The Golden Age of Arcades

This is the period when arcades became part of the city landscape. But historians don't agree on when it began. Some date it from Space Invaders in 1978, some from 1979, and some from Computer Space, the first commercially sold arcade game, in 1971. This map doesn't pick one — it leaves the disagreement standing. As for the shape of it, one throughline is shared: Invaders lit the fuse in 1978, Asteroids in 1979 and Pac-Man in 1980 widened the audience, and the crash of 1983 ended it. From shooting, to fleeing, to eating. The fact that each play ended in a few dozen seconds for a single coin shaped the whole form of street-corner play.