What were or still are, your favorite arcade games ? (1 Viewer)

[BrucetDuncan]

What were (or still are) your favorite arcade games you liked playing and please say why for each ones named, whether you played them in an arcade, or played
(or still play) them at home occasionally.

 

[James T]

TMNT 2

When they took it out of my local arcade, I'd hope someone in the family would be travelling to the airport because they had it there. I had so much fun playing that game.
Then on my birthday, I got a wrapped gift that could only be a Nintendo cartridge. I had the biggest grin on my face. I didn't even both waiting for the other presents. I ripped it open, and started playing the game in the middle of my party.

Another I liked was X-men, with the dual screen. Playing at the arcade was not cheap and I used to go through my allowance like crazy playing that game.

I also liked playing the Star Wars trilogy, although I sucked pretty bad and wasn't able to do much.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

i liked ninja gaiden quite a bit.

CJ

 

[David Ely]

Discs of Tron!!! I still play it on MAME

I'm a huge classic gaming fan. They don't make games like they used to.

 

[DeanC]

Mine was Berserk. Not a single home game system ever thought of adding it to Atari or Midway classic. Never saw it for any system.

Only a Vectrex clone Berserk game. I am still looking for it.

 

[Jason Guardiano]

WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game

 

[Chris Bardon]

There were so many, but there were a few that I remember playing a LOT:

Street fighter 2-When this game first hit, I was absolutely addicted. Spent many many hours in arcades trying to get better at it. There were also all of the crazy rumors that circulated about what might be hidden in the game (fight Sheng Long!).

Smash TV-I remember being determined to finish this game, and went over to the arcade one day with a roll of quarters and gave it my best shot. No dice though-ended up with the highest score ever on the machine (by a long shot), but made it most of the way through the third episode (I think to the host boss).

The best part is though, with MAME I can play em all again! Now I just have to finish building that cabinet I have planned out...

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

Soul Edge & Soul Calibur: One word, two syllables (three in the JPN version)...Voldo. I mean, the dude has on bondage gear and speaks through gasping, what's not to like? The original was absolutely awesome. I would miss lunch, skip class, and spend all kinds of cash on it. It was also one of the few arcade games I knew that got hardware and software upgrades, unlocked characters, and even spawned controllers for home versions. The second generation cemented my love by taking the graphics and gameplay to a whole new level.

Mortal Kombat: Not only was the hokey brutality a new concept in arcade games--the only game I'd seen it in was Smash TV--the backlash against it (and later, Doom) inspired me to do my part to fight those moral majority types who thought it was inciting us to kill. 3 years after I first played it, I was an intern at the ACLU. Suck that, Lieberman!

Galaga & Pac-Man: Do they one even need an explanation? I will play 'em anytime I see 'em, no matter where they are or who I'm with. I have fond memories of local pizzerias that had the "tabletop version" of Pac-Man.

Afterburner: It was a flight simulator! How sweet was that? For me, it was totally sweet. A couple years ago I went to one of those $25-a-pop arcades that had a super-advanced (for the time) version of "Mechwarrior" in an actual F-16 simulator, and I couldn't help but remember this game.

 

[John Chow]

The first game for me was definitely Galaga. My brother was Pac-man all the way though. My next addiction after that was probably a side scroller called Side Arms.

After that I was pretty fond of the side scrolling beat 'em up type games like Final Fight, TMNT, Spider-man, Simpsons etc.

My final set of addictions would probably be in the fighter game genre with SF2, and after that KI2. Since then I haven't really had any games that had me to the addiction level of the previous games.

I'm still fond of most shooters (Raiden, 1943 Strikers, and all variations) as well.

 

[Jason Hughes]

I was thinking that before I opened this thread! Tron also! I have these on MAME, but no joystick. Very difficult to control. Even with one, it wouldn't seem right without the dial.

They should have included this with Tron 2.0 for the X-Box.

