Donkey Kong Arcade Game For Sale

Universal v. Nintendo
CourtUnited States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Full case nameUniversal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd.
Decided1984
Citation(s)746 F.2d 112
Court membership
Judge(s) sittingRobert W. Sweet

Nintendo World Championship Cart Currently Going For Over $90,000. Submitted by SoulChimera. The near mythical cart was only manufactured an alleged 116 times as it was created exclusively for the US-based Nintendo Entertainment System tournament in 1990. 90 copies in a grey cart - like the one currently on sale - were distributed to the competition's finalists, while another 26 were forged.

Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd. was a case heard by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York by Judge Robert W. Sweet. In their complaint, Universal Studios alleged that Nintendo's video gameDonkey Kong was a trademark infringement of King Kong, the plot and characters of which Universal claimed as their own. Nintendo argued that Universal had themselves proven that King Kong's plot and characters were in the public domain in Universal City Studios, Inc. v. RKO General, Inc.

Sweet ruled that Universal had acted in bad faith by threatening Nintendo's licensees and that it had no right over the name King Kong or the characters and story. He further held that there was no possibility for consumers to confuse Nintendo's game and characters with the King Kong films and their characters. Universal appealed the case, but the verdict was upheld. The case was a victory for Nintendo, which was still a newcomer to the U.S. market. The case established Nintendo as a major player in the industry and arguably gave the company the confidence that it could compete with the giants of American media.[1]

Background[edit]

In 1982, Sid Sheinberg, the president of MCA and Universal City Studios and a seasoned attorney, was trying to find a way to get his company into the booming video game market.[2] In April, he learned of the success of Nintendo's Donkey Kong video game and sent Robert Hadl, vice president of legislative matters, to investigate. Hadl's analysis was that Donkey Kong's storyline was based on that of King Kong and was thus an infringement of Universal's rights to that film's characters and scenario.[3]

Sheinberg also learned of a licensing agreement between Nintendo and Coleco, a producer of home video game consoles. Sheinberg scheduled a meeting with Coleco president Arnold Greenberg on April 27, 1982, ostensibly to discuss possible investment in Coleco. Instead, Universal admonished Greenberg for copyright infringement and threatened to sue if the ColecoVision shipped with Donkey Kong as planned. The next day, Universal telexed Coleco and Nintendo giving them 48 hours to cease marketing Donkey Kong, to dispose of all Donkey Kong inventory, and to hand over all records of profits made from the game.[4] On May 5, Greenberg agreed to pay Universal royalties of 3% of Donkey Kong's net sale price, amounting to six million units and worth about $4.6 million.[5] A week later, he signed an agreement that stated that Universal would not sue Coleco as long as Coleco paid royalties.[4]

Meanwhile, Hadl learned that Tiger Electronics had licensed King Kong for a handheld game. He decided that Universal's earnings from it were too low and that the license's granting of exclusive rights to Tiger would impede the agreement with Coleco. On May 4, Sheinberg sent Tiger a mailgram demanding that they send their game in for further approval.[6] Universal reviewed it and decided that King Kong was too similar to Donkey Kong. On May 8, Sheinberg revoked Tiger's license, but Tiger president O. R. Rissman refused to give in and challenged Universal's claim that it owned the King Kong name.[7]

Nintendo's attorney (and future board member) Howard Lincoln was at first inclined to settle for $5–7 million.[8] Eventually, however, he decided to fight, reassuring the head of the company's U.S. division, Minoru Arakawa, that this was a sign that Nintendo had made it big.[9] On May 6, Arakawa and Lincoln met with Coleco and Universal in Los Angeles. Hadl reiterated his stance that Donkey Kong infringed Universal's rights to King Kong. Lincoln countered that Nintendo had discovered many unlicensed uses of King Kong's name and characters and that Universal's trademark on these was less than 10 years old. In private, Greenberg tried to persuade Nintendo to sign a licensing agreement; he had not told them that he had already done so.[6] By the end of the meeting, Hadl agreed to send a chain of title to Nintendo regarding Universal's ownership of the King Kong name. When this failed to materialize in the next few weeks, Lincoln prodded Universal again. They responded with more demands for royalties.[7]

