DECO Cassette System


The DECO Cassette System was introduced in December 1980 by Data East. It was the first standardised arcade system that allowed arcade owners to change games.
The arcade owner would buy a base cabinet, while the games were stored on standard audio cassettes. The arcade owner would insert the cassette and a security dongle into the cabinet. When the cabinet was powered up, the program from the tape would be copied into the cabinet's RAM chips; this process took about two to three minutes. After this, the game could be played freely until the cabinet was rebooted.
It was revolutionary for its time, but arcade owners complained about the potential unreliability of the cassettes, as well as the medium's standard load times.

Game list

In bold characters are the video games that were also released in dedicated arcade cabinets.