Classic Arcade Games | Maynard's Online Arcade

The Existence of Classic Arcade Games

Posted on June 18th, 2009 by Vanand

Nowadays is the era of PC games. However, long ago, before PCs achieve a phenomenal stage, the only games of its kind that we knew, and a whole generation of Americans have played, were arcade games.

Arcade games consist of a simple, yet bulky machine, with a colorful screen, and some sticks or buttons to play with, and a device to put coins in, which allows the game to be played for a particular period of time.

Today, we can find arcade games that run on home consoles such as computers, by using emulators. In the old days, arcade games were only found, apart from the especial entertainment centres and video arcades, in restaurants, malls and movie halls. There were three main types of arcade games that played by kids and grown ups alike. They are the video games, famed pinball, and redemption games.

Yet, the old days of arcade games could be traced to the hugely popular games commonly known as the “amusement park midway games” like ball toss game and shooting galleries which were popular at the beginning of the 20th century.

The 1930s saw the first coin-operated pinball machines. Though being made of wood with all functions mechanical rather than electronic and being a far cry from the electronic ones that were to come much later, they were still quite a hit. The late seventies would see these mechanical pinballs being replaced by electronic games.

The change in fortunes of arcade games happened with the formation of a company called Atari in 1972. This company created the coin-operated machines, beginning with the electronic ping pong game, called Pong. Pong was a huge hit, and led to even more home video game systems being introduced onto the market.

Many games like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Space Invaders became huge hits in the late seventies and early eighties, paving the way to a revolution. The last breath to the arcade games was provided by the emergence of two player fighting games like Street Fighter II , Mortal Kombat¸ Fatal Fury, King of fighters etc in the early 90s. However, this was not to redeem the fate of arcade games completely, as the growth in computers and video technology saw the emergence of new type of games, including PC games and games that ran on special consoles such as the Playstation, Gameboy and the X-box pushing arcade games into the sidelines, to almost the end of their existence.