Entertainment Classics: How Coin Operated Games Have Become a Thing of the Past.
Coin operated games ruled the gaming industry once upon a time. There are still coin operated games available however you are likely to find them in specific arcade facilities or gaming bars. One does however remain prominent within its original business and that is slot machines, bringing in an estimated £3 billion in revenues each and every year in the United Kingdom.
This is due to the slots manufacturing business that Is still flourishing, meanwhile there are only a few manufacturers making retro arcade game machines left. This is widely due to the development of online game consoles and gaming devices meanwhile nothing compares to a real slot machine which is why it remains so popular across the globe. Slot machine makers are able to develop their designs and games to stay modern and they continued to implement new technology.
For the purposes of this article however we’re asking you to forget that rather little £3 billion detail as we instead turn our focus to traditional coin operated games. The type of which you’d find lining the walls of your local arcade in yesteryear.
In this article we trace the beginnings of these machines through an unapologetically nostalgic lens to their present day obsolescence. Read on to find out everything you need to know about the rise and fall of coin operated games.
Arcade Games: The Origin Story
In the final decade of the 19th century the world’s first slot machine was released onto the market. The Liberty Bell as it was known, allowed players to spin the mechanical reels in a bid to win prizes, which as the machines were located in bars, usually ended up being free drinks, snacks or meals.
Over the next couple of decades slot machines would become more sophisticated and feature large, financial prizes. The success of these machines spurred on entrepreneurial inventors to create non-gambling recreational game machines, and this birthed pinball tables.
Rising to prominence in the 1930s, pinball machines were then ruled as games of chance in the 1940s and banned in many places. In the United States this led inventors to come up with alternative arcade style games which in the 1960s coincided perfectly with the so-called ‘technological renaissance’.
First Video Games
Periscope, an arcade shooting submarine simulator by Sega was the first game to be released that we would recognise as a video game in 1966. This invention led to a glut of arcade video games being released.
The start of the 1970s saw the steepest rise with games like Spacewar! And Pong capturing the public imagination. It was during this period that we first started to see purpose built arcade halls where people could go to try out the latest games.
That said, it wasn’t until the end of the decade that arcade games really struck a chord with the public.
The Golden Age of Arcade Games
The period from 1978 to 1983 is widely regarded by many as the Golden Age of arcade games as this was when we saw the release of games such as: Asteroids, Berzerk, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Scramble and Zaxxon.
This was also a Golden Age as it was when every town in the country seemed to have not just one but two or three purpose built arcade halls. Places where people of all ages would congregate to play a wide range of games with friends or on their own.
During this period it wasn’t just arcade halls trying to get in on the action. Bars, restaurants, shopping centres and even pharmacies were buying up coin operated games to keep their customers entertained, and spending money!
After the Rise Comes the…
What goes up must come down and so was the case with coin operated arcade games. Why? Well unlike other big issues this one has a much simpler reason behind it – console gaming. In the mid-1990s consoles not only became more sophisticated, but they also became a lot more affordable which opened them up to a huge audience of gamers.
Throughout the rest of the 1990s, as consoles became more and more advanced and more popular, we began to see a marked decline in the popularity of arcades. The final nail in the coffin of arcade gaming came with the release of the iPhone in 2007.
Up until then arcade gaming, whilst it had undoubtedly shrunk, still served a role in the entertainment landscape – it was nostalgic and soothing and a place for those who didn’t have a console to enjoy gaming.
The release of the iPhone in 2007 ushered in the age of mobile gaming, which now accounts for 79% of the 2.69 billion gamers across the globe. What affected arcade gaming so badly as well was the fact that mobile gaming directly appealed to their remaining demographic.
Mobile gaming, if you think about it, is essentially a mini version of arcade gaming from yesteryear just sat there in your pocket. It’s no wonder then that at last count there were only around 2,500 arcade halls left in the United States.
The last coin operated game still standing is the slot machine, which judging by current revenues is more popular now than it has ever been.