| In the 1970s, playing video games meant heading down to the local arcade with a pocket full of quarters. One of the first commercially successful arcade games was Atari's Pong, which was an electronic table tennis game. Along with Pong, video games like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Space Invaders helped video games become mainstream. But in the mid-1980s, their popularity began to wane. Due to advances in home video game technology used in consoles like the original Nintendo and Sega systems, people could play video games in the comfort of their living rooms. What was considered the last hurrah for arcades came in the 1990s with the advent of two-player fighting games like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. These days, arcades are few and far between. Eventually, the quality of games on home consoles rivaled what could be played in arcades, and many of the arcade's biggest hits were ported to home systems. Games also became more complex, with simulation titles like Battlefield 2 and role-playing games like World of Warcraft virtually impossible to port to arcades. This doesn't necessarily make them better, though. For many people, the games of today aren't all that appealing--style over substance, some would say. Due to the limitations of the hardware in video gaming's early years, developers were forced to use their imaginations more. Although the graphics in these older video games may seem quite rudimentary compared to what gamers see today, there's no denying that although the games are simple, they're still packed with excitement and can provide hours of enjoyment for today's vintage gamers. |
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