From the column below, I’m realizing there is a myth going on about arcades. It is that arcade games were the equivalent of smartphone or flash games are today. This simply isn’t true in any way.
After PONG and Space Invaders, arcades were the prestige way to play games. Why do you think arcades looked like Vegas with the neon lights and little restaurants? The idea of arcades being a ‘hole in the wall’ only came with the decline of the arcades during the 90s.
This one little commercial from the 80s shows that console gaming was about home versions of arcade games. It also shows that arcade gaming was where the prestige was. To compare smartphone gaming to arcade gaming is just COMPLETELY WRONG. Smartphone gaming has zero prestige among gamers except for intellectually bankrupt writers who are invested in tech phones and want to see non-crappy games for them.
But where did this myth come from that arcade games were not very time intensive?
Arcade games were hard. ALL of them were HARD. Due to the business model, the arcade games did not allow victory to be easy because revenue was about putting coins into the machine. An easy arcade game would have the player hogging the machine with one coin and there would not be much revenue.
The myth contradicts the arcade gamer’s behavior. The arcade gamer did not just casually swing by, play one game, get his ass kicked, and walk away from the arcade. What happened was that the arcade gamer said, “Let’s try that again!” An arcade gamer would spend hours with a machine at times.
Arcade gaming was also very competitive. There was all these ‘high score’ rankings for games, and players tried to be the best for that machine. One of the greatest joys of the arcade gamer was mastering a difficult game and then a crowd would grow around him, looking over his shoulder in awe.
The control scheme of Defender, a hit arcade game, was extremely complex. Look at all those buttons!
And the control scheme for games like Robotron is the origin of the dual stick controls. Remember Smash T.V.?
Above: OK, the above is from the SNES version. But should fire up memories of the intense arcade experience.
How about a memory trip through more arcade games?
There is nothing ‘casual’ or even ‘simple’ about these games. All these game are easy to start playing but hard to master.
Arcade games were REPLAYABLE. They still sell today because of their replayability. But are flash games or smartphone games replayable? If they were, they wouldn’t be costing a dollar.
Smartphone gaming is where computer gaming was in the 80s. What no one mentions is that when smartphone gaming gets better graphics and production features, as PC gaming did, that bigger companies will take over the market leaving the small independent developers at a disadvantage.
“Gee,” says the reader, “I didn’t think of that.”
And this is why these smartphone gaming cheerleaders have the brain of a cheerleader (but not the body, woe is me). If smartphone gaming ‘gets better’ along the same lines as PC gaming did, the garage developers will get squeezed out because production effects are expensive. I foresee companies like Blizzard eventually making smartphone games. But it won’t be because smartphones are ‘taking over’ but because they have become indistinguishable from PCs. And everyone will accept as truth: that smartphones and PC gaming are the same exact market.
But dedicated game hardware, such as arcades, are an entirely different beast.