Arcade
Here is a definition of what the arcade platform is. An arcade game is a gaming machine most commonly found in public places such as pubs, restaurants and of course amusements where you can find a large quantity of arcades all in one place. An arcade machine is usually coin operated and play’s a single game. An arcade game can be many different things this ranges from a pinball game to a dance mat style arcade game and a classic joystick style of arcade game. The look of an arcade game is usually quite large consisting of an outer shell which contains the screen of the arcade and the inner workings, it also contains the controller on the outside ranging from a steering wheel, gun, a dance station or a fight stick style controller depending on what game you are playing. The outer shell of an arcade game usually has some indication on it as to what the game is, what I mean by this is it has a colourful image on the outside of the shell showing pictures of the game or characters of the game which is recognisable. Despite the arcade’s decline due to the consoles according to the MAMEDB online database it still has the largest video game library of any platform, more than 25,000 video game releases.
Arcade features and limitations
Here are some features and limitations of the arcade platform:
Features Coin Operated Controls are not universal One game per machine Co-op Support Wide range of machines with a variety of games Hard ware built for playing the one game What's is in a arcade machine A monitor - this is to display the game. Printed circuit boards or arcade system boards – this is what the game runs on. A power supply - provide power to the arcade system A marquee, bezel and control panel – all this are part of the outer shell the marque is what the title is displayed on the title of the game, the bezel or the border around the monitor and the control panel are the buttons what you play the game with. Coin slots, coin returns – where you insert coins. All the features I have listed also create limitations for the arcade machine. |
Here are the limitations created from having these features.
The coin operated feature creates a limitation for the replay value of a game. What I mean by this is having it being coin operated it does not allow for save files so you cannot continue from where you were after leaving the machine. Also in the case of consoles you will be paying an upfront amount for a game, yes it will be considerably more than an arcade but constantly paying to play the same game on it may stop some people form paying and playing the game.
The controls not being universal in some respects is a good thing, allowing for unique game play on different types of games, like on the guitar hero arcade game you get the guitar controller to play with and on the majority of shooting games you get a gun shaped controller which allows the game to be more immersive, despite this there are some limitations to it like even though the controls are very simplistic and easy to use moving from one controller to the other may be confusing and in some cases like the guitar hero and the dance station games playing and mastering are two completely different things.
The features one game per machine and the hard ware built for playing are in some aspects the same, They both fit into the arcade only having one game that it needs to play. The limitations here are that in the amusement location what I talked about earlier on where you can find arcades, there may be plenty of arcades all playing different games for the player to choose from but in the pub location there will only be one or two arcade machines giving the player a limited variety to choose from as each machine only contains one game. These are also the reasons why there are a wide amount of machines with a variety of games.
The Co-op support feature allows competitive game play between 2 to 4 players depending on how many machines they are spread out between. It can either be two players on a single machine or what you see with a lot of arcade racing games is four connected machines playing the same game this is the type of game which allows four players to race against each other. The limitation of this type of game play is that it does not allow any online multi player, what I mean by this is if two arcade machines are playing the same game but in separate locations they cannot connect with each other to play together. This type of feature can be seen later in the consoles.
The coin operated feature creates a limitation for the replay value of a game. What I mean by this is having it being coin operated it does not allow for save files so you cannot continue from where you were after leaving the machine. Also in the case of consoles you will be paying an upfront amount for a game, yes it will be considerably more than an arcade but constantly paying to play the same game on it may stop some people form paying and playing the game.
The controls not being universal in some respects is a good thing, allowing for unique game play on different types of games, like on the guitar hero arcade game you get the guitar controller to play with and on the majority of shooting games you get a gun shaped controller which allows the game to be more immersive, despite this there are some limitations to it like even though the controls are very simplistic and easy to use moving from one controller to the other may be confusing and in some cases like the guitar hero and the dance station games playing and mastering are two completely different things.
