user's sense of depth perception in order to deliver a novel experience. Some games of this era were so popular that they entered the popular culture. 1980's release of ''Pac-Man'' caused such a sensation that it initiated what is now referred to as "Pac-Mania." 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 really agree what the "hero" or enemies represented (sometimes they were referred to as ghosts, other times goblins or just 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, a cartoon series, 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, but "Pac-Man" is still a recognized term throughout popular culture. The enormous popularity of arcade games also led to the very first video game strategy guides; these guides(rare to find today) discussed in exacting 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== Centipede_(video_game)''_was_the_first_arcade_game_to_be_designed_by_a_woman.__It_went_on_to_be_one_of_the_most_successful_arcade_games_ever.">Image:Arcademachine.jpg|right|frame|Atari Games' ''Centipede (video game)'' was the first arcade game to be designed by a woman. It went on to be one of the most successful arcade games ever. 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 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 Intellivision, were general-purpose and were meant to play a variety of games, and often couldn't measure up to 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 arcade experience at home. In the early to mid 1990s, the SNES and the Sega Genesis greatly improved home play and some of the technology was even integrated into a few arcade machines. By the time of the Sony PlayStation (1994) 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 arcade game industry still exists today, but in a greatly reduced form. Arcade game hardware is often based on home game consoles to facilitate porting an arcade game to a home system; there are arcade versions of Sega Dreamcast, Sony PlayStation 2, and Microsoft Xbox home consoles. Some genres, such as dancing and rhythm games (such as ''Dance Dance Revolution,'' part of the Bemani series) continue to be popular in arcades, particularly in Japan.
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 [http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=8784], or integrated directly into controller hardware (joysticks) with replaceable flash drives storing game ROMs.
==Legacy==
The Golden Age of Arcade Games spawned numerous cultural icons and even gave some companies their identity. Elements from games such as ''Space Invaders'', ''Pac-Man'', ''Donkey Kong (arcade game)'', ''Frogger'', and ''Centipede_%28video_game%29'' are still recognized in today's popular culture.
The phenomenal 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$500 (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 restorationers have set up websites on the Internet full of tips and advice on restoring games to mint condition. There are also several newsgroups devoted to discussion around these games.
==Further reading==
* ''The Official Price Guide to Classic Video Games'' by Dave Ellis (game designer) (2004), ISBN 0375720383
* ''The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon--The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World'' by Steven L. Kent (2001), ISBN 0761536434
==See also==
* Arcade cabinet
* List of arcade games
* List of video game consoles
* MAME
==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']
History of computer and video games
Arcade games
==1978?== I think this page is biased towards Space Invaders. I don't know anyone who would say the "golden age" of arcade gaming started with that game - more commonly it's thought to start around 1980 with Battlezone, Berzerk, Missile Command, Pac-Man, and others, and last until the mid- to late-1980s. See [http://www.klov.com/TOP100.html KLOV's Top 100] list, and note where most of the popular games are. - User:Brian Kendig 00:20, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC) :I'm not so sure. One might say it started with Pong (that would be a silly assertion since Pong came out in 1972 according to KLOV), but from looking at the dated list, it sure looks like the memorable/interesting/enjoyable games started around 1978 with Space Invaders (SI). I didn't mean to tilt the article more in that direction by including the SI picture - just to add a little color. Change it if you like (of course, making sure to write a Wikipedia:Captions ;-) ). -- User:Ke4roh 00:44, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC) Nono, it's not just the picture. :) I disagree strongly with the article's assertion that the "golden age" sprung up with Space Invaders and lasted through the 1990s; I've always seen it as being confined to the early 1980s, starting with color arcade games and lasting until the mid-80s when the arcades became flooded with clones. I've edited the article to bring it more in line with my understanding of reality. - User:Brian Kendig 02:00, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC) :As the original editor of this article, I thought it started with SI and ended when arcade game developers stopped innovating and people started just playing games on video game console and stopped going to arcades. That would be the early 1990s. Just MHO, of course. User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 14:36, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC) IMHO, defining the "golden age" as spanning a decade and a half is like saying that the "golden age" of American automobiles started with the Model T and ended in the 1970s. I would say that the "golden age" of arcade games was the brief period of time when games started getting really catchy and memorable, and ended when arcades