Arcade

A coin-operated machine that usually is in restaurants,shopping malls,laundromats,movie theaters,collage campuses,and other public places.Arcade games started to get popular in the late 1970's & the early 1980's.Arcades such as Pong,Space Invaders,Pac Man,and Donkey Kong were popular. The arcade popularity was beginning to fade due to the reputation of arcades being unsafe and video game console technology was improving.In the 1990's fighting games were making arcades popular again.New generation of Games like Street Fighter II ,Mortal Kombat,Fatal Fury,and Killer Instinct were extremely popular and lead to competitive two player battles.By the mid-90's,Computers were more popular due to the technology of graphics and more customizable.Fighting games were more popular than other games due to the face-to-face competition and game tournaments,which it meant that players practiced more and spent more money,however they could not support the business by themselves. Many old video game arcades have closed down and now arcades are just a hobby for arcade collectors.Arcades are now more a social hangout place and focused on an individual's performance like rhythm games as Dance Dance Revolution Extreme and BeatMania and rail shooters like The House of the Dead 4 and Area 51.Emulators like MAME,which run a lot of arcade games through a modern computer,it's used to preserve the history of arcade game history.Xbox Live and Wii Virtual Console has emulated arcade games through there online service.Most arcades are in chain entertainment centers combined with food restaurants and bar environment.Today most arcades are dedicated to emulators or restored by collectors.Mame arcade cabinets are more fun and better than the original cabinets because they have thousands of emulated games,high quality speakers and can be smaller due to the popularity of LCD monitors.