Arcade Crash of 1983

Pacman Arcade 1980's

In the late 1970's and early 1980's, practically every gas station had at least one or two arcade games, and the malls were another story all together.  The era of the pinball machine made way to the ever-increasing sophistication of the video arcade machine.  By 1982 in North America, there were 24,000 large-scale arcades (like the mall), 400,000 smaller locations (like gas stations and restaurants), and approximately 1.5 million arcade machines.  And the video arcade craze was just as popular in Europe and Asia.  Many refer to this time as the "Golden Age of Arcade Video Games".  Popular games like Space Invaders (1978), Pac-Man (1980), Donkey Kong (1981), and Frogger (1981) could be found just about everywhere.

The popularity of the video arcade gave rise to the home console market, and soon the Atari 2600 or Intellivision were on everyone's Christmas list.  By 1983, the market hit a saturation point, and the industry peaked in 1983 with sales of $3.2 billion dollars.  With video games everywhere, people migrating to the personal computer, and the home console market flooded by a number of different systems, by 1985, revenues were down to $100 million.  However, due in large part to the next generation of home console systems like the NES (1985) and Sega Genesis (1989), the video game market made a substantially comeback, especially in the home market, where it continues to dominate.

The list of most popular arcade games, and their release dates, were as follows:

  • Space Invaders (1978)
  • Galaxian (1979)
  • Lunar Lander (1979)
  • Asteroids (1979)
  • Battlezone (1980)
  • Berzerk (1980)
  • Centipede (1980)
  • Missile Command (1980)
  • Pac-Man (1980)
  • Phoenix (1980)
  • Rally-X  (1980)
  • Star Castle (1980)
  • Wizard of Wor (1980)
  • Defender (1981)
  • Tempest (1981)
  • Donkey Kong (1981)
  • Frogger (1981)
  • Scramble (1981)
  • Galaga (1981)
  • Gorf (1981)
  • Ms. Pac-Man (1981)
  • Qix (1981)
  • Vanguard (1981)
  • BurgerTime (1982)
  • Dig Dug (1982)
  • Donkey Kong Junior (1982)
  • Front Line (1982)
  • Joust (1982)
  • Jungle King (1982)
  • Moon Patrol (1982)
  • Pengo (1982)
  • Pole Position (1982)
  • Q*bert (1982)
  • Robotron 2084  (1982)
  • Gravitar (1982)
  • Star Trek (1982)
  • Time Pilot (1982)
  • Tron (1982)
  • Xevious (1982)
  • Zaxxon (1982)
  • Dragon's Lair (1983)
  • Elevator Action (1983)
  • Gyruss  (1983)
  • Mappy  (1983)
  • Mario Bros. (1983)
  • Spy Hunter (1983)
  • Star Wars (1983)
  • Tapper  (1983)
  • Track & Field (1983)
  • 1942 (1984)
  • Paperboy (1984)
  • Punch-Out!! (1984)