Arcades

(The author does not own any of the pictures or media they represent)

Do you remember being in an arcade when you were a kid? The bright light, the sound of explosions and gunfire, the feel of hundreds of quarters in your pockets, and the difficulty of picking which games to play before your parents told you it was time to go? Those were the greatest days of our youth.

The arcade is an important part of the history of Video Games as it helped bring the games we developed into the world for a very cheap price and in return we got mainstream audiences from all over the country to play these games in underground areas were people of all ages came and played them.

Believe it or not but the first real arcade game was a game developed by Sega in the 1960's called Periscope where you played as a submarine in a simulation while having a light gun to shoot with. Other games by Sega and a few small company's would be developed but it wasn't until then 1972 game Pong that arcades really started to be pushed into light.

Pong is known as the revolutionary game that really brought video games into light. The game was everywhere and everyone wanted to play this game and spend hours (and quarters) on it for their amusement. Throughout the 70's and 80's more and more arcade games would appear such as Galaxian, Donkey Kong, Pac-man, Space Invaders, Centipede, and Missile Command.

As arcade games started becoming more popular. The head of Atari, Nolan Bushnell, though of an idea on how to get kids to play arcades more. He took three things that kids loved: Food, games, and cartoon like animals to combine them into one of his greatest creations. The restaurant known as Chuck E. Cheese. This was the first real kids themed restaurant and I'm sure all of us can remember going to these places either as a kid or an adult. It was perfect for children with tons of pizza, a cool getto looking rat, and tons and tons of arcade games. To day Chuck E. Cheese isn't as popular as it was, but in our memories it still remains as the most popular place to hang out when I was kid.

The 1990's were one of the biggest times in Arcade history, but sadly it would also be the last one. Two new ideas for arcade games grew huge in popularity at the time and were known to be the most popular brands of arcade games at the time. The first was the Arcade Fighting game were you could not only play against a computer but all your best friend in a VS mode. Games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and the King of Fighters games were all a huge success and started a list of series that to this day are still popular.

The second popular game was the Rail Shooter. This was when you were given a electronic toy gun and had to fight against waves of enemies and bosses to get the highest score in the fastest time. It made you feel like you were in the game and the quickness of your reflex and the accuracy of your aiming were key into winning the game. This was my favorite type of arcade game to play when I was a kid and I was one of the best in the popular game Time Crises, in fact the last time I went to my favorite arcade before it closed down I still had the highest score. Other famous games I remember were Virtual Cop, House of the Dead, CarnEvil, and Area 51.

However, as the millennium came the number of people who went to arcades didn't. The home consoles were becoming more and more popular and people started going out less to hang out in Arcades and just started hanging out at home with their friends or playing online. Arcades did get some life back with Rhythm type games like Dance Dance Revolution, but even that wasn't enough to save them. Today Arcades are well...dead I guess in a sense, at least in the US.

You will most likely never find another arcade in your area unless you look hard and are lucky. In fact the only place I know of that still has Arcades is Japan where you can find them anywhere. Still we mustn't forget the arcade as they are important to us as Gamers by both history and our earliest memories of gaming.

So never forget the fun you had with them