Arcade games have been popular for decades and were originally found, as the name suggests, in arcades around the world. Its wide appeal caused teenagers to pump their pocket money into it, attempting to get the highest score on the particular machine and earn praise within their group of friends. They have since transitioned into the home video game market and are a major force in both the purchased and downloaded entertainment markets.
What is an arcade game?
Arcade games have many distinctive features that make them endear to a worldwide audience of fans, spanning many generations. The most obvious feature of any arcade game is its gameplay: the controls are often simpler than more expensive games, giving the user the chance to get familiar with the basics right away and allowing them to jump straight into the action without lengthy tutorials or a boring night reading the instruction booklet. This means that the game has to rely heavily on its user-friendly and intuitive qualities to negate the fact that many aren’t as complicated as titles in other genres.
Another feature is the speed at which the user can progress. With many more expensive titles, progression takes days, weeks, and months. However, with an arcade game, the progression is designed to be much steeper, and the entire game can often only last a few minutes. This is the case in games like Pac Man: the player starts at the first level and quickly progresses through the game until, in a relatively short space of time, the player starts losing and again from the beginning. This ensures that the focus of the game is on beating the previously set high scores.
current arcade games
There are two main types of arcade games in circulation today: games originally created for arcade machines that have now been ported to computers, and newer games created to emulate the style of the original arcade genre.
Classic games like Pac Man, Asteroids, and Q-Bert launched the genre to a worldwide audience and were purely score-based, with no achievements or special features, just raw gameplay in all its glory. Since being ported to a home gaming platform, these games (especially Pac Man) have proven to be hugely successful, inspiring a new generation of gamers to play the games their parents played twenty years ago. Pac Man can now be purchased for $6.99 online, which is a steal compared to console games that cost many times as much. In fact, most classic arcade games can be purchased for this price, allowing computer game enthusiasts to build an impressive collection of memorabilia.
Developers are also constantly creating new games to invigorate the arcade game market. Games like Smash Frenzy, Super Granny and Chicken Invaders have proven to be very popular with the most demanding consumers. These games offer the same basic gameplay as the older arcade classics, but add a modern feel to the overall feel and graphics. They can also include achievements and side games to keep the player entertained.