Greatest year for arcade games ever?

[Apollo]

What is the year you think was the ultimate for arcade games?

Mine is 1980

Bezerk
Black Night ( pinball )
Centipede
Crazy Climber
Defender
Missile Command
Moon Cresta
Pac Man
Phoenix
Tempest

Got to be hard to beat.

[Tailgunner]

1981

[Apollo]

Why?

[Tailgunner]

Alpine Ski
Astro Blaster
Bosconian
Boxing Bugs
Donkey Kong
Frogger
Galaga
Gorf
Jump Bug
Kick Man
King And Balloon
Looping
Make Trax
Ms. Pac-Man
Omega Race
Pleiads
Qix
Scramble
Solar Quest
Space Fury
Stargate
Super Cobra
Turbo
Vanguard
Venture
Wizard Of Wor
Zero Hour

[NoOne=NBA=]

You forgot Battlezone and Star Castle in the '80 lineup.

I'd put '82 up against '80 though, it brought us (amongst others):

Gravitar
Joust
Moon Patrol
Q*Bert
Robotron
Space Duel
Star Trek
Tron
Time Pilot
Zaxxon

[the3eyedblindman]

Whatever year Moonwalker came out, i think 1990

[Tailgunner]

82 was a bumper year as well. Here's what I dug out of the KLOV list:

Amidar
Baby Pac-Man
Bagman
Black Widow
Bubbles
Bump 'n' Jump
BurgerTime
Dig Dug
Donkey Kong Junior
Front Line
Gravitar
Joust
Jungle King
Millipede
Missile Command 2
Moon Patrol
Mr. Do!
Pengo
Pole Position
Q*bert
Quantum
Reactor
Robotron: 2084
Satan's Hollow
Sinistar
Space Duel
Star Trek
Super Pac-Man
Super Zaxxon
Tac/Scan
Time Pilot
Tron
Victory
Xevious
Zaxxon
Zektor

[Chris]

'82.  No doubt.

[patrickl]

On a classics per annum base I'd have to say 1981 too. Allthough I guess space invaders in 1978 (or 79?) is what made the whole scene take off (and Pac Man in 80 gave it a nice boost again).

[Knoxximus]

I remember living in Chuck E Cheese and Showtime Pizza in '81/'82.....ahhhh, those were the days.  When times were hard, I would "sell my services" (i.e. gameplay intruction) to grown-ups trying to play in exchange for the almighty token.

JEEYEAH!

[paigeoliver]

You could probably put down a good solid arguement for any of the following years.

1980 (first wave of color classics)
1981 (color classics started to get better graphics)
1982 (probably the peak year as far as titles released)
1983 (the last and best of the pre-crash games came out this year).
1984 (Games that actually had GOOD graphics debuted this year).
1986 (Debut of JAMMA, most games had good graphics by this point).

I left out 1985 because it was largely a BAD year. Almost nothing but conversions, most of them poor quality.

[Knoxximus]

I still remember when I was the only kid in school who used the term "graphics".....everytime I would say it, other kids foreheads would wrinkle up before they would say.......

"...you mean the pictures?"

I would just peek up from my Enter Magazine and glare at them...