colette

Actually I'm thinking a lot about how the best qualities of arcade games from an operator's perspective:

• Short credit times
• Adjustable settings to optimize cash flow
• Being easy to understand for the average arcadegoer
• Maintainable with easily-serviced parts, or readily-available off-the-shelf replacements

...are impossible to incorporate into rhythm games, which is the big reason these games barely exist in mainstream arcades:

From the operators manual to Ghosts 'n' Goblins, but this was in the manuals for a few other games Romstar distributed in the US, like Toaplan's Out Zone.

I mean, some of the first, if not the first, microtransactions were field tested in the US version of Double Dragon 3! Not to mention the similar levels of flash and polish that go into arcade and mobile game's visual stylings.

And yet the myth of arcade games being "perfectly fair and built for 1cc" persists. I suspect there's a few reasons for this:

• People are simply remembering the best games from that era.
• People forgot how many quarters they had to sink in to get their first 1cc.
• People casually ignore fighting games when discussing "fairness".
• People are remembering the home port and not the original arcade game.
• Most people's experiences with arcade games are via emulation.

If you spent actual time in an arcade during their heyday, you'd know that most games were way harder than the default DIP settings would lead you to believe. And for every top tier game, you had five or six quarter munching fighters, lightgun games, or early 80s "classics" to go with it. Even the best games weren't worth bothering with after the first two or three stages anyway, because the developers clearly ran out of ideas by that point and the only thing that lied ahead was quarter trap after quarter trap.

That said, one way they do differ from modern mobile games is turnaround time. For example, the "pay to play" nature of arcade games perfectly explains the rise of fighting games. Not only was turnaround much higher (rounds were often over in seconds), but the competitive nature of the genre meant you'd likely be getting twice as many quarters for the same amount of time. Anyone who has played an arcade fighter solo can tell you horror stories about how brutal the AI was, or how awful the final bosses were, which often disregarded the rules of the game entirely.

On this note, but the recent Out Zone re-release ran into some mild controversy over the devs using the most commonly available version of the game, rather than the later revision that everyone emulated because that was the only version people had played. Turns out the developers of the remaster were using a stitched together frankenrom based on an incomplete revision with DIP settings that were out of whack! See the first comment on this post for more info.

I could go on and on, but it's fascinating how much of our memories of certain "golden eras" are simply half remembered truths like this.

Tweaking difficulty settings in arcade games was a balancing act to minimize credit times as far as possible, maximizing the potential income, while keeping players convinced the game is fair - they can get farther next time if they practice - so that they keep coming back. Feeding into the goal of making as much money as possible off of the machines. It's a practice that persists well into the modern redemption arcade era, in a much more blatant fashion, as per these settings from the Mega Stacker and Cyclone operator's manuals, respectively.

(It's a very similar practice to how casinos can adjust odds on their slot machines to maximize the income coming back - no wonder places like Dave & Buster's are basically just selling legalized gambling to children)

we just deployed a new (heavily requested) user-facing feature and i wanna see if anyone figures it out before patch notes today

omg my phone makes a rattling sound when i shake it now!! thanks cohost!