A SHORT HISTORY OF AMUSEMENTARCADES
By Tim Hunkin

  1. Nic Costa Slot Machines Jackpots
  2. Casino Slot Machines For Sale
  3. Nic Costa Slot Machines Free Play

Vending
machines
.

Working
models
.

Fruit
Machines
.

Novelty
Machines
.

Video
Games
.

Simulator
Rides
.

Alternative
Arcades
.

INTRODUCTION
Surprisingly little has been written about the history of amusement arcades. There are guides for collectors of antique slot machines but only one social history (Nic Costa's Automatic Pleasures). This, despite arcades' far flung success –every city in the world has them – and even every small town in Europe and the US.
The history of arcades is inextricably linked to their most profitable and most notorious machine – the fruit machine or ‘one-armed bandit’ as it was named by the disapproving. Accused of promoting gambling and reducing vulnerable people to debt, the fruit machine has mired the history of arcades in controversy. Every country in the world has banned them at one point or another – and now though the machines are rarely still banned, they continue to be regulated in great detail.

The domination of the fruit machine has hidden the other aspects of the amusement arcades’ history. There has always been a spectrum of machines from high stake gambling at one end, through low stake gambling and games of skill, to machines that are purely designed to delight and entertain at the other extreme.
In the early 20th century arcades were at the forefront of the movies. ‘What the butler saw’ or mutoscope machines were many people’s first experience of ‘moving pictures’. It was the craze for these machines that started the first arcades – previously lone machines had just been placed in shops and bars.
(The mutoscope works like a flicker book. Each frame of the movie is printed on a separate postcard.) Turning the handle rotates the drum and flicks the cards past the eyepiece.
.
In the 1930s the ingenious electromechanical mechanisms and electric lights of pinball machines were highly advanced for their time. High scores are usually rewarded by extra playing time.
In the 1970s, arcades were again at the cutting edge of technology with the first computer games – like pong (tennis) and most famously Space Invaders.
This history does not attempt to be comprehensive, it just follows various avenues that particularly interest me.


Arcade in Berlin 1905


'Discount bicycle wheel' counter top game
(far left) in a US grocery store 1890s

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German arcades 1920s

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  • Automatic Pleasures by Nic Costa. Sold for £5 in March 2019. Slot Machines by Dieter Ladwig. Sold for £5 in March 2019. Pace Slot Machine Parts & Service Manual. Sold for £10 in November 2018. Pinball & Slot Machine Books & Magazines. Sold for £12 in November 2017. Pinball & Slot Machine Books & Magazines. Sold for £10 in November 2017.
  • Oct 12, 2013 This is a big book, nearly 200 pages and filled with photos and stories about coin-op machines, centering on slot machines. The book is filled with great coin-op history, and is mostly a compilation of articles written by Nic Costa from several years back. If you love slots, you'll love the photos and history here.

Nic Costa Amusement Slot Machine Allwin, One Arm Bandit Book. Ending 11 Dec at 9:31PM GMT 7d 20h. Click & Collect. Update YOUR Note. Christie’s Nic Costa Collection of Amusement Machines catalogue from 2006.This is a ‘must-have’ for all collectors and a fabulous resource for collectors. Pages of descriptions and colour photographs and prices. Condition is 'New'. Dispatched with Royal Mail 2nd Class.Please see the other books I am selling on EBay.Seasons greetings and happy bidding.

Below is a partial list of publications that have cited Nicholas Costa’s work:

Sale

2020 Huhtamo, Erkki. “The Self-Driving Car: A Media Machine for Posthumans?”. Artnodes, [online], 2020, Num. 26, pp. 1-14,

2019 They Create Worlds:The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry, Vol. I: 1971-1982.

2019 Transgression in Games and Play, Kristine Jørgensen and Faltin Karlsen, MIT Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts., USA

2018 СРБИ У СРЕДЊЕМ ВЕКУ: Блог који се бави историјом Срба у средњем веку Serbs in the Middle Ages: 536 the year without a sun: http://srpskosrednjovekovlje.blogspot.com/2018/11/536.html

