What other physical gimmicks are in arcade games?

hisnice

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Benjord just started a thread asking the question if any arcade games other than Q*bert had knocker in it (and I don't know of any). I had a Q*bert and when the knocker stopped working, I didn't like playing it very much. Which is hilarious and weird. Why did that make it more fun???

So I'm wondering what other games had mechanical devices or features to make the game more unique/fun/interesting.

Irritating Maze has a burst of air that hits you when you touch the walls, which is always funny and surprising.

What else?
 
I heard turkey shoot blows feathers around between two pieces of glass.
Haven't seen it in person, but would love to.

As far as not playing qbert because of the knocker, I generally won't play anything that isn't 100% functional. It's kinda a good thing because it's motivation to fix things immediately so they don't go into disrepair.
 
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I can't think of any, other than Taxi pinball. It has a bell that always surprises people when it rings.

I get the Q-bert thing though.
 
Arctic Thunder, the videogame, and Whirlwind, the pinball, have fans that blow air in your face and a lot of pinballs have shaker motors in them.

Black Knight, the pinball, has a bell that rings too.
 
a subtle one that I absolutely hate.
Defender flashes the screen completely white when you die.
Obnoxious as heck but clearly intended to shock your brain.
 
Terminator 2 has a lamp "HIT" feature that isn't operational in the majority of T2's that were out there as the OPs either didn't give a damn to replace the lamps or simply didn't know about them.

Basically, when your guy was getting hit, the lamps would fire displaying a semi-transparent "explosion" hit type image...

The image is behind a half-silvered mirror... and most people don't even know they are there.

Here is a video of the effect (toward the end) at TNT...

https://youtu.be/hy86CYUm6aI?t=6m20s
 
Zaxxon has the lower door that flops open.

Probably not where you were going with this, but Burgertime is interesting in that the cabinet profile matches the shape of the artwork.
 
Not a video game but Namco's Quick & Crash shooting game used a
pretty cool special effect to simulate a mug shattering.

When the mug appears, you shoot it. If you hit it, a solenoid moves a
mirror so instead of seeing the mug, you see a black box filled with
mug "pieces". A solenoid hits the bottom of the box of pieces tossing
them into the air.

The actual effect that you "see" is the mug shattering into a bunch of
pieces when you shoot it.

JD
 
Prop Cycle used a blower to blow air on you as you pedaled.

JD
 
Oh yeah -

Sea Wolf had all the cool color effects projected onto the periscope.

Space Encounters had the strobe light and all the other cool light effects.

JD
 
IF you have the audio turned up on Millipede the sound you make when you die is very alarming the first 100 times you hear it.
 
If you add pinball machines then there's Safe Cracker, which spits tokens/quarters at you. That surprised the hell out of me the first time it happened. They role right down the glass.
 
Depending on that you mean by gimmicks can add black lights to the list. Tron, Asteroids delux, and games like that.
The Original street fighter with the gigantic buttons.
The driving game that moved when you turned the wheel
Deadstorm Pirates game it blew air on you.
Ghostbustsrs and Luigies mansion at Dave and Busters.
I could keep going but I will stop. So many gimmicks to get your attention. I love them.
 

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