Loading screen

Variations such as the progress bar are sometimes programmed to inaccurately reflect the passage of time or extended during loading; opting instead for artificial pauses or stutters.

Some games have even included minigames in their loading screen, notably the 1983 Skyline Attack for the Commodore 64 and Joe Blade 2 on the ZX Spectrum.

Examples include variations of their old arcade games like Galaxian or Rally-X as loading screens when first booting up many of their early PlayStation releases.

Despite the Invade-a-Load prior art, Namco filed a patent in 1995[6] that prevented other companies from having playable mini-games on their loading screens, which expired in 2015.

The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of THQ's MX vs. ATV: Untamed lets the player partake in a free-ride session on the test course.

The video may not necessarily apply to what is happening in the level, as Red Faction: Guerrilla sometimes shows news reports foreshadowing events that will become important later on, or give tidbits about the game's universe.

On the Commodore 64, tape loading screens would often have music in the form of a chiptune making use of the machine's advanced SID sound chip.