Arcade Bonanza

Two hours in and I still can't tell if this is a brilliant game or just a collection of ideas that never got proper development. Arcade Bonanza from 1987 is a DOS minigame collection that feels more like a flipbook than a cohesive experience — every few minutes one mode ends and something completely different begins.

It's all about a series of simple games based on old arcade principles — shooters, logic puzzles, something like pinball or a Pac-Man variation. Nothing original, but the concept was clear: if individual pieces don't work, at least their quantity keeps players occupied. You switch between modes, rack up points, wait for something fun to show up.

Technically it works. The graphics are typical DOS pastels — single-color backgrounds, simple sprites you can see were drawn as fast as possible. Sound? Minimal beeping from the built-in speaker. Controls are straightforward — arrow keys fit everywhere, no one was expecting a mouse here. The real problem lies elsewhere: the individual minigames lack enough substance to keep you engaged long-term. After a few attempts you hit their limit and just repeat yourself.

The charm of these games in the nineties came down to their pointlessness — you played them in a bar because they grabbed ten minutes of your time and then you'd grab a beer. On your own computer, when you've got all the time in the world, their emptiness stares you right in the face. Arcade Bonanza isn't bad, just dull.

Today you'll play it in an emulator more out of curiosity — to see what it actually looked like — than from any real desire to spend an evening with it. It's an artifact that mainly interests DOS game historians; everyone else should reach for something else instead.