These days, the retro gaming market has permeated mainstream culture in almost every way. If you take a trip out to buy clothes from your favourite store, you’re pretty much guaranteed to see a Super Mario or Street Fighter t-shirt, a Sonic the Hedgehog bag or a pair of Mortal Kombat socks.

Retro gaming is basically everywhere now, and that includes the online video slots industry as well. It’s strange to think that these absolute classics of the video game world would have any effect on the online slots industry, but they are, and in a big way as well!

Why Are There Retro Gaming Inspired Slots?

If you think about, the truest form of Retro Gaming that most people had access too was either on home computers like the Atari 2600 or the Commodore 64, or in arcades. Those arcade machines allowed you to put a (sometimes) small amount of cash in, and then to get a great rush as a reward for beating a level, boss or high score.

However, whilst skill was part of a player’s success in the old arcades, luck was just as big of an aspect.

If you take Pac-Man, as an example, the luck element came into play in terms of which path the ghosts took to try and get to you. Your skill was to try and lead them down certain paths so that you could create an escape route, but your luck partially determined whether they took those paths. It was basically trying your luck, at the expense of your “hard earned” coins.

Therefore, it should come as no real surprise that online slots have taken inspiration from a medium that really did have quite a bit in common with them anyway. It really is a sort of organic evolution from the arcades, more suited for those who used to play in the arcades, as we are all grown up now, as depressing as that is!

How Is Retro Gaming Inspiring Slots?

Well, now that we have determined why it isn’t surprising that retro gaming has managed to dig its claws into the online slots industry, the next question to look at is just how these classic games are influencing and inspiring these online slots.

After all, whilst the transition from arcade to slots is understandable, it is a lot more difficult to initially fathom how you can go from a plumber running sideways through a mystical land, jumping on enemies, to a slots machine at an online casino. But it has happened!

So what exactly do we mean by retro gaming inspired slots? Well, we certainly don’t mean that you can play Super Smash Bros whilst trying to win big on the jackpot. Nor can you play Asteroids to get the best slots results.

However, what you can do is play a whole selection of slots that feature retro gaming style imagery, themes and designs.

For example, the slot game called Arcader, built by software developer Thunderkick from Sweden, features a host of beautifully designed, pixel art based graphics for the slot reels. Each image harkens back to the days of 8-bit graphics, but with modern designs. Even the name of the game is a reference to the heyday of arcade gaming.

Arcader is the perfect example of how online slots have started to take some real inspiration from classic games. With the design, look and feel of it and other slot games now mimicking the images that we grew up with, you almost get a sense of nostalgia whilst playing them. You can get a warm feeling as you try your luck and go for that jackpot.

What Is The Future of Retro Gaming Inspired Slots?

As retro gaming goes from strength to strength as a hobby, and more people rediscover their love and the joy they get from these classic games, it stands to reason that it will invade modern pop culture even more. We already have albums based upon retro gaming being released, and the retro wave genre of music has regained popularity.

Arcader Slot by Swedish Developer, Thunderkick

With that in mind, it also wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to think that retro gaming inspired slots will increase in popularity and number as well. In fact, it wouldn’t be a surprise if we actually started to see a revival of long lost characters in these slots games either, such as the often overlooked and forgotten Ristar.

Therefore, we can all expect to see a rise in slots games featuring pixel art, retro gaming style music and a whole host of other aspects of the games we used to play as kids.

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