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 ‘Asteroids’ 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.

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Heuristic algorithms have been used in the arcade games. The common method of controlling an NPC in the game was by scripting.

‘Path finding’ is another common A.I. system that has been used in the real time strategy games. ‘Path finding’ works by calculating how to get an NPC from one place to another after considering the terrain and obstacles.

Games like Quake and Pursuit based all the enemy actions on particular stored patterns. The space invaders further refined this movement, by adding in-game events which were dependent on the hash functions.

This resulted in more varied and complex enemy movements.

Pac-Man incorporated this technology, at the same time jazzing it up by providing different personalities for each ghosts.

Although the ghost movements in Pac-Man felt random, it was a cleverly scripted and well disguised action.

The 1990’s saw the emergence of finite state machines. The arcade racing games were powered by a ‘rubber banding’ A.I. system.

If the computer controlled the opponents “fall behind”, they received a superb boost allowing them to catch up.

The system too, works the other way around, enabling the human players to catch up if they fall behind. The arcade shooting games should ideally have a large rule base which is basically the list of NPC options like attack long range, call for help, flee etc.

The trick lies in using a random factor to choose from this base factor. This has displayed an enhanced feeling of intellect and developed the fun factor.

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Apparently, the reason being that a player is essentially renting an arcade game for as long as their virtual entity stays alive. The game titles in PC’s or consoles can also be termed as the ‘arcade game’ if it shares the same qualities.

The arcade racing games feature a simplified physics engine and preserve certain action. The effects are not always pragmatic; as you can turn sharply without drifting or losing control.

Arcade racing games used a simple Rubberband A.I. system. The system is programmed so that you don’t get left far behind or move ahead of the rest.

Arcade flight games are highly simplified when compared to flight simulators. These games are facing a steady resurgence with people increasingly favoring action over reality.

The recent success of games like Crimson Tide and Secret weapons over Normandy attest this phenomenon.

The simple game play also makes the arcade games super addictive. Arcade classics like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and King of Fighters were built on simple game play.

They were often related to mindless thrashing of the joystick and buttons. Even newer titles like Tekken and Dead or Alive with highly detailed game play and graphics are unable to overthrow these classics.

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Joust

Joust is a classic arcade game that puts you in the role of a knight with a lance while mounted on an ostrich. The game screen is a simple static screen with five platforms hanging in mid air.

The enemies come in wave after wave from the one end of the screen. They appear at the screens in four different spawn points. To destroy an enemy knight one has to collide with the knight at a higher position.

Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong was released by Nintendo. The game was the pioneer in the platform genre as the game play basically revolved around maneuvering.

The main character comes across a series of platforms while dodging various obstacles. The hero of the game and a giant ape named Donkey Kong has become the most popular game characters.

Despite an initial slow down, the game went on to become a tremendous success. Consequently, the game was developed for personal consoles.

Crimson skies

Crimson Skies is an arcade flight game developed by FASA. The game was released as a flight simulator with an arcade touch. Flight control scheme is fairly simple. The take off and landing are completely automated.

Players can choose from a fleet of fighters, all loaded with magnetic rockets and Tesla coils. The game has recently been released on Xbox.

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