Fun facts about arcade:
>Arcades were built for teenagers, not 30-something manchildren going through midlife crisis and desperate to seem like "true gamers"
>Average credit lasted less than 5 minutes
>99% of players just tried different cabinets instead of autistically obsessing over 1 game
>Fewer than 1% of players ever managed a 1CC
>No level select, no tool-assisted practicing, anyone using those but criticizing save state is equally a fraud
>Grinding 100 hours of practice would have cost you more than a modern gacha addiction
>Anyone can improve after 100 hours of practice, the real question is: who actually cares?
>For most people, arcades were casual distractions and about short flashy fun, didn't care about challenge or scoring
>The real money-makers were racing games, not shmups
>Gimmick peripherals like steering wheels, motorbike rigs, light guns and dance pads drove the biggest crowds
>Arcades were the Call of Duty of their day: endless sequels and copy-pasted variations
>They were also the graphics whoring of their time: flashy sprites, loud audio, gimmicky cabinets, people just played whatever looked coolest on the floor
>People just mashed buttons randomly, most had no clue about combos, frame data, input lag, CRT and nerd shit like that
>Average arcade game was CYBER NINJA STEROIDS COMMANDO TURBO III, not 2hu schoolgirls for gay homos
>Even back then, players called them unfair die-and-retry quarter munchers, IGN didn’t invent the dislike to justify modern design
>Had about as much depth and popularity as a pinball machine, and nobody’s out here elitist gatekeeping pinball