I recall looking forward to going to the convenience store in my neighborhood as young to play the most recent arcade games of the 1980s. My classmates and I would dig out as many quarters we could get our hands-on and play for hours on end the latest games. The latter part of the ’70s, as well as the early 1980s, became referred to as being the “golden age” of the arcade game industry. The games gained a lot of popularity during this period in part due to new forms of games that required hand-eye coordination, skills, timing, and shooting things at the fastest possible speed. This arcade-related industry hit its peak in 1982, making 8 billion dollars in quarters, which is equivalent up to $18.5 billion as of 2011. These are our top 5.
5. Defender
I have a vague memory of this being an extremely challenging game that was highly challenging and enjoyable to play. The goal in the game is to battle waves of alien invaders while also protecting astronauts on another planet. The astronauts who are captured by aliens return as mutants and take on you. If you did not protect those astronauts, the world would explode and become filled with mutants. The defender was praised for its audio and video quality and was named the number six arcade game for technological, creative, and cultural impact in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2008. Defender is regarded as one of the most demanding games available, using a joystick as well as five additional buttons to play. The defender has sold over 60,000 physical units and earned gross revenue of $1 billion in 2002.
4. Ms. Pac-Man
Fourth place is the female version of the first Pac-Man with 125,000 units of hardware sold. While she didn’t get her man, she was able to entertain millions all over the world. In addition, she became a TV celebrity, appearing on the Pac-Man animated television series in which she was Pepper, who was Pac-Man’s wife. The aim of the game was to consume all pellets and to avoid ghosts in order to score as many points as you could. The consumption of specific power pellets allowed her to consume ghosts, and there were fruit-based bonuses that could increase the value of points. As you progress to higher levels, the ghosts are moved faster, and energy pellets alter the ghosts with lesser time. Ms. Pac-Man is adorned with a bow in red, and scenes of Pac-Man and her relationship are shown in intermissions between levels. Another exciting thing that’s different in the first Pac-Man game is that in this one, the ghost in orange is named Sue rather than Clyde. The game is believed to have 256 levels, but clearly, I haven’t completed it!
3. Donkey Kong
It was one of my top games to play with my kids. It was a game that was revolutionary in its day and included an ape, an in-between damsel, along with an Italian plumber who was playing an exciting story. Mario is a carpenter. He moves up platforms and climbs ladders on construction sites while an Ape Donkey Kong is throwing barrels towards him. Mario must also avoid fire and other obstacles in order to reach the top of the platform and free the damsel kept by the angry Donkey Kong. Mario became Nintendo’s main character and was the basis for a variety of game sequels. Nintendo initially planned to develop a Popeye comics game, but they couldn’t get approval for the character. They decided to design their own characters and then created a love triangle that included a carpenter, an ape, and a girl like the love triangle of Popeye, Bluto, and Olive Oyl. Donkey Kong was created in 1981, and it sold 132,000 hardware units and made an estimated $280 million by the end of 1982.
2. Space Invaders
This is possibly among the games with the most addicting gameplay that I’ve played. When it first became available on Atari 2600, my friends and I would play for hours. The game is comprised of laser cannons on the bottom of the screen, which are moved between sides while shooting at waves aliens. After you’ve killed one wave of aliens, the rest begin to move closer. As soon as they do, the aliens start firing back, and there are bunkers to traverse to stay clear of the fire of their missiles. In the end, the bunkers are destroyed by aliens shooting at them, making the game even more difficult. The sounds are highly thrilling when you play. While the game was released at the end of 1978, we chose to include it on the list due to its influence on the field of video gaming. It was exceptionally technologically advanced at the time that it was nearly solely responsible for the growth of the game industry from a niche into a primary industry. It sold 360,000 units of hardware and earned $2.7 billion of gross revenue.
1. Pac-Man
The Pac-Man game was the biggest of all! The thing that was what made Pac-Man, so well-liked in the first place was that it appealed to all genders. Although many of the earliest games featured aliens and space, Pac-Man was a game that anyone could play regardless of what interests they had. It basically had the same idea as the Ms. Pac-Man, except it was launched before Ms. Pac-Man. The goal was to eat all pellets and stay away from ghosts in order to score as many points as you could. Ghosts’ movements were predetermined, and they were given distinctive personalities to help keep the game exciting. Red ghosts chase PacMan, while the blue and pink ghosts attempt to sneak ahead of Pac-Man. Orange ghost Clyde is chased by Pac-Man, but it moves to the lower-left edge of the screen once it is close enough to Pac-Man. The game offers a 255-level game, but a glitch in the game’s programming prevents players from advancing beyond that. Pac-Man is among the top-grossing games ever. It has 400,000 units of hardware sold and gross revenue at $3.5 billion!
