The first coin-operated arcade games were first made in the
1930s, when the first coin operated pin-ball machines were made.
Arcade games use large boxes containing the arcade game
device inside (computer, TV etc.) and can take up lots of space. The arcades could
only contain one game at a time, so arcades (buildings) would have more games
spread around their rooms so customers had more choice of which games to play.
Over time, the community of arcade players has gotten smaller as consoles and
mobile games are more popular. Many arcade games are now emulated on consoles
or PC.
In 1966, Sega introduced an electro-mechanical game called
Periscope. It was an early submarine simulator and light gun shooter, which
used lights and plastic waves to simulate sinking ships from a submarine. It
became a worldwide success in Japan, Europe, and North America, where it was
the first arcade game to cost a quarter per play, which would remain the
standard price for arcade games for many years to come. In 1967, Taito released
an electro-mechanical arcade game of their own, Crown Soccer Special, a
two-player sports game that simulated association football, using various
electronic components, including electronic versions of pinball flippers.
Throughout the 1970s, electro-mechanical arcade games were
gradually replaced by electronic video games, following the release of Pong in
1972. In 1972, Sega released an electro-mechanical game called Killer Shark, a
first-person light gun shooter known for appearing in the 1975 film Jaws. In
1974, Nintendo released Wild Gunman, a light gun shooter that used full-motion
video projection from 16 mm film to display live-action cowboy opponents on the
screen. One of the last successful electro-mechanical arcade games was F-1, a
racing game developed by Namco and distributed by Atari in 1976; the game was
shown in the films Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Midnight Madness (1980), as was
Sega's Jet Rocket in the latter film. The 1978 video game Space Invaders,
however, dealt a yet more powerful blow to the popularity of electro-mechanical
games.
Emulators such as MAME, which can be run on modern computers
and a number of other devices, aim to preserve the games of the past.
Legitimate emulated titles started to appear on the Sony PlayStation and Sega
Saturn, with CD-ROM compilations such as Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari
Collection 1, and on the PlayStation 2 and GameCube with DVD-ROM titles such as
Midway Arcade Treasures.
Most arcade games would use vector-based graphics but some,
like the 1984 star wars game used raster graphics instead.
Arcade games frequently have more immersive and realistic
game controls than either PC or console games, including specialized ambiance
or control accessories: Fully enclosed dynamic cabinets with force feedback
controls, dedicated light guns, rear-projection displays, reproductions of
automobile or airplane cockpits, motorcycle or horse-shaped controllers, or
highly dedicated controllers such as dancing mats and fishing rods. These
accessories are usually what set modern video games apart from other games, as
they are usually too bulky, expensive, and specialized to be used with typical
home PCs and consoles. (right Star wars Game cabinet – 1983).
Arcade games often have short levels, simple and intuitive
control schemes, and rapidly increasing difficulty. This is due to the
environment of the Arcade, where the player is essentially renting the game for
as long as their in-game avatar can stay alive (or until they run out of
tokens).
Arcade games are currently being downloaded and emulated
through the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console Service starting in 2009 with Gaplus,
Mappy, Space Harrier, Star Force, The Tower of Druaga, Tecmo Bowl, Altered
Beast and many more. Other classic arcade games such as Asteroids, Tron, Discs
of Tron, Yie Ar Kung-Fu, Pac-Man, Joust, Battlezone, Dig Dug, Robotron: 2084,
and Missile Command are emulated on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.
Most modern arcade games make extensive use of solid state
electronics and integrated circuits. In the past coin-operated arcade video
games generally used custom per-game hardware often with multiple CPUs, highly
specialized sound and graphics chips, and the latest in computer graphics
display technology. Recent arcade game hardware is often based on modified
video game console hardware or high-end PC components.
Arcade games such as Battlefront and Star Wars typically
used wire frame vector based graphics to create 3D motion.
Vector graphics is the use of geometrical elements such as
points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon(s), which are all based on
mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics.
"Vector", in this context, implies more than a straight line.
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