became flooded with games that all looked and played alike. Look at that KLOV list of the top 100 games which I linked to above - fully 46 of the games all came out in 1980, 81, 82, and 83, whereas the following four years only have a total of 14 games on the list. Yes, part of this was due to video game consoles coming onto the scene and stealing attention away from arcades - but the culprit was the NES, not the PlayStation. - User:Brian Kendig 18:13, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC) :Um, okay. I still ran across a lot of arcades up until about 1990 when they started disappearing (perhaps we should change the year to 1990 instead of mid-1990s). Most people I knew who owned an NES still frequented arcades often. The NES was good, but its games didn't nearly rival arcade gams in terms of quality. :As for the period, yes there were a great deal of clones after a while. Heck, there were clones right after ''Pong'' and ''SI'' were released. Even when the arcades were flooded with clones, new, innovative games were still coming out. It's that period of innovation that was the defining characteristic of the Golden Age. Saying it ended when clones started coming out is like, to use your example, saying the "golden age" of American automobiles ended when Chevrolet went into business.User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 18:27, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC) I asked for some more opinions on an emulation bulletin board [http://www.bannister.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=26;t=003691 here] and got some good answers. - User:Brian Kendig 02:57, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC) :Thanks for doing the "research." :-) Per that discussion, how about changing it to mid-'80s? 1983 seems too early for the end to me, and I do think ''Space Invaders'' started the craze, even though it took a while for other games to come out (the discussion noted other games took a while to develop). It also sounds like they prefer "Golden Age of Arcade Games" as the name of the era. User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 14:44, Aug 11, 2004 (UTC) ::I've been tweaking the article to bring in facts to back up the assertions - have a look at it, let me know what you think, edit as desired. By the way, good job on this article; I'm glad you created it in the first place. :) - User:Brian Kendig 16:14, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC) :I like the changes. You even have the "more generous" definition in there as well! :-) I made just some minor changes, such as italicizing game titles rewording a caption. I kind of liked the wikilink in the caption, but it doesn't really have to be there (I just liked the fact that a caption ''could have'' a wikilink--they didn't used to). One more thing is that I removed the extern link to the Top 100 KLOV game list. The Manual of Style discourages it and the link is still in the extern links section. :As for creating the article, I think it looks a lot better now (and accurate) than the first version I created. Every encyclopedia should be a wiki! :-) User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 16:35, Aug 11, 2004 (UTC) ---- ==Golden Age or Golden age?== I see this article was moved, but I think it belongs at "Golden Age of Arcade Games." The title is a proper name of a period, not just an ambiguous reference. If you look at the disam page for Golden age, you'll see it is used differently for different periods. Which is correct? I assert the mostly caps version is the proper one and we should move it back. :-) User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 14:36, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC) :The term "golden age of arcade games" ''is'' an ambiguous reference - it's a colloquial term, not widely used, and is not "official" in any sense. It's kind of like referring to the "golden age of American transportation." I was concerned that by capitalizing it as "Golden Age of Arcade Games" someone would think that this is a well-defined term in common usage. - User:Brian Kendig 18:13, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC) It's not that big of a deal to me (and BTW, ''I'' use the term a lot :-) ). Anyways, the mostly caps version redirects to this article anyway. :-) Peace. User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 18:27, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC) :How about "Golden Age of arcade games," is that any better? - User:Brian Kendig 21:04, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC) ::Suggestion: ::(a) Choose ''whatever you like''. ::(b) Create redirects for all other options that have been suggested. It's not like these redirects will get in the way of anything of use up real life paper print space ;-) ::User:Ropers 00:36, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC) I'd prefer for the article to exist under the "most correct" title, whatever we decide that title to be, with all other "less correct" titles being redirects to it. Often there is a title which is more correct than others. Like, today I moved "Robotron 2084" to Robotron: 2084. - User:Brian Kendig 03:00, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC) :I'd prefer whatever is "most correct" as well. I don't know if it is "Golden Age of Arcade Games" or "Golden Age of arcade games" or what it is now. Are there any English language majors out there? User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 14:35, Aug 11, 2004 (UTC) ::If it is an article title, it should be written as: "The Golden Age of Arcade Games". --User:129.105.104.148 :Well, I'm all for it. But I'm afraid if I move it (again), someone will just move it back. User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 22:43, Oct 7, 2004 (UTC) ==New Arcade Games project== I just thought I should mention that a new WikiProject for arcade games has been started. If you want to help with the Wikipedia:WikiProject Arcade Games, head on over and add yourself to the Wikipedia:WikiProject Arcade Games#Participants! :-) User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 16:42, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC) ---- ==Featured Article?