2018 Voices from the Uncanny Valley, Tiina Männistö-Funk / Tanja Sihvonen, Digital Culture & Society Volume 4 Issue 1, Editor-in-Chief: Reichert, Ramón Ed. by Richterich, Annika / Abend, Pablo / Fuchs, Mathias / Wenz, Karin. http://digicults.org/

2018 Great Mosque of Kufa https://wikivividly.com/wiki/Great_Mosque_of_Kufa Costa, Adam to Apophis 2013

2018 Thierry DEPAULIS, « MACHINES À SOUS », Encyclopædia Universalis [en ligne], URL : http://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/machines-a-sous/

2018 Archaeologies of Touch, Inter facing with Haptics from Electricity to Computing David Paris University of Minnesota Press

2018 Jonah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonah#CITEREFCosta2013 Adam to Apophis

2017 The Kinetoscope: A British History, Richard Brown Barry Anthony Indiana University Press

2017 Max Jentzsch & Meerz by Jörg Wagner http://www.alte-spielautomaten.de/index.php/max-jentzsch-meerz/firmengeschichte

2017 Health and Power- Perspectives on biopolitics and management technology (Sundhed og Magt:Perspektiver på biopolitik og ledelsesteknologi) Editors: Mads Peter Karlsen, Kaspar Villadsen. Hanz Rietzel Publishing, Copenhagen, Denmark

2017 Leucodermia https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/leucodermia Adam to Apophis

2017 History of Digital Games: Developments in Art, Design and Interaction, A Williams – CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

2017 Press the Red Button Now, Hamish MacGillivtay, Heritage Journal. Vol 22, No 1, Summer 2017. Association of Heritage Interpretation, Gillingham, Kent, UK

2016 Cosmic Catastrophism Affecting the Earth Bibliography and Handbook. Editor: William I. Thompson III, M.Sc. Millbury Massachusetts USA

2016 게임의 과거를 돌아보는 방법 한국콘텐츠진흥원 A look back at the past of the game Create New Wave, Korea Creative Content Agency, South Korea

2016 Spielautomat https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spielautomat#cite_ref-26

2016 Writing, Medium, Machine: Modern Technographies. Sean Pryor and David Trotter. Open Humanities Press, London, UK

2016 Key Issues in Product-Based Harm Minimisation: Examining theory, evidence and policy issues relevant in Great Britain. Prepared for: The Responsible Gambling Trust

Authors: Jonathan Parke, Adrian Parke, Alex Blaszczynski

2016 게임의 역사 ( History of Games), by 나보라 (Nabora) , Communication Books, South Korea

2016 Gender Arcade, Meena Daneshyar, Newcastle University Culture Lab, United Kingdom http://dm.ncl.ac.uk/meenadaneshyar/

2016 Debugging Game History: A Critical Lexicon (Game Histories) Henry Lowood (Editor), Raiford Guins (Editor) MIT Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

2016 Exploring the tourist destination as a mosaic: The alternative lifecycles of the seaside amusement arcade sector in Britain. A Chapman, D Light – Tourism Management – Elsevier

2015 Esporre la memoria : film e audiovisivi negli allestimenti dei musei di storia tra ventesimo e ventunesimo secolo, Mandelli, Elisa, : Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italy

2015 Architetture dell’azzardo Progettare il gioco, costruire la dipendenza, Natasha Dow Schüll, Luca Sossella Edizioni, Italy

2015 Reconstructing WARRIOR: Vectorbeams, Natural Magick & Business Intrigue. TH Rousse – kinephanos- California, USA

2015 They Create Worlds-the innovators who shaped the video game industry, Alexander Smith https://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com/

2015 Granular Modernism, Beci Carver, Oxford University Press, UK

2014 Playing to Win: Sports, Video Games, and the Culture of Play. Edited by Robert Alan Brookey and Thomas P. Oates. Indiana University Press, USA

2014 Religiously Motivated Responses to the Discovery of the Asteroids: 1803-1837 Clifford J. Cunningham, National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand

