Intro

In 1979 I discovered Space Invaders; I was just 10 years old and the place was Golden Takeaways, Palmerston North, New Zealand. Years later I would call into GTs late at night on my way home from varsity and order one of their famous fish burgers. And, because the place was popular and service slow, pop a coin or two into an arcade machine...

Space Invaders was the first game to truly popularise and kick-start the arcade game industry. From it’s release in 1978 until the mid 80’s many games were released which to this day remain true classics. Everyone’s idea of a classic may differ, but few could argue against original ‘game concepts’ coupled with clever use of available technology to deliver inspiring graphics, sounds, and movements. Probably the best example of this was Defender (1980) and it’s follow-up Stargate (1981). Unfortunately, as the 80s drew on and became the 90s, the game developers were increasingly playing it safe and producing arcade games which looked and played similarly to each other. Sure the graphics were technically “better” but there was a kind of boring sameness to it all: Variations on 1942, variations on Commando, and (particularly) in the 90s fighter games which were pretty much all carbon copies of each other. There was little in the way of originality although a few games like Puzzle Bobble and Viewpoint were exceptions to the rule. It’s not surprising that the later PC-based “classics” (simulations) released by Microsoft et al featured games almost exclusively from the late 70s to early 80s era.

Since games like Defender existed (in their original state) as a cabinet system, there was little likelihood of ever truly replaying these games outside a PC simulation as the 90s drew on. This was the state of affairs until 1997 when Nicola Salmoria released his arcade emulator MAME. Since then, MAME has become the standard emulator used for arcade games, and spawned a rekindling of interest amongst older ‘arcade purists’ in the games scene.

Lob's Poorly Researched Time Line (a better one is under construction.)

1961   Space War created: The world’s first computer game

1972   Pong released: the first mass produced arcade game

1978   Classic arcade game Space Invaders released. Start of the ‘classic arcade period’

1980   Defender Released. Considered by many to be the  greatest arcade game of all time

1985   Classic arcade period truly over. Slump in game-sales, lack of original games produced…

1990   Fighting games genre becomes the mainstay of arcade parlours

1995   Mainstream  society discovers the internet 

1997  Release of MAME: Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator

2000   Most arcade manufacturers have ceased  producing arcade machines

2001  MAME emulation reaches 1650 original games

Emulation. Emulation should not be confused with Simulation. Any arcade “retro-product” will be either a simulation or an emulation. Simulation is where a piece of software is written from scratch which seeks to simulate an original work. An example of this would be Microsoft’s Return Of Arcade series. Emulation on the other hand is the original game itself – the exact same code, uploaded to the net and widely (often illegally) distributed amongst “arcade purists.”  These roms are then used with an emulator which allows roms designed for arcade machines to function on a personal computer (or other device).

 

MAME. Released in early 1997, MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. As the name suggests, MAME emulates not one game, but in fact a very large number which is growing rapidly.  (The MAME development team are continually improving MAME and making more games playable.) This quote is taken directly from the MAME website: On December 24th, 1996, Nicola Salmoria began working on his single game emulators (for example Multi-Pac), which he merged into one program during January 1997. He named the accomplishment by the name of Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, or MAME for short (pronounced as the word 'maim' in English, other languages may differ). The first official release was MAME 0.1, which was released on the evening of February 5th, 1997 (23:32 +0100). Using a modular and portable driver oriented architecture with an open source philosophy, it soon grew into immense proportions. more (mame website)

 

The Cabinet Idea. There’s no confirmation of who came up with the idea first, but it really is a natural progression once you are playing an original game on the PC to think “if only this was installed into a cabinet somehow”. Therefore the first project was probably started shortly after the release of MAME in early 1997. The benefit over an original setup is obvious: You can play Xevious one minute, then decide to play a round of Defender. Next day challenge your girlfriend in Track n Field. In the weekend, switch to Star Wars, then check out some obscure games you’ve never heard of. Maybe invite the neighbours over for King of Fighters 98, or a round of Metal Slug. It's like having the world’s largest arcade parlour in you own home. (Sounds corny, but it’s true.)