The Golden Age of Video Arcade Games was a peak era of video arcade game popularity, innovation, and earnings. The consensus as to its exact time period varies. Walter Day of Twin Galaxies places it as lasting from January 18, 1982 to January 5, 1986. Video game journalist Steven L. Kent, in his book The Ultimate History of Video Games, places it from 1979 to 1983. Other opinions place this period's beginning in the late 1970s, when color arcade games became more prevalent and video arcades themselves started appearing outside of their traditional bowling alley and bar locales, through to its ending in the mid-1980s.

Overview

During the late 1970s, video arcade game technology had become sophisticated enough to offer good-quality graphics and sounds, but it was still fairly basic (realistic images and full motion video were not yet available, and only a few games used spoken voice) and so the success of a game had to rely on simple and fun gameplay. This emphasis on the gameplay is why many of these games continue to be enjoyed today despite having been vastly outdated by modern computing technology.