45 Years of Arcade Gaming: The 1990s – By Adam Pratt

This is an update & re-write of an original article that was published on ArcadeHeroes.com on June 27th, 2012 entitled ‘40 Years Of Arcade Games’. You can still read that post here: http://arcadeheroes.com/2012/06/27/ 40-years-of-arcade-games/

In our quest to reminisce about the games of arcades past, we’ve journeyed through the 70s, spent a couple of articles on the 80s, and now we’ve finally reached the 1990s. While the previous ten years gave us hit after hit, this decade was not far behind in giving us amazing experiences and memories.

Instead of going year by year, this time the focus will be on the influential games and their genres, occasionally touching on the obscure. That means that we’re starting with the genre that redefined gaming for years and shaped the decade at large – the one-on-one fighter. The king of this class is undoubtedly Capcom’s Street Fighter II, elevating their 1987 release by giving the player the chance to choose among a variety of unique and interesting characters. This was enhanced by the graphics that were lighting fast and beautifully detailed, memorable sounds, and perhaps, most of all, the complexity offered by the fact that both beginners and hardcore players could get the same satisfaction out of the game. This was thanks to the move sets given to each character, a sort of secret code in action that with some knowledge and practice (sometimes just some dumb luck), a player was rewarded with pulling off a special attack that wasn’t readily apparent from just looking at the six button layout.