Lincoln researched the merits of Universal's claims to King Kong and deemed them untenable.[10] Nintendo called for another meeting, which was set up for May 21. Believing that Nintendo was finally caving,[7] Sheinberg intimated that Nintendo might expect future business from Universal if they agreed to settle the matter. Lincoln only repeated Nintendo's position that Universal had no legal basis to make any threats.[10] He recalled later,

Mr. Arakawa and I decided that we would go down and simply tell him [Sheinberg] that we've come to tell you to your face that we would pay you if we thought we were liable, but we had done our homework and we were not prepared to pay anything because we hadn't done anything wrong. We just wanted to essentially look him in the face and tell him that. It seemed the honorable thing to do.As it turned out, maybe Hadl had led him to believe that we had come down to reach some sort of monetary settlement with him. And it was really funny because it was not what he was expecting and his reaction was shock.[11]

Knowing that a court battle lay ahead, Hadl contacted Rissman, the errant Tiger licensee, to compromise on the handheld King Kong game. Hadl wanted to remove the exclusivity provision of the license and to distinguish the handheld game from Donkey Kong so as to weaken any potential counterclaims that one of Universal's licensees had violated Nintendo's intellectual property rights. Rissman complied, giving the hero a fireman hat, replacing barrel graphics with bombs, and making the game platforms straight instead of crooked. This design was approved in early June.[10]

District court[edit]

On June 29, 1982, Universal officially sued Nintendo. The company also announced that it had agreed to license the rights to King Kong to Coleco. On January 3, 1983, Universal then sent cease-and-desist letters to Nintendo's licensees offering three options: stop using Donkey Kong characters, obtain a license from Universal, or be sued. Six licensees caved, but Milton Bradley refused to do so.[12] When Ralston Purina's offer of $5,000 for the use of Donkey Kong characters on breakfast cereal was turned down, they also refused to settle.[13]

Lincoln hired John Kirby to represent Nintendo in court. Kirby had won other big cases for the likes of PepsiCo., General Foods, and Warner-Lambert.[14] Kirby researched the game's development, taking depositions from designer Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi in Japan. Miyamoto claimed that he had in fact called his ape character King Kong at first, as that was a generic term in Japan for any large ape.[15]

Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo, Co., Ltd. was heard at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York by Judge Robert W. Sweet. The trial lasted seven days, during which Universal, represented by the New York firm Townley & Updike, argued that the name Donkey Kong could be confused with King Kong and that the plot of the game was an infringement on that of the film.[16] Kirby showed key differences between Donkey Kong and King Kong. He also alleged that Universal had no rights to the King Kong characters and that they had in fact successfully sued RKO Pictures in 1975 in Universal City Studios, Inc. v. RKO General, Inc., wherein they proved that the plot of King Kong was in the public domain and thus opened the way for Dino De Laurentiis's remake.[17]

Judge Sweet ruled against Universal and chastised the company:

Throughout this litigation, Universal knew, as a result of the RKO litigation, that it had no rights to any visual image of King Kong from the classic movie or its remake.Nonetheless, Universal, when it seemed beneficial, made sweeping assertions of rights, attempting to extract license agreements from companies incapable of or unwilling to confront Universal's 'profit center.'[18]

He ruled that Universal did not own King Kong,[19] but even if King Kong was Universal's property, the possibility that anyone would confuse Donkey Kong and King Kong was unlikely. In his opinion, Donkey Kong was 'comical' and the ape character 'farcical, childlike and nonsexual.' The King Kong character, on the other hand, was 'a ferocious gorilla in quest of a beautiful woman.' Sweet declared that 'At best, Donkey Kong is a parody of King Kong.'[20] Furthermore, Sweet said, the cease-and-desist letters that Universal had sent to Nintendo's licensees gave the game company the right to seek damages. Finally, Sweet ruled that Tiger's King Kong was an infringement of Donkey Kong:

