These days, everyone is online and gamers come in all shapes, sizes and ages. Take a look around you on a commuter train and chances are, you will see as many people engrossed in a gaming app on their smartphone as reading books or newspapers.
Of course, this means the games themselves have evolved, too. Way back when, there was the belief that gaming was for teenagers, and teenage boys, at that. Of course, this was completely delusional, but nevertheless, it was the target market for game designers.
Online casinos and the new gaming dynamic
Adult gamers demand adult games. No, not adult games in that meaning, but games that are aimed to appeal to over 18s. Of course, the casino is the ultimate adult playground, so from that perspective, it is little surprise that there are so many sites offering slots, roulette and other typical casino type games. How many? Well, the database at https://www.thecasinodb.com is being constantly updated with new ones, so it is safe to say “a lot.”
Given that casino games have become such a mainstream part of life – we see them advertised on TV every day, and the sites sponsor every major sporting event going – we thought it would be fun to wind back the clock and take a look at some of the early games that inspired this modern revolution.
Fruit machine
If you had the good fortune to grow up in the 1980s and the even better luck of being presented with an Amstrad CPC 464 by your loving parents, you probably still remember the dozen free games that came with it on cassettes. A favourite was Fruit Machine, not so much because it was better than the rest but because the simple programming made it one of the fastest to load. The graphics were basic, the Winner Spinner bonus game was bewildering and the ability to collect, gamble up or exchange winnings for nudges taught impressionable teens basic slotting strategy.
The Wild Bunch
This Wild West text game was hugely popular in the late 80s, not least for the “game within a game” in which you could play poker with the town gambler to win money for essential supplies. Today, we take video poker for granted, but we can definitely trace its origins right back here.
Roulette Monte Carlo
Roulette is among the most popular online games today, and is seen as a poster child for VR gaming – obviously the spin of the wheel lends itself particularly well to the fledgling technology. This makes it even more fun to see the humble beginnings with Dymond Software’s Roulette Monte Carlo. Clearly developed on a shoestring budget in the early 80s, the original tapes are now highly collectible.
Craps by name but not by nature
However advanced they look, today’s games are all dictated by a random number generator that looks just the same as it did 40 years ago. Want the proof? Back in the 1970s, kids spent ages typing out code to program their own games from scratch. The code still exists, and you can even try it for yourself. It is safe to say that this craps game is really the Granddaddy of everything we see today.