== What do y'all think about making this article a Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates? Even though I originated it, I think it's well-written, especially after all the edits by everyone else. I think we done ourselves proud! What do y'all think? User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 16:42, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC) :It's up there now--getting some useful comments. User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 07:21, Aug 22, 2004 (UTC) For those interested, you can go to Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates#Golden_age_of_arcade_games and look at the comments. If you're in the mood, try addressing User:Taxman's comments. For example, he thought the article should address ''Q-bert'' specifically (not sure why) and talk more about the ''Pac-Man'' phoenomena. I think the Pac-Man craze is addressed in it's own article, but we could include more info on it in this article too. User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 15:08, Aug 26, 2004 (UTC) :I think it looks fabulous, Frecklefoot. But I can't access the comments page you are talking about. I suspect I have a cache problem, because when I follow your link Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates#Golden_age_of_arcade_games and search within the page for golden it's not there: :Does anyone know which setting in IE 6 works best? Refresh every visit to the page, automatically, or other? I also constantly have a problem with the front page being stale. User:Spalding 17:23, Oct 6, 2004 (UTC) ==Crash== The video game crash of 1983 was all about the glut in the home market - I don't see that it had any influence on arcades. I don't think it had anything to do with the end of the arcade golden age. I'd recommend taking out ''"(when the video game market collapsed temporarily)"'' in the first paragraph. - User:Brian Kendig 14:44, 23 Aug 2004 (UTC) :I added that per discussion of the article on the Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates#Golden_age_of_arcade_games. I don't think it was affected either, but I thought the addition of it didn't hurt anything. If you disagree, take it out. Take a look at the discussion on the FAC page too. One editor wants mention of Q*Bert, but I didn't take the time to work it in (it was a good game, but was it ''that'' notable?). There are some other good comments (but I don't think the article made the cut) :( User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 15:53, Aug 24, 2004 (UTC) ---- ==Rework & additions== I just added a whole bunch of new content and moved some stuff around in order to address some of the comments raised on the Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates#Golden_age_of_arcade_games. We got some good input and some of my additions address them. Others, such as the list of most popular games, I added since it seemed like the article needed it. Please look over my changes and make any changes you feel appropriate. Please raise any issues here. One thing to note, I know the list of Most popular games is a bit subjective, so look it over and see if you agree with the entries. I tried to only add the most important games of the Age--I didn't want to add KLOV's entire list!--and I only included games from the late 1970's to the mid-1980's. I hope you like the changes! User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 18:24, Aug 26, 2004 (UTC) :I don't see a need for that list of "most popular games". It's highly subjective (unless you can provide revenue figures), you even acknowledge that some people consider the last couple outside the "Golden Age," and the first few are way before the "Golden Age." I think a list to KLOV's list will suffice, unless you want to draw attention to a particular few of these games by describing in the article why they are good examples of the period. - User:Brian Kendig 21:00, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC) ::I like the list. Instant nostalgia. User:Tempshill 18:18, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC) == Innovation ad nauseum == This article currently contains nine instances of the word "innovation" (and its variants). I think that's overkill. :) Especially as it's hard to say that a game like ''Centipede'' is one of "the most innovative" games; it succeeds because it's very simple, not because it's full of innovations. - User:Brian Kendig 20:54, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC) :A quick trip to Merriam-Webster shows these synonyms for "innovative": inventive, creative, demiurgic, deviceful, ingenious, innovational, innovatory, original, originative. By my count, that is nine in all. Replace at your leisure. :-) User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 21:02, Aug 30, 2004 (UTC) ::Sure, when I have a chance, unless someone else beats me to it! Buried in the Star Trek articles at the moment. :) - User:Brian Kendig 23:56, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC) == Console Confusion? == "...in the early to mid nineties the Super-Nintendo and the Sega Saturn greatly improved home play..." Do you perhaps mean the Sega ''Genesis''? The Saturn was the console Sega released after the Genesis, in competion with Sony's Playstation. --User:Vigil 