An arcade game or coin-op is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically
installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades.
Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games,
redemption games or merchandisers.
While exact
dates are debated, the golden age of arcade video games is usually defined as a
period beginning sometime in the late 1970s and ending sometime in the
mid-1980s. Excluding a brief resurgence in the early 1990s, the arcade industry
subsequently declined in the Western hemisphere as competing home-based video
game consoles increased in capability and decreased in cost.