coin-op

Arcade Machine Coin Slot: Insert Coin To Play Anything

September 26, 2022 By ausretrogamer

Now this one hits right in the nostalgia bit of our retro heart! We pumped countless coins into arcade and pinball machines, back when they were 60c per play, but then quickly become $1 and $2 gold coins per play! Ah, those were the days.

If you want to relive the experience (at home or in the office) of seeing a coin slot and coin return, then TAMA-KYU’s arcade machine coin slots will be right up your alley!

We would love to grab these 4 different coin slots (priced ¥300 YEN / $3.20 AUD each) and stick them on our microwave oven, fridge, TV and of course, our gaming console(s)!

Cha-ching!

image and story source: technabob(via PR Times JP)

What A Japanese Arcade From The 1970s Looked Like

October 19, 2021 By ausretrogamer

We love finding old raw footage from the golden age of arcade gaming. This time, it is from a Tokyo arcade parlour from 1979.

As we wind back the clock some 40+ years, this news story features Tokyo’s arcade parlour, World Game, as it stood in 1979! It is so awesome to see patrons pumping coins into arcade machines, like Space Invaders, just like we did all those years ago!

source: btm0815ma

Williams Electronics: Classic Arcade Games Promo Videos

October 29, 2020 By ausretrogamer

Tony Temple needs no introduction for anyone that is into the classic arcade video games scene. Tony’s The Arcade Blogger site is a treasure-trove of arcade’s past, including finds like arcade coin-op promotional videos from long gone heavyweights of the arcade industry.

Tony’s latest feature looks at the promotional videos Williams Electronics used to tempt their distributors and operators with their then latest and greatest offerings, from Defender and Joust, to Robotron, Sinistar and beyond. Grab some pop-corn and check out the promo vids – BE WARNED, some are cheesier than others 😉

Defender promo video

Robotron:2084 promo video

Sinistar promo video

To check out the rest of the Williams Electronics promotional videos, head on over to The Arcade Blogger now!

[YouTube video source: duncanfbrown and Mylstar Electronics]

The Rise and Fall of Centuri Inc.

May 1, 2020 By ausretrogamer

Remember Centuri? Not really? We bet it will ring a bell when you watch this two-part series (on Centuri Inc.) and realise you probably played one (or more) of their licensed video games a fair bit at your local arcade joints.

Cassandra Chiles-Quirk (aka: Vintage Arcade Gal) has done a stellar job in encapsulating the highs and lows of this once great company of the golden age of arcade video games.

The Rise & Fall of Centuri – Part 1

The Rise & Fall of Centuri – Part 2

source: Vintage Arcade Gal

Tetris 35th Anniversary Silver Coin

May 2, 2019 By ausretrogamer

Last year’s NZ Mint commemorative Space Invaders 40^th Anniversary Silver Coin totally blew us away. Luckily for us, there is another classic video game anniversary this year which NZ Mint will help us celebrate and commemorate with one of their beautiful and special silver coins.

35 years ago, a puzzle game was born from the imagination of computer programmer, Alexey Pajitnov. That puzzle game was Tetris! Inspired by Alexey’s favourite puzzle board game, Pentominos, Pajitnov created an electronic version that let players arrange puzzle pieces in real time as they fell from the top of the playing field. The resulting design was a game that used seven distinctive geometric playing pieces, each made up of four Tetriminos. The genius of Tetris is in its simplicity which hooks you in immediately, but to master it you need the precision of a skilled surgeon and the reflexes of a cat.

Tetris was dubbed the first ‘killer app’ when it was bundled in with Nintendo’s Game Boy handheld system. We easily spent thousands of hours playing Tetris all those years ago and the passion to play it till this day still burns brightly as the first time we made four lines vanish on screen! That fun little puzzle game from 1984 has been responsible for hooking people into playing video games.

To commemorate the 35th anniversary of Tetris on June 6, NZ Mint has released a limited edition 1oz silver coin. The silver coin features the Tetris game’s iconic Tetrimino shapes on a chequered, proof background, arranged in a way to make it appear as if they are falling, much like in the game itself – very clever and iconic! The coin is housed inside a specially designed Tetris-themed arcade cabinet and includes a colourful image of the Kremlin, paying homage to the game’s Russian origins. The cushioned black felt base which holds the coin can be slipped out by lifting up the arcade cabinet, revealing the gorgeous coin. The entire package, from the coin, the felt cushion and arcade cabinet housing oozes quality and gets the nostalgic juices flowing.

If you are a coin collector or you loved (and still love) playing Tetris, then the Tetris 35th Anniversary limited-edition silver coin is the perfect memento for you.

Disclaimer: NZ Mint kindly provided the Tetris 35th Anniversary silver coin for this article.

