It's the 1980s and you're all dressed up in your Coca-Cola t-shirt with a Michael Jackson Thriller jacket and about to head off to play some video games with your pals. You grab as many one dollar bills as you can and head off to the nearest building with more flashing lights than a '70s discotech - the arcade.

The golden age of arcades wasn't all that long ago, and yet many now look upon that age as though it was something the founding fathers of America did - and while George Washington and Thomas Jefferson never played a round of Pac Man, it certainly feels like a bygone age. Video arcades got their start in bars and bowling alleys, where one or two machines (called "cabinets") would be set up for a nice diversion, but as the popularity of video games grew, it became necessary to branch out into venues that featured only the activities of arcade games.

Older gamers can fondly remember their childhood, partaking in classics like Pac Man, Galaxian, Centipede, Dig Dug and Pole Position. Since every arcade machine had a CPU, it allowed for much more complexity than the home console could offer at the time (Atari released their home system in the late '70s/early '80s, but the most complicated game it could handle was Pong). Eventually, the success of these early games led to other developers jumping in with both imitations that became instant classics - like the Galaxian homages Space Invaders and Galaga - as well as new properties that still have roots today - like the original Donkey Kong, Q*Bert, Mario Bros. and Frogger.

During this era, other formats of games thrived. Konami in particular released many games with a beat-em-up formula for a number of different pop culture properties including The Simpsons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and X-Men. Atari introduced Paperboy, a game where the player attempts to successfully deliver papers on a paper route, with a bicycle handlebar for control. Hogan's Alley introduced the industry standard Light Gun to arcade machines, while Atari's Football introduced the trackball as an alternative means of control.

In the age of arcades, the whole point was to get the high score on the machine. Most games would have some way of tracking points and at the end of the game, would have a high score list where the player could input their initials for local bragging rights. A good amount of getting the high score involved skill, but it also greatly depended on the amount of quarters you had available. More money meant more game time - and usually, more game time meant a higher score.

Many historians believe that the height of arcades took place from the late 1970s to the mid 1980s. It's no coincidence that Nintendo's first entertainment system debuted in 1985, effectively beginning the downfall of arcades as a brick and mortar venue. But while arcades began to decline, arcade machines still continued to be produced. Up until the mid-'90s when the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64 became popular, cabinets were still being produced - and they were more and more extravagant every time. Games like Time Crisis expanded on the original light gun concept while fighting games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat ruled the floor. Dance Dance Revolution premiered in arcades around this time, creating an experience that was difficult (if not impossible) to emulate at home...but it wasn't enough.

By the time the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 hit homes, arcades were near their death knell. Those that hadn't already gone out of business had survived by expanding their games into prize-based ticked redemption programs with physical games like Skee-ball and Whak-a-Mole. Originally, consoles would have home versions of arcade games; now it was the other way around. arcades started sporting enhanced versions of home console games, like Star Wars: Episode One Racer featuring a full-size pod racer in front of a large screen or arcade versions of Guitar Hero. However, many of them died out. Today, all arcades still in business feature mostly ticket-redemption games with very few real arcades games in attendance.

However, arcade enthusiasts should rejoice - many of their favorite games are available on a number of different handheld and home console systems. Pac Man has been ported every way possible for a number of years, while the original Mario Bros. is on the Wii's Virtual Console. Both the Nintendo DS and PSP have Space Invaders Extreme with enhanced multiplayer, so the nostalgia for arcades is far from over. The experience has simply shifted from a public venue to a private one while the classics continue to thrive in a different format.

Perhaps the most attractive aspect of arcades is that it made gaming truly a social experience; it was an easy way to meet people who shared your interest of video games. While this experience continues today using services like Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, it will never truly be the same feeling being able to walk up to a Street Fighter arcade machine, insert your token and challenge the person playing to test your own skill amongst the flashing lights and intricate tapestry that was the video arcade. It's an experience that nearly impossible to replicate, but one of the most satisfying experiences in the history of video games.