Retro gaming

Ms Pac-Man hit arcades in 1982 and featured the first famous female game protagonist, though she started out as a male character. Designed by a group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) dropouts, Ms Pac-Man was originally a modification for Pac-Man, called Crazy Otto. Due to legal action by Atari, the MIT group presented their modification kit to the North American Pac-Man distributor, who bought it and helped evolve the concept into Ms Pac-Man. It featured new mazes and improved the unpredictability of enemies to make it more challenging.

Another superior sequel is Street Fighter II. It expanded its playable characters from one in 1989’s Street Fighter to eight and introduced combos, giving its instantly iconic characters their own special moves and fighting styles. When it was released in 1991, it revitalised arcades and changed the way we play. Previoulsy, achieving a game’s high score proved your arcade mastery but Street Fighter II popularised round-based combat that saw players compete directly and sonic-boom each other into submission. With over 200,000 arcade cabinets sold, Street Fighter II hurricane-kicked its way to being one of the greatest arcade games of all time, spawning countless sequels and imitators.