An evidence-based research archive devoted to overlooked arcade games, forgotten companies, unusual cabinets, unresolved histories, and the people whose work deserves to remain part of the record.
Brian D. Semler said the company expected seven more games that year. Their identities and fates remain unresolved.
Open questions in arcade history guide the next archival search.
Four paths through the collection
Manufacturers, developers, distributors, trade relationships, short-lived ventures, and companies whose histories were never properly pulled together.
Deep profiles of the games that rarely got a proper historical treatment.
Kiosks, minis, prototypes, conversions, and machines that never fit the usual mold.
Programmers, engineers, artists, designers, operators, and others too often left out.
Missing documents, unidentified people, conflicting dates, prototype mysteries, and research leads.
Company histories and sources
Evolution Soccer and Rage of the Dragons: the Mexican creative team that entered Japanese arcade production, with BrezzaSoft and Noise Factory.
Super Tank, Port Man and Triple Punch: an operator-led company linking imported games, licensed manufacture and distinctive cabinet presentations.
The display-equipment company that entered coin-op with Volly, Clean Sweep, Sea Battle, Hit Me, M-79 Ambush, Star Cruiser and a thirteen-game video catalog.
A short-lived California manufacturer whose four known production videogames turned theatrical sound, unusual premises and strong cabinet identity into a remarkably distinctive catalog.
Cabinet maker, integrator, assembler and marketer. The history distinguishes 14 game families from a broader group of 21 associated families, reflecting the company’s varied roles.
The company behind five distinct arcade games, traced through program credits, regional licenses, flyers, technical documents and surviving machines.
Rights holder, licensor, cabinet vendor, conversion specialist and original hardware/software operation behind Eyes, Macho Mouse, Mr. TNT, The Spirit of ’83, Lizard Wizard and a remarkable group of nearly lost projects.
Yachiyo helped create games such as Space Stranger and Swinging Singles, while also building and assembling arcade machines for others. Its story reaches from electronics manufacturing into the early Japanese video-game industry.
From export electronics to a major Korean arcade developer, manufacturer and amusement company. Fifteen confirmed original arcade video identities through 2004.
From crane games and amusement distribution to a small, distinctive arcade developer. The history separates UPL’s own games from NMK co-productions and outside-developed releases.
An early California electronic-amusement manufacturer behind Star Trek, Rally and Sport Center, plus the unusual ZX-1040 Bio-Computer.
The Stanford venture behind one early coin-operated Galaxy Game, its two system generations, and a layered preservation story.
The overlooked Korean studio behind 38 conventional arcade releases, recurring internal teams, protected custom hardware and a company trail that continues into the software era.
The Phoenix company that moved from foosball into early video games, microprocessors, pinball and card games.
The Japanese arcade company behind DECO Cassette, a deep hardware and software catalog, and Data East USA.
Telekick, German arcade cabinets and 43 documented commercial video-game relationships spanning manufacture, licensing, localization and distribution.
A Johannesburg Atari distributor and video-amusement manufacturer whose documented trade presence is clear, while its specific locally built machines remain unidentified.
Game histories, play and design
Universal’s fixed-screen defense shooter: stolen laser guns, evolving guerrillas, Ishimori-linked artwork, and a tangled regional hardware story.
Technos Japan’s beginning: fruit-delivery commands, eight repeating layouts and a rising score multiplier.
Seibu and Taito’s fantasy arcade hybrid: cursed treasure, barter, towns, maze routes, and the knowledge needed to survive.
Data East and Jorudan’s pirate adventure: magic, shops, second-loop survival, and the rules hidden inside its arcade program.
Pacific Novelty’s getaway-car maze chase, with eight maze layouts, a criminal-rank ladder and cassette-driven police-radio chatter.
Meadows’ discrete-logic flight combat machine: cockpit illusion, conflicting rules, and the challenge of preserving a game without a CPU.
Taito America’s colony-defense shooter: limited weapons, upright and Trimline cabinets, and the extra-coin Extended Weaponry experiment.
Nova Games’ miniature embassy: tools, guards and a complete spy operation.
Sega’s treasure-maze puzzle: map deductions, rocks and a flying camel.
Digitrex, Techstar, Rock-Ola and Zaccaria: the strange maze game with multiple commercial identities and a surviving visual record.
Cabinets, kiosks, conversions and machines outside the usual mold
A 1976 Atari factory instruction sheet describes modular arcade groups of two, three or six machines. This is a documented hardware lead, not yet a standalone history.
People recovered from the margins of the record
Twenty-seven people are indexed so far across Pacific Novelty, Elcon, Ramtek, Data East, Mirco Games, For-Play and SEMiCOM, with each name linked directly to the research that documents the person’s role.
Weekly selections from the collection
Shark Attack, Thief, NATO Defense and Mr. F. Lea reveal a California manufacturer with a distinctive approach to sound and cabinet presentation. Follow its founders, licensing relationships, prototypes and the questions surrounding its short operating life.
Elcon’s documented Michigan activity spans 1975–1982. It built and assembled fourteen game families and offered seven additional games from other companies, alongside adaptable cabinets and multi-game installations.
History & sourcesDocuments, histories and open questions
What we know: Company histories and game research already recover names from program credits, manuals, trade coverage, company records, surviving machines and firsthand accounts.
What is still missing: Credits, staff lists, correspondence, photographs with identified people, employment records, and firsthand memories that can connect specific programmers, artists, engineers, operators or executives to lesser-known games.
What we know: Many company histories survive only in scattered trade publications, manuals, public records, advertisements and photographs of surviving equipment.
What is still missing: Catalogs, price sheets, brochures, factory and operator photographs, internal memos, correspondence, employee material, service documents and other privately held records that can fill gaps in the public record.
What we know: Period documentation and surviving examples confirm a surprising range of unusual cabinets, conversion systems, kiosks and prototype hardware, but their present survival is often uncertain.
What is still missing: Current photographs, serial and identification plates, provenance, dimensions, restoration history, prototype markings, and reliable reports of where surviving examples have ended up.
Corrections, photographs, manuals, flyers, company records, firsthand recollections, conflicting evidence, and new leads are welcome. Nothing is automatically published: submissions are reviewed first. Meaningful contributors can be credited prominently with permission, or remain anonymous if they prefer.
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Arcade Side B is an ongoing research archive devoted to the overlooked corners of arcade history— the games, companies, cabinets, ideas, and people whose stories have often been scattered, forgotten, or poorly documented.
We follow the best evidence we can find, distinguish fact from uncertainty, and consider nothing here beyond correction or improvement. New information, conflicting evidence, photographs, documents, and firsthand knowledge are always welcome.
Arcade history is often reconstructed from incomplete, conflicting, translated, or decades-old sources. We work carefully and document our evidence, but no historical research is immune from mistakes. Errors of fact, transcription, translation, interpretation, or simple grammar may remain. Good-faith corrections supported by better evidence are always welcome, and the record will be updated when the evidence warrants it.
Not everything documented here was famous, successful, or even great. It mattered because it was part of arcade history, and the people who created it deserve to have their work remembered.