What was it about arcade games that was so appealing? Even after I welcomed the Sinclair Spectrum into my life there was something that kept drawing me back to the arcades. I had Manic Miner and Lunar Jetman, I had Ant Attack, Head over Heels and Automania. There was no shortage of quality gaming on the humble rubber keyed beastie so what was it that kept dragging me back to the coin ops?

Certainly, the allure of the ever more colourful and smooth graphics played a big part in this but, for me, it was much more about the controls. For those who were used to the contortions required to play games on the spectrum, arcade controls were still an absolute dream. Joysticks that didn't cause the machine to reset when you were too boisterous, buttons that you could slam without fear of snapping the computer, the thought of playing Hyper Sports without making the Spectrum assume an unnatural position (one of our School Spectrums had to much hilarity, developed a severe rocking motion after one too many Decathlon competitions)

But, aside from the sheer physicality of arcade controls, there was something else.

In these far off days, before a bunch of businessmen sat down and defined a standard for arcades, every game that came out was different. It had different artwork, it used different monitors, it had it's own sound and, most importantly, it had it's own controls...

Not for arcade games the artificial restriction of Up, Down, Left, Right and Fire that was becoming increasingly prevalent elsewhere. Part of the reason that Defender was so good (and so hard) was the sheer volume of controls you had to grapple with. It was like learning to fly a plane or, in actual fact, learning to fly a space ship - that control panel, with it's simple joystick and five buttons, was an essential part of the detachment from reality that Defender gave you. Instinctively, you could feel that flying a spaceship wasn't as simple as wrenching a joystick around in eight directions, and Defender played up to this. Learning to play Defender meant learning to master the controls.

Even in 1980 or 1981 there was something unutterably different, almost alien, about the controls of that game. I could barely believe it when I first encountered it, this game needed more than two hands to play. How could I possibly be expected to move that, and then press this button, at the same time as pressing that button? And I've got to keep an eye on the screen as well? I needed a co-pilot to play this!

My first game lasted about 20 seconds. I didn't even hesitate about putting more money into it. Eventually, I found a compromise that afforded me enough control to survive the opening wave. By which time I had all but run out of money...

Other games too proved this. Breakout and it's super sensitive spinner, Robotron with it's two Joystick panic inducing simplicity, Star Wars with the full immersion guaranteed by the cockpit and it's real Flight Yoke, Missile Command with it's micromanagement of the three bases, Q*Bert's diagonally mounted joystick and even humble Pac Man with it's ultra simplistic four way movement. These games, and many of their contemporaries, were defined as much by their control systems as by their graphics and their sound effects.

Of course, the Arcade industry eventually settled into it's middle age with the cost-saving standardisation that we now know as JAMMA. At the time we barely noticed, but something rather unique was being lost. The familiarity gained from standardising the controls was offset by the loss of what made many of the classic games unique in the first place.

In recent years, in a last desperate attempt to lure people back, arcades have reverted to using dedicated, customised controls with hydraulic motors, motion sensitivity, dance mats and other assorted control systems all making their appearance. Home systems too, Edge recently voted the Steel Batallion controller, which wouldn't look out of place in a 1980's video arcade, their "hardware innovation of the year."

But is this just a question of too little, too late? Only time will tell, but I for one can still dream about playing Super Monkey Ball with a real monkey ball...

Cheers
Chris

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