Page 25 - Old School Gamer Magazine Issue #40 FREE Edition

The history of arcade games goes all the way back to the 1970s with the first arcade release
of Computer Space in 1971. This
would start the revolution of playing computerized components displayed to a video device. With Pong clones paving the way for the next few years, it wasn’t until the late 1970s and early 1980s when the arcade boom happened. For Computer Space and Pong, you would now consider those machines having unique controllers. Computer Space would have only one button on the control panel to fly and shoot the objects. Pong would have a knob that would control the players “stick” to bounce the ball back and forth. The first successful arcade machine was Space Invaders which used buttons to control the ship
and shoot the objects, similar to Computer Space.
The first arcade machines to use a “control stick” were Berzerk and a little-known game called Pac-
Man. Also, during this time, Missile Command came out with a trackball controller where you could move around the target and shoot the missiles. The arcade boom was alive and well, and soon after games like Centipede, Donkey
Kong, Defender and Frogger would be released, utilizing controls pioneered by previous games.
The next big revolution in arcade controls was Robotron: 2084 that came out in 1982. This game had two control sticks, one to move the player and the other to shoot. More games like this would emerge such as Smash TV and Total Carnage. Then, in 1983, the arcade boom went flat and arcade machines were no longer a cool thing. All the innovation of games and controllers was just a short- lived fad. Could the arcade game
industry recover, and come back strong? If so, how would it change the dynamics of how a game is played? Here are some of the most
unique and interesting arcade machine controls that came out during the resurrection of arcade games.
UNIQUE ARCADE CONTROLS “POKING AROUND THE BOONG-GA”
By Todd Friedman
One of the most early unique controllers in arcade games was from the game Paperboy. This game would put you in the seat of
a paper delivery boy riding your bike around different towns and delivering papers. In a genius move, the developers created an arcade controller similar to a bike’s handlebars. This gave the player the feel of really riding and steering the bicycle around while hitting the button would throw the newspaper in the direction you were riding.
Another revolutionary arcade
game with unique controls is After Burner. This game, which came out in the arcades in 1987, was built
as an actual cockpit of a jet fighter. The game would move in sync with the way you controlled the aircraft. The technology at the time was unlike anything anyone had seen. We would see more of this style in years to come.
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