240px, DECO Cassette System loading screen The DECO Cassette System is an arcade system that was introduced by

Data East , also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 video game titles. At one time, the company had annual sales of 20 billion yen in ...

in October 1980. It was the first standardised arcade system that allowed arcade owners to change games. Developed in 1979, it was released in Japan in 1980 and then North America in 1981. The arcade owner would buy a base cabinet, while the games were stored on standard audio

cassette tapes Cassette, also known as cassette tape, refers to a small plastic unit containing a length of magnetic tape on two reels. The design was created to replicate the way a reel-to-reel machine works with tape moving from one reel to another while bein ...

. The arcade owner would insert the cassette and a key module into the cabinet. When the machine was powered on, the program from the tape would be copied into the cabinet's

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

chips; this process took about two to three minutes. Afterwards, the game could be played freely until the machine was powered off.

Game list

In bold characters are the video games that were also released in dedicated arcade cabinets. * 01: '' Highway Chase'' (also known as ''Mad Alien'') * 02: '' Sengoku Ninja Tai'' (also known as ''Ninja'') * 03: ''Manhattan'' * 04: '' Terranean'' * 05: '' Missile Sprinter'' * 06: ''Nebula'' * 07: '' Astro Fantasia'' * 08: ''The Tower'' * 09: '' Super Astro Fighter'' * 10: ''Ocean to Ocean'' * 11: '' Lock 'n' Chase'' * 12: '' The DECO Kid'' (also known as ''Flash Boy'') * 13: ''Tournament Pro Golf'' (also known as ''Pro Golf'' or ''18 Hole Pro Golf'') * 14: '' DS Telejan'' * 15: '' Lucky Poker'' * 16: ''

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure a ...

'' * 17: '' Bobitto'' * 18: ''Explorer'' * 19: '' Disco No. 1'' (also known as ''Sweet Heart'') * 20: ''Tornado'' * 21: ''Mission-X'' * 22: '' Pro Tennis'' * 23: '' 18 Challenge Pro Golf'' * 24: '' Tsumego Kaisyou'' * 25: '' Angler Dangler'' (also known as ''Fishing'') * 26: '' BurgerTime'' (also known as ''Hamburger'') * 27: '' Bump 'n' Jump'' (also known as ''Burnin' Rubber'') * 28: '' Cluster Buster'' (also known as ''Graplop'') * 29: '' Rootin' Tootin''' (also known as ''La-Pa-Pa'') * 30: ''Skater'' * 31: '' Pro Bowling'' * 32: ''Night Star'' * 33: ''Pro Soccer'' * 34: '' Super Doubles Tennis'' * 35: '' Bumpoline'' (also known as ''Flying Ball'') * 36: ''Genesis'' (also known as ''Boomer Rang'r'') * 37: ''Zeroize'' * 38: '' Scrum Try'' * 39: '' Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory'' * 40: '' Fighting Ice Hockey'' * 41: '' Oozumou - The Grand Sumo'' * 42: '' Hellow Gateball'' * 43: '' Kamikaze Cabbie'' (also known as ''Yellow Cab'') * 44: '' Boulder Dash'' * UX-7: '' Tokyo MIE Shinryoujo'' (Tokyo MIE Clinic) * UX-8: '' Tokyo MIE Shinryoujo 2'' (Tokyo MIE Clinic 2) * UX-9: '' Geinoujin Shikaku Shiken'' * ??: '' Burmazon''

Reception

In Japan, the '' Game Machine'' list of highest-grossing arcade video games of 1981 listed ''Pro Golf'' at number three and ''Tele-Jan'' at number thirteen. On the list of highest-grossing arcade video games of 1982, '' Burnin' Rubber'' (''Bump 'n' Jump'') was number nine, '' BurgerTime'' (''Hamburger'') was number eleven, and ''Pro Tennis'' was number fifteen. ''Game Machine'' later listed ''Pro Soccer'' as the top-grossing new table arcade cabinet in September 1983, and ''Scrum Try'' topped the table arcade game chart in April 1984.

Legacy

It was the first interchangeable

arcade system board An arcade video game is an arcade game that takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. All arcade video games are coin-opera ...

, developed in 1979 before it was released in 1980. It inspired

Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

's Convert-a-Game system, which released in 1981. Later interchangeable arcade systems followed from other companies, such as the

Nintendo VS. System The is an arcade system that was developed and produced by Nintendo. It is based on most of the same hardware as the Family Computer (Famicom), later released as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). As Nintendo was planning to release the ...

in 1984. The DECO Cassette System was revolutionary for its time; but Data East discontinued it in 1985 due to arcade owners' complaints about the potential unreliability of both the tapes (which could be demagnetized easily) and key modules (which EPROMs went bad after a time), as well as the poor quality of most of its games and the medium's long loading times. Despite its bad qualities, the DECO Cassette System was better received in Japan, where many more games were released for it. John Szczepaniak of ''Hardcore Gaming 101'' considers the DECO

scrolling In computer displays, filmmaking, television production, video games and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display, vertically or horizontally. "Scrolling," as such, does not change the layout ...

action game An action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction time. The genre includes a large variety of sub-genres, such as fighting games, beat 'em ups, shooter games, rhythm games and ...

''Flash Boy'' (1981), based on the

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

and

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

series ''

Astro Boy ''Astro Boy'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka. It was serialized in Kobunsha's ''Shōnen'' from 1952 to 1968. The 112 chapters were collected into 23 volumes by Akita Shoten. Da ...

'' (1952–1968), to be sophisticated for its time. It had an

energy bar Energy bars are supplemental bars containing cereals, micronutrients, and flavor ingredients intended to supply quick food energy. Because most energy bars contain added protein (nutrient), protein, carbohydrates, dietary fiber, and other nutri ...

that gradually depletes over time, and some of which can be sacrificed for temporary invincibility. It had punch attacks rather than

shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missile ...

, and a type of combo mechanic where, when an enemy explodes, debris can destroy other enemies. There is also a boss battle at the end of each

level Level or levels may refer to: Engineering *Level (optical instrument), a device used to measure true horizontal or relative heights * Spirit level or bubble level, an instrument designed to indicate whether a surface is horizontal or vertical *C ...

, as well as bi-directional

side-scrolling A side-scrolling video game (alternatively side-scroller) is a video game viewed from a side-view camera angle where the screen follows the player as they move left or right. The jump from single-screen or flip-screen graphics to scrolling grap ...

similar to '' Defender''. Data East released two versions of the game, a side-scrolling version and a vertical scrolling version.

Notes

References

External links