Noah Vanderhoff's Wild Claim...

[StanJr]

Ok, this may be a bit off, but stay with me.

 

In Wayne's World (a movie that shaped my high school life) ficticious Video Arcade owner, Noah Vanderhoff claims that he has recently acquired a new game called "Zandar" in which you play the part of a gelatinous cube who ascends to the next level when he eats a chieftain. But as Noah explains, the "beauty is, you can't get to the next level, so kids just keep pumping quarters into the machine."

 

Now I realize "Zandar" is complete fiction, but I was wondering. During the age of Arcades, was a game ever produced like this, in that it was impossible to advance in the game, in order to keep people pumping coins into the machine? I wouldn't put it past ambitious arcade owners or short-sighted programmers to do so in the name of profit.

 

Anybody know? Or am I just nuts and need to get a life?

[NovaXpress]

There were difficulty switches of course, which amount to the same thing.

 

The "get them to keep pumping in quarters" concept wouldn't be served by making the levels last forever. You'd just want to make it hard so the games were short.

[maibock]

My room mate and I in college, spent a roll of quarters each to get to the end of Ikari Warriors one night, does that count?(please insert coin to continue)

[Lost Monkey]

I seem to remember that Dracula was unbeatable in the arcade Castlevania.. but that is probably just because *I* couldn't do it..

[flavoredthunder]

Yes Robotron 2084.

The game just got faster and faster until you died.

 

 

http://www.klov.com/R/Robotron__2084.html

[Ralph3]

Gauntlet has to be one of the ultimate quarter suckers! You can feed that damn machine all day and never come to an end of the game. The highest level I saw a bunch of guys playing like a tag team, reach in the 200's. You CAN'T play the game and advance deep into the game on one quarter.

[Robert M]

Gauntlet has to be one of the ultimate quarter suckers! You can feed that damn machine all day and never come to an end of the game. The highest level I saw a bunch of guys playing like a tag team, reach in the 200's. You CAN'T play the game and advance deep into the game on one quarter.

 

Yeah, Guanlet especially when it takes away hit points like a timer. I hated that. Any game with a time limit no matter how well you played would fit the description. I saw that on those Nintendo 10 in 1 machines. I hated it. Thayer's Quest had that same timer issue. No matter how well you played the game you had to keep inserting quarters to reset the timer. Blech!