The golden age of arcade video games was the period of rapid growth, technological development and cultural influence of arcade video games, from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The period began with the release of Space Invaders in 1979, which led to a wave of shoot 'em up games such as Galaxian and the vector graphics-based Asteroids in 1979, made possible by new computing technology that had greater power and lower costs. This led to the rise of video game arcades, where popular video game genres included space shooters (such as Space Invaders, Asteroids, Defender, Galaga and Centipede) and character action games (such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Frogger). There was also a rise in the appearance of video games in other media including songs, cartoons and movies (most notably the 1982