19:49, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC) == Request for references == Hi, I am working to encourage implementation of the goals of the Wikipedia:Verifiability policy. Part of that is to make sure articles Wikipedia:Cite sources. This is particularly important for featured articles, since they are a prominent part of Wikipedia. Further reading is not the same thing as proper references. Further reading could list works about the topic that were not ever consulted by the page authors. If some of the works listed in the further reading section were used to add or check material in the article, please list them in a references section instead. The Wikipedia:WikiProject Fact and Reference Check has more information. Thank you, and please [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=User_talk:Taxman&action=edit§ion=new leave me a message] when a few references have been added to the article. - User:Taxman 19:07, Apr 22, 2005 (UTC)
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#REDIRECT Golden age of arcade games
Golden age of arcade games
[[Image:Spaceinvaders.png|thumb|220px|In ''Space Invaders'', the player controls the firing and horizontal position of the green cannon at the bottom, fending off constant attack by echelons of eponymous enemies.]] The Golden Age of Arcade Games was a peak era of arcade game popularity and innovation. Some opinions place this period's beginning in late 1979 or 1980 when the first color arcade games appeared and arcades began to become prevalent, and its ending in the mid-1980s. More generous definitions place its start at the 1978 release of ''Space Invaders'' and its end in the mid-1990s with the release of video game console which were more powerful than typical arcade hardware. ==Overview== During the early 1980s, 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 (subjective) 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 Computer and video game 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, arcade games started to appear in supermarkets, 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. Probably the most successful arcade game companies of this era were Namco (especially in Japan) and Atari Games (especially in the United States). Other notables include Nintendo (whose mascot, Mario, was introduced in 1981's ''Donkey Kong (arcade game)''), Midway Games (who later merged with Bally), Capcom, Cinematronics, Konami, Sega, Taito Corporation, Williams (gaming company), and SNK. ==Technology== [[Image:Dragonslair-arcadescreenshot.jpg|thumb|220px|''Dragon's Lair'' was the first game to deliver movie-quality animation. Here the hero, Dirk the Daring, battles a wraith.]] Arcades began to gain momentum in the late 1970s with games such as ''Space Invaders'' (1978) and ''Asteroids'' (1979) and became widespread in 1980 with ''Pac-Man,'' ''Centipede (video game),'' ''Defender (arcade game),'' and others. The digital and central processing unit in these games allowed for more complexity than earlier analog 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 graphicss as opposed to standard raster graphicss. A few of these games became great hits, such as 1980's ''Battlezone'' and ''Tempest (game)'' and 1983's ''Star Wars (arcade game)'', 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 computer 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 (arcade game)''. ''Spy Hunter'' included a life-like steering wheel and ''Hogan's Alley (arcade game)'' 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 (arcade game)'', also debuted in this era. ==Gameplay== [[Image:Galaga.png|thumb|220px|''Galaga'', a successful game of the Golden Age, borrows its theme from ''Space Invaders'' and adds twists of its own. Some enemies attempt to "capture" the player's fighter and he can try to retrieve it later.]] With the enormous success of the early games, dozens of video game developer jumped into the development and manufacturing of arcade video games. Some simply copied the "invading alien hordes" idea of ''Space Invaders'' and turned out successful imitators like ''Galaxian,'' ''Galaga,'' and ''Gyruss'', 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 (arcade game)'' 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's ''Paperboy (game)'' where the goal is to successfully deliver newspapers to customers, and Sega's ''Frogger'' where the object is to safely guide frogs through traffic. The theme of Exidy's Venture (arcade game) is dungeon exploration and treasure-gathering. One innovative game, ''QBert'', played upon the user's sense of depth perception in order to deliver a novel experience. Some games of this era were so popular that they entered the popular culture. 1980's release of ''Pac-Man'' caused such a sensation that it initiated what is now referred to as "Pac-Mania." 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 really agree what the "hero" or enemies represented (sometimes they were referred to as ghosts, other times goblins or just 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, a cartoon series, 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, but "Pac-Man" is still a recognized term throughout popular culture. The enormous popularity of arcade games also led to the very first video game strategy guides; these guides(rare to find today) discussed in exacting 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== Centipede_(video_game)''_was_the_first_arcade_game_to_be_designed_by_a_woman.__It_went_on_to_be_one_of_the_most_successful_arcade_games_ever.">Image:Arcademachine.jpg|right|frame|Atari Games' ''Centipede (video game)'' was the first arcade game to be designed by a woman. It went on to be one of the most successful arcade games ever. 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].
