Arcade Games History
Essay by 24 • October 15, 2010 • 1,776 Words (8 Pages) • 1,926 Views
1) Computer Space, Nutting Associates 1971: this was the first ever commercial arcade video game which was released by the Nutting Associates in 1971. This game comprised of a simple design which had a 13" GE television built inside a fibre glass cabinet.
2) Pong, Atari Inc, 1972: This was the first ever commercially successful arcade game. This was built by the same person who built the previous arcade game but this time he formed a new company naming it ATARI. The game was very simple and the users could understand what they have to do very quickly thus the customers enjoyed the game and eventually becoming a big success. The game was made of a ball bouncing silently around the screen as if in a vacuum. The basic theme of the game was to avoid the ball on both sides thus the once every time you miss the ball you score points. Pond became such a hit that Atari had to made almost 38000 of the game. Later it was replaced by improved version of PONG known as the Pong Doubles.
3) Tank Kee Games, /Atari Inc 1974: This was the first arcade game that used the technology of using ROM (Read Only Memory). By using this sort of memory they were able to store graphic data in the chips and thus making the game more realistic. They replaced normal graphics like blocks that was used Pong and Computer Space by outing in more details figures in the game. This was big progressive thus making the game successful.
4) Gunfight, Taito/Midway 1975: This game was developed by the Midway Company in 1975. This game became famous since two players at the same time could play the game and also it used a microprocessor for the first time in an arcade game.
5) Night driver, Atari Inc.1976: This was the first game that was built with a first person perspective. Before this game there were racing game with a bird's eye view of the game. The night theme was chosen to make the game more attractive and also look complicated with its imaging. It was 3d game and for May years a lot of games were developed using the theme from the night driver.
6) Breakout, Atari Inc 1976: This game was developed by Steve Jobs and was helped by a gaming enthusiastic Steve Wozniak. These people are famous as they later formed a partnership to form Apple Computers which was a prototype build by borrowing parts from Atari.
7) Space Invaders, Taito/bally/Midway, 1978: This was a major hit with the customers. This was the first game that appear outside of the arcade and bars and reached out more to entertain people in restaurants and the also the ice cream parlours.
8) Football, Atari Inc 1978: This game immensely popular with the people. This was a true entertaining game and it caught the imagination of the people with its fast action and complex simulation of team sports. The game also introduced for the first time the track ball and the scrolling displays.
9) Asteroids, Atari Inc, 1980: This game was a big success commercially and it establishes arcade games as an entertaining media. This game was more popular with the adult professionals.
10) Warrior, Vectorbeam/Cinematronic, 1979: this game had excellent vector graphics and incredibly beautiful backdrop and internal cabinet and producing more complex mages than the Atari vector graphic hardware. This game was one to one fighting game. But the backdrop of this game was that cinematronics was far less reliable than the Atari game and they are very and warrior is among them.
11) Battle zone, Atari Inc, 1980: This game used the 3D gaming environment. the Us armed force was so impressed by the game that they commissioned Atari to build a new modified version of the game which was used by the army to train soldiers how to drive a tank.
12) Defender, Williams Electronics, 1980: this game was designed by Eugene Jarvis for William Electronics. This came became famous because for the first time this game featured an artificial world in which the player could see the events occurring outside the on screen view presented to the player.
13) Pac Man, Bally/Midway, 1980: Pac man was one of the most famous arcade games ever to be built. Pac man was licensed from the company Namco Pac man was based on an ancient Japanese folk tale. The game became very successful in Japan first and then it became famous in America. It took America by storm. The game basically was based on a small animal eating biscuits around a group of maze.
14) Donkey Kong, Nintendo Ltd 1981: This was one of the games that were built on a huge inventory of Radarscope arcade games which did not become famous like the other games. But the games design and construction helped to develop the ever famous game Mario.
15) Centipede, Atari Inc 1981: This game was first developed by woman designer and attracted women more than male. The game's colorful graphics and amazing game play was the focal point for its success.
16) Tempest, Atari Inc 1981: this was the first Atari game to utilize a colour vector display. The game used 3D wireframe graphics. This was a huge success and it came out in the market again in year 2000. This time it came out for Sony Playstation and personal computers.
17) Pole position, Namco/Atari 1982: this video game was first released by Namco in 1982. The player ad to complete one lap before he can enter F1 race. The game was a leading arcade game worldwide due to its breathtakingly realistic graphics. It also pioneered the popular rear view racer format which is quite common in today's game.
18) Robotron: 2084 William Electrics, 1982: Robotron was developed by the same team that developed the game Defender. At first the game was called Robotron 1982 before it was renamed after spending a long time on development on the game. The control scheme consisted of a joystick and a trek-ball. It also used some of the sounds that were used in developing defender.
19) Tron Bally/Midway, 1982: The story of the game was based on a Walt Disney picture. But the game became more famous than the film itself. Due to time and technological constraints, Discs of Tron was released as a separate game following the original's success.
20) Zaxxon, Sega Ltd., 1982: This was the first game that introduced 3D isometric perspective to video games. This was a huge success and also the stepping stone for providing more 3D arcade game.
21) Star Wars, Atari Inc,: The game was based on the movie and the series Star Wars. It became an instant hit with the people. It used great multi-color vector graphics, 12 channel music and sound effects with speech. The game became more famous than the movie itself at one point.
22) Dragon's
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