It’s the summer of 2015 and the sun is out, the grass is green and the University of Waterloo ushers in a brand new term! The Iron Warrior comes in at full blast welcoming a fresh new set of vintage items and retro-cool magic with this term’s Hit Replay! Hit Replay kicks-off the term to bring you back to a past-time that has dominated the world for the past two decades. We take everyone back to the 80s and early 90s with this issue, to the sound of 8-bit music and pixelated landscapes. That’s right, we start this term talking about our beloved retro-video games! What better way to spend your sunny afternoon than sipping an iced tea in front of your Nintendo 64 or Atari 2600 playing classics such as Paper Boy, Duck Hunt or the Legend of Zelda? Perhaps you were an arcade lover, preferring change devouring arcade games such as Pac-Man (no, not the boxer), Space Invaders or Heiankyo Alien! Many of these games have made their way into the hearts of society, often to the point of utter yearning and nostalgia the moment we hear an 8-bit melody. The video game industry finds its roots in Video Game Arcades which developed from the earlier penny arcades. In the 1970s, video games hit the early stages of commercialization with devices such as the console prototype the Magnavox Odyssey with games such as pixel table tennis and target shooting. Other companies soon followed suit, releasing games such as Atari’s Pong and Bill Pitt’s Galaxy Game. The commercial success of Pong’s coin-operated arcade style platform shaped the video game industry we know today. By the 1980s Video Game Arcades started popping up all over the world, gaining wide popularity namely in Japan and the United States. Companies such as Namco (well known as the creator of Pac-Man) and Atari dominated the market. The 80s saw these two video game giants wrestle for control over the rapidly growing market. The strong demand for video games allowed companies such as Sega, Capcom, Bally/Midway, Taito, and Konami to thrive. Video Game Arcade machines were everywhere to be seen, ready to cater to both young and old. There was no venue without them, as they appeared in shopping malls, pubs, bars, restaurants, diners, and of course dedicated video game arcades in every corner.
This golden era opened the doors of opportunity for video game technology and hardware development. The modern world of video games entered the scene with the introduction of vector display monitors, more diverse controls providing more options than the original button & joystick combo, more advanced light-guns, and life-like steering controls for racing games. The Golden Era of Video Games found themselves into mainstream and popular culture! Namco’s Pac-Man up hit worldwide popularity, becoming synonymous with the video game industry itself. Up to today, Pac-Man is still in production by Namco, being the only game from the era still on the market! Classics such as Space Invaders, Donkey Kong and Super Mario have also made a lasting impact in culture. Moving forward in the years, many independent video game arcades closed their doors as hand-held and home-based consoles dominated the market. Full-scale national chains such as Chuck E. Cheeses, and Dave and Busters, came to take their spot, moving away from the original concept of a video game–specific arcade to an entertainment center approach. The end of the Video Game Arcade however, did not mean the end for the video game industry as we all know. Video game giants such as Capcom, Nintendo, and Sega made their way into a whole new era of video games. Games such as The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, and Super Mario have lived and survived until today! On the next issue of Hit Replay, we look through the era of hand-held and TV consoles!
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