ATLANTA – June 28, 2011 – Before the Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii, teenagers gathered all of their quarters and went to pizza parlors, miniature golf courses and arcades to play their favorite video games. This year marks the 40th anniversary of those first, now historical, arcade games.
In celebration of the 40th anniversary of arcade games KontrolFreek®, makers of the Rcade Freek™, a sleek, high-polished dome that attaches to the joysticks of Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 controllers to emulate the arcade experience, conducted a national survey to determine America’s all-time favorite arcade games. The online survey, conducted by IBOPE Zogby and KontrolFreek, found that America’s favorite game of all time is Pac-Man, followed closely by two other beloved classic games Donkey Kong and Space Invaders. Asteroids, Frogger, Ms. Pac-Man, Centipede, Pong, Mortal Kombat, and Galaga round out the top 10 list and the complete survey results are available at KontrolFreek’s website.
As part of the celebration, celebrity video game players and video game designers weighed in on their favorite arcade games and memories:
James Kyson Lee, “Heroes” & “Hawaii 5-0”:
“Definitely Street Fighter II: Champion Edition and Super Street Fighter II Turbo were my favorite arcade games. During high school, we used to go to the burger joint that had it and have our own tournaments, lining up quarters on the machine to mark who was next. At the time, it had the most number of combination moves, characters, and story – and it was a challenge to finish the game.”
AJ LoCascio, Back to the Future: The Game:
“Easily the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game was my favorite. It was too perfect. I think my favorite memory of it was playing it recently at my friend Dennis’s house; he has an arcade cabinet in his apartment and four of us played and beat the game on the spot.”
Fun Arcade Game Facts:
• The first known coin-operated arcade video game, The Galaxy Game, made its debut on the campus of Stanford University
• The IBOPE Zogby and KontrolFreek survey found that 57.4 percent of republicans preferred blasting Asteroids versus 48.1 percent of democrats
• Centipede was the first game that was designed by a woman
• Of those surveyed by IBOPE Zogby and KontrolFreek, 7.1 percent of married people included Punch Out as their favorite game versus 20.9 percent of singles and 26.3 percent of divorced respondents
• According to Guinness World Records Williams’ Blaster cockpit is the most valuable arcade machine with an estimated worth of $12,000
• The fastest perfect Pac-Man score was achieved in 2009 by David Race who completed the game flawlessly in 3 hours, 41 minutes, and 22 seconds
• Pac-Man, Dragon’s Lair, and Pong are all on permanent display at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C
• According to Wikipedia, Pac-Man revenues equaled 10 billion quarters by the late 1990s
• Notable celebrities who are also turning 40 this year include Ewan McGregor, Snoop Dogg, Mark Walberg, Emmanuel Lewis, Mariah Carey, Luke Wilson, Jada Pinkett Smith and many others.