Amusement Arcade

An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers (such as claw cranes), or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables. In some countries, some types of arcades are also legally permitted to provide gambling machines such as slot machines or pachinko machines. Games are usually housed in cabinets.

Amusement arcades developed out of penny arcades from the nineteenth century which had machines called bagatelles, a game with elements of billiards and modern pinball. Later, penny arcade machines grew closer to modern pinball. Penny arcades were once common at amusement parks and fairs but by the 1950s, such coin-operated amusements were generally replaced in midways by more modern games of chance and skill (redemption games such as shooting galleries and skee ball).

Video games were introduced in amusement arcades in the late 1970s and were most popular during the golden age of arcade video games, the early 1980s. Arcades became popular with young adults and particularly adolescents, which led parents to be concerned that video game playing might cause children to skip school. Many video arcades began closing in the late 1990s, as the technology of home video game consoles began to rival that of arcade games. However, video arcades remain popular in Japan, where they are called game centers (ゲームセンター).