Birth of the Japanese Game Center

TCW Podcast Episode 008 - Birth of the Japanese Game Center

We cover the beginning of the Japanese game center. How games had to change for Japan due to space limitations. You did not see many horizontal table games. With these changes you saw the evolution of Bagatelle to Pachinko. There is the dissolution of the pachinko parlors starting with the cessation of production in 1937, and the closing of the parlors in 1938. After WWII pachinko started to come back as a gambling device to get basic needs. With the rebuilding of Japan games were not viewed as something adults would do, and were targeted at children.  We continue on with Juke Boxes and Taito getting them from military bases to restoring them for Japanese use.  We go over some of the differences between the Japanese and American arcade industries. We cover how arcades start to spread across Japan. Starting as add-ons to malls, then add-ons to bowling allies that allowed arcades to penetrate the entire culture. We cover the first big video game in japan Breakout! Then we get Space Invaders which becomes a massive hit in Japan!

Bagatelle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPnMcMsttaI

Pachinko Machine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAg_BjYOwwo

Breakout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW7Sg5pXAok

Space Invaders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJTNnpLMVY8

New episodes on the 1st and 15th of every month!

TCW Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @tcwpodcast

Alex's Blog: http://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com

Intro Music: Josh Woodward - Airplane Mode -  Music - "Airplane Mode" by Josh Woodward. Free download:http://joshwoodward.com/song/AirplaneMode 

Outro Music: RolemMusic - Bacterial Love - http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Rolemusic/Pop_Singles_Compilation_2014/01_rolemusic_-_bacterial_love 

Copyright: Attribution: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/