Donkey Kong's particular expression of a gorilla villain and a carpenter hero (with or without a fire hat) who must dodge various obstacles (whether bombs or fireballs) while climbing up ladders (whether complete or broken) and picking up prizes (umbrellas or purses) to rescue a fair-haired (whether knotted or pigtailed) hostage from the gorilla is protractible against Universal and its licensees.[21]

Kong

Nintendo was given the option to either take Universal's licensing profits for their game or accept statutory damages. Nintendo opted for the former, receiving $56,689.41.[17] Nintendo also received damages and attorney's fees.

Appeal[edit]

Universal appealed the verdict to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Nintendo and Universal argued the appeals case on May 23, 1984. As evidence of consumer confusion, Universal presented the results of a telephone survey of 150 managers and owners of arcades, bowling alleys, and pizza restaurants who owned or leased Donkey Kong machines. To the question 'To the best of your knowledge, was the Donkey Kong game made with the approval or under the authority of the people who produce the King Kong movies?', 18% of those surveyed answered in the affirmative. However, to the question 'As far as you know, who makes Donkey Kong?', no one named Universal.[22] Universal argued that this was enough evidence to show that consumers were confused about the distinction between the two names.

They also provided six examples from print media of more cases of confusion between Donkey Kong and King Kong. The October 1982 issue of Videogaming Illustrated, for example, was shown to read 'our Donkey Kong presentation continues as we look at other gorillas who have had a fondness for women. Prominent among them is King Kong, who has much in common with the video villain.' Another example was Craig Kubey's 1982 The Winner's Book of Video Games, which states that 'Donkey Kong [is] a video version of the film classic King Kong.'[23]

In its decision on October 4, 1984, the court upheld the previous verdict. They declared that 'The two properties have nothing in common but a gorilla, a captive woman, a male rescuer, and a building scenario.' Further, the court ruled that 'The 'Kong' and 'King Kong' names are widely used by the general public and are associated with apes and other objects of enormous proportions.'[24] As for Universal's survey, the court found it unconvincing, as Universal did not own the 'image . . . of King Kong climbing the Empire State Building/World Trade Center with Fay Wray/Jessica Lange in his paw' and that by only soliciting opinions from people who already had Donkey Kong games, the survey failed to establish confusion from potential customers. Finally, the survey asked 'an obvious leading question in that it suggested its own answer.'[22]

Regarding Universal's printed examples, the court found that

The statements cited by Universal recognize that the Donkey Kong theme loosely evokes the King Kong films. However, none of the statements remotely suggests that the authors were under the impression that Donkey Kong was connected with the company holding the King Kong trademark.[25]

The court agreed that some consumers were confused about the two marks. 'However, the fact that there may be a few confused consumers does not create a sufficiently disputed issue of fact regarding the likelihood of confusion so as to make summary judgment improper.'[26]

Counterclaims and second appeal[edit]

When Nintendo filed its counterclaims on May 20, 1985, Sweet ruled that Universal would pay Nintendo $1.8 million for 'legal fees, photocopying expenses, costs incurred creating graphs and charts, and lost revenues.'[27] He ruled against Nintendo's claims to damages from Universal establishing licenses with Nintendo's licensees in those cases where the licensees continued to pay Nintendo.[28] Nintendo's licensees, Coleco among them, filed their own counterclaims. Universal paid Coleco by buying stock in the company.[29]

Universal and Nintendo both appealed the counterclaims suit. The case was argued on June 16, 1986.[30]

In the decision, rendered on July 15, the court upheld the previous verdicts. They ruled that,

First, Universal knew that it did not have trademark rights to King Kong, yet it proceeded to broadly assert such rights anyway. This amounted to a wanton and reckless disregard of Nintendo's rights.

Second, Universal did not stop after it asserted its rights to Nintendo. It embarked on a deliberate, systematic campaign to coerce all of Nintendo's third party licensees to either stop marketing Donkey Kong products or pay Universal royalties.

