Attract mode

From Freepedia

An arcade game's attract mode is the display it shows when nobody is playing the game. The purpose of the attract mode is to attract passers-by to play the game.

Attract mode may display a title screen, a high score list, gameplay demonstrations (usually without music and sound effects), the game's story (if any), and the message "Game Over" or "Insert Coin".

A few arcade games contain bugs which allow a person to play them during the attract mode without paying for a game. Two examples of this are Galaga and Tempest.

In Atari home computer and video games of the 1970s and 1980s, the term "attract mode" was sometimes used to denote a simple screensaver that slowly cycled the display colors to prevent screen burn-in while the game was not being played.