10 Things Today's Gamers Wouldn't Understand

5. When You Had To Visit The Arcade To See Amazing Graphics

Yes kids, the above used to count as amazing graphics. That cowboy hat would move around the dashboard and that tornado... wow. You'd sink pound coin after pound coin into cr*p like Eighteen Wheeler Pro Trucker just for the chance to stare. And to dream. It was only really with Sega's fondly remembered Dreamcast, itself modelled on the Naomi arcade board, that arcade-quality graphics game into the home - with perfect conversions of House of the Dead II and Crazy Taxi. When you actually got an arcade perfect copy of Eighteen Wheeler on the ill-fated console and found that it was actually total rubbish if you spent more than 60 seconds playing it, you instantly knew that the arcade's days were numbered. But before then, even though the Mega Drive laid claim to arcade quality graphics and sound, the likes of Altered Beast and Golden Axe were poor cousins to their coin-op counterparts. It's all changed now though. Visit most arcades in Britain and you'll find the same, creaky units that were there ten years ago. And even if they do have a more recent game, it won't look at good as Crysis will it? Indeed, today you could walk into an arcade with a perfect port of SEGA Rally running on your iPad and laugh at the man who works there as he tries to sell you tokens, perhaps pointing at your touch-screen and doing a little dance. And you'd do that, wouldn't you? You despicable person.