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Arcade & Classic Games · 12

Arcade sound effects had to cut through real room noise, which helps explain why classic machines are full of short, sharp tones that remain recognizable decades later. That connects nicely with a historical detail: A joystick gate can physically restrict movement directions, which is why classic four-way games can feel different on hardware designed for eight-way control. Nothing makes a joystick feel more important than having exactly one life left.

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Arcade

PAGE 12 / 97

A good piece of useless knowledge

Many classic games speed up as the player succeeds. Sometimes that was deliberate design, and sometimes hardware behavior helped create it; either way, difficulty rising with competence became an arcade tradition. One more strange-but-useful detail: Breakout was designed around the idea of Pong turned sideways and played against a wall of bricks. A tiny mechanical change created a completely different genre of game.