What were the most important years in arcade history?

[allroy1975]

On my new cabinet I'm going to put some of that thick finish epoxy stuff on my control panel and want to bury some quarters in it.  

I was originally going to just use quarters from like 1980-1985, but then started wondering...well, what year did SF and MK come out?  those kind of brought arcades back to life, didn't they?

If people don't mind, let me know what you think the most important year was in arcade history and why.

Actually, I've been thinking about this for about a month, and while typing this post, came up with this:  Maybe it would be cool to make a little time line of quarters pointing out important things that happened in the year that quarter was made.

Hmm...
Allroy

[danny_galaga]

my own feeling is 80-81 as some all time classics appeared around then. asteroids, galaga, pac man, donkey kong etc. so many types of games (and all that colour!) just exploded onto the scene after space invaders paved the way a couple of years earlier. actually just looked at the mame list- asteroids is '79.
in fact just list all games in mame and arrange by year and start looking around the period you think might be the golden era. i predict most of us will settle on a period remarkably close to the time we discovered arcade games!

[mozzer]

My favorite years would have to be 86 and 87. I missed out on the early years of arcades.  

1986-  720, Bubble Bobble, Gunsmoke, Ikari, Outrun

1987- 1943, Contra, Double dragon, Karnov, Shinobi

These are my classic games!

[Hoagie_one]

when did Pong come out?

[Dartful Dodger]

On my new cabinet I'm going to put some of that thick finish epoxy stuff on my control panel and want to bury some quarters in it.  

I've been collecting all the old quarters I can find, because the older ones had a better chance of going through a game at one time or another.  I also have a bunch of tokens from Arcades I use to go to.
off topic - why aren't there any quarters from before 65 still floating around?

Are you going to scatter them around the control panel?  I was at a Japanese restaurant that did that to the front counter with Japanese coins.  There was one American bill right in the middle, I'm guessing it was the first bill the restaurant made.  It looked pretty cool.

I was going to place the tokens behind the glass that's in front of the monitor, or behind the glass in front or the marquee, because that's where tokens would be placed to 'call' the next game(only they were placed on the glass).

I'm looking forward to seeing picts of the finished product.

[missioncontrol]

most important week in arcade history has to be the week in May 1983 that I had the High Score on Centipede at Jo's Pizza Place......Very Historical moment in the arcade history..........

[FractalWalk]

As far as most important arcade years, I agree that it has to be the early 80's, most of all 80 - 82.  That was when the arcade busines took off and there was an explosion of stand alone arcades with a wide variety of games. By stand alone, I mean the only business they did was video games. In my hometown there were 4-5 stand alone arcades supported by only 20,000 people. Every retaurant, pizza joint and movie theater had a wide variety of games, if not a dedicated game room.

By the mid to late 80's arcade popularity dropped off drastically and never recovered. Computer games and game consoles started replacing the arcade experience and stand alone's went out of business or had to expand to other lines of business to stay open. Last time I was there, my hometown was down to only 1 video game place and that expanded to include mini-golf, a driving range, batting cages and go-carts. It's a very cool place, but very different from the warehouse that used to pound The Knack, Blondie & The Clash over an incessant electric babble.

Back then you could find your favorite game in any town no problem. Now if you want to find a particular video game, good luck. You have to take what you get by going to the bowling alley or a convenience store. And even then its probably just a fighter or two.

[allroy1975]

Yeah, so the problem is, I don't want to do the whole CP in quarters (that'd be expensive and I think it'd look crappy) so I'm kinda starting to like the time line Idea....

That might be too much text on a CP though.....maybe the whole idea sucks.  

so, with the best years being early eightys that's what?  4 quarters?  Is it even worth bothering putting up 4 quarters?

Man...I thought it was such a good idea...can anyone help me out like...what do you guys think would be a good idea?

Allroy

[FractalWalk]

Maybe it would be cool to make a little time line of quarters pointing out important things that happened in the year that quarter was made.

I really like this idea. I would have a timeline with the quarters as the annual tick marks, then you could have all these events with lines drawn to approx when they occured in the year. So you could multiple events to a single year or skip years if you need to.

I'm sure you could find important events for every year since the late 70's (Computer Space marketed, Atari founded, Pong invented, Space Invaders mania, Pac-Man Fever sing hits pop charts, the Movie Tron released, Super Nintendo released etc.).  No need to limit yourself to just a few years.

I'd do some research (KLOV is probably a good source) and see what happens.

[SirPoonga]

I'd say all of them

Though Key points would be

Computer Space, first coinop,
78-early80s Atari goes nuts and make innovations
Early 80s to mid/late 80s - classic arcade popularity explosion
late 80s-mid90s  Age of the fighters and some pretty cool ideas I neogeo
mid 90s to late 90s, networked cabinets!
then to now, DDR  Shooters, racers, different interaction.

[allroy1975]

I would have a timeline with the quarters as the annual tick marks, then you could have all these events with lines drawn to approx when they occured in the year.

That's exactly what I was thinking.  Just in the early 80s there SOO much stuff that happened.  I mean...how can you decide what to list between pac man and donkey kong and moon patrol and joust and...on and on and on!

That's why I was originally going to have just quarters from the original years...

Then there's the question of how would I put text on the CP?  It's a wood finish cab, so I think it'd look awesome if I could burn it into the wood with something, but I wouldn't even know where to start that kind of thing....

Putting it on paper would be cheesy I think...maybe I could put it on brown paper and it wouldn't look too bad...

ideas?

Allroy

[danny_galaga]

i would advise against the burning into the wood. i think it would look too 'rustic'. you need some sort of contrast to the wood. for instance, engraving the lettering and artwork (laser for crispness) and then filling with silver paint and sanding flush. actually while that was just an example, it would fit in with the silver look of the quarters which could be inset via the same engraving method. inset because it would look very tidy to have the writing and quarters at the same optical level...

[allroy1975]

That's a great idea!  where would someone go to get laser engraving done?

and how?  

that's a great idea though...

Allroy

[danny_galaga]

im in australia and havent had it done personally, but ive seen the results in plaques, desk signs etc. im pretty sure theres more than one place that does it where i live which isnt a large city so just let your fingers do the walking! start with 'e' for engraving and ask if they do laser engraving on wood...