Arcade games are still some of the most popular entertainment options for people, with a lot of nostalgia and fun being attached to these games. Generations of players have grown up playing games such as Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Street Fighter, and thus you will often find that the most popular games in any casino games list are arcade games. The demand for such games does not seem to be slowing down, and therefore here we have a list of vintage arcade games that would be great as casino slot games.
Street Fighter II
No one remembers the first Street Fighter, which is fine. The sequel, released in 1991, is where this franchise shines. Along with colorful characters, tight controls, and a killer soundtrack, Street Fighter II defined fighting games. The second game in the series was released and re-released an obscene amount of times; remasters of remasters.
If you have ever played the game, you will immediately understand why the game has such longevity. Just pick a unique character like the Brazilian Blanka and go to town on your opponents and I dare you to try and turn it off. You can’t!
Add this to the arcade environment where people crowd around the Street Fighter II cabinet, challenging foes, placing bets, and earning bragging rights.
The series is fully modernized now, with its latest iteration appearing in the form of 2016’s Street Fighter V for arcade, PS4, and PC. While it was favorably received, Capcom released an updated version, Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition in 2018. People enjoyed this update as it updated things like the user interface and gaming modes.
Pac-Man
If you were a gamer in 1980, you were about to have one of the most important moments in gaming unfold right before your eyes. With Namco’s release of Pac-Man, arcade gaming experienced one of the biggest booms it would ever see.
The game, where the player controls the titular little yellow circle Pac-Man, was a face-paced maze adventure. The player needed to consume all of the dots all over the maze while avoiding the different colored ghosts: Inky, Blinky, Pinky & Clyde. Level after level has you avoiding these cutesy foes, and it can get pretty frantic. Pac-Man can activate the energy dots which turn the ghosts blue, allowing Pac-Man to eat the ghosts, scoring even more points.
This is a classic game where people battled relentlessly over high scores. Over the years, Pac-Man found its way to many different platforms. I remember playing a browser version in middle school during study hall. I blame Pac-man for my terrible Algebra grades!
The interesting fact about Pac-man is that it was never designed to end. That’s right: no end.
You could theoretically just keep going until you lost all your lives. This has caused fierce competition, with people vying for the ‘perfect’ Pac-Man game, where one must not lose any lives while making it through 255 levels. The 256th level is a glitch, called the split-screen. It is the result of a bug in the system, and if one beats the 256th level, you would be counted among the skilled few to achieve this feat.
Donkey Kong
This entry is significant for the fact that it is the first appearance of Mario, but it is also a great game in its own right. You play as ‘Jumpman’, (later to be our favorite Italian plumber), on a quest to the top of a twisted tower of girders to rescue the princess from the evil Donkey Kong.
It is strange to think of the loveable Donkey Kong as we know him today as the main antagonist of a game, but he was there at the top throwing barrels in our way. The player needs to dodge multiple obstacles to beat the level, testing hand-eye coordination and endurance.
This was the first designing effort by Shigeru Miyamoto, eventually becoming the mythical figurehead of Nintendo in years to come. Miyamoto’s colorful and humorous designs paid off: the game was a smash hit, absolutely killing it in the North American market.
An aspect that helped Donkey Kong stay so relevant wasn’t only its cast of characters that would go on to define the platforming genre, but also the great sales of the game for home consoles. This helped the game receive new longevity outside of the arcade market.
Tetris
This comes as no surprise. Tetris, the Russian wonder, has captivated gamers of all ages since the mid-1980s when it was released. This tile-matching game developed by Russian computer engineer Alexey Pajitnov was an instant hit.
The game was the first game exported from the Soviet Union to the West, showing up in 1986.
This game supersedes all puzzle games. It even has the infamous ‘Tetris effect’, in which players, long after completing games, for example, can hallucinate seeing the Tetris shapes when their eyes are closed. It also bleeds into other aspects of their lives, like dreams and thoughts. But don’t worry, it’s not a bad thing!
People love Tetris so much that it seeps into their very being. What’s better than downloading Tetris to your phone or playing a quick game on your internet browser when you should focus on being productive? Okay, so maybe you should get your work done, but c’mon! It’s Tetris!
The game starts with a clear board. Then, slowly but surely, pieces of the puzzle come floating down. These come in the form of multiple shapes, (my favorite, naturally, being the straight line), and forming geometric blocks to keep the board clear.
