Surprisingly many early arcade games, such as Pac-Man, Galaxian and Galaga, mounted their displays vertically, in portrait rather than landscape orientation. (From the perspective of the electronics, that means the displays were drawn sideways.) I'm curious as to why.

Maybe it was just an aesthetic judgment on the part of the designers, feeling they would look better that way, in which case fair enough, aesthetic judgments are what they are.

But was there any technical factor that encouraged such orientation? Anything in the electronics, the mechanics of the monitor placement, the optics of its display in a vertical cabinet?

Edit:

Now that I think about it, Space Invaders (1978) seems to have been the first vertically oriented arcade game. One could argue that it was the first one where the action was on the vertical axis. But one could also argue that it was the first one to emerge in a world where the Atari 2600 (1977) already existed, and where 'how do we stop home consoles eating our lunch' was a potential consideration. No proof, just suggestive.

Surprisingly many early arcade games, such as Pac-Man, Galaxian and Galaga, mounted their displays vertically, in portrait rather than landscape orientation. (From the perspective of the electronics, that means the displays were drawn sideways.) I'm curious as to why.

Maybe it was just an aesthetic judgment on the part of the designers, feeling they would look better that way, in which case fair enough, aesthetic judgments are what they are.

But was there any technical factor that encouraged such orientation? Anything in the electronics, the mechanics of the monitor placement, the optics of its display in a vertical cabinet?

Now that I think about it, Space Invaders (1978) seems to have been the first vertically oriented arcade game. One could argue that it was the first one where the action was on the vertical axis. But one could also argue that it was the first one to emerge in a world where the Atari 2600 (1977) already existed, and where 'how do we stop home consoles eating our lunch' was a potential consideration. No proof, just suggestive.

Surprisingly many early arcade games, such as Pac-Man, Galaxian and Galaga, mounted their displays vertically, in portrait rather than landscape orientation. (From the perspective of the electronics, that means the displays were drawn sideways.) I'm curious as to why.

Maybe it was just an aesthetic judgment on the part of the designers, feeling they would look better that way, in which case fair enough, aesthetic judgments are what they are.

But was there any technical factor that encouraged such orientation? Anything in the electronics, the mechanics of the monitor placement, the optics of its display in a vertical cabinet?

Surprisingly many early arcade games, such as Pac-Man, Galaxian and Galaga, mounted their displays vertically, in portrait rather than landscape orientation. (From the perspective of the electronics, that means the displays were drawn sideways.) I'm curious as to why.

Maybe it was just an aesthetic judgment on the part of the designers, feeling they would look better that way, in which case fair enough, aesthetic judgments are what they are.

But was there any technical factor that encouraged such orientation? Anything in the electronics, the mechanics of the monitor placement, the optics of its display in a vertical cabinet?

Edit:

Now that I think about it, Space Invaders (1978) seems to have been the first vertically oriented arcade game. One could argue that it was the first one where the action was on the vertical axis. But one could also argue that it was the first one to emerge in a world where the Atari 2600 (1977) already existed, and where 'how do we stop home consoles eating our lunch' was a potential consideration. No proof, just suggestive.