Arcade & Classic Games · 31

Difficulty ramps often happen through speed rather than new rules, letting the player understand everything while still losing because the familiar problem stops waiting politely. A related fact is worth keeping. Arcade difficulty was shaped partly by economics: a machine had to be exciting enough to earn another coin without ending the player's turn so quickly that it felt unfair. The cabinet may be forty years old; the frustration of missing by one pixel remains completely current.