Just as for any other industry, the video game industry underwent great and excellent times and this era was termed as the Golden Age. During this time, the industry saw great many achievements and advancements in popularity, innovation and revenue. However, the time period in which this era existed varies from source to source where some experts place it starting from the year 1982 and ending in 1986 while others place it starting in the year 1979 and ending in 1983. Nevertheless, such a time existed and this was the best time for the industry.

For Business:

In terms of business advancement, this era marked an exponential expansion drive all across North America and Japan. Video arcade games were becoming increasingly popular and they started appearing in many public places such as, supermarkets, gas stations, liquor stores and so on and so forth.

This rapid expansion and spread helped many video game companies come in to the limelight and success. Companies like, Atari, Namco and Nintendo were among the leaders.

For Technology:

Obviously, this era had huge advancements in video game technology. As a result of many developers started experimenting and trying out new ideas, major leaps were born in to the industry. One of the main technologies that came in to being was, vector displays instead of raster displays. Popular games to use vector displays were, "Battlezone" and "Star Wars". However, after some time, the vector display technology fell off the way side due to high maintenance costs.

Further, developers in the industry also experimented with laser disc players with the hope of delivering movie like games to the market. One of the main games to use the technology was "Dragon's Lair" from the developer Cinematronics. Though regarded as a revolutionizing and a addictive genre, after some time, its popularity fell due to the kind of gameplay which depended on memorizing sequences of moves.

For Games:

Due to the success that followed initial arcade games, many developers quickly adapted the idea of making video arcade games and those games were simply based upon the idea of "invading aliens" taken from the game "Space Invaders". However, some developers made attempts to carve out new genres and new concepts by introducing such games as, "Donkey Kong" and "Qix". In these games, skill and precision was regarded essential rather than how fast you can shoot.

End of the Age

The end of this great age for the video game industry came to an end with many copies of popular games being introduced to the market. This made the arcade market saturate but nevertheless the arcade games remained at the forefront of the industry throughout the early parts of the 90s. Some effort was however, put towards finding new genres.

Summary: This article provides information and facts about the video game industry's Golden Age and examines how and what kind of impact and influence this age had on each of its working sectors such as business, technology and games.