Arcade gaming in 2023 – Review from a casual gamer

Online Arcade Gaming on the Crypto Blockchain

There’s no better feeling than finally leaving your parents’ house on your own, making your way downtown on foot, on bike, or through public transportation, and arriving at your destination. Walking in from the cold and the rain, you’re greeted by it immediately. It’s the smell of a gym with gallons of soda and maybe some air popped popcorn thrown in. Some people remember the stale smell of beer and pizza, instead. No matter what the smells are, they’re not the first things that greet you. Those are completely different types of stimulation.
What you get when you walk through the door is an explosion of bleeps, boops, digital representations of whistles, buzzers, alarms, and the constant, loud drone of people having fun. Mixed in with those 8-bit sounds and a combination of laughter, screams, victory, and defeat, your eyes adjust to the flashing lights, backlit signs, and low vibrations riding along the concrete floor beneath you. You’ve finally reached the all-important age when you can visit the local arcade by yourself, and things are never going to be the same for you. This part of your life with be imprinted on your mind for the rest of your life and few other moments will be looked back on with such nostalgia.

History of Games and Arcades

Arcades are now largely a thing of the past, but they should never be forgotten. They were an incredibly important piece of Americana that will likely never see another golden age. It’s a good idea to take a look at their history in the hopes of recreating those ever-important experiences again.
Video games had been making their way into the public consciousness since 1950. Back then, they could be run on computers. The first video game to be installed on more than one machine was titled “Spacewar!” and that was really just the beginning. The concept of playing the same game on multiple computers gave men named Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney the idea of making a game for a smaller machine that could be replicated over and over again. The name of that game was “Computer Space” and it was the first commercial arcade game in existence. It has a bulky but streamlined cabinet with a CRT screen up top and buttons for controls underneath it. This very first commercial arcade game sold a whopping 1,300 units!

Golden Age of Arcades

What some people consider to be the most important aspect of the arcade game came about with the creation of ‘Space Invaders.” This was the first game to include a high score system that would save the data from day to day. It was also the first to incorporate music in its design. Those two things both increased the pace and intensity of gameplay as well as added a sense of competition to beat the high score and get your name on the board. This greatly increased the use of arcades and led to the release of the most popular arcade names over the next five years.

These named included “Asteroids”, “Galaxian”, “Missile Command”, “Pac-Man”, “Centipede”, “Defender”, “Donkey Kong”, “Frogger”, and more. This is known as the golden age of arcades and saw the advent of standalone arcades, such as Chuck E. Cheese and thousands of local establishments.

End of the Golden Age and Resurgence

With so many arcades and game cabinets coming out, something had to give. One of the biggest contributing factors to the downfall of arcades was the perceived harmful impact that they had on children. This led to a decline that wouldn’t last for too long.
The resurgence of arcades started in 1991 with the advent of fighting games, such as “Street Fighter”. This led to a new genre of games with titles like “Mortal Kombat”, “Virtual Fighter”, and “Tekken” that followed. Arcade games also started to include polygons and pseudo 3D graphics at this time. That, coupled with the new drive to make arcades family fun centers brought about the renaissance of arcades. The arrival of home gaming systems would turn arcades into a niche market by the 2000s but the nostalgia would never go away. Now it’s just a matter of finding something to make you feel the same way arcades used to.

Crypto-Based Gaming

The most recent evolution in arcade gaming is the inclusion of the crypto blockchain to gaming. There are many sites, such as PipeFlare.io that allow you to pay for your games in crypto and continue to passively earn income while you game. People can play against other gamers and earn tokens at the same time. It’s a great concept because it lets you compete and reach goals while you play. There’s also a token system that can bring back all that nostalgia about sliding a coin into a cabinet and starting your game.

What’s great about crypto blockchain gaming is the fact that you can play the types of arcade games that you already know you love. You’ll be able to enjoy classic space games like Space Shooter. You can also play a platformer like Punkz Hero. These games are under constant development, so they’re always getting better and adding new features to keep you coming back for more. Crypto prizes are given to the highest scorers, and you never have to worry about the game being unplugged and losing your spot on the leader board.

Try Crypto Gaming Now

If you yearn for the nostalgia of an arcade experience, then all you have to do is try gaming on the crypto blockchain. You get to insert your coin and play for your spot on the leader board. You never know what new games are going to be there on your next visit and that’s a major part of the joy it can bring you. You may not get the same smells and drone of the crowd, but that’s probably for the best. Arcades only get better when you can visit them from the comfort and cleanliness of your own home!