I don't know who has the rights to these, but I bet they would sell a ton of these in the plug-and-play format!

 

[Kevin M]

Tempest for me, simple, abstract & very addictive gameplay that is still fun all these years later (the PS2 Anthology is ok & I liked Tempest X on PS1 but I gladly bought an original cocktail tabletop version at a flea-market three years ago for $400...worth every penny).

Pleiads, grandson of Phoenix, is another game I used to be able to play for hours.

 

[Joe D]

Street Fighter 2

and

Mortal Kombat 2

 

[Scott L]

Final Fight
Double Dragon
Simpsons
Killer Instinct

 

[NickSo]

oh man, guess what gem i found at the local EB today?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Hyperstone Heist, for my Genesis... its basically the same side-scrolling action as TURTLES IN TIME...

Lucky the guy at EB let me know, i was buying Comix Zone for Genesis, he mentioned that he had a Ninja Turtles game in the back, brought it out for me... you shoudlve seen my face, literally looked like this:

just in time too, i just finished my last final today... gonna be playing it the rest of the night

 

[Thomas Nichols]

I have a soft spot for two different arcade games for very different reasons.

1. Wizard of Wor: This game came out when I was about 11. My mom would always drag me to the mall but she would let me hang out in the arcade while she shopped for a few hours. I was only 11 so I didn't have any money. I would just watch other people play games. It may sound boring, but it was fascinating to me. I remember watching this one guy play the game for about an hour one afternoon. He was awesome at the game. After about an hour, he hands me a 20 and asks me to go get him some quarters...so I am super excited and go get him his quarters. I line them up on the bottom edge of the screen and dump the rest on top of the controller pad area. So I start watching him play and he tells me to jump in. I told him I didn't have any money, I was only 11 so I just watch people. He said 'That's why I had you get the change.' It was one of the first co op games back in the day and I spent the next two hours playing Wizard of Wor with this guy. It was one of the best experiences of my life. It really made a huge impression and I try to do things like that for kids when I can. It was probably one of the reasons I still enjoy gaming so much to this day.

2. Time Pilot: For some reason I was really good at this game....maybe because I played it all the time. I could easily score a few hundred thousand and always get the high score. I just loved this game and was VERY good at it and that is why it is my number 2 arcade game. Not as good of a story as the first one, but....what can a person say.

 

[Joey Skinner]

Asteroids. Simple but lots of fun. The score would start over at 100,000 so to get the high score you had to end the game at 99,990 by making sure your last ship was hit by a large rock.

 

[DanielM]

tempest and joust but I was more of a pinball guy

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

Some classics mentioned here. Tempest, Tron, and the wireframe Star Wars probably accounted for most of my quarters. Galaga is a given. I remember being blown away when Dragon's Lair came out (a game that can be played blindfolded if you remember all the cues).

 

[Jason Kirkpatri]

Twin Cobra. Even better with a friend at the same time.

 

[Kevin M]

Just to hop off on a little side track, recently in the last year or so I have been having a classic game nostalgia trip with all of the anthology titles being released and have bought most of the ones out there available for the PS2 (so have a lot of people it seems, as they have sold quite well...a $20 price tag doesn't hurt either..) and I was considering what my favorite 2600 and/or classic games were. I have found that Demon Attack - Pitfall II - Megamania - Robot Tank - Seaquest & Starmaster are probably the ones I play the most whenever I pop in Activision Anthology -- Tempest - Adventure - Haunted House - Battlezone & Asteroids on Atari Anthology -- Shark Shark - Night Stalker - Astrosmash - Sub Hunt - Thunder Castle & Tower Of Doom on Intellivision Lives -- Practically every game on Midway Arcade Treasures 1 & 2 aside from a few duds.
Haven't gotten any of the Nameco titles as I personally think they offer so few games per title....though I may pick a few up as the prices drop.

Now where is the Colecovision Anthology & boy would I love to see a Starpath/Arcadia collection!

In the meantime there is always Stella.