2014 Celestial Catastrophism Bibliography & Handbook. William I. Thompson III,Massachusetts, USA

2014 Bookshelf: Chronology and Catastrophism Workshop 2014:1 (March 2014) Society for Interdisciplinary Studies, UK

2014 Long Division :a magazine of inquiry & art, no 1, Lareese Hall, editor, University of North Carolina, USA

2014 Сент-Деннистоунская покойницкая, Andreas Zarus ,Moscow Re: Dennison models https://andreas-zarus.livejournal.com/101065.html

2013 Computer Games and the Social Imaginary. Graeme Kirkpatrick, Cambridge: Polity Press, UK

2013 Shocking Grasps: An Archaeology of Electrotactile Game Mechanics D Parisi – Game Studies, The International Journal of Computer Game Research, Sweden

2013 The Gemstone Legends of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) https://eragem.com/news/the-gemstone-legends-of-ceylon-sri-lanka/ Adam to Apophis

2012 A Companion to Early Cinema, A Gaudreault, N Dulac, S Hidalgo, Wiley-Blackwell, Hoboken NJ, USA

2012 Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas ND Schüll, Princeton University Press, USA

2012 エジソンの発明にさかのぼるアーケード産業〜日本デジタルゲーム学会基調講演 (The arcade games industry dates back to Edison’s invention-Japan digital games Conference keynote lecture) Article written by 小野憲史 (Ono Kenji) http://www.inside-games.jp/article/2012/03/04/54956.html

2012 Transformations of Retailing in Europe after 1945 Edited by Ralph Jessen, and Lydia Langer, University of Cologne, Germany

2012 Who are We, Where do We Come From, Where are We Going to? Greek Cypriot Women Artists in Contemporary Cyprus M Photiou – Women’s Studies, – Taylor & Francis, UK

2012 Der Einfluss struktureller und situationsbedingter Merkmale auf das Spielverhalten an Spielautomaten, Mark D. Griffiths, Jonathan Parke, Jeffrey L. Derevensky, Nottingham Trent University

2010 “Fountain”To understand the work we must understand the man:Marcel Duchamp. Joannie Godwin, Invercargill, New Zealand https://joannie-godwin.blogspot.com.cy/

2009 Too Close to the Money A Theory of Compulsive Gambling O Bjerg – Theory, Culture & Society

2009 Automatic pleasures? The early history of slot machines- Angelika Epple-Internationale Konferenz am Historischen Seminar der Universität zu Köln

2009 The “Automat”. A History of Technological Transfer and the Process of Global Standardization in Modern Fast Food around 1900 Angelika Epple, Universität Bielefeld, Germany

2008 For tæt på kapitalismen O Bjerg

2008 The evolution of problem gambling helplines G Clifford – In the pursuit of winning

2007 In the Pursuit of Winning: Problem Gambling Theory, Research and Treatment, Masood Zangeneh, Alex Blaszczynski, Nigel E. Turner , Springer

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2007 Escape!: Computerspiele als Kulturtechnik C Pias, C Holtorf

2007 Máquinas de diversión, máquinas de problemas E Huhtamo – Artnodes: revista de arte, ciencia y tecnología

2007 Spelen in Cyberspace. Gust De Meyer, Steven Malliet

2006 Gender construction and the Individual in the work of Mona Caird. Tracey S Rosenberg, University of Edinburgh

2006 Gambling in Nineteenth-Century Literature – Nineteenth-Century literature criticism 168 . [electronic resource] Jessica Bomarito, Russell Whitaker, Gale, USA

2006 Treatment and Development in Problem and Pathological Gambling. Miranda Bulwer, University of South Africa

2006 The Sociology of Risk and Gambling Reader edited by James F. Cosgrave

2006 The Age of Chance: Gambling in Western Culture. Gerda Reith

2006 The psychology of the fruit machine: The role of structural characteristics (revisited) J Parke, M Griffiths – International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction

2005 Handbook of Computer Game Studies Joost Raessens, Jeffrey H. Goldstein, MIT Press

2005 The androids, automatons and artificial animals website siteseerx.ist.psu.edu/

2003 Griffiths, M.D. & Parke, J. (2003). The environmental psychology of gambling. In G. Reith (Ed.), Gambling: Who wins? Who Loses? pp. 277-292. New York: Prometheus Books.

