9781422277348

Tech 2.0

competitions never gained much steam. Pinball machines were pop- ular at arcades, and some adults continued to play pinball at their lo- cal bar, but the problem was that very few people had the space—or the money—to have a pinball machine in their house. By the early 1980s, however, when companies like Atari and Intellivision first started making video game consoles for home use, everything changed. Kids and adults alike were consumed with sim- ple games such as Space Invaders, Asteroids and Donkey Kong. These games weren’t simple at the time—it all seemed very futuristic, since few people back then could have imagined a future that would bring 3D graphics and multiplayer functionality—not to mention digital communications that could allow you to play video games in real

Teenagers poured quarters into arcade games in the 1980s.

14