The Golden Age Arcade (1978–1984)
The concept of a “Golden Age” is used to describe a mythical time in the past notable for great technological and cultural accomplishments but followed by an inevitable decline. This is an apt metaphor for the arcades of the late 1970s and early 1980s as game designers created some of the most iconic concepts, characters, and visuals in the history of digital games: inevitable death from descending aliens in Space Invaders, the “Jump Man” character, and multicolor vector beam graphics. Game designers explored abstract and unconventional concepts such as claiming territory against a randomly moving enemy by drawing rectilinear outlines in Qix (1981, Taito) and competing in surreal ...
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