Difference between revisions of "Electro-mechanical arcade games"

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[[File:Periscope_machine1.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Periscope]]'', an example of an early Sega electro-mechanical arcade game.
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[[File:Periscope_machine1.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Periscope]]'', an example of an early Sega electro-mechanical arcade game.]]
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In the mid-20th century, '''electro-mechanical arcade games''' ('''EM''' games) were a staple of amusement [[arcade]] venues across the world. As the name suggests, these are commercial products, typically using simple electric circuits to move physical objects in order to simulate a game - an evolution of slot machines, pinball tables and Pachinko machines (as well as purely mechanical games), and which rose to prominence after the end of World War II.
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'''Electro-mechanical arcade games''' (often abbreviated '''EM''' games) are what arcades used to have before the invention of solid state electronic games (which use solid-state electronics like transistors, integrated circuits, printed circuit boards and microcontrollers.) An electro-mechanical game is any coin operated game that has neither a microprocessor (nor an approximation of one with logic gates like ''SHARK Jaws'', ''Computer Space'', and others used), or a proper monitor (though some used a projection screen, like ''[[Duck Hunt]]'' and ''[[Killer Shark]]''). An electro-mechanical game is run through switches, relays, motors, and lights. Any electronic circuitry in the machine will be very simple.
 
  
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The most common type of electro-mechanical games were early Pinball machines—all of them up to the late seventies were electromechanical (the industry switched to microprocessors around 1978 or so). Other electro-mechanicals include most early slot machines and Pachinko machines, although the earliest ones were completely mechanical.
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Numerous amusement companies designed and manufactured coin-operated EM games between the early 1950s and late 1970s. [[Sega]] began producing games in the early 1960s, with the the 1966 release of ''[[Periscope]]'' emerging as their first successful EM venture. Until the mid-1970s, the company structured itself around this market, however with the advent of more complex and reliable "video games" - those which use a combination of solid state electronics to draw a picture on a television screen, Sega became less focused on its EM operations, ending with the release of ''[[Plinker's Canyon]]'' in 1976.
  
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Besides pinball, there were many other types of electro-mechanical games, ranging from sports games to light-gun shooting games. Usually, rather than displaying the objects on a screen, they were physical objects that were either static or moving, often inside a showcase. Eventually, from 1969, there were electro-mechanical games that used projection screens, giving them the appearance of arcade video games.
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In the late 1960s, "video projection" electro-mechanical games began appearing, with the likes of Sega's ''[[Duck Hunt]]'' (1968) dropping physical moving targets in favour of projected animated images, helping to set the tone for the first half of the 1970s. A number of arcade video games were inspired by electro-mechanical arcade games (particularly the "video projection" type) during the 1970s, until video games eventually replaced electro-mechanical games with the arrival of ''[[Space Invaders]]'' (1978). Due to a reliance on physical moving parts (and by extension, high maintenance costs), all types of electro-mechanical arcade games are difficult to find outside of museums, with most being taken out of service in the early 1980s.
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These games had one big problem: they broke down all the time. This is why you never see any electro-mechanicals anymore (aside from a few really old Skee Ball machines). The mean time between failures on most of these machines could be measured in days. Some were more reliable than others, but in general the more complex ones were constantly failing. Any individual game may have hundreds of moving parts, which were often subject to abuse. This makes functioning electro-mechanicals very rare today.
 
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===Screen Projection===
 
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Starting with ''[[Duck Hunt]]'' in January 1969, Sega introduced electro-mechanical arcade games that had the appearance of first-person video games, but were in fact electro-mechanical arcade games that used rear image projection in a manner similar to the ancient Chinese [[wikipedia:Zoetrope|zoetrope]] to produce moving animations on a screen. ''Duck Hunt'' was the first electronic arcade game with animated targets displayed on a screen, in contrast to earlier electro-mechanical arcade games that displayed actual physical static targets. This gave ''Duck Hunt'' the appearance of a video game, several years before the first true video games arrived in the arcades (''Computer Space'' and ''Pong''). Duck Hunt thus anticipated the kind of light-gun shooter video games that would later appear in the 1970s, and was the first electronic arcade game to display a first-person perspective on a screen.
 
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After ''Duck Hunt'', Sega produced several more electro-mechanical arcade games based on the same technology, using rear image projection in a manner similar to the ancient Chinese zoetrope to produce moving animations on a screen. In 1969, Sega released the electro-mechanical games ''[[Grand Prix]]'', a first-person driving/racing game projecting a forward-scrolling road on a screen, and ''[[Missile]]'', a first-person vehicle combat simulation that had a moving film strip project targets on screen and a dual-control scheme where two directional buttons move the player tank and a two-way joystick with a fire button shoots and steers missiles onto oncoming planes, which explode when hit. In 1970, the game was released in North America as ''S.A.M.I.'' That same year, Sega released ''[[Jet Rocket]]'', a first-person combat flight sim with cockpit controls that could move the player aircraft around a landscape displayed on screen and shoot missiles onto targets that explode when hit. In 1972, Sega released ''[[Killer Shark]]'', a first-person light gun game known for appearing in the 1975 film Jaws.
 
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These eventually influenced [[Nintendo]] to produce similar light-gun shooting electro-mechanical arcade games. In 1974, Nintendo's arcade light gun shooter ''Wild Gunman'' used similar technology, but improved it even further by using full-motion video projection to display live-action cowboy opponents on screen.
 
  
 
[[Category:Arcade systems]]
 
[[Category:Arcade systems]]

Revision as of 17:41, 8 May 2017

Periscope, an example of an early Sega electro-mechanical arcade game.

In the mid-20th century, electro-mechanical arcade games (EM games) were a staple of amusement arcade venues across the world. As the name suggests, these are commercial products, typically using simple electric circuits to move physical objects in order to simulate a game - an evolution of slot machines, pinball tables and Pachinko machines (as well as purely mechanical games), and which rose to prominence after the end of World War II.

Numerous amusement companies designed and manufactured coin-operated EM games between the early 1950s and late 1970s. Sega began producing games in the early 1960s, with the the 1966 release of Periscope emerging as their first successful EM venture. Until the mid-1970s, the company structured itself around this market, however with the advent of more complex and reliable "video games" - those which use a combination of solid state electronics to draw a picture on a television screen, Sega became less focused on its EM operations, ending with the release of Plinker's Canyon in 1976.

In the late 1960s, "video projection" electro-mechanical games began appearing, with the likes of Sega's Duck Hunt (1968) dropping physical moving targets in favour of projected animated images, helping to set the tone for the first half of the 1970s. A number of arcade video games were inspired by electro-mechanical arcade games (particularly the "video projection" type) during the 1970s, until video games eventually replaced electro-mechanical games with the arrival of Space Invaders (1978). Due to a reliance on physical moving parts (and by extension, high maintenance costs), all types of electro-mechanical arcade games are difficult to find outside of museums, with most being taken out of service in the early 1980s.

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