The first commercially viable video game was Computer Space in 1971, which laid the foundation for a new entertainment industry in the late 1970s within the United States, Japan, and Europe. In September 1971, the Galaxy Game was installed at a student union at Stanford University. Also in 1971, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney created a coin-operated arcade version of Spacewar! and called it Computer Space. The arcade game industry entered its Golden Age in 1978 with the release of Space Invaders by Taito. In 1979, Atari released Asteroids. Color arcade games became more popular in 1979 and 1980 with the arrival of titles such as Pac-Man. The Golden Age had a prevalence of arcade machines in shopping malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants and convenience stores.

Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney created a coin-operated arcade version of Spacewar! and founded Atari, Inc. in 1972 before releasing their next game: Pong.

Donkey Kong (1981), an arcade game created by Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, was the first game that allowed players to jump over obstacles and across gaps, making it the first true platformer.

Prince of Persia (often shortened to “POP” or “PoP”) is a platform game, originally developed by Jordan Mechner and released October 3, 1989 for the Apple II, that represented a great leap forward in the quality of animation seen in computer games.

Karateka is a 1984 computer game by Jordan Mechner, the creator of Prince of Persia.

Pole Position is a racing video game published in 1982 by Namco and release by Atari, Inc. in the United States.

Asteroids is a video arcade game released in 1979 by Atari Inc.

In 1982, Atari Inc. released a port of Namco’s hit arcade game Pac-Man for its Atari 2600 video game console. Like the original arcade version, the player controls the titular character with a joystick.

Mario Bros. is an arcade game published and developed by Nintendo in 1983.

Star Wars is an arcade game produced by Atari Inc. and released in 1983. The game is a first person space simulator, simulating the attack on the Death Star from the final act of Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope.

Frogger is an arcade game introduced in 1981. It was developed by Konami, and licensed for worldwide distribution by Sega/Gremlin.

Inspiration from Milo.

Photo by Chris Pirillo at Flickr.