Video Games!

And Arcade gaming

Since the assignment was to talk about anything of interest with a minimum of 3 photos lets go for the easy answer of video games!

History of "Video Games"

When asked about the very first video game ever released most experts will tell you that it was Pong, the famous table tennis inspired video game released in 1972 by Atari Inc. But Pong wasn't the first one, as a company called Nutting Associates had already released their Computer Space game in 1971. Computer Space was created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabne, who later founded Atari. The gaming idea was based on "Spacewar!", but the really revolutionary concept was to create a machine specifically for a game (instead of programming a game for an existing hardware). The classic arcade game had been invented.

Pong

Pong - invented the next year in 1972 - was more popular than Nutting Associates' Computer Space because of its simplicity in comparison. The base idea of pong was taken from the sport of Tennis and it's simplicity made it gain popularity.

The "Golden Age" of Arcades

Taito's Space Invaders, in 1978, proved to be the first blockbuster arcade video game. Its success marked the beginning of the golden age of arcade video games. Video game arcades sprang up in shopping malls, and small "corner arcades" appeared in restaurants, grocery stores, bars and movie theaters all over the United States, Japan and other countries during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Space Invaders (1978), Galaxian (1979), Pac-Man (1980), Battlezone (1980), Defender (1980), and Bosconian (1981) were especially popular. By 1981, the arcade video game industry was worth US$8 billion ($22 billion in 2018).

space invaders machine

During the late 1970s and 1980s, chains such as Chuck E. Cheese's, Ground Round, Dave and Busters, ShowBiz Pizza Place and Gatti's Pizza combined the traditional restaurant or bar environment with arcades. By the late 1980s, the arcade video game craze was beginning to fade due to advances in home video game console technology. By 1991, US arcade video game revenues had fallen to $2.1 billion.

The Present

In the 2000s and 2010s, arcades have found a niche market by providing games that use special controllers largely inaccessible to home users, such as dance games that have a floor that senses the user's dancing. An alternative interpretation (one that includes fighting games, which continue to thrive and require no special controller) is that the arcade is now a more socially-oriented hangout, with games that focus on an individual's performance, rather than the game's content, as the primary form of novelty. Examples of today's popular genres are rhythm games such as Dance Dance Revolution (1998) and DrumMania (1999), and rail shooters such as Virtua Cop (1994), Time Crisis (1995) and House of the Dead (1996)

Drum Mania

Worldwide, arcade game revenues gradually increased from US$1.8 billion in 1998 to US$3.2 billion in 2002, rivaling PC game sales of US$3.2 billion that same year. In particular, arcade video games are a thriving industry in China, where arcades are widespread across the country. The US market has also experienced a slight resurgence, with the number of video game arcades across the nation increasing from 2,500 in 2003 to 3,500 in 2008, though this is significantly less than the 10,000 arcades in the early 1980s. As of 2009, a successful arcade game usually sells around 4000 to 6000 units worldwide