The video games of the 1980s were played in arcades, pizza parlors and bars--and all you needed was a quarter to join in the fun.
From the time Space Invaders appeared in 1978, until game consoles took over in the mid-1990s, arcades were the center of the video gaming world. The classics that were produced in the "golden age of arcade games" are still very much alive today. You can play versions of them for free on many Internet sites or find a version that was produced for a new game console such as Microsoft's Xbox 360 or Nintendo's Wii.