Trog

I remember the arcade in the shopping mall where Trog stood next to Street Fighter II. Street Fighter always had a line. Trog stood almost alone — yet it was one of the weirdest and most fun things Midway made in 1990.

Trog is an arcade action game that unapologetically stole the basic DNA of Pac-Man and dressed it up in prehistoric clothes. You play as an adorable dinosaur — or two, if you have a friend — and your only job is to collect eggs scattered throughout the maze before you're caught by cave people called Trogs. No complex story, no moral dilemmas. Eggs, Trogs, survival.

The mechanics are straightforward: you move through a closed arena, collect eggs, avoid Trogs, and occasionally eat a special object that temporarily turns you into a T-Rex capable of eating enemies. Exactly like the big dot in Pac-Man, just with more teeth. The 1990 PC version replicated the arcade nicely, though keyboard controls never had the ease of a joystick. Difficulty ramps up sensibly — the first levels are relaxed, then the Trogs get faster, smarter, and more numerous.

What holds Trog up to this day is that immediate readability. You start it up and thirty seconds later you know exactly what you're supposed to do. The graphics are colorful and cartoonish — actually above average for 1990 — and the music has that right arcade urgency that won't let you rest. What hasn't aged as gracefully is the depth. After ten levels, you've basically seen everything. Trog isn't a game you'll sink hours into; it's a game you'll come back to for twenty minutes and remember why it was fun.

Today, Trog suits anyone who wants an arcade experience without installation, tutorials, and unlockable content behind premium currency. It runs surprisingly well in the browser — simple controls, short game loops, instant rewards. If you played Pac-Man in the nineties and liked the idea of being a dinosaur instead of a yellow dot and getting a club-wielding cave man instead of ghosts, Trog is exactly what you're looking for.