The classic video arcade machine cabinets we all know and love.
Instead, we’ll be focusing on the most prominent cabinet styles that video arcade machines have assumed over the years: Keep in mind that we won’t be mentioning merchandise games such as crane games, or mechanical amusements such as basketball courts, and skeeball, among others. In this article, we aim to list the types of arcade cabinets currently in existence. Times have changed and while modern consoles only tout arcade classics on their platforms, arcade machines are still being made and are done so in a variety of styles. No, it wasn’t as cool as getting a full sized arcade machine in your house but it did give the product appeal as it tried to replicate what could be done with an arcade cabinet. But for the next two decades, every home console would use arcade ports as a selling point to try and get people to buy into the machine. It also had a social angle attached to it that home console gaming could never touch. True – the arcade experience was superior in graphics & sound, also being able to set itself apart thanks to the ability to produce unique control schemes for each and every game.
The Atari 2600 didn’t truly catch on fire until it “brought the arcade home” with a widely praised port of Taito’s Space Invaders. What made home console gaming popular however wasn’t so much the name as the games. The latter became the first video game product to sell in the millions, vaunting Atari to legendary status that led to people saying “I’m going to play Atari” instead of “I’m going to play video games”. Home console gaming became a widespread phenomenon in the 70s thanks to companies like Magnavox with their Odyssey, and Atari, with their VCS 2600. The golden age of gaming in the 80’s saw many innovations hit the scene along with the formats that they come in.
Some odd experiments came out of cabinet designs in the 70s but for the most part, the typical game you might come across was the classic upright cabinet format. With the arrival of Galaxy Game in 1971, the commercially successful Pong in 1972, and the plethora of games that ensued due to their success, the shape and style of arcade cabinets typically followed the pattern of what the most recent popular game had established. Video arcade games have been produced since the early 70s, with electro-mechanical machines being created with interesting variety during the decades prior. They might also think about the machines using old, dated hardware, and yet manage to provide some of the most memorable experiences of our childhoods. I bet that when someone mentions the term ‘arcade cabinet’, all everyone thinks about are the big fridge-shaped machines that take up a ton of space.
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