Glossary

Q: What is the meaning of these arcade related words?

A:
Arcade
Location filled with arcade machines. In the 80'es these were all over the place, but now only exists in few, larger cities.

Arcade machine
A complete arcade machine including board, screen, controllers and cabinet.

Board (PCB)

The brains of an arcade game - equivalent to the mother board of a computer. A set of prints with chips, ROMs and RAMs.

Bootleg
Unauthorized "copy" of a board. Often identical to the original, but sometimes with a few changes. Bootlegs often carry a somewhat different title name compared to the original.

Controller
The control mechanism of an arcade machine. Often a joystick with buttons, but steering wheels, spinners and light guns are common too.

Emulator
Computer program able to run software for one system on another system. The most famous emulator is MAME, which allow arcade games to be emulated on a normal computer.

Fighter
Genre of games in the vein of Street Fighter 2.

Hiscore (eller Highscore)
Record in an arcade game. A hiscore liste (also known as Hall Of Fame) is a list of the best records.

Neo Geo
Arcade system made by SNK in 1989. By using cartridges it's very easy to swap games.

PCB
See board.

Racer
Genre of games in the vein of Out Run and Virtua Racing.

Shooter
Genre of games in the vein of 1943 (vertical) or R-Type (horisontal).

Screen
Monitor that displays the image of the arcade game.