| * ''Space Invaders'' (1978) * ''Asteroids'' (1979) * ''Galaxian'' (1979) * ''Lunar Lander'' (1979) * ''Battlezone'' (1980) * ''Berzerk'' (1980) * ''Centipede (video game)'' (1980) * ''Defender (arcade game)'' (1980) * ''Missile Command'' (1980) * ''Pac-Man'' (1980) * ''Star Castle'' (1980) * ''Tempest (game)'' (1980) * ''Warlords (game)'' (1980) * ''Wizard of Wor'' (1980) * ''Donkey Kong (arcade game)'' (1981) * ''Frogger'' (1981) * ''Galaga'' (1981) * ''Ms. Pac Man'' (1981) | * ''Qix'' (1981) * ''Vanguard (arcade game)'' (1981) * ''Burgertime'' (1982) * ''Dig Dug'' (1982) * ''Joust'' (1982) * ''Moon Patrol'' (1982) * ''Pole Position'' (1982) * ''QBert'' (1982) * ''Robotron 2084'' (1982) * ''Time Pilot'' (1982) * ''Tron (game)'' (1982) * ''Xevious'' (1982) * ''Zaxxon'' (1982) * ''Dragon's Lair'' (1983) * ''Elevator Action'' (1983) * ''Spy Hunter'' (1983) * ''Star Wars (arcade game)'' (1983) * ''Tapper'' (1983) |
Golden age of arcade games
==1978?== I think this page is biased towards Space Invaders. I don't know anyone who would say the "golden age" of arcade gaming started with that game - more commonly it's thought to start around 1980 with Battlezone, Berzerk, Missile Command, Pac-Man, and others, and last until the mid- to late-1980s. See [http://www.klov.com/TOP100.html KLOV's Top 100] list, and note where most of the popular games are. - User:Brian Kendig 00:20, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC) :I'm not so sure. One might say it started with Pong (that would be a silly assertion since Pong came out in 1972 according to KLOV), but from looking at the dated list, it sure looks like the memorable/interesting/enjoyable games started around 1978 with Space Invaders (SI). I didn't mean to tilt the article more in that direction by including the SI picture - just to add a little color. Change it if you like (of course, making sure to write a Wikipedia:Captions ;-) ). -- User:Ke4roh 00:44, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC) Nono, it's not just the picture. :) I disagree strongly with the article's assertion that the "golden age" sprung up with Space Invaders and lasted through the 1990s; I've always seen it as being confined to the early 1980s, starting with color arcade games and lasting until the mid-80s when the arcades became flooded with clones. I've edited the article to bring it more in line with my understanding of reality. - User:Brian Kendig 02:00, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC) :As the original editor of this article, I thought it started with SI and ended when arcade game developers stopped innovating and people started just playing games on video game console and stopped going to arcades. That would be the early 1990s. Just MHO, of course. User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 14:36, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC) IMHO, defining the "golden age" as spanning a decade and a half is like saying that the "golden age" of American automobiles started with the Model T and ended in the 1970s. I would say that the "golden age" of arcade games was the brief period of time when games started getting really catchy and memorable, and ended when arcades became flooded with games that all looked and played alike. Look at that KLOV list of the top 100 games which I linked to above - fully 46 of the games all came out in 1980, 81, 82, and 83, whereas the following four years only have a total of 14 games on the list. Yes, part of this was due to video game consoles coming onto the scene and stealing attention away from arcades - but the culprit was the NES, not the PlayStation. - User:Brian Kendig 18:13, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC) :Um, okay. I still ran across a lot of arcades up until about 1990 when they started disappearing (perhaps we should change the year to 1990 instead of mid-1990s). Most people I knew who owned an NES still frequented arcades often. The NES was good, but its games didn't nearly rival arcade gams in terms of quality. :As for the period, yes there were a great deal of clones after a while. Heck, there were clones right after ''Pong'' and ''SI'' were released. Even when the arcades were flooded with clones, new, innovative games were still coming out. It's that period of innovation that was the defining characteristic of the Golden Age. Saying it ended when clones started coming out is like, to use your example, saying the "golden age" of American automobiles ended when Chevrolet went into business.User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 18:27, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC) I asked for some more opinions on an emulation bulletin board [http://www.bannister.