Josh’s Diary of a Retro Gamer – 25 Cents
At an old arcade when you lose all your lives, you have 10 seconds to reinsert another quarter or all your progress is lost. Everyone has experienced the panic of frantically checking your pockets for a quarter as the counter ticked off the seconds. Even more importantly, the relief when you finally find it and keep playing. There was a personal responsibility to physically get the life and put it in the machine. It was your second chance to play. To make the most of this situation, the player would push harder to make the new continue worth the money.
These days, games are owned on consoles and the days of arcade cabinets and quarters are gone. To continue in a lot of games, now all it takes is respawning. While incredible effort is still put into beating levels and progressing in these modern games, there is no physical manifestation of that life, no consequence. Their quarter cup never empties and I feel that takes away a huge aspect of the gaming experience.