Operations of Games Arcade in malls in India

Introduction
An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically
installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade
games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade video
games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games or merchandisers.[1]

Types
Broadly, arcade games are nearly always considered games of skill, with only some elements
of games of chance. Games that are solely games of chance, like slot machines and pachinko,
often are categorized legally as gambling devices and, due to restrictions, may not be made
available to minors or without appropriate oversight in many jurisdictions.[2]
Arcade video games[edit]

Arcade video games at ZBase Entertainment Center in Tampere, Finland

Arcade video games were first introduced in the early 1970s, with Pong as the first
commercially successful game. Arcade video games use electronic or computerized circuitry
to take input from the player and translate that to an electronic display such as
a monitor or television set.
Carnival games

Skee-Ball was one of the first arcade games developed.

Coin-op carnival games are automated versions or variations of popular staffed games held at
carnival midways. Most of these are played for prizes or tickets for redemption. Common
examples include Skee-Ball and Whac-A-Mole.
History
Skee-Ball and carnival games (late 19th century to 1940s)[edit]

A row of mutoscopes at a Disneyland penny arcade in the 1980s

Game of skill amusements had been a staple of fairs since the 19th century. Further, the
invention of coin-operated vending machines had come about in the 19th century. To build
on this, coin-operated automated amusement machines were created, such as fortune
telling and strength tester machines as well as mutoscopes, and installed along with other
attractions at fairs, traveling carnivals, and resorts. Soon, entrepreneurs began housing these
coin-operated devices in the same facilities which required minimal oversight, creating penny
arcades near the turn of the 20th century, the name taken from the common use of a
single penny to operate the machine.
Penny arcades started to gain a negative reputation as the most popular attraction in them
tended to be mutoscopes featuring risqué and softcore pornography while drawing audiences
of young men. Further, the birth of the film industry in the 1910s and 1920s drew audiences
away from the penny arcade. New interactive coin-operated machines were created to bring
back patrons to the penny arcades, creating the first arcade games. Many were based
on carnival games of a larger scope, but reduced to something which could be automated.
One popular style were pin-based games which were based on the 19th century game
of bagatelle. One of the first such pin-based games was Baffle Ball, a precursor to the pinball
machine where players were given a limited number of balled to knock down targets with
only a plunger. Skee-Ball became popular after being featured at an Atlantic City boardwalk
arcade. The popularity of these games was aided by the impact of the Great Depression of the
1930s, as they provided inexpensive entertainment.[13]
Abstract mechanical sports games date back to the turn of the 20th century in England, which
was the main manufacturer of arcade games in the early 20th century. The London-based
Automatic Sports Company manufactured abstract sports games based on British sports,
including Yacht Racer (1900) based on yacht racing, and The Cricket Match (1903) which
simulated a portion of a cricket game by having the player hit a pitch into one of various
holes. Full Team Football (1925) by London-based Full Team Football Company was an
early mechanical tabletop football game simulating association football, with eleven static
players on each side of the pitch that can kick a ball using levers. Driving games originated
from British arcades in the 1930s.
Shooting gallery carnival games date back to the late 19th century. Mechanical gun
games had existed in England since the turn of the 20th century. The earliest rudimentary
examples of mechanical interactive film games date back to the early 20th century, with
"cinematic shooting gallery" games. They were similar to shooting gallery carnival games,
except that players shot at a cinema screen displaying film footage of targets. They showed
footage of targets, and when a player shot the screen at the right time, it would trigger a
mechanism that temporarily pauses the film and registers a point. The first successful
example of such a game was Life Targets, released in the United Kingdom in 1912.
Cinematic shooting gallery games enjoyed short-lived popularity in several parts of Britain
during the 1910s, and often had safari animals as targets, with footage recorded from British
imperial colonies. Cinematic shooting gallery games declined sometime after the 1910s.[17]
The first light guns appeared in the 1930s, with Seeburg Ray-O-Lite (1936). Games using this
toy rifle were mechanical and the rifle fired beams of light at targets wired with sensors. A
later gun game from Seeburg Corporation, Shoot the Bear (1949), introduced the use of
mechanical sound effects. Mechanical maze games appeared in penny arcades by the mid-
20th century; they only allowed the player to manipulate the entire maze, unlike later maze
video games which allowed the player to manipulate individual elements within a maze.