I played Strider 2 on PS1 this past weekend and LOVED it! Unlike many arcade ports (especially at the time), it included unlimited continues by default. Personally, I'm a huge fan of this since most of the time I just want to experience the game. Sure, I like to be challenged too, but sometimes I just want to play the game and enjoy it...and not be frustrated or have to start over (and over and over).

Soooooo....I have a Strider 2 PSN activation key that I'm gonna give to someone here. All you need to do is answer this question: What are your thoughts on unlimited continues for arcade games? If they're available, do you use them? What if you have to enter a cheat code?

You have until 11:59 PM EST on 10/12/16 to post in this thread and then I'll randomly pick a winner!

I think if it's a port of a game, then unlimited continues makes sense. As you stated, being able to experience the game takes more priority in the challenge, at least initially, for me. If there was a selectable option to enable/disable unlimited continues than I think we could have a fair ground. If they are available, I remind myself that they are, but I do my best not to use that many for the sake of a challenge! I never use cheat codes! I've never been that kinda gamer really.

Count me out for the give-away aspect, but the conversation topic is interesting, so I'mma participate!

Part of the appeal of being given unlimited continues for an arcade port is that the vast majority of arcade games are balanced pretty unfairly to begin with. After all, they want you to keep feeding the machine money to keep playing. Sure, it's possible with some practice and skill to beat a game without taking out a second mortgage to pay for it, but most players if they're determined to see the end will be stuck paying up.

Regarding the ports, the "fair" alternative to unlimited continues is to re-balance the port in some way to tone down the difficulty, which requires effort on the dev/pub end of things, and can muck up the game design in general if done poorly. So I think going with the faux arcade feel of inserting imaginary tokens is definitely the better choice.

I could definitely understand not giving unlimited continues to a game when it was in the arcade. That was the way to make money, aka their whole business model.

However, I'm of the mindset that once it comes to a medium that no longer requires money to continue, then I think there should be the option to continue without question. Or at least give the user the option to do that.

However, there are even some games out there that with unlimited continues, the game itself is too damn hard to complete. I know, for me, that is the Mega Man series. Love the games. But to this day, I've never finished one. You can try as many times as you want. For me, the final boss in those games was always SO damn difficult.

Cheat codes are interesting. If they pertain to helping finish the game, I typically don't use them. However, if they're centered around changing the look of a character or changing something that doesn't impact the actual gameplay and all that, I'm okay with them.

I figured I'd expand upon my original post a bit. For most of my gaming life (which is basically all my overall life), I've been against cheat codes. I mean, like, really against them. Even the Konami code was off-limits to me.

I've really cooled off on my feelings for cheat codes in the past few years, and especially in the past year due to some life-altering circumstances. I've come to discover that I'm much more interested in experiencing a game than I am being challenged by it. As I said originally, I still like being challenged and sometimes that's all I want (hello, Super Hexagon!). But when I look at the list of games that I want to play for a variety of reasons (interesting story, unique gameplay, gorgeous art / graphics, just to name a few) and realize I'm never going to experience them all, I feel like I should optimize my time.

As a kid, I would get a new game every few months, so I had tons of time to dedicate to a single game. I would be frustrated, but eventually complete it. I no longer have the luxury that is free time, at least not to the degree I did then. So for example, I "beat" Maximum Carnage the other day by using an infinite lives cheat. I know I could've beaten it legitimately if I had played it about 1,000 times. But I'd rather play through it in an hour or so and move on, rather than dedicate an ungodly amount of hours to it. It was a fun game and I really enjoyed it, but I don't have time to master it.

Even if I use cheat codes, I still try to have a perfect playthrough. By that I mean I want to use strategy to defeat enemies, learn their weaknesses, memorize their patterns, avoid being hit, etc. I'm just cutting out the repetition that I no longer have time for :)

I didn't even know Maximum Carnage had cheats! I need to come over and play through that sometime. I would love to make it all the way through.

I should clarify, I used a Game Genie for that cheat code :P

Just out of curiosity moho_00, how much time would you say you have dedicated for gaming? Seems like, as you said, the less time one has to master a game, then the main goal is usually just to experience it. I'm about to not have nearly as much free time to game, but I still try to stay away from cheats. I'm guilty of using save states here and there, but usually only to pick up where I left off because of unforeseen circumstances that require you to stop for a bit.

My gaming time can fluctuate quite a bit, but generally speaking I have up to 1 hour or so each evening after work on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I don't usually play on Thursdays (basketball) or Friday (working on Completionator). On the weekend, it just depends on what else is going on. I usually have a little time on Saturday, but Sunday is my primary gaming day it seems like.

I've been trying to get out of bed earlier and have opened up a little more gaming time on some days, but I'm also going to bed earlier, so it's really just evening out :P

I see. The main reason I asked was because of how much you seem to contribute already, so it's hard for me to wrap my head around you actually having time to sit down and play a game xD. Also, given with the limited time frame that many folks have to actually practice an arcade style game, I can see how unlimited continues could actually make you a better player much faster than birth by fire. Little by little one can master a game if given an unlimited amount of opportunity to practice. For the case of actual arcade machines, practice time is over when you're outta quarters.

I finally rolled my d-20 and @jwcooley had the highest number! Remind me on Steam sometime and I will send you the key.

Cool man!

FYI - I about forgot this. I'll send you a message on Steam