Finally, Universal's conduct amounted to an abuse of judicial process, and in that sense caused a longer harm to the public as a whole. Depending on the commercial results, Universal alternatively argued to the courts, first, that King Kong was a part of the public domain, and then second, that King Kong was not part of the public domain, and that Universal possessed exclusive trademark rights in it. Universal's assertions in court were based not on any good faith belief in their truth, but on the mistaken belief that it could use the courts to turn a profit.[31]

Nintendo thanked John Kirby with a $30,000 sailboat christened the Donkey Kong along with 'exclusive worldwide rights to use the name for sailboats.'[32] The character in Nintendo's Kirby series of video games may have been named after John Kirby, in honor of his services in the Donkey Kong case.[33][34] It is rumored that a copy of the game was eventually sent to John Kirby who was humored and flattered.[35]

The case was listed on GameSpy's list of the '25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming'.[36]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^Sheff 127.
  2. ^Sheff 123.
  3. ^Kent 211.
  4. ^ abKent 212.
  5. ^Sheff 121.
  6. ^ abKent 213.
  7. ^ abcKent 214.
  8. ^Sheff 119.
  9. ^Sheff 117.
  10. ^ abcKent 215.
  11. ^Quoted in Kent 214.
  12. ^Kent 215–6.
  13. ^Second Court of Appeals, 1986, 74–5
  14. ^Sheff 122.
  15. ^Sheff 124.
  16. ^Second Court of Appeals, 1986, 74.
  17. ^ abKent 217.
  18. ^Quoted in Kent 217.
  19. ^Sheff 125.
  20. ^Second Court of Appeals, 1984, 116.
  21. ^Quoted in Kent 217–8.
  22. ^ abSecond Court of Appeals, 1984, 118.
  23. ^Both quoted in Second Court of Appeals, 1984, 120 note 9.
  24. ^Second Court of Appeals, 1984, 117.
  25. ^Second Court of Appeals, 1984, 119.
  26. ^Second Court of Appeals, 1984, 120 note 8.
  27. ^Quoted in Kent 218.
  28. ^Second Court of Appeals, 1986, 72.
  29. ^Kent 218.
  30. ^Second Court of Appeals, 1986, 70.
  31. ^Second Court of Appeals, 1986, 77–8.
  32. ^Quoted in Sheff 126.
  33. ^Zablotny, Marc (September 20, 2012). 'How did your favourite Nintendo characters get their names?'. Official Nintendo Magazine. Archived from the original on September 24, 2012. Retrieved March 26, 2014.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  34. ^Turi, Tim (June 17, 2011). 'Miyamoto Talks Wii U, Zelda, And Nintendo's Past'. Game Informer. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  35. ^'HAL Laboratory: Company Profile'. N-Sider.com. Retrieved 2012-08-15.
  36. ^'Universal Goes Ape'. 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming. GameSpy. June 2003. Archived from the original on March 12, 2008. Retrieved 2012-12-26.

References[edit]

  • Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokémon and Beyond- The Story behind the Craze that Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN0-7615-3643-4.
  • Sheff, David (1999). Game Over: Press Start to Continue: The Maturing of Mario. Wilton, Connecticut: GamePress.
  • 'Smash Profile: Kirby'. IGN. 2001-06-22. Retrieved 2007-04-25.
  • United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit (October 4, 1984). Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd.
  • United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit (July 15, 1986). Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd.
  • 'Universal Goes Ape'. The 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming. GameSpy. June 2003. Archived from the original on 2007-06-10. Retrieved 2006-03-03.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Universal_City_Studios,_Inc._v._Nintendo_Co.,_Ltd.&oldid=917768512'
GiGO, a large 6 floor Sega game center on Chuo Dori, in front of the LAOX Aso-Bit-City in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan

An amusement arcade (often referred to as 'video arcade' or simply 'arcade') is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers (such as claw cranes), or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables. In some countries, some types of arcades are also legally permitted to provide gambling machines such as slot machines or pachinko machines. Games are usually housed in cabinets. The term used for ancestors of these venues in the beginning of the 20th century was penny arcades.[1]

Video games were introduced in amusement arcades in the late 1970s and were most popular during the golden age of arcade video games, the early 1980s. Arcades became popular with children and particularly adolescents, which led parents to be concerned that video game playing might cause them to skip school.

