Arcade & Classic Games · 55

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 design side has its own twist. Arcade cabinets were physical interfaces: steering wheels, trackballs, light guns and giant buttons could make one machine feel completely unlike the cabinet beside it. Arcade games specialize in the sentence 'I know exactly what to do,' immediately followed by not doing it.