The Pinball VS Arcade Industry Battle of the 80s and 90s

September 6, 2018 By ausretrogamer

During the boom times of the 80s and 90s, it would have been quite hard to imagine that one day the coin-operated (coin-op) pinball and arcade video games business would (almost) disappear.

With the current worldwide resurgence in pinball and old school arcade machines making a comeback in barcades, we thought we’d take a look at how prevalent pinball and arcade games were in the 80s and 90s in the biggest coin-op amusement market in the world, the good ole USA!

We delved deep into the available ‘Census of Service Industry‘ data from the US Department of Commerce, which kept record of “sources of receipts” for pinball and arcade machines in establishments across the US. What we found was quite eye-opening!

source: 1982 Census of Service Industries: Industry Series. Miscellaneous Subjects(SC82-I-5) – US Dept of Commerce

From the 1982 census data, there were 5,434 sites across the US where the general public could attend to get their fix of playing pinball and arcade games. The total US takings at these establishments was a whopping USD$1.175 billion (for that year), with arcade machines earning the lion’s share with USD$890.4 million and pinball with $284.3 million. Remember, this was just before the video games crash of 1983. Interestingly, Pennsylvania had the highest number of establishments (268), with the split of takings between pinball (USD$34.2M) and arcade (USD$36.0M) being almost 50/50. Everywhere else, it was arcade video game machines that took more coins out of pockets.

source: 1992 Census Of Service Industries: Subject Series. Sources of Receipts or Revenue (SC92-S-4) – US Dept of Commerce

By 1992 the coin-op amusement landscape changed quite a bit. As evident by the numbers, pinball declined substantially while arcade machines broke through the magical USD$1 billion earnings barrier for that year – that is some serious amount of coins! Pinball had unfortunately slid back, earning their operators a poultry (when compared to arcade video games) USD$165M in 1992. With hindsight, pinball was going to be saved by some big name licensed machines – hello The Addams Family!

source: The Arcade Flyer Archive

As already hinted, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for pinball. According to Vending Times (which tracks the use of coin-operated games), in the mid-1990s the silver ball game had rebounded with takings of USD$912M in 1994 (that was 38% of the total coin-op market at the time) and then almost doubling to a dizzying USD$1.7 billion by 1997/8. Pinball had gone from junk to the golden goose in three short years! Before pinball operators could make it rain more coins, it was the 32-bit gaming era that sounded the death knell for not only pinball, but arcade video games too. By the end of the 1990s, the number of venues where one could play pinball and/or arcade machines dwindled dramatically. Things got acutely dire for pinball when the once mighty Williams closed up its pinball division near the end of 1999.

The beauty of hindsight is that we can assess and track the ups and downs of the pinball and arcade coin-op industry. With the current global video games industry sporting 2.6 billion gamers and takings in excess of USD$116 billion per annum, the time of amusement centres on every street corner are long gone. If pinball could tap even 0.5% of this (that’s USD$580M), then the great silver ball game will be here to stay and be enjoyed for many generations to come!

Enjoying some arcade and pinball action at Melbourne’s Invaders Amusement Centre
– circa early 80s

Ted Dabney: The Passing of Atari’s Silent Co-Founder

May 31, 2018 By ausretrogamer

Last week news broke that Atari’s Co-Founder, Ted Dabney had passed at age 81. We wouldn’t usually post this type of news on here as it has already been covered enough by the bigger online media outlets. However, we didn’t want Ted’s passing to go unnoticed by our readers, as Ted’s importance to the video gaming industry is equal to his contemporaries, like Nolan Bushnell.

Ted Dabney co-founded the tiny electronics company called Syzygy Engineering in 1971 (renamed Atari in 1972) with his more famous business partner Nolan Bushnell. Ted and Nolan had previously partnered to program Computer Space, the first coin-operated video game ever brought to market. Computer Space was produced at the Northern California trivia game maker Nutting Associates, named after its owner Bill Nutting.

image source: RePlay Magazine

At Atari, Ted played his part, along with designer Al Alcorn (and Bushnell, of course) in the design and production of Pong, the first “hit” TV game which ushered in the age of video gaming. If you have read Curt Vendel and Marty Goldberg’s Atari Inc: Business is Fun, you’d know the background to Ted leaving Atari (Ed: It wasn’t pretty nor fair to Ted). But Ted being Ted, he never harboured any ill will towards Atari and went on to work at electronics firms outside the coin-op business. Ted preferred a simple life to the limelight that Atari should have afforded him.

According to the Huffington Post, Ted died of the esophageal cancer he’d been fighting. He and wife Carolyn had spent part of his remaining years operating a grocery store up in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains.

May his legacy live on! Rest In Peace Ted Dabney.

