It turns out that, just like fancy graphics, not constantly trying to empty your customers pockets actually represents some kind of economic value. The ironic thing is so many of these old games were literally designed to steal your quarters.
Well, only the arcade versions of games were designed to steal your quarters. The home console versions were much better about not harassing your wallet.
For instance, Gauntlet Legends on its arcade cabinet hardware drained your health at a consistent time based rate. Add more quarters to gain more health. All home console versions abolished this health drain mechanic.
That’s mostly true, except for games made specifically harder so that you’d have to rent them multiple times (eg: ActRaiser 2 NTSC-U/C / SNES is much harder than its NTSC-J / SFC counterpart).
games made specifically harder so that you’d have to rent them multiple times
Fucking BattleToads
That’s mostly true, except for games made specifically harder so that you’d have to rent them multiple times
Wait this was a thing game designers actually to into account? I’ve never heard this
Except there were so many Japanese games not brought to the west because they were deemed too difficult for western gamers.
Did game companies get royalties from rentals? I though the idea was that you’d want to buy it if you couldn’t beat it in a rental period
