Periscope (arcade game)

Periscope
Sega advertisement poster for Periscope" single-player cabinet
Arcade flyer for Sega's version of Periscope
Developer(s)Nakamura Manufacturing Co.
Sega
Designer(s)
Release
  • Nakamura Manufacturing Co.
  • 1965
  • Sega
  • 1966
  • March 1968 (single-player)
Genre(s)Shooter, submarine simulator
Mode(s)

Periscope[a] is an electro-mechanical arcade shooting submarine simulator. Two companies developed similar games with the name. The first, initially called Torpedo Launcher, was designed by Nakamura Manufacturing Co. (becoming Namco in 1977) and released in Japan in 1965, as the first arcade game Masaya Nakamura built. Sega Enterprises, Ltd. also built and released Periscope in Japan in 1966, as one of its first produced arcade games.

Sega's 1968 single-player redesign of Periscope popularized the quarter (US$0.25) cost per play of arcade games in the United States. Its surprise success prompted Sega to further manufacture eight to ten new arcade games per year for the next few years. Periscope performed well in locations that would not have normally hosted coin-operated machines at the time, such as malls and department stores. The game's success was formative to Sega and the future Namco, and has been referred to as a turning point in the industry.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Akagi was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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