Back in my hometown, we had an awesome arcade called Dodge City - it was one of those flat-rate free-play arcades that only stocked older games. I didn't realize it at the time, but the owner of that place really knew his games and he had an amazing collection (including that Tron disc booth thing!).
That being said, I didn't spend much time in arcades growing up and Dodge City closed down around the time I was old enough to pay the daily rate myself. Help me live vicariously - what were your favorite arcade games?
In my limited experience:
-Marvel vs. Capcom 2
-Pac Man
-Frogger
-X-Men The Arcade Game (whatever that 4 player beat-em-up was called!)
-Street Fighter 2 CE
-Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (if only for the ending)
-Metal Slug Series
-KOF 98
I tried to search for a similar thread but couldn't find one - plus the search is currently borked. Please flame / lock if this is the millionth arcade thread.
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I really liked light gun games.
Area 51 was the shit
must have put about 200$ into that machine in my youth
Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara is good stuff, if you can find a cabinet. I also play lots of SF Alpha and such, if that counts.
Nowadays I mostly play rhythm games, because that's really all arcades have to offer that can't be recreated at home in some way. Sadly, arcades with those are dying real fast.
Oh, and Initial D/Maximum Tune here and there. Subaru Impreza SRX.
Yes. In fact, pretty much any Capcom beat-em-up is worth your time (Final Fight, Aliens VS. Predator, Battle Circuit).
Puzzle Fighter
a couple of MvCs
Street Fighter Alpha
Tekken whatever is the latest one
Virtua Fighter ditto
1943
I think there's an Area 51 or some such in there.
-Any Street Fighter II action, CE especially
-All the Alpha games and versus series affairs (Marvel Superheroes vs. Street Fighter and Alpha 2 are two I really like)
-Sunset Riders
-Captain America and the Avengers
-TMNT Turtles in Time
-X-Men: Children of the Atom
-Plain ol' X-Men
-Donkey Kong/Mario Bros./Donkey Kong Jr. (there's a modern multi-cab from Namco that offers these games, lots of fun)
-Running into a Neo Geo MVS is always a treat (especially if it has any King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown , Neo Turf Masters, Double Dragon, or King of the Monsters)
-Warlords
-Mega Man: The Power Battles (or Power Fighters)
-Ghosts 'n Goblins
-Sailor Moon (okay I honestly have never found this one but maybe some day)
-Smash TV
-NBA Jam
-NFL Blitz
-Qix
-Popeye
-Punch-Out!!
-Saturday Night Slammasters
-Tetris Grandmaster
-Bubble Bobble
Good times for sure, there's only like a nickel arcade near me so I don't get to try too many of these any more.
Konami:
The aforementioned X-Men
The Simpsons
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
TMNT Turtles In Time
Capcom:
Final Fight
Alien Vs Predator
Cadillacs & Dinosaurs
The Punisher
Warriors Of Fate
Sega:
Streets Of Rage
Golden Axe
Die Hard Arcade
XBL, Steam & Tribes: elmartino333
Sunset took a ton of my money.
Memories like the corners of my mind
XBL, Steam & Tribes: elmartino333
;-)
How about Virtua Cop 2?
A 7-11 up the street from my work had one of those. For a buck I would take both pistols and be the Virtua savior of my Virtua city until I got Virtua killed, which happened virtually every time I played.
And although arcades might be dying, there are still those that are too strong to perish.
Another great beat-em-up game I spent a lot of time on was Captain America and the Avengers. I remember the feeling of my heart jumping every time you got a boss' health low enough that you heard Cap say "OK, GO!" and the boss music would change to the theme music. Really got me excited every time.
In a similar vein, Roadblasters was pretty cool.
It was never the best game around, or even that impressive, but somehow it got a lot of my quarters. Roadblasters is reliable; not too amazing, but you know you won't die within the first 30 seconds. You know where you stand with Roadblasters.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
edit: wearing my TOPhat.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
Galaga '88/90 in particular is quite good, being a remake of the original with better graphics. They have it at the arcade on the Redondo Beach boardwalk, and it's available on a variety of consoles. If I was going to buy an arcade machine, Galaga anything would be a strong contender. Much more so than any beat-em-up.
I know people who own these:
Transporting those is a nightmare. I helped upload a brand new cabinet for a national tournament once.
And someone already said the best which is Galaga.
Imo, arcades cut the fat.
Street fighter was my favorite.
Every time I'd run out of money, I'd just stand there and stare at the larger-than-life 8-screen demo for a few minutes without fail. It's kind of hard to explain how awesome it was to behold in '94.
I played my fair share of beat-em-ups and Pacman in my younger days, but by the time every game was $1 per credit, I'd only go for the dance games. There's just no sense in playing games that can be replicated perfectly on consoles anymore unless the arcade experience is dirt cheap.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dulYDwUwxko
They were silly, but fun.
And the Quick Draw one was intense.
My personal fave has got to be Asteriods!! Classic!!
I've never seen this before, but it is fantastic.
I also loved Dragon's Lair II, Gauntlet Legends, and Galaxy Force II. I spent an entire day playing Galaxy Force II once, that was epic. The Virtua Cops were also great. I'm hoping that Sega brings back Virtua Cop, like they've done with House of the Dead. Virtua Cop Overkill could be pretty awesome.
PSN ID : Xander51 Steam ID : Xander51
The animation was all motion captured, and the game looked pretty realistic from what I remember. The gameplay itself kinda sucked, and consisted of a series of what are now known as quick-time events. But the fact that I was controlling a holographic cowboy and shooting little hologram bad guys blew my 8 year old mind.
EDIT: I found it! It was called Time Traveler, a 1991 game by Sega.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Traveler_(video_game)
This game was fucking rad. I'd love to play it again. Its too bad these holographic games never caught on. They were probably hella expensive.
It's called Hologram Time Traveler. Published by Sega, created by Rick Dyer, one of the makers of Dragon's Lair and Thayer's Quest. Digital Leisure has released it on DVD and CD, and it's pretty great. The home version comes with 3D glasses to simulate the arcade effect.
EDIT: Hehe yeah I see you beat me to it there. If you want to play it again, check out www.digitalleisure.com.
PSN ID : Xander51 Steam ID : Xander51
I believe this is the one you're talking about: Time Traveler
I remember getting to play this a few times and dying very quickly each time.
The Simpsons arcade game was great. I used to play that with my cousins all the time.
A local arcade I went to sometime a few years ago had an awesome shooter by Cave I believe. It was a side-scrolling schmup where you could choose one of 3 planes. It had a steampunk style to it. I can't remember the name off the top of my head though.
Also, this thread is exactly what I wanted!
What was the game where one person drove and the other person shot? Reminded me of Chase HQ but, you know, with guns.
Unless Chase HQ had guns...
This is what I was looking for. AWESOME.