Videogame and Other Coin-Op Genres
There are many interesting videogame themes, and countless ways to classify them. Here is our system:
| Adult | A game of an adult theme, possibly containing partial nudity. Examples: Erotictac and Gals Pinball |
|---|---|
| Adventure | A game where the characters must interact with the environment, make decisions on paths to take, and traverse distances and obstacles to reach a destination or goal. Examples: Thayer's Quest and Cadash. |
| Ball and Paddle | Deflect a ball back and forth around the screen using a single-axis control. Examples include Pong, Breakout, and Arkanoid. |
| Baseball | Games that are based on the classic American game of Baseball. |
| Billiards/Pool | Using a cue stick, aim and shoot a cue ball towards other balls to deflect them into pockets in the sides of the table. Examples: Perfect Billiard, Pocket Gal and Slick Shot. |
| Card | Games that are based upon a standard deck of 52 cards. Examples: 21 Blackjack and Solitaire Challenge. |
| Dance/Rhythm | Games focused around musical timing and coordination. Examples include Dance Dance Revolution, Drummania, and Guitar Freaks |
| Fighting | Games dedicated to one-on-one fighting competitions. Examples include Karate Champ, Mortal Kombat, and Street Fighter. |
| Football/US | The US game of Football. For the other game, see Soccer/Futbol |
| Gambling | Games that pay out money or credits for winning. |
| Golf | Games with a golf theme. Examples include the Golden Tee series. |
| Labyrinth/Maze | This catagory covers any number of titles where character movement is directed by barriers. The object is typically to collect items, and/or avoid enemy pursuers. Examples: Pac-Man, Make Trax and Wizard Of Wor. |
| Mahjong | Asian gambling games that are played with an assortment of tiles, called bones. |
| Mini-Game Collection | Machines that contain a variety of simple games. Many, but not all, may be puzzle related. Examples include Hyper Bishi Bishi Champ and the Megatouch series. |
| Other | Any type of game not covered by any other genre. |
| PC Conversion | A game converted or inspired by a PC based game. |
| Platform | A game where the primary actions of the players are running and jumping to and from various levels on the screen. The screen can either remain static or scroll in any direction. Examples: Bubble Bobble, Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros.. |
| Puzzle | Action games where players must complete certain arrangements of objects while competing against the clock or other players. Examples include Ataxx, Tetris, Qix, Mahjong games, and KLAX. |
| Racing | Pilot a vehicle in competition against other drivers and/or a time clock. Examples: Pole Position, Hydro Thunder, Out Run and Turbo. |
| Scrolling Fighter | These games follow the action of the players as they progress throughout a variety of levels and stages fighting enemies with their available weaponry. Examples: Contra, Double Dragon, Rush'n Attack and Section Z. |
| Scrolling Shooter | Games whose primary objective is to pilot a craft over a constantly scrolling terrain or area while shooting on-coming enemies and dodging their return fire. Examples: 1942, Raiden, Twin Eagle and Xevious. |
| Shooter | A wide variety of games whose primary action is firing weaponry as quickly as possible. Examples include Centipede, Crossbow and Operation Wolf. |
| Simulator | A game that immerses the player in the overall action. Typically these games have custom hardware that moves the player as he interacts with his environment. Examples: T-Mek, Galaxy Force, TX-1. |
| Skill | Games that are more dependent upon planned actions or dexterity rather than brute force or instinct. Examples include Lasso, Rip Cord and Stunt Cycle. |
| Soccer/Futbol | Soccer, or what the rest of the world except the US calls Futbol, Futball, and Football |
| Space | Games that are set exclusively in space. Many challenge the player with compensating for the effects of, or lack of, gravity. Examples include Asteroids, Gravitar and Lunar Lander. |
| Sports | Games that are patterned after various sports related activities. Entires in this category are currently being moved into more specific ones. Examples: Quarterback, NBA Jam and Tehkan World Cup. |
| System | A hardware platform that allows for efficient conversion between several different game titles. These systems usually contain a main processor board that hosts one or more game-specific hardware modules. Examples are Capcom System II, Neo-Geo MVS and Nintendo PlayChoice. |
| Trivia/Quiz | Simple question and multiple answer games. Examples include Trivia Whiz, Tic-Tac-Trivia and Trivial Pursuit. |
| Unknown | This is a temporary genre used for machines without a genre listed or with an unknown genre. If a machine simply does not fit in the other genres, use "Other" instead |
| Video Pinball | Using a pair of flippers, deflect a ball upwards on an inclined playfield containing any number of targets or paths. Examples include Baby Pac-Man, Time Scanner and Video Pinball. |
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Please do not republish without written consent.