  • 1History
  • 2Types of games

History[edit]

Penny arcade[edit]

Early machine at Wookey Hole Caves

A penny arcade can be any type of venue for coin-operated devices, usually for entertainment. The term came into use about 1905-1910.[1] The name derives from the penny, once a staple coin for the machines. The machines used included:[2]

  • bagatelles, a game with elements of billiards and non-electrical pinball,
  • early forms of non-electrical pinball machines,
  • fortune-telling machinery,
  • slot machines,
  • coin-operated Amberolas
  • peep show machines (in the original, non-pornographic, usage of the term), which allowed the viewer to see various objects and pictures
  • love tester machines.
  • coin operated shooter games

Penny arcades later led to the creation of video arcades in the 1970s.

1970s and 1980s[edit]

Arcades catering for video games began to gain momentum in the late 1970s with games such as Space Invaders (1978) and Galaxian (1979)[3] and became widespread in 1980 with Pac-Man,Centipede and others. The central processing unit in these games allowed for more complexity than earlier discrete-circuitry games such as Atari's Pong (1972).

During the late 1970s video-arcade game technology had become sophisticated enough to offer good-quality graphics and sounds, but it remained fairly basic (realistic images and full motion video were not yet available, and only a few games used spoken voice) and so the success of a game had to rely on simple and fun gameplay. This emphasis on the gameplay explains why many of these games continue to be enjoyed as of 2018, despite the progress made by modern computing technology.

The golden age of video arcade games in the 1980s became a peak era of video arcade game popularity, innovation, and earnings. Color arcade games became more prevalent and video arcades themselves started appearing outside their traditional bowling-alley and bar locales. Designers experimented with a wide variety of game genres, while developers still had to work within strict limits of available processor-power and memory. The era saw the rapid spread of video arcades across North America, Western Europe and Japan. The number of video-game arcades in North America, for example, more than doubled between 1980 and 1982,[4] reaching a peak of 13,000 video game arcades across the region (compared to 4,000 today[when?]).[5] Beginning with Space Invaders, video arcade games also started to appear in supermarkets, restaurants, liquor stores, gas stations and many other retail establishments looking for extra income.[6] This boom came to an end in the mid-1980s, in what has been referred to as 'the great coin-op video crash of 1983'.[7]

On November 30, 1982, Jerry Parker, the Mayor of Ottumwa, Iowa, declared his city the 'Video Game Capital of the World'. This initiative resulted in many firsts in video game history. Playing a central role in arcade history, Ottumwa saw the birth of the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard and the U.S. National Video Game Team, two organizations that still exist today. Other firsts that happened in the Video Game Capital of the World included:

  • the first video-game-themed parade (Jan. 8, 1983)[8]
  • the first video game world championship (Jan. 8-9, 1983)[9]
  • the first study of the brain waves of video-game champions (July 12, 1983)[10]
  • the first billion-point video-game performance (Jan. 16, 1984)[11]
  • the first official day to honor a video-game player (Jan. 28, 1984)[12]

High game-turnover in Japanese arcades required quick game-design, leading to the adoption of standardized systems like JAMMA, Neo-Geo and CPS-2. These systems essentially provided arcade-only consoles where the video game ROM could be swapped easily to replace a game. This allowed easier development and replacement of games, but it also discouraged the hardware innovation necessary to stay ahead of the technology curve.

Most US arcades didn't see the intended benefit of this practice since many games weren't exported to the US, and if they were, distributors generally refused to release them as simply a ROM, preferring to sell the entire ROM, console, and sometimes the cabinet as a package. In fact, several arcade systems such as Sega's NAOMI board are arcade versions of home systems.

