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The earliest video game conversions were almost exclusively home versions of popular [[arcade game]]s.{{cn|date=January 2017}} The first examples were conversions of [[Atari]]'s ''[[Pong]]'' in the form of consoles with this one game built-in, as well as consoles that included a number of variations on the game. Atari produced their own "official" conversion of the game for home use, but a number of other imitators such as [[Sears, Roebuck and Company|Sears]]' Telegames Pong IV were also on the market.
With the beginning of the video game era, Atari released their [[Atari 2600]] console for which they licensed and produced a number of home conversions of popular arcade titles, including ''[[Pac-Man]]'' by [[Namco]], ''[[Space Invaders]]'' and ''[[Defender (video game)|Defender]].'' Later, other third-party developers and publishers such as [[Activision]] and [[Coleco]] produced games like ''[[Donkey Kong (videoarcade game)|Donkey Kong]]'' for the Atari 2600.
[[Data East]] introduced the concept of a convertible [[arcade system board]], or arcade conversion system, with the [[DECO Cassette System]].<ref name="Replay">{{cite magazine |title=The Replay Years: Our First Dynamic Decade In Words & Pix |magazine=RePlay |date=November 1985 |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=120-32120–32 |url=https://archive.org/details/re-play-volume-11-issue-no.-2-november-1985-600DPI/RePlay%20-%20Volume%2011%2C%20Issue%20No.%202%20-%20November%201985/page/120/mode/2up}}</ref> It was the first interchangeable arcade system, developed in 1979 before it was released in Japan in 1980 and then North America in 1981. It inspired [[Sega]]'s [[List of Sega arcade system boards|Convert-a-Game]] system, which reached North Americareleased in June 1981, before Data East's system released there.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Adlum |first=Eddie |title=The Replay Years: Reflections from Eddie Adlum |magazine=RePlay |date=November 1985 |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=134-175 (160-3) |url=https://archive.org/details/re-play-volume-11-issue-no.-2-november-1985-600DPI/RePlay%20-%20Volume%2011%2C%20Issue%20No.%202%20-%20November%201985/page/162/mode/2up}}</ref> ''[[Mr. Do!]]'' (1982) by [[Universal Entertainment|Universal]] was the first hit [[arcade game]] sold as a conversion kit.<ref name="Kent">{{citation|title=[[The ultimate history of video games: from Pong to Pokémon and beyond : the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world]]|authorauthorlink=Steve L. Kent|first=Steven L.|last=Kent|publisher=[[Prima Games|Prima]]|year=2001|isbn=0-7615-3643-4|page=352|quote=In 1982, Universal Sales made arcade history with a game called Mr Do! Instead of selling dedicated Mr Do! machines, Universal sold the game as a kit. The kit came with a customized control panel, a computer board with Mr Do! read-only memory (ROM) chips, stickers that could be placed on the side of stand-up arcade machines for art, and a plastic marquee. It was the first game ever sold as a conversion only. According to former Universal Sales western regional sales manager Joe Morici, the company sold approximately 30000 copies of the game in the United States alone.}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Cover Story: "This Is the Good Time" – Capcom's CPS system brings success to the firm... and offers direction for a troubled video market |magazine=RePlay |date=April 1990 |volume=15 |issue=7 |publisher=RePlay Publishing |pages=183-5183–5 |url=https://archive.org/details/re-play-volume-14-issue-no.-7-april-1990-600dpi/RePlay%20-%20Volume%2014%2C%20Issue%20No.%207%20-%20April%201990/page/183}}</ref> After the [[golden age of arcade video games]] came to an end ''circa'' 1983, the [[arcade video game]] industry began recovering ''circa'' 1985 with the arrival of software conversion kit systems, such as Sega's Convert-a-Game system, the [[Atari System 1]], and the [[Nintendo VS. System]], the latter being the Western world's introduction to the [[Famicom]] (NES) hardware in 1984, prior to the official release of the NES console; the success of the VS. System in arcades was instrumental to the release and success of the NES in North America.<ref name="Horowitz">{{cite book |last1=Horowitz |first1=Ken |chapter=The Vs. System (1984) |title=Beyond Donkey Kong: A History of Nintendo Arcade Games |date=July 30, 2020 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |isbn=978-1-4766-4176-8 |pages=119-28119–28 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UXD0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA119}}</ref>
The mid-1980s and the mid-1990s saw a flurry of conversions of popular arcade games to home computers{{cn|date=January 2017}} such as the [[ZX Spectrum]], [[Commodore 64]], [[Amstrad CPC]], [[Commodore Amiga]] and [[Atari ST]]. These games were mostly developed and published by groups who were not involved with the original developers, but who had bought the rights to create reproductions of these games.{{cn|date=January 2017}} Console versions of these arcade games, however, were often produced by the original developers of the arcade title.{{cn|date=January 2017}}
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