The Pac-Man Syndrome

Pac- man was created by Toru Itwani and licensed by
Namco. The game was centered on an old Japanese folk
tale.

The object of the game was simply to move through a
maze, while gobbling the dots and avoiding ghosts. Pac
Man was a tear away success spawning a cult in its
wake.

It was picked up for production in the US by Midway.

Pac-man was a nice breakaway for gamers bored with an
extreme dose of space invaders. The game soon went on
to strip ëAsteroidsí as the greatest selling game of
all time.

Game play

The player maneuvers the protagonist through a maze
eating dots. The game proceeds to the next level once
all the dots are eaten.

There are four ghosts which roam around the maze
trying to catch Pac-man who is the character
maneuvered by the player. If the ghosts touch Pac-man,
a life is lost.

The game ends when no lives remain.

At the corners of the maze there are four power ups.
These power-ups render Pac-man a short-timed ability
to gobble up the ghosts.

Once a ghost is eaten, it returns to the ghost pen
where it is revived. The regeneration time for the
ghosts shortens as the game advances through the
stages.

Despite the seemingly randomness movement of the
ghosts, their nature is strictly deterministic. This
allows experienced players to devise precise patterns
of movement that enables them to complete levels
without being caught ever.

The simplicity of the game and the adrenaline rush it
created, when a ghost came near transformed this game
into an addiction. Unofficially, it is the most played
game of all time.

Rise of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games

A new phenomenon in the online arcade gaming industry
is the rise of MMORPG (Rise of Massively Multiplayer
Online Role Playing Games).

Several thousands of players share a common
environment and fight each other for glory.
Multiplayer online gaming is the newest rage with
programmers.

Almost every game is designed to include a
multi-player option. Arcade games have shown an
ability to overcome numerous obstacles in its 40yrs of
existence.

It was pretty obvious it would win the war with the
Internet. The arcade industry responded to the growing
threat of multiplayer games on internet by coming up
with games of their own.

Like they say "if you canít beat them join them!"

Common Arcade Games

Lunia is an action packed arcade MMORPG that combines
the classic RPG elements like character growth and
community system with intense paced action. The game
has breathtaking environments and takes you through
eerie dungeons and abandoned castles.

Anarchy Online is a science fiction MMORPG arcade game
thatís hugely popular and won 20 international awards.

The game allows for unmatched character customization,
hundreds of devastating special attacks and thousands
of items. The game sets up a hyper fast game play with
more action and less camping.

The Anarchy online has a well scripted deep story
line. The game lets you play as a soldier, healer,
tech expert, trader or adventurer.

The game features stunning environments with clubs,
bars and apartments.

Anarchy online gives you the option of fighting
thousands of monsters or challenge human opponents in
Player vs. Player areas.

Online Arcade Gaming Community

The success of online arcade gaming can be attributed
to the huge number of dedicated online communities
that support arcade games.

These games have stood their ground at a time when
technological advances have paved way for hardcore
graphic systems capable of rendering movie like
graphics.

The online community regularly conducts tourneys for
arcade games with huge prize money at stake.

Xbox Live conducted a Pac-man championship in New York
in May of 2007.

Nine finalists from around the world fought each other
for a one of a kind Pac-man inspired Xbox 360 console,
100,000 Microsoft points, and a Pac-Man Live Arcade
Trophy.

Finalists were selected based on scores of Xbox LIVE
Arcade leader box from Japan, USA, Europe, Middle
East, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Canada and Mexico.

The primary reason for a spurt in the online arcade
community is the rise of a huge number of multiplayer
arcade games.

Arcade games are from another era that is hard pressed
to survive an intense competition. This is the primary
reason for the close knit nature of arcade gaming
communities.

The resurgence of arcade titles on consoles and
handhelds is another reason for the growing arcade
communities. The online arcade communities have made
sure that arcade games are here to stay.

Arcade games have shown an immense resilience
surviving everything from consoles to the Internet.
The arcade communities have played a huge part in
seeing the genre through the hardest of times.

With the advent of internet, these communities saw a
massive rise in numbers. These communities are closely
knitted and work as a single entity when it comes to
competing game genres.

Old School Arcade Titles On Consoles

Porting classic arcade games into consoles has become
the latest rage in the gaming industry. The trend
clearly affirms the fact that arcade games are not
dead.

The gamers are not an elderly bunch of people who grew
up on these titles. Kids are also addicted to it. The
games have been revamped graphically but never shed
the addictive game play which, of course, is the part
and parcel of every game.

Arcade games have not been graphically interesting,
but this move successfully negates the fact that the
popularity of a game largely depends on its game play
and not seemingly awe-inspiring graphics.