1990s[edit]

The arcade industry entered a major slump in mid-1994.[7] Arcade attendance and per-visit spending, though not as poor as during the 1983 crash, declined to the point where several of the largest arcade chains either were put up for sale or declared bankruptcy, while many large arcade machine manufacturers likewise moved to get out of the business.[7] In the second quarter of 1996, video game factories reported 90,000 arcade cabinets sold, as compared to 150,000 cabinets sold in 1990.[13]

The main reason for the slump was increasing competition from console ports. During the 1980s it typically took several years for an arcade game to be released on a home console, and the port usually differed greatly from the arcade version; during the mid-1990s it became common for a game publisher to release a highly accurate port of an arcade game that had yet to peak in popularity, thus severely cutting into arcade owners' profits.[13]

2000s and beyond[edit]

Two traditional amusement arcades on Great Yarmouth sea front, 2011

In the late 1990s, a bar opened in the new Crown Casino complex in Melbourne, Australia named Barcode. Barcode was a 'games bar' with the latest arcade games, the classics, pool tables, air hockey and pinball machines which players could play while consuming alcohol.[14] The bar was very popular with other bars later opening in the early 2000s in King Street alongside the strip clubs and at the shopping centre Melbourne Central. A Barcode opened in Times Square, New York in May 2000 and was very popular, with the launch featuring on an episode of TV series Sex and the City.[15][16] Barcode Times Square closed in March 2003. Barcode Crown Casino closed in 2006, followed later by King Street and Melbourne Central.[16][17]

In the mid-2000s, Madrid businessman Enrique Martínez updated the video arcade for the new generation by creating a 'hybrid movie theater with...fog, black light, flashing green lasers, high-definition digital projectors, vibrating seats, game pads and dozens of 17-inch screens attached to individual chairs.' At the Yelmo Cineplex in Spain, $390,000 was spent refitting a theater into a 'high-tech video gaming hall seating about 50 people.' In Germany, the CinemaxX movie theater company is also considering this approach. It conducted a four-month trial with video games to test the level of demand for video gaming in a theater setting.[18]

A 2015 Wizard of Ozpusher game
Facade of VR arcade in Manhattan

Manufacturers started adding innovative features to games in the 2000s. Konami used motion and position sensing of the player in Police 911 in 2000 and Mocap Boxing in 2001.[19][20]Sega started using 'Tuning cards' in games such as the Initial D series of games allowing the customer to save game data on a card vended from the game; Namco copied the idea with the Maximum Tune series. Arcade games continued to use a variety of games with enhanced features to attract clients, such as motorized seating areas, interconnected games, and surround sound systems. Redemption and merchandiser games are also a staple of arcades in the 2000s. One of the most popular redemption games, Deal or No Deal by ICE, simulates the popular television game show. Merchandiser games such as Stacker by LAI Games gives the player the chance to win high end prizes like iPods and video game consoles.

At the same time as these innovations, a small resurgence in the interest of classic video games and arcades grew with the opening of Barcade in Brooklyn, New York in 2004. Barcade combined a video arcade and a full bar, with a strict focus on classic machines from the 1970s and 1980s, known as the golden age of arcade video games.[21] The idea proved popular and Barcade received recognition as a good place to play classic video game cabinets, because it is 'one of the few places where classic arcade games can still be found in public, and in good working order.'[22][23]. Barcade's success influenced other similarly themed businesses which opened across the country.[24][25] Other arcades, like Ground Kontrol in Portland, Oregon, began adding including full bars in their arcades.[26] Even regular bars added classic arcade games to their venues.[27]

As the trend grew, the industry and press looked for ways to classify these arcade bar hybrids, with the DNA Association branding them 'social-tainment' and also referring to them as 'game bars'.[28] Many of these newer game bars proved to be popular and expansion continued.[29]

