If you cast your mind back to the 16-bit days (and to a lesser extent, the 32-bit days) and consider what games you used to play, I'm willing to wager many of those games will have been arcade conversions.
In my case, many of my first Megadrive purchases were games that had been born inside amusement arcades rather than being home console exclusives. Altered Beast, Afterburner II, Super Monaco GP, Ghouls n Ghosts, Strider...and throughout the 16-bit years many of the key titles were arcade games (Street Fighter II, Final Fight, UN Squadron, Darius, Gradius, Mortal Kombat, etc, etc). When Sega and Sony released their 32-bit consoles, ports were just as important (maybe more so for Sega than Sony). We saw Virtua Fighter, Daytona, Sega Rally, Virtua Cop, Tekken, Ridge Racer, Ace Combat as well as many others. However, it was during the 32-bit days that we saw this cycle starting to change. Slowly at first, arcade conversions went from being almost sure-fire hits to being 'just another game' on the shelves of retailers.
The death of the arcade has been covered in depth by many other people. However it's the change within the home that's affected me the most. Nothing could beat the thrill of playing an arcade game for a few minutes, loving every second and then finding out that it was going to be converted to console you happened to own. Knowing that you would be able to 'take home' a decent replica of an arcade machine was really something back in the early 90's, when the gulf between the home and the arcade was wider than it is now.
Nowadays, the fact that a game has been converted from the arcade actually seems to count against it - look at the poor performance of some of Sega's recent ports (Outrun 2 being a shining example). Gamers today seem to think arcade games are limited and poor value for money, and developers are staring to cram in 'consumer modes' to give their games extra life. In many cases this isn't required. In an age when we expect hours of gameplay for our buck, many of us seem to be ignoring good old fashioned 'gameplay'.
This topic was basically triggered by me seeing that Konami's recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game has the original arcade machine as a secret unlockable - I remember praying to the Good Lord above that that game would be converted to the Megadrive back when I was 11.
In my case, many of my first Megadrive purchases were games that had been born inside amusement arcades rather than being home console exclusives. Altered Beast, Afterburner II, Super Monaco GP, Ghouls n Ghosts, Strider...and throughout the 16-bit years many of the key titles were arcade games (Street Fighter II, Final Fight, UN Squadron, Darius, Gradius, Mortal Kombat, etc, etc). When Sega and Sony released their 32-bit consoles, ports were just as important (maybe more so for Sega than Sony). We saw Virtua Fighter, Daytona, Sega Rally, Virtua Cop, Tekken, Ridge Racer, Ace Combat as well as many others. However, it was during the 32-bit days that we saw this cycle starting to change. Slowly at first, arcade conversions went from being almost sure-fire hits to being 'just another game' on the shelves of retailers.
The death of the arcade has been covered in depth by many other people. However it's the change within the home that's affected me the most. Nothing could beat the thrill of playing an arcade game for a few minutes, loving every second and then finding out that it was going to be converted to console you happened to own. Knowing that you would be able to 'take home' a decent replica of an arcade machine was really something back in the early 90's, when the gulf between the home and the arcade was wider than it is now.
Nowadays, the fact that a game has been converted from the arcade actually seems to count against it - look at the poor performance of some of Sega's recent ports (Outrun 2 being a shining example). Gamers today seem to think arcade games are limited and poor value for money, and developers are staring to cram in 'consumer modes' to give their games extra life. In many cases this isn't required. In an age when we expect hours of gameplay for our buck, many of us seem to be ignoring good old fashioned 'gameplay'.
This topic was basically triggered by me seeing that Konami's recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game has the original arcade machine as a secret unlockable - I remember praying to the Good Lord above that that game would be converted to the Megadrive back when I was 11.
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