14 arcade machines that led to a misspent youth

With the market for videogames now eclipsing those of music and cinema, it's worth remembering where it all began.

Back in the 70s and 80s an entertainment revolution took its first faltering steps, with an esoteric selection of coin-operated arcade machines.

Looking back at these early pioneers of videogaming, it's easy to dismiss them as simplistic and repetitive, but many of the concepts they posited are still in use even today.

The following is our pick of the 14 most influential arcade machines from those early years. Disagree with the list? Add your suggestions in the comments.

1. Pong (Atari, 1972)
It's strange how two thin rectangles and a square, when put into motion and made (slightly) interactive, can begin a major entertainment revolution. Pong was the first commercially successful videogame and paved the way for the multitude of arcade clones and 'TV Game' systems that flooded high streets in the late 70s.

2. Space Invaders (Taito, 1978)
Space Invaders was the one that really kickstarted the videogame revolution. Who can forget the allure of that cabinet with its monsters and flying saucer graphics, plus that weird display with coloured overlays (the CRT screen was still monochrome at this point). Despite the simplistic visuals and monotonous sound effects, Invaders managed to create a brilliant sense of tension and rising panic.

3. Asteroids (Atari, 1979)
The glowing vector graphic display and physically realistically ship movement imbued Asteroids with a fluid, free-flowing feel. Beautiful, minimalist visuals also helped to generate a fascinating otherworldiness. Asteroids is as much an interactive art installation as it is a videogame.

4. Dragon's Lair (Cinematronics, 1983)
The advent of Laserdisc provided a means of showing movie-quality animation, where different joypad/button combos accessed different video tracks. When Dragon's Lair first appeared, it was a glossy competitor to the low-res, pixellated shooters, but the shallow 'quicktime' gameplay mechanics soon grew tired. Despite this, Dragon's Lair has sired no fewer than 58 ports and conversions on PC and home consoles.

5. Battlezone (Atari, 1980)
In arcades full of bleeping, beeping bitmapped shooters, Battlezone was a revelation. It was presented in 3D wireframe graphics, viewed through a gunner's periscope and it had proper tank controls! Genius. In fact it was so good, they made a version of the US army called The Bradley Trainer for gunnery practice.

6. Football (Atari, 1978)
Although little known in the UK, this American Football sim is notable for introducing the trackball controller (which would also appear in Centipede and Missile Command). It was also the first arcade game to feature a scrolling playfield - the patent for which provided enormous amounts of revenue for Atari Corp.

7. Tron (Bally Midway, 1982)
The first successful mainstream game based on a movie license (there were other less notable attempts), Tron naturally drew on the movie subject matter and was split into mini games featuring light cycles, tanks and so on. In truth, it was a pretty average game experience, but the glowing cabinet was great and the coin-op grossed more than the movie!

8. Phoenix (Amstar Electronics, 1980)
Perhaps not quite as memorable as some of our other entries, Phoenix was, however, one of the first full-colour coin-ops and, more importantly, introduced the concept of the end-of-level boss - the Phoenix mothership - which had to be repeatedly hit until you broke through its defences and destroyed the core. Its painful legacy lives on...

9. Galaxian (Namco, 1979)
Though obviously inspired by Space Invaders, Namco's shooter was the first full-colour coin-op, and also upped the ante in terms of graphics and animation, It featured a proper intro and background soundtrack, and introduced richer, more kinetic gameplay. It spawned a range of sequels including the hugely popular Galaga.

10. Street Fighter II (Capcom, 1991)
Although not the first one-on-one fighting game, Street Fighter II was the one that ignited the genre, becoming a worldwide phenomenon and siring five sequels and a multitude of home console versions. Some also blame it for the dearth of variety in coin-ops, which have since been mired in endless copycat beat 'em ups.

11. Space Harrier (Sega, 1985)
Sega's pseudo-3D shoot 'em up was a step-change in arcade gaming. Space Harrier was bold, brash, colourful and epic in scale. It featured digitised voices, multicoloured scaling sprites and, much to gamers' delight, a sit-in cabinet with a chair that moved in accord with your actions. Sega's AM2 team would use similar technologies and cabinets for the likes of After Burner, Out Run and Hang-On.

12. Donkey Kong (Nintendo, 1981)
One of the biggest selling arcade machines of all time, Donkey Kong was also one of the pioneers of platforming, and the coin-op that introduced Shigeru Miyamoto to the world of games design. It also led to the creation of Super Mario. Somehow the 'word' influential doesn't really do it justice.

13. Pac-Man (Namco, 1980)
One of the truly ground-breaking concepts, Pac-Man introduced a whole new game mechanic in which the player is both hunter and hunted (you could almost categorise it as the first horror survival game). Popular with both male and female gamers, Pac-Man became the biggest-selling coin-op of all time and a 1980s pop icon, with a TV show, vast array of merchandise, and over 30 sequels and spin-offs.

14. Gauntlet (Atari, 1985)
Uniquely, Gauntlet featured an enormous cabinet which provided controllers for up to four players - the first arcade machine to do so. The game is famous for its digitised speech (who hasn't quoted such classics as "Wizard need food, badly!"), and the co-operative dungeon exploration has resonated down the timelines, arguably culminating in the biggest adventure game of all time: World of Warcraft.

Images courtesy of the Killer List of Videogames

Now read 11 signs you're no longer a hard-core gamer