Reminiscing on Full Sized Arcade Games

Before people could take gaming home on PCs and gaming consoles, there were full sized arcade games. The history of coin-op machines is quite extensive and important to the development of the gaming industry as a whole. Arcades created a unified culture for serious and casual gamers alike. Here are some of the historic points that lead to the golden age of arcades:

• 1962: Spacewar was developed and released by Wayne Wiitanen, Martin Graetz, and Steve Russell at MIT. 
• 1971: Stanford University students rigged a machine to accept coins to play Spacewar. 
• 1972: The Atari was created by Nolan Bushnell. This gaming machine would become famous for the release of Pong. 

Once gaming cabinets began showing up in pizza parlors, malls, and bars in the late ‘70s, the golden age of arcade games commenced. While these arcades eventually lost their initial popularity, the general enthusiasm to play video games never died. In fact, arcades sparked a new kind of dedication from creative individuals to make this entertainment more challenging, more rich in graphics and sound, and more complex in story. Nevertheless, people still carry a nostalgia for the simple games of the past and actively search for arcade games for sale in order to replay the games of their childhood or their parents’ childhoods. Here are some of the best arcade games from the golden era that have carried their popularity to our current day: 

Street Fighter II

Most people don’t remember the first Street Fighter. However, its sequel became widely popular in 1991. The soundtrack and characters were impressively vivid and the controls were tight. This game essentially laid a foundation for all fighting games to come. While a pretty simple premise, the game was strangely addictive and created a fun, competitive atmosphere for friends in bars and arcades. Now, the game has been modernized and remade countless times. People can play this game on various devices and relive the nostalgia of the past. 

Pac-Man

When you talk about full sized arcade games, you have to mention Pac-Man, one of the most important games to come out of the 80’s. Nacmo started a cultural revolution when they put out this strangely simple, yet difficult game to eat all the dots on a map. The ghosts (Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde) became just as recognizable as the yellow Pac-Man himself. In fact, you could see these iconic characters on T-shirts, keychains, lunch boxes, and all kinds of other merchandise. People love to compare high scores and see how far they can go in this game that was never designed to end. The only barrier to playing this game forever is the 256th level, which has a split-screen glitch that makes it almost impossible to beat.

Space Invaders

In 1978, before the Pac-Man craze, Space Invaders was released by Japanese company Taito (American  gamers got to play it when Midway released the game). The space-inspired game held a premise of shooting at invading ships from the bottom of the screen to stop them from getting past. As the levels progress, the invaders get faster and more erratic. This game was a huge success and inspired many games to come (like Galaxian and Galaga). 

Donkey Kong

Did you know that Super Mario Bros actually came after Donkey Kong? Mario appeared as the hero of this game, but he was called “Jumpman.” Donkey Kong was the large and dangerous villain, who threw barrels at Jumpman as he tried to mount the twisted tower of girders to the princess. This game was challenging and required coordination and endurance in order for players to succeed. Essentially, Donkey Kong is largely responsible for the Nintendo franchise and its success in later years.

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