In the UK, classic arcades such as Casino and Trocadero, both located in London, closed, with some of the games from Trocadero finding their way to a new arcade, Heart of Gaming in North Acton.[30] The newer Loading Soho Gaming Cafe features arcade machines manufactured by Bespoke Arcades for its customers to use.[31]

Types of games[edit]

Video games[edit]

The video games are typically in arcade cabinets. The most common kind are uprights, tall boxes with a monitor and controls in front. Customers insert coins or tokens into the machines (or use magnetic cards) and stand in front of them to play the game. These traditionally were the most popular arcade format, although presently American arcades make much more money from deluxe driving games and ticket redemption games. However, Japanese arcades, while also heavily featuring deluxe games, continue to do well with traditional JAMMA arcade video games.

Some machines, such as Ms. Pac-Man and Joust, are occasionally in smaller boxes with a flat, clear glass or acrylic glass top; the player sits at the machine playing it, looking down. This style of arcade game is known as a cocktail-style arcade game table or tabletop arcade machine, since they were first popularized in bars and pubs. For two player games on this type of machine, the players sit on opposite sides with the screen flipped upside down for each player. A few cocktail-style games had players sitting next to rather than across from one another. Both Joust and Gun Fight had these type of tables.

The Donkey Kong video game was popular in video arcades during the 1980s

Racing games[edit]

Some arcade games, such as racing games, are designed to be sat in or on. These types of games are sometimes referred to as sit-down games. Sega and Namco are two of the largest manufacturers of these types of arcade games.

Daytona USA, by Sega. Two player version, although up to eight could be linked for multiplayer racing

Other games[edit]

A cocktail cabinet or tabletop arcade machine

Other games include pinball machines, redemption games and merchandiser games. Pinball machines have a tilted, glass-covered play area in which the player uses mechanical flippers to direct a heavy metal ball towards lighted targets. Redemption games reward winners with tickets that can be redeemed for prizes such as toys or novelty items. The prizes are usually displayed behind a counter or in a glass showcase, and an arcade employee gives the items to players after counting their tickets. Merchandiser games reward winners with prizes such as stuffed toys, CDs, DVDs, or candy which are dispensed directly from the machine.

In some countries, some types of video arcades are legally allowed to provide gambling machines such as slot machines and pachinko machines. Large arcades may also have small coin-operated ride-on toys for small children. Some businesses, such as Dave & Buster's, combine a bar and restaurant with a video arcade. The ROUND1 entertainment chain combines a large arcade with a full-service bowling alley, along with billiards and karaoke.

Arcades typically have change machines to dispense tokens or quarters when bills are inserted, although larger chain arcades, such as Dave and Busters and Chuck E. Cheese are deviating towards a refillable card system.[32] Arcades may also have vending machines which sell soft drinks, candy, and chips. Arcades may play recorded music or a radio station over a public address system. Video arcades typically have subdued lighting to inhibit glare on the screen and enhance the viewing of the games' video displays, as well as of any decorative lighting on the cabinets.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Used Donkey Kong Arcade Game

