Benny's Arcade Life
The ongoing saga of a retro-gamer building his home arcade dream.
A Brief History of the Arcades:
Although there's quite a bit of variation of opinion on the subject, the Golden Age of the Arcades starts at around the late 1970s, and ending toward the mid-1980s. I personally feel that the range was 1978 - 1983, even though my home town of Lincoln, Nebraska didn't seem to notice it much until around 1987.
1978 was the introduction of the game Space Invaders, produced by Taito. It was an overnight success. In Japan the game got so big that it caused a shortage of the '100 yen' coin that was used to play arcade games. Major classics soon following like Pac-Man, Defender, Galaga, Donkey Kong, and many others. Arcades sprung up everywhere. Even convenience stores, movie theater lobbies, resturants, and many more businesses would place at least one arcade game in their establishments to draw more business.
The manufactures worked feverishly to keep up with demand. As a result, game makers began to put out new games faster, but at a diminished quality & design. People began to get burned out on the 'crappy' new games that started showing up and interest started to wain. Combined with the emergence of ever-improving home consoles (like the NES), the arcades were all but doomed.
Obviously, arcades have started to come back into the limelight in the form of entertainment centers that also sell food and beverage on the side, with the majority of the video games being 'redemption style' games. For a more detailed synopsis of the rise and fall of the arcades, check out Laura June's article from 2013 on The Verge.
I also have created a page specifically related to the history of arcades in my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska.