A brief history of arcade video game display technologies

— From CRT displays to real time graphics —

Abstract

Since the rise of the market in the 1970s, arcade video games have evolved via the adoption of various display technologies. Initially transistor-to-transistor logic (TTL) was used, then bitmapped display—as seen in the smash hit Space Invaders—was adopted. Later display technologies include sprite display technology, an arcade industry innovation that played an important role in expanding the market, and real time polygon displays incorporating very fast numerical operations such as DSP. The arcade business has been an early adopter, introducing, developing, and utilizing new display technologies years before they appear in other industries. These arcade game technologies led to the development of many other new entertainment systems, such as home console games, mobile phone contents, and even network (downloadable) karaoke. This paper describes the evolution of arcade game display hardware technologies and its background.