The features one game per machine and the hard ware built for playing are in some aspects the same, They both fit into the arcade only having one game that it needs to play. The limitations here are that in the amusement location what I talked about earlier on where you can find arcades, there may be plenty of arcades all playing different games for the player to choose from but in the pub location there will only be one or two arcade machines giving the player a limited variety to choose from as each machine only contains one game. These are also the reasons why there are a wide amount of machines with a variety of games.
The Co-op support feature allows competitive game play between 2 to 4 players depending on how many machines they are spread out between. It can either be two players on a single machine or what you see with a lot of arcade racing games is four connected machines playing the same game this is the type of game which allows four players to race against each other. The limitation of this type of game play is that it does not allow any online multi player, what I mean by this is if two arcade machines are playing the same game but in separate locations they cannot connect with each other to play together. This type of feature can be seen later in the consoles.
Arcade Timeline
Here is a list of some of the arcade style machines and games that helped mould the generation.
In 1971 the first ever coin operated video game was installed at the Stafford university in September it cost over £20,000 to build using a DEC PDP-11 Computer and vector display terminal, and in November a mass produced video game called Computer space was released.
In 1972 developed by Atari, Pong was released and became the first commercially successful coin operated video game selling more than 35,000 units.
In 1975 a game called Gun Fight was released this was the first game to use a microprocessor.
In 1978 a company called Taito Corporation released Space Invaders this became one of the most popular arcade games. Between 1978 and 1982 the business of arcade video games grew rapidly.
In 1979 Atari released Asteroids this was one of the most popular arcade games and ended up being Atari’s highest selling game.
In 1980 a few games were released these were Frogger, Galaxian, Centipede, Dig-Dug, Donkey Kong Jr, Tron and the most successful video game of all time, Pac-Man. This game sold over 350,000 arcade cabinets as it appealed to all kinds of gamers.
In 1981one of the first platform games was released, Donkey Kong. It was the second game ever to have multiple levels.
In 1985-86 the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Master system were released meaning people started switching to a home console game.
In 1991Street fighter 11 was released by Capcom which brought a much needed second wind to the industry. More fighting games like Mortal combat and Virtual fighter became hugely successful but again in the mid 90s the industry slowed down again.
In 1999 a different version of arcade games came out like the release of Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar hero this helped the arcade industry one again. This game was made possible by putting pressure sensors in the arrows using them basically as giant buttons
In the 21st century simulation games were released like Strike Fighter, Racing games and Hunting games.
None of these games would be possible without the invention of the TV/ monitor and every other console has used this since.
In 1971 the first ever coin operated video game was installed at the Stafford university in September it cost over £20,000 to build using a DEC PDP-11 Computer and vector display terminal, and in November a mass produced video game called Computer space was released.
In 1972 developed by Atari, Pong was released and became the first commercially successful coin operated video game selling more than 35,000 units.
In 1975 a game called Gun Fight was released this was the first game to use a microprocessor.
In 1978 a company called Taito Corporation released Space Invaders this became one of the most popular arcade games. Between 1978 and 1982 the business of arcade video games grew rapidly.
In 1979 Atari released Asteroids this was one of the most popular arcade games and ended up being Atari’s highest selling game.
In 1980 a few games were released these were Frogger, Galaxian, Centipede, Dig-Dug, Donkey Kong Jr, Tron and the most successful video game of all time, Pac-Man. This game sold over 350,000 arcade cabinets as it appealed to all kinds of gamers.
In 1981one of the first platform games was released, Donkey Kong. It was the second game ever to have multiple levels.
In 1985-86 the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Master system were released meaning people started switching to a home console game.
In 1991Street fighter 11 was released by Capcom which brought a much needed second wind to the industry. More fighting games like Mortal combat and Virtual fighter became hugely successful but again in the mid 90s the industry slowed down again.
In 1999 a different version of arcade games came out like the release of Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar hero this helped the arcade industry one again. This game was made possible by putting pressure sensors in the arrows using them basically as giant buttons
In the 21st century simulation games were released like Strike Fighter, Racing games and Hunting games.
None of these games would be possible without the invention of the TV/ monitor and every other console has used this since.