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=26;t=003691 here] and got some good answers. - User:Brian Kendig 02:57, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC) :Thanks for doing the "research." :-) Per that discussion, how about changing it to mid-'80s? 1983 seems too early for the end to me, and I do think ''Space Invaders'' started the craze, even though it took a while for other games to come out (the discussion noted other games took a while to develop). It also sounds like they prefer "Golden Age of Arcade Games" as the name of the era. User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 14:44, Aug 11, 2004 (UTC) ::I've been tweaking the article to bring in facts to back up the assertions - have a look at it, let me know what you think, edit as desired. By the way, good job on this article; I'm glad you created it in the first place. :) - User:Brian Kendig 16:14, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC) :I like the changes. You even have the "more generous" definition in there as well! :-) I made just some minor changes, such as italicizing game titles rewording a caption. I kind of liked the wikilink in the caption, but it doesn't really have to be there (I just liked the fact that a caption ''could have'' a wikilink--they didn't used to). One more thing is that I removed the extern link to the Top 100 KLOV game list. The Manual of Style discourages it and the link is still in the extern links section. :As for creating the article, I think it looks a lot better now (and accurate) than the first version I created. Every encyclopedia should be a wiki! :-) User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 16:35, Aug 11, 2004 (UTC) ---- ==Golden Age or Golden age?== I see this article was moved, but I think it belongs at "Golden Age of Arcade Games." The title is a proper name of a period, not just an ambiguous reference. If you look at the disam page for Golden age, you'll see it is used differently for different periods. Which is correct? I assert the mostly caps version is the proper one and we should move it back. :-) User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 14:36, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC) :The term "golden age of arcade games" ''is'' an ambiguous reference - it's a colloquial term, not widely used, and is not "official" in any sense. It's kind of like referring to the "golden age of American transportation." I was concerned that by capitalizing it as "Golden Age of Arcade Games" someone would think that this is a well-defined term in common usage. - User:Brian Kendig 18:13, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC) It's not that big of a deal to me (and BTW, ''I'' use the term a lot :-) ). Anyways, the mostly caps version redirects to this article anyway. :-) Peace. User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 18:27, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC) :How about "Golden Age of arcade games," is that any better? - User:Brian Kendig 21:04, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC) ::Suggestion: ::(a) Choose ''whatever you like''. ::(b) Create redirects for all other options that have been suggested. It's not like these redirects will get in the way of anything of use up real life paper print space ;-) ::User:Ropers 00:36, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC) I'd prefer for the article to exist under the "most correct" title, whatever we decide that title to be, with all other "less correct" titles being redirects to it. Often there is a title which is more correct than others. Like, today I moved "Robotron 2084" to Robotron: 2084. - User:Brian Kendig 03:00, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC) :I'd prefer whatever is "most correct" as well. I don't know if it is "Golden Age of Arcade Games" or "Golden Age of arcade games" or what it is now. Are there any English language majors out there? User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 14:35, Aug 11, 2004 (UTC) ::If it is an article title, it should be written as: "The Golden Age of Arcade Games". --User:129.105.104.148 :Well, I'm all for it. But I'm afraid if I move it (again), someone will just move it back. User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 22:43, Oct 7, 2004 (UTC) ==New Arcade Games project== I just thought I should mention that a new WikiProject for arcade games has been started. If you want to help with the Wikipedia:WikiProject Arcade Games, head on over and add yourself to the Wikipedia:WikiProject Arcade Games#Participants! :-) User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 16:42, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC) ---- ==Featured Article?== What do y'all think about making this article a Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates? Even though I originated it, I think it's well-written, especially after all the edits by everyone else. I think we done ourselves proud! What do y'all think? User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 16:42, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC) :It's up there now--getting some useful comments. User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 07:21, Aug 22, 2004 (UTC) For those interested, you can go to Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates#Golden_age_of_arcade_games and look at the comments. If you're in the mood, try addressing User:Taxman's comments. For example, he thought the article should address ''Q-bert'' specifically (not sure why) and talk more about the ''Pac-Man'' phoenomena. I think the Pac-Man craze is addressed in it's own article, but we could include more info on it in this article too. User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 15:08, Aug 26, 2004 (UTC) :I think it looks fabulous, Frecklefoot. But I can't access the comments page you are talking about. I suspect I have a cache problem, because when I follow your link Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates#Golden_age_of_arcade_games and search within the page for golden it's not there: :Does anyone know which setting in IE 6 works best? Refresh every visit to the page, automatically, or other? I also constantly have a problem with the front page being stale. User:Spalding 17:23, Oct 6, 2004 (UTC) ==Crash== The video game crash of 1983 was all about the glut in the home market - I don't see that it had any influence on arcades. I don't think it had anything to do with the end of the arcade golden age. I'd recommend taking out ''"(when the video game market collapsed temporarily)"'' in the first paragraph. - User:Brian Kendig 14:44, 23 Aug 2004 (UTC) :I added that per discussion of the article on the Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates#Golden_age_of_arcade_games. I don't think it was affected either, but I thought the addition of it didn't hurt anything. If you disagree, take it out. Take a look at the discussion on the FAC page too. One editor wants mention of Q*Bert, but I didn't take the time to work it in (it was a good game, but was it ''that'' notable?). There are some other good comments (but I don't think the article made the cut) :( User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 15:53, Aug 24, 2004 (UTC) ---- ==Rework & additions== I just added a whole bunch of new content and moved some stuff around in order to address some of the comments raised on the Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates#Golden_age_of_arcade_games. We got some good input and some of my additions address them. Others, such as the list of most popular games, I added since it seemed like the article needed it. Please look over my changes and make any changes you feel appropriate. Please raise any issues here. One thing to note, I know the list of Most popular games is a bit subjective, so look it over and see if you agree with the entries. I tried to only add the most important games of the Age--I didn't want to add KLOV's entire list!--and I only included games from the late 1970's to the mid-1980's. I hope you like the changes! User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 18:24, Aug 26, 2004 (UTC) :I don't see a need for that list of "most popular games". It's highly subjective (unless you can provide revenue figures), you even acknowledge that some people consider the last couple outside the "Golden Age," and the first few are way before the "Golden Age." I think a list to KLOV's list will suffice, unless you want to draw attention to a particular few of these games by describing in the article why they are good examples of the period. - User:Brian Kendig 21:00, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC) ::I like the list. Instant nostalgia. User:Tempshill 18:18, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC) == Innovation ad nauseum == This article currently contains nine instances of the word "innovation" (and its variants). I think that's overkill. :) Especially as it's hard to say that a game like ''Centipede'' is one of "the most innovative" games; it succeeds because it's very simple, not because it's full of innovations. - User:Brian Kendig 20:54, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC) :A quick trip to Merriam-Webster shows these synonyms for "innovative": inventive, creative, demiurgic, deviceful, ingenious, innovational, innovatory, original, originative. By my count, that is nine in all. Replace at your leisure. :-) User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 21:02, Aug 30, 2004 (UTC) ::Sure, when I have a chance, unless someone else beats me to it! Buried in the Star Trek articles at the moment. :) - User:Brian Kendig 23:56, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC) == Console Confusion? == "...in the early to mid nineties the Super-Nintendo and the Sega Saturn greatly improved home play..." Do you perhaps mean the Sega ''Genesis''? The Saturn was the console Sega released after the Genesis, in competion with Sony's Playstation. --User:Vigil 19:49, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC) == Request for references == Hi, I am working to encourage implementation of the goals of the Wikipedia:Verifiability policy. Part of that is to make sure articles Wikipedia:Cite sources. This is particularly important for featured articles, since they are a prominent part of Wikipedia. Further reading is not the same thing as proper references. Further reading could list works about the topic that were not ever consulted by the page authors. If some of the works listed in the further reading section were used to add or check material in the article, please list them in a references section instead. The Wikipedia:WikiProject Fact and Reference Check has more information. Thank you, and please [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=User_talk:Taxman&action=edit§ion=new leave me a message] when a few references have been added to the article. - User:Taxman 19:07, Apr 22, 2005 (UTC)
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