Space Invaders 40th Anniversary Silver Coin

April 16, 2018 By ausretrogamer

Special occasions like anniversaries usually come about a few times in a lifetime, so what better way to commemorate and remember a special anniversary than a beautiful and awesome memento to mark the occasion!

There were a few arcade games that came before it, but in 1978 Taito’s Space Invaders single-handedly propelled arcade games into mainstream popular culture and helped kick off the golden age of arcade video games.

When Tomohiro Nishikado created Space Invaders we bet he wouldn’t have thought that it would become such a global hit. With its legacy well and truly cemented in arcade video gaming lore, we wonder then what Mr Nishikado-san would make of New Zealand Mint’s commemorative Space Invaders 40th Anniversary 1oz Silver Coin? If we were to guess, he would be most impressed, just like we were.

The first thing that struck us when opening the package was the beautifully recreated (to scale) Space Invaders arcade cabinet. The base of the cabinet carries the numbered (out of 3,000 units) Certificate of Authenticity. The precious cargo is housed inside the arcade cabinet, which can be opened by lifting the cabinet off its base to reveal the gorgeous 1oz silver coin, cushioned in black felt.

Removing the coin we were impressed with its size – it is bigger than we imagined! On one side of the coin you will find Space Invaders engraved on a proof background and lenticular printed coloured aliens that move as the coin is rotated at different angles. The other side of the coin has Queen Lizzie (just like on all of our Australian and NZ legal tender). Holding the coin feels special as it connects us via nostalgia for the video game that kickstarted the arcade scene in the late 70s.

Rotate the coin to move the aliens, just like in the actual game!
image source: NZ Mint

If you do want this beautiful and officially licensed limited edition memento to commemorate one of the greatest arcade games, then you may want to act fast, as there are only 3,000 coins available worldwide! This coin is a great investment for any gaming fan. Long live Space Invaders!

Specifications:

Metal: 999 Fine Silver
Finish: Proof / Lenticular
Weight: 1 TROY OZ
Nominal Diameter: 40mm
Edge: Milled
Denomination: $2
Country of Issue: Niue
Year of Issue: 2018
Mintage: 3,000 only

Disclaimer: NZ Mint kindly provided the Space Invaders 40th Anniversary silver coin for this article.

Atari Star Wars: Ultimate Arcade Game Based On The Franchise

July 24, 2017 By ausretrogamer

Star Wars, the arcade video game may have just celebrated its 34th anniversary, but did you know how much it cost to make and what George Lucas thought of the game?

The Star Wars franchise has been going from strength to strength for 40 years and there is no sign of its star power going supernova. Atari may have waited a few years to make their awesome vector based coin-op game on the great franchise, but it was definitely worth the wait.

Released amid the American video games crash, Atari’s Star Wars (1983) was a godsend for operators and players alike. With its distinct sit-down cockpit and upright versions invading amusement centres, Atari’s Coin-Op division created a buffer from the wreckage of the industry around it. Starting out as Warp Speed, Atari’s Mike Hally quickly changed the game title to Star Wars once Atari secured the license – and the rest as they say, is history.

Looking at the Atari Star Wars bill of materials, it is unbelievable to fathom that the arcade unit cost was a mere USD$1,249 back in 1983, which is (approx.) USD$3,090 in today’s money, which is still damn cheap! The arcade version was given the seal of approval from Mr. Star Wars himself, George Lucas with a plaque that reads, “A special thanks for creating THE FORCE behind so much fun”. Once inside the cockpit, Lucas was smitten and the game went gangbusters, selling thousands of units, making Atari (or more accurately, Time Warner) a ton of money!

The FORCE will always be with Atari’s classic coin-op. Always!

Atari Star Wars – cockpit concept sketch (source: arcade blogger)

The bill of material! (source: atarigames.com)

Cockpit prototype (source: atarigames.com)

The finished product! She is (still) a beaut!

Atari execs watch in anticipation as George Lucas takes a test fly! He likes it! (source: video-game-ephemera)

George getting some game play pointers from Atari’s Don Osborne (source: arcade blogger)

Our preferred arcade flyer (via: the arcade flyer archive)

A Huge Arcade Coin-Op Sale On Craigslist

January 23, 2016 By ausretrogamer

Last Saturday (January 16) in a storage unit in Grand Island Nebraska there was a huge one day sale on classic and vintage arcade machines, jukeboxes and various other coin-ops. These relics had not seen the light of day in over 30 years!

The seller on Craigslist stated that there was too much gear to move and everything had to go – at fantastically great prices (Ed: relatively speaking!). The array of machines that had to go included: Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe, Galaga, Bi Plane, Head-On, Omega Race (stand up and sit down), Space Invaders and Tank II to name just a few.

So, who of you attended this once-in-a-lifetime fire sale? Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook and tell us all about it.

PS: I wish we had these kinds of storage unit sales in Australia!

A Space Invader lurks in storage