The coin-op & gaming database...

Dear visitor, welcome to Arcade-History, a large searchable & comprehensive database which provides a WIP list of known antique & modern, rare, prototype, non-released and released arcade games from all over the world.

An arcade game is a coin-operated (also bill-operated or card-operated) entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, public houses, and video arcades. Most arcade games are: coin-operated video games, redemption games, pinballs, casino games including slot machines / pachislots and pachinkos. Also bat games, bingos, gun games, bowlers/shuffle alleys, jukeboxes, musical instruments, trade stimulators, fortune tellers, strength testers, kiddie rides, allwins, working models, vending machines, pool tables, viewers, shockers, scales & more...

In addition to restaurants and video arcades, arcade games were also found in bowling alleys, college campuses, dormitories, laundromats, movie theatres, supermarkets, shopping malls, airports, truck stops, bar/pubs, hotels, and even bakeries. In short, coin-operated arcade games are popular in places open to the public where people are likely to have free time.

The first popular arcade games were early amusement park games such as shooting galleries, ball toss games, and the earliest coin-operated machines, such as fortune tellers, strength testers or played mechanical musics. More modern gaming has been lead towards the popularity of online poker and the popular casino games on offer, however if you are looking to take a trip back in to the history of gaming.

Arcade video games are often composed of short levels, intuitive control mechanisms and a rising difficulty. This is the main concept of an arcade video game in which the player is essentially obliged to pay to maintain the play. The arcade game has, as its main feature, the impossibility for the player to win. "The game ends invariably to overwhelm the player, by becoming unplayable, and overcome by saturating the capacity of the player. The arcade video game is based on the fundamental principle of the player's overflow by the game.". A console or computer game can be considered as an arcade game if this game shares the same qualities (or if the game is a direct port of the original arcade title).

Everything in one place...

2013 Update: Arcade-History now covers consoles video games and computers video games, in the hope to be compliant with MAME and MESS emulators. Each month, the database is partially (games with ROMs) extracted as the popular History.dat file, wich is readable under most MAME/MESS GUIs and Frontends.

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