Penny arcade A penny arcade can be any type of venue for
coin-operated devices, usually for entertainment. The term came into use about 1905–1910. •
bagatelles, a game with elements of
billiards and non-electrical pinball, • early forms of non-electrical
pinball machines, •
fortune-telling machinery, •
slot machines, • coin-operated
Amberolas • peep show machines (in the original, non-pornographic, usage of the term), which allowed the viewer to see various objects and pictures •
Mutoscopes •
love tester machines. • coin-operated shooter games and gun games Between the 1940s and 1960s, mechanical
arcade games evolved into
electro-mechanical games (EM games). Popular examples of EM games in the 1960s included shooters such as
Sega's
Periscope (1965) and
Rifleman (1967), and
racing games such as Kasco's
Indy 500 (1968) and
Chicago Coin's
Speedway (1969). Penny arcades later led to the creation of video arcades in the 1970s.
1970s and 1980s Video game arcades began to gain momentum in the late 1970s with games such as
Space Invaders (
1978) and
Galaxian (
1979) and became widespread in
1980 with
Pac-Man, Centipede and others. The
central processing unit in these games allowed for more complexity than earlier
discrete-circuitry games such as Atari's
Pong (
1972). During the late 1970s video-arcade game technology had become sophisticated enough to offer good-quality graphics and sounds, but it remained 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 explains why many of these games continue to be enjoyed today, despite the progress made by modern computing technology. The
golden age of arcade video games in the 1980s became a peak era of
video arcade game popularity, innovation, and earnings. Color arcade games became more prevalent and video arcades themselves started appearing outside their traditional bowling-alley and bar locales. Designers experimented with a wide variety of
game genres, while developers still had to work within strict limits of available processor-power and memory. The era saw the rapid spread of video arcades across
North America,
Western Europe and
Japan. The number of video-game arcades in North America, for example, more than doubled between 1980 and 1982, reaching a peak of 13,000 video game arcades across the region (compared to 4,000 in 1998). Beginning with
Space Invaders, video arcade games also started to appear in
supermarkets,
restaurants,
liquor stores,
filling stations and many other retail establishments looking for extra income. This boom came to an end in the mid-1980s, in what has been referred to as "
the great coin-op video crash of 1983". On November 30, 1982, Jerry Parker, the Mayor of
Ottumwa, Iowa, declared his city the "Video Game Capital of the World". This initiative resulted in many firsts in video game history. Playing a central role in arcade history, Ottumwa saw the birth of the
Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard and the
U.S. National Video Game Team, two organizations that still exist today. Other firsts that happened in the Video Game Capital of the World included: • the first video-game-themed parade (Jan. 8, 1983) • the first video game world championship (Jan. 8–9, 1983) • the first study of the brain waves of video-game champions (July 12, 1983) • the first billion-point video-game performance (Jan. 16, 1984) • the first official day to honor a video-game player (Jan. 28, 1984) High game-turnover in Japanese arcades required quick game-design, leading to the adoption of standardized systems like
JAMMA,
Neo-Geo and
CPS-2. These systems essentially provided arcade-only consoles where the video game ROM could be swapped easily to replace a game. This allowed easier development and replacement of games, but it also discouraged the hardware innovation necessary to stay ahead of the technology curve. Most US arcades didn't see the intended benefit of this practice since many games weren't exported to the US, and if they were, distributors generally refused to release them as simply a ROM, preferring to sell the entire ROM, console, and sometimes the cabinet as a package. In fact, several arcade systems such as Sega's
NAOMI board are arcade versions of home systems. Other problems were that many arcades focused on quantity more than quality, and that games showed a rising difficulty curve, making them increasingly inaccessible to casual players and more expensive for the skilled players.
1990s The rise of the fighting game genre with games such as
Street Fighter II and
Mortal Kombat, combined with the release of popular sports titles such as
NBA Jam and
NFL Blitz, led to a brief resurgence in the popularity of video arcades, with new locations opening in shopping malls and strip malls throughout the country in the early 90s. The arcade industry entered a major slump in mid-1994. The main reason for the slump was increasing competition from console ports. During the 1980s it typically took several years for an arcade game to be released on a home console, and the port usually differed greatly from the arcade version; during the mid-1990s it became common for a game publisher to release a highly accurate port of an arcade game that had yet to peak in popularity, thus severely cutting into arcade owners' profits. The bar was very popular with other bars later opening in the early 2000s in
King Street alongside the
strip clubs and at the shopping centre
Melbourne Central. A Barcode opened in
Times Square,
New York in May 2000 and was very popular, with the launch featuring on an episode of TV series
Sex and the City. Barcode Times Square closed in March 2003. Barcode Crown Casino closed in 2006, followed later by King Street and Melbourne Central. In the mid-2000s,
Madrid businessman Enrique Martínez updated the video arcade for the new generation by creating a "hybrid movie theater with...fog, black light, flashing green lasers, high-definition digital projectors, vibrating seats, game pads and dozens of 17-inch screens attached to individual chairs." At the Yelmo Cineplex in Spain, $390,000 was spent refitting a theater into a "high-tech video gaming hall seating about 50 people." In Germany, the
CinemaxX movie theater company was in 2007 also considering this approach. It conducted a four-month trial with video games to test the level of demand for video gaming in a theater setting. Manufacturers started adding innovative features to games in the 2000s.
Konami used motion and position sensing of the player in
Police 911 in 2000 and
Mocap Boxing in 2001.
Sega started using "Tuning cards" in games such as the
Initial D series of games allowing the customer to save game data on a card vended from the game;
Namco copied the idea with the
Maximum Tune series. Arcade games continued to use a variety of games with enhanced features to attract clients, such as motorized seating areas, interconnected games, and surround sound systems. Redemption and merchandiser games are also a staple of arcades in the 2000s. One of the most popular redemption games,
Deal or No Deal by ICE, simulates the popular
television game show. Merchandiser games such as
Stacker by LAI Games gives the player the chance to win high end prizes like iPods and video game consoles. At the same time as these innovations, a small resurgence in the interest of classic video games and arcades grew with the opening of
Barcade in Brooklyn, New York in 2004. Barcade combined a video arcade and a full bar, with a strict focus on classic machines from the 1970s and 1980s, known as the
golden age of arcade video games. The idea proved popular and Barcade received recognition as a good place to play classic video game cabinets, because it is "one of the few places where classic arcade games can still be found in public, and in good working order." Barcade's success influenced other similarly themed businesses which opened across the country. Other arcades, like
Ground Kontrol in Portland, Oregon, began including full bars in their arcades. Even regular bars added classic arcade games to their venues. As the trend grew, the industry and press looked for ways to classify these arcade bar hybrids, with the DNA Association branding them "social-tainment" and also referring to them as "game bars". Many of these newer game bars proved to be popular and expansion continued. In the UK, classic arcades such as Casino and Trocadero, both located in London, closed, with some of the games from Trocadero finding their way to a new arcade, Heart of Gaming in North Acton. The newer Loading Soho Gaming Cafe features arcade machines manufactured by
Bespoke Arcades for its customers to use. The UK is also home to the largest arcade in Europe, Arcade Club, located in Bury, Greater Manchester. Home to over 400 original arcade machines, it is recognised as the largest collection in Europe. In May 2019 Arcade Club opened a second venue in Leeds with a third announced for Blackpool opening in 2020, with actual opening delayed to 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. ==Types of games==