  1. ^ abGoing out: the rise and fall of public amusements. p. 154. Retrieved 2013-05-30. First use of the term [...] between 1905 and 1910
  2. ^'Penny Arcade Machines'. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
  3. ^Wolf, Mark (2007). The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to PlayStation and Beyond. Greenwood. ISBN031333868X.
  4. ^Mark J. P. Wolf, The video game explosion: a history from PONG to Playstation and beyond, ABC-CLIO, p. 105, ISBN0-313-33868-X, retrieved 2011-04-19
  5. ^Mark Stephen Price (Atari Games Corporation) (1998), 'Coin-Op: The Life (Arcade Videogames)'(PDF), Digital illusion: entertaining the future with high technology, ACM Press, p. 444, ISBN0-201-84780-9, retrieved 2014-10-02
  6. ^Edge Staff (2007-08-13). 'The 30 Defining Moments in Gaming'. Edge. Future plc. Archived from the original on 2011-10-29. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  7. ^ abcWebb, Marcus (February 1996). 'Arcadia'. Next Generation. No. 14. Imagine Media. p. 29.
  8. ^'Welcome to Twin Galaxies'. 15 February 2009. Archived from the original on February 15, 2009. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
  9. ^'Welcome to Twin Galaxies'. 21 February 2009. Archived from the original on February 21, 2009. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
  10. ^'Welcome to Twin Galaxies'. 21 February 2009. Archived from the original on February 21, 2009. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
  11. ^'Welcome to Twin Galaxies'. 15 February 2009. Archived from the original on February 15, 2009. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
  12. ^Tim McVey Day Poster, January 28, 1984
  13. ^ abWebb, Marcus (September 1996). 'Arcade Games Down 40% in Five Years'. Next Generation. No. 21. Imagine Media. p. 22.
  14. ^'Barcode'. Barcode bar. Archived from the original on 2007-11-03.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  15. ^'Barcode & Galactic Circus N.Y'. Behance. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  16. ^ ab'Remembering Barcode: NYCs Failed Arcade Club'. Destructoid. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  17. ^Porter, Ian. 'Barcode goes Indian as night-life dims at Crown'. The Age. 17 August 2006. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  18. ^Carvajal, Doreen (2007-02-26). 'The New Video Arcade in Spain Might Be the Movie Theater'. The New York Times. Retrieved 2014-10-02.
  19. ^'Police 911 Videogame by Konami (2000) - The International Arcade Museum and the KLOV'. Arcade-museum.com. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
  20. ^'MoCap Boxing Videogame by Konami (2001) - The International Arcade Museum and the KLOV'. Arcade-museum.com. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
  21. ^Weiss, Jennifer (2011-04-22). 'For Arcades, Survival now Hinges on Alcohol'. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2014-10-02.
  22. ^June, Laura (2013-01-16). 'For Amusement Only: The Life and Death of the American Arcade'. theverge.com. Retrieved 2014-10-02.
  23. ^Allen, Ted. 'Best Bars: Barcade'. Esquire. Archived from the original on 2014-11-13. Retrieved 2014-10-02.
  24. ^Wenzel, John (2011-05-01). 'From LoDo to the Smithsonian, Video Games Get Their Due'. The Denver Post. Archived from the original on 2012-11-14. Retrieved 2014-10-02.
  25. ^Lande, Samantha (2012-02-14). 'Emporium Arcade Bar Opening in March'. Chicago Eater. Retrieved 2014-10-02.
  26. ^Hottle, Molly (2011-02-15). 'Ground Kontrol Arcade to Reopen Thursday with Party'. oregonlive.com. Archived from the original on 2013-11-10. Retrieved 2014-10-02.
  27. ^Petkovic, John (2013-04-25). 'B Side Liquor Lounge in Cleveland Heights Adds Old-time Arcade Games'. cleveland.com. Retrieved 2014-10-02.
  28. ^K Williams (2013-05-20). 'A Nascent Trend, the Rise of the Gamebar'. dna-association.com. Retrieved 2014-10-02.
  29. ^Ocean, Justin (2014-07-14). 'Boozy Sleepovers and Booby Bounce Houses: Kids' Activities for Grownups'. Yahoo! Travel. Retrieved 2014-10-02.
  30. ^Parkin, Simon (2014-08-17). 'The Last Arcade'. Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2014-10-02.
  31. ^Arcade Hero Staff (2013-05-03). 'LOADING SOHO Gaming Cafe Added To The MADD Bar In London'. Arcade Heroes. Retrieved 2014-10-02.
  32. ^'CEC Token Card'
Bibliography
  • Namerow, Wayne. The Pennyarcade Website. Retrieved 2004-02-06.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Amusement arcades.
  • History of video games at Curlie
  • Gameroom Show, Penny arcade related website
  • PennyMachines.co.uk, British Penny Slot and Amusement Machine website
  • Various Penny Arcade Games with many pictures.

Donkey Kong Mini Arcade Game For Sale

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