Arcade Games  

Fun Facts About Classic Arcade Games

• The increasing speed of the aliens in Space Invaders (1978) was not by design. This was due to a hardware limitation. The computer processor simply struggled to move all 55 aliens efficiently when the screen was full. But rather than fixing the issue, the developers left it in, as it made the game more challenging and exciting.
• Pac-Man's (1980) iconic shape was inspired by a pizza pie with one slice missing. It looked like an open mouth and it struck the game's creator how the theme of "eating" could attract a broader audience to arcades, women included, shifting away from violence and making arcades less male-dominated.
• Mario debuted as Jumpman in the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong because of his jumping ability. The name change only happened starting with the release of Donkey Kong Jr. (1982) and Mario Bros. (1983).
• Centipede (1981) was one of the first arcade games to attract female players, thanks to a female co-designer who helped ensure the game wasn't overly aggressive. She focused on making it visually appealing with pastel hues like pinks, blues and greens.
• Berzerk (1980) was one of the first arcade games to utilize synthesized speech. The game's robotic voices had a vocabulary of approximately 30 words and taunted players with warnings like "Intruder alert!", with insults like "Chicken! Fight like a robot!" and funny sayings like "Coins detected in pocket!".
• Frogger (1981) was originally called "Highway Crossing Frog". Sega executives felt this was way too descriptive and opted for the snappier, more marketable name which has since become iconic in arcade game history.
• Pole Position (1982) pioneered real-world product placement. Billboards hawking Pepsi, Canon, and Goodyear could be seen as players raced around the track.
• Donkey Kong (1981) was so named because the Japanese developer believed "donkey" was English slang for "stubborn" — he wanted to convey the idea of a "stubborn ape" or a "stupid gorilla." Nintento objected, saying the name made no sense in English. But it was kept after several alternative names were rejected, including Kong Dong, Funny Kong, Steel Kong, Bill Kong and Kong Holiday.