This phenomenon has also triggered a resurrection of
arcade games and made it popular among online gamers.
Arcade games are also being ported into handheld
consoles like PSP.

This clearly indicates the popularity of arcade
gaming.

Some of the ported titles are:

Geometry Wars - The game was a classic when it was
released back in 80ís. The upgrade features high end
particle physics, digital sound, new special effects,
a new scrolling area and high end graphics.

It is set in the far reaches of the galaxy where you
battle hordes of vile, neon blazoned aliens. It also
lets you choose between the old version and the
updated version.

Pac-man - The all time classic has been upgraded with
high definition graphics. The game still retains the
original game play and the charming retro look.

The newer version features 250 levels of pure action
packed fun. The game retains the original music and
sound score that the fans remember so well.

Game play in online arcade games

The basic strength of most of the online arcade games
is its simple yet addictive game play. The fact that
most of these games had a minimalist graphic design
allowed its designers to concentrate more on improving
the game play.

Arcade games have good ëgame mechanicsí. The games are
essentially created to promote an atmosphere of fun.
Arcade games have an easy learning curve which
attracts people of all ages.

The most successful arcade games have been the fighter
series which include Street fighter, King of Fighters,
Mortal Kombat and Fatal Fury.

These games survived purely on their intense game play
which involves a rapid carnage of joystick and the
buttons. Yet, they went on to become the base for more
sophisticated games like Dead or Alive.

Arcade Games like Tetris and Bejeweled involved game
play that required one to rack their brains in order
to succeed. These games have entertainment as well as
the mental development quotient to them.

The intense game play that these games boost is what
makes them a favorite even in the intensely
competitive gaming industry. Microsoftís Xbox 360
comes pre-loaded with an arcade puzzle game, Hexic HD.
Most of the Xbox Live arcade games have multiplayer
support over Xbox Live.

The arcade gaming fans can certainly look forward to
more titles coming their way on the Xbox 360. Sonyís
PSP is also releasing revamped models of old classics
hoping to capture the handheld market.

Evolution of arcade games

Arcade games started from a humble title, Pong, and
then went on to become a rage. The games primarily
evolved around a simplistic design and raw game play.

The newer arcade games made the use of immense leaps
in the graphic technology. The arcade games were
designed to be played with a group of friends in pubs,
malls and restaurants.

These days arcade games are more than isolated gaming
sessions. Arcade games have numerous communities and
clans committed to keeping the tradition.

The arcade games later appeared on home consoles. They
started out as redemption games, pinball machines and
video games.

The popularity suffered as the arcades were labeled as
seedy, unsafe places. They saw resurgence with the
advent of the "two players fighting each other" games
such as Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and Killer
Instinct.

But, then, again the game consoles and PCís with 3d
accelerator cards successfully dwarfed the advantage
arcade games enjoyed. The success of arcade games over
the previous generation of home computer was the
ability to customize and use the newest graphics and
sound cards.

The steep decline ensured that they could no longer
fund their technologies.

By late 90ís the internet made matters worse for the
arcades. The human to human competition was taken to a
newer level.

Since then, the arcade games have been ported to other
consoles and emulated on PCís. Today the online arcade
games have a huge fan following with thousands of
tournaments being held online every year.

The online arcade games are evolving at a fast pace
and the arcade world visualizes an altogether
different future for the industry.

Design and Programming for Online Arcade games

 The arcade games were born in coin operated machines.
The strong point of the arcade games was that they
were based on a commodity technology.

Coin operated arcade games used custom made hardware
powered by multiple CPUís, specialized sound and
graphic boards.

The design simplicity of these games enabled the
programmers to spend more time into enhancing the
basics of game play. This resulted in the conception
of some of the best games ever designed.

The arcade games of the earlier years had a clever way
of disguising their graphical limitation. A fine
example is Atariís Night Driver, the first racing game
to deliver a ëfirstí person perspective, and also
showing the road as seen from the cockpit.

The night theme was an ingenious choice as it negated
the need to create perceptible complicated images. The
Night Driverís concept of ëscalingí flat images called
ëspritesí to stimulate a 3d movement was a cult design
basis for most 3d games.

Once these games were ported to PC, they were designed
with Flash, Java and DHTML. The online arcade games
that are programmed on Flash are built around the
vector graphics file format.

The design simplicity never dwarfed the game play.
This was, perhaps, the most probable reason for the
immense resilience in these games.

Even as the arcade games incorporated newer gadgets,
light guns and dance mats to draw in the crowd, the
people got stuck in the good old button mashing
delight.