DESCRIPTION

The Bootcade is a collection of playable games from the stranger, seedier side of the years of the Arcade.

As the demand for arcade games, especially best-selling ones, outstripped supply, an opportunity arose. Companies familiar with the inner workings of games, and with the ability to throw together parts and programming overnight, sold "close enough" versions of these sellers to a waiting audience of arcades and distributors. Many of these games were shortcuts personified - minor changes to artwork, both in-game and on the cabinet, were meant to draw players to thinking they were playing the real thing.

This collection provides access (through the JSMESS emulator) to a variety of these games, focusing on the most egregious examples - some bootlegs would pass muster with players and operators unless you knew exactly what to look for. Not so with these. Broken graphics, odd sounds, and variant amounts of general quality told the player they weren't putting their quarters into the real thing - but such was the power of the originals that the quarters came anyway.