2002 An Invisible Force : the amazing psychic table, Crispin Jones. Exhibited at Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria,

2002 Vending Machines: An American Social History, Kerry Segrave, McFarland & Company, Jefferson, North Carolina

2002 Computer Spiel Welten.. Claus Pias

2002 Game over: Spiele, Tod und Jenseits edited by Reiner Sörries , Arbeitsgemeinschaft Friedhof und Denkmal e.V. Zentralinstitut und Museum für Sepulkralkultur, Kassel, Germany

2001 Faszination der Bewegung: Ottomar Anschütz zwischen Photographie und Kino, Deac Rossell, Stroemfeld/Roter Stern

2000 L’universo ludico elettronico Prisco Vicidomini

2000 Age of Chance: Gambling in Western Culture G Reith – Routledge

1999 “L’innovazione tecnoludica – L’era dei videogiochi simbolici 1958-1984”, di Matteo Bittanti, Jackson Libri, Italy

1999 A Victorian film enterprise: the history of the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1897-1915 R Brown, B Anthony

1998 Automatenwelten.: FreiZeitzeugen des Jahrhunderts. Wilhelm Hornbostel, Nils Jockel, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Prestel Verlag GmbH + Company

1997 The Role of Familiarity in Fruit Machine Gambling, Griffiths M.D., Dunbar D

1997 Commercial Gaming: The Unfair Deal Sandra Dekker University of South Australia

1997 Encyclopedia of British numismatics. Volume II, Pt. 2: Numismatic guide to British and Irish periodicals, 1836-1995, Harrington E. Manville. Baldwin & Spink, London

1996 Who’s Who of Victorian Cinema, Stephen Herbert, Luke McKernan, British Film Institute

1996 Homo Aleator: a sociological study of gambling in western society. Gerda Reith, University of Glasgow

1995 Adolescent gambling, Mark Griffiths, Routledge

1995 Americana and collectibles, Harry L. Rinker, Wallace-Homestead Book Company

1994 Transactions: Essays in Honor of Jeremy F. Boissevain, Het Spinhuis

1993 Welcome to the pleasuredome : inside Las Vegas, David Spanier. University of Nevada Press, USA

1993 Gambling behavior and problem gambling, William R. Eadington, Judy A. Cornelius, Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming, College of Business Administration, University of Nevada, Reno

1993 Fruit machine gambling: The importance of structural characteristics M Griffiths – Journal of gambling studies

1993 ‘Het ding” wilde” niet wat ik wilde.’Enige notities over moderne vormen van animisme in westerse samenlevingen J Verrips – Etnofoor

1992 All right, okay, you win: inside Las Vegas, David Spanier, Secker & Warburg

1992 Lyle 1,001 Antiques Worth a Fortune, A Curtis, T Curtis

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1991 The people’s palaces: the story of the seaside pleasure buildings of 1870-1914, Lynn F. Pearson, Barracuda

1991 The observational study of adolescent gambling in UK amusement arcades M Griffiths – Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 1991

1991 Collector’s guide to Victoriana, O. Henry Mace, Wallace-Homestead Book Co.

1990 Current Bibliography in the History of Technology (1988) Henry Lowood, Judith A. Adams, Stephen H. Cutcliffe, Jane Morley, Christine M. Roysdon and Ian Winship Technology and Culture Vol. 31, No. 3 (Jul., 1990), pp. 561-723 John Hopkins University Press

1989 What the Butler Played, Advanced Computer Entertainment magazine, Issue24 September. Future Publishing, London

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1988 Arcadia- Slot Machines of Europe and America Jean Claude Baudot, Nic Costa, D.J. Costelo Publishers Tunbridge Wells, Kent UK

Nic Costa Slot Machines Free Play

1988 Wenn der Groschen fällt–: Münzautomaten, gestern und heute, Cornelia Kemp, ‎Ulrike Gierlinger, Deutsches Museum, Germany