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A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal control device in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a centre stick or side-stick. It often has supplementary switches to control various aspects of the aircraft's flight.
Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. Space Invaders was the first fixed shooter and set the template for the shoot 'em up genre. The goal is to defeat wave after wave of descending aliens with a horizontally moving laser to earn as many points as possible.
A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games, typically shaped to resemble a pistol.
An amusement arcade, also known as a video arcade, amusements, arcade, or penny arcade, is a venue where people play arcade games, including arcade video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers, 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.
Shoot 'em ups are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of character movement, while others allow a broader definition including characters on foot and a variety of perspectives.
Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic racing simulations and more fantastical arcade-style racing games. Kart racing games emerged in the 1990s as a popular sub-genre of the latter. Racing games may also fall under the category of sports video games.
Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range weapons, and can be used in combination with other tools such as grenades for indirect offense, armor for additional defense, or accessories such as telescopic sights to modify the behavior of the weapons. A common resource found in many shooter games is ammunition, armor or health, or upgrades which augment the player character's weapons.
Robotron: 2084 is a multidirectional shooter developed by Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar of Vid Kidz and released in arcades by Williams Electronics in 1982. The game is set in the year 2084 in a fictional world where robots have turned against humans in a cybernetic revolt. The aim is to defeat endless waves of robots, rescue surviving humans, and earn as many points as possible.
CarnEvil is a 1998 light gun shooter arcade game released by Midway Games. It is often noted for its heavy use of graphic violence and dark humor. It is Midway Games' most successful light gun shooter.
Paperboy is an arcade action game developed and published by Atari Games and Midway Games, and released in 1985. The player takes the role of a paperboy who delivers a fictional newspaper called The Daily Sun along a suburban street on his bicycle. The arcade version of the game featured bike handlebars as the controller.
Revolution X is a shooting gallery video game developed by Midway and released in arcades in 1994. The gameplay is similar to Midway's earlier Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but is themed around the band Aerosmith. The oppressive New Order Nation regime and their leader Helga have abducted Aerosmith, and players use a mounted gun to control onscreen crosshairs and shoot enemies. The members of Aerosmith are hidden throughout the game's international locales and must be found in order to receive the game's true ending.
Though not a complete history, herein is a list of what many would consider most of the "game" changers that made arcade experiences so powerful and nostalgic.
Narc is a 1988 run and gun arcade game designed by Eugene Jarvis for Williams Electronics and programmed by George Petro, Todd Allen, and Eugene Jarvis, with art by Jack Haeger, John Newcomer, and Lin Young. It was one of the first ultra-violent video games and a frequent target of parental criticism of the video game industry. The object is to arrest and kill drug offenders, confiscate their money and drugs, and defeat "Mr. Big". It was the first game in the newly restarted Williams Electronics coin-op video game division. Shortly before its release, Williams acquired the video and pinball divisions of Bally/Midway.
Star Fire is a first-person arcade coin-operated space combat video game created by Technical Magic for Midway-Bally and licensed for manufacture to Exidy in December 1978. It was distributed in Japan by Taito and Esco Trading in 1979. Designed by Caltech engineers Ted Michon, and David Rolfe and inspired by the movie Star Wars, the game is not based on a licensed property.
Sea Wolf is an arcade video game designed by Dave Nutting and released by Midway in 1976. It is a video game update of an electro-mechanical Midway game, Sea Devil, itself based on Sega's 1966 electro-mechanical arcade submarine simulator Periscope. The game was released in Japan by Taito. In Sea Wolf, the player, piloting an unseen submarine, launches torpedoes vertically in an attempt to sink ships moving horizontally across the screen before time runs out. The screen is viewed through a faux periscope mounted on the cabinet.
Light gun shooter, also called light gun game or simply gun game, is a shooter video game genre in which the primary design element is to simulate a shooting gallery by having the player aiming and discharging a gun-shaped controller at a screen. Light gun shooters revolve around the protagonist shooting virtual targets, either antagonists or inanimate objects, and generally feature action or horror themes and some may employ a humorous, parodic treatment of these conventions. These games typically feature "on-rails" movement, which gives the player control only over aiming; the protagonist's other movements are determined by the game. Games featuring this device are sometimes termed "rail shooters", though this term is also applied to games of other genres in which "on-rails" movement is a feature. Some, particularly later, games give the player greater control over movement and in still others the protagonist does not move at all.
Speed Race is a 1974 arcade racing video game developed and manufactured by Taito and released under the titles Racer and Wheels in North America by distributor Midway Manufacturing in 1975. Designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, the gameplay involves the player using the attached steering wheel to maneuver a car alongside a fast vertical scrolling road. The objective is to score points by driving past other cars without colliding with them; more points are awarded for driving faster. Players must do this under a 90-second time limit, which ends the game when it runs out. The gameplay concepts were adapted from two earlier driving electro-mechanical games: Kasco's Mini Drive (1958) and Taito's Super Road 7 (1970).
Electro-mechanical games are types of arcade games that operate on a combination of some electronic circuitry and mechanical actions from the player to move items contained within the game's cabinet. Some of these were early light gun games using light-sensitive sensors on targets to register hits, while others were simulation games such as driving games, combat flight simulators and sports games. EM games were popular in amusement arcades from the late 1940s up until the 1970s, serving as alternatives to pinball machines, which had been stigmatized as games of chance during that period. EM games lost popularity in the 1970s, as arcade video games had emerged to replace them in addition to newer pinball machines designed as games of skill.
Triple Hunt is a shooter-style arcade game developed by Atari and released in April 1977. Triple Hunt's main feature is its mounted light gun, which is used to shoot at the screen on a separate cabinet. Each Triple Hunt unit houses three changeable games; Witch Hunt, Hit The Bear, and Raccoon Hunt. The game graphics are displayed over the background graphics, and when a monitor mask is placed on the screen, the graphics 'disappear' behind the mask. Since the gun is light operated, the shots would not go through the mask, and did not count. It was first introduced at the Third Annual Distributor Meeting banquet on March 22, 1977.
An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games or merchandisers.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Bally Midway arcade & Rifle Games Coin Operated". Archived from the original on 2008-05-12. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
- ↑ "Vintage Coin Operated Fortune Tellers, Arcade Games, Digger/Cranes, Gun Games and other Penny Arcade games, pre-1977". Archived from the original on 2008-05-12. Retrieved 2008-06-23.