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Arcade & Classic Games · 3

Centipede, released in 1981, used a trackball and was co-designed by Dona Bailey, one of the relatively few women designing major arcade games at the time. Another angle makes it more interesting: Arcade sound effects had to cut through real room noise, which helps explain why classic machines are full of short, sharp tones that remain recognizable decades later. Arcade difficulty rises gently until the game remembers it was built to eat coins.

  • Retro spirit
  • Instant action
  • Score chasing

Two minutes of rabbit hole

Pac-Man was released in 1980 and deliberately moved away from the era’s heavy focus on space shooting. The maze, ghosts and eating mechanic made it immediately recognizable to a much broader audience. The next fact has its own story: Donkey Kong introduced Mario in 1981, although he was originally known simply as Jumpman. His job was described as carpenter before later games permanently associated him with plumbing.