16 Facts About Electro-mechanical games

Electro-mechanical games are types of arcade games that operate on a combination of some electronic circuitry and mechanical actions from the player to move items contained within the game's cabinet.

Some were early light gun games using light-sensitive sensors on targets to register hits, while others were simulation games such as driving games, combat flight simulators and sports games.

EM Electro-mechanical games were popular in amusement arcades from the late 1940s up until the 1970s, serving as alternatives to pinball machines, which had been stigmatized as Electro-mechanical games of chance during that period.

EM Electro-mechanical games typically combined mechanical engineering technology with various electrical components, such as motors, switches, resistors, solenoids, relays, bells, buzzers and electric lights.

Normally installed at carnivals and fairs, entrepreneurs created standalone arcade to house these machines More interactive mechanical Electro-mechanical games emerged around the 1930s, such as skee-ball, as well as the first simple pinball Electro-mechanical games.

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Arcades had previously been dominated by jukeboxes, before a new wave of EM arcade Electro-mechanical games emerged that were able to generate significant earnings for arcade operators.

Periscope revived the novelty game business, and established a "realistic" or "audio-visual" category of Electro-mechanical games, using advanced special effects to provide a simulation experience.

One of the last successful EM shooting Electro-mechanical games was Namco's light gun game Shoot Away, which was Japan's third highest-grossing EM arcade game of 1977 and highest-grossing EM arcade game of 1980, while maintaining a presence in Western arcades into the 1980s.

One of the last successful electro-mechanical arcade racing games was F-1, a racing game developed by Namco and distributed by Atari in 1976.

EM bowling Electro-mechanical games called "bowlers" included Bally Manufacturing's Bally Bowler and Chicago Coin's Corvette in 1966.

EM baseball Electro-mechanical games included Midway's Little League and Chicago Coin's All Stars Baseball.

Arrival of arcade video games eventually led to the decline of electro-mechanical games during the 1970s.

In Japan, EM Electro-mechanical games remained more popular than video Electro-mechanical games up until the late 1970s.

EM Electro-mechanical games eventually declined following the arrival of Space Invaders and the golden age of arcade video Electro-mechanical games in the late 1970s.

Several electro-mechanical games that appeared in the 1970s have remained popular in arcades through to the present day, notably air hockey, whac-a-mole and medal games.

Medal Electro-mechanical games started becoming popular with Sega's Harness Racing, Nintendo's EVR Race and Aruze's The Derby Vf.