Your favourite arcade games

Sean9014

Sean9014

Joined
Aug 4, 2018
There's been a steady decline in arcades here in the UK for a while now, and probably elsewhere too. I have many fond memories of those magical places in my youth though. The sounds, lights, feel and smell of the places...

Anyway, there were so many games we would have pumped our coins into and I invite you to share some of your favourites.

I'll start with Point Blank by Namco. I absolutely adored this wonderful arcade shooter, with its frantic pacing and variety. Later I was able to rent the game with a lightgun after it was ported to the Ps1 much to my delight.

 
I don't think I ever lived anywhere that had just a good, full arcade to go to and hang out in, but there have always been places around me that happened to have an arcade machine or two.
I have a major soft spot for Art of Fighting because of that. There was a store my parents would always go into that had a little arcade room near the front, and I'd always get to stay there and watch the attract modes play. AoF was one of the first I remember seeing in there.
If you made me choose between Street Fighter II or Art of Fighting, I'd take AoF. Not because it's better (SFII is obviously more solid and balanced), but just because I gots mad nostalgia for it.
The way the camera zooms in and out was super impressive at the time, as was the fact that the fighters actually develop damage as fights go on (black eyes, swollen cheeks, all that).
 
I think this is a good opportunity to talk about "true" arcade games then. I mean games that never got a port to a home system at all.
Well at least that's what I'm thinking and right then I already have one game in my mind that fits the criteria and that I have actually played on the real machine.

SCUD Race aka Sega Super GT


It is pretty much an evolved form of Daytona USA with a couple of very different real life cars and gorgeos tracks to race on. Music and sound are also super thrilling and enjoyable, as they should be for such a type of game. I still think that racing games with a really nice sit down cabinet are among the best things if not THE best thing to play at an arcade, since they are such an experience.
It really shows what a beast the Model 3 hardware was and why some people thought the Dreamcast could never be able to surpass it, being good enough in raw spec terms but so much simpler and cheaper made than the insane arcade board.

Funny enough, Yu Suzuki even had a hand in this game too. Not in developement but he gave advice on the sound design and how the cars should drift. That man just needs this kind of remote involvement to make a game legendary!

There was a lot of talk about this game hitting the Dreamcast in magazines. Part of it came from the hard evidence that was the tech demo showing the game run on it. Pretty unfortunate that it didn't make it. And it still never got a chance. At least the Model 3 emulation has come a looong way and is able to represent the game pretty good.

I only got to play it after the Dreamcasts years have already been counted. I played it twice and cannot remember exactly when or where the first time was but I know with certainty that the second time was in 2005 when I randomly found a machine in a remote corner of the local airport after randomly deciding to check out the building with a buddy while traveling around. Both times I was super thrilled to get a chance to take it for a spin, as I could never forget what I saw in those magazine articles.
 
Hard to pick a favorite, there are so many staple games that I flock too...
 
I can give a Top 15 list:
After Burner Climax
OutRun2SDX
Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 4
Chase HQ
Enduro Racer
Bonanza Bros.
Space Harrier
Klax
Road Blasters
Joust
Toobin'
Gauntlet
Marble Madness
Pac-Man
Galaga

All of these were originally made for arcade; WMMT4 has nothing even resembling a home version, After Burner Climax is no longer available, OutRun 2006 has different features to OutRun2SDX, and Enduro Racer doesn't have a decent home version. The rest all have competent conversions available on consoles.

SCUD Race is a pretty good shout, I had a lot of fun playing it as a kid. Then they replaced it with OutRun2 and I preferred that.
 
When I was young, we would take the ferry from Norway to Denmark, and over night trip. And I would always go play Daytona USA and 18 Wheeler on the arcade machines on the board. Man I loved them so much. Oh and OutRun and Cruisin USA. I guess I loved racing games back then :p
 
Sega Rally, Daytona USA, Virtua Cop, Outrun, Crazy Taxi, Virtua Fighter 3.
 
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Gavan said:
I used to love arcades. There was just something special about being in a place full of games :) Too bad they are pretty much dead nowadays.

Some of My favorites back then were:

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game


Chase HQ


Others I liked:
:D
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I have very fond memories of SFII, TMNT and The Simpsons. I think I vaguely remember Operation Thunderbolt in arcades, it had a gun that resembled an uzi right? I mainly loved the beat em ups like the one you mentioned, shooters like time crisis, house of the dead and silent scope. Fighting games of course.

There are a couple of games I forget the names of. The first is like a car seat machine, 2 player but also with guns, and I think there's a level where you drive through like a mall or something.

The second machine was a strange, exercise bike like contraption and on screen your character rode a sort of paraglide/bicycle hybrid through the air and you had to fly through these red balloons.

When I was very young, obviously I didn't always have money so often I would just watch the demo screens pretending to play along, sitting in the driving seats and turning the wheel etc. I also spent a fair bit of time checking the coin return flaps and you'd be surprised how often you'd find change in both those or the coin pushing step machines. A few free plays from those!
 
Sean9014 said:
I think I vaguely remember Operation Thunderbolt in arcades, it had a gun that resembled an uzi right?
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Yes, it had two uzis on the cabinet.

othunderj.png

It was the sequel to Operation Wolf. Taito made some great arcade games back. They were similar to Sega.

When I was very young, obviously I didn't always have money so often I would just watch the demo screens pretending to play along, sitting in the driving seats and turning the wheel etc. I also spent a fair bit of time checking the coin return flaps and you'd be surprised how often you'd find change in both those or the coin pushing step machines. A few free plays from those!
Click to expand...

LOL Yeah I did that too. I would spend all my money very quickly and then just hang out at the arcades all day just staring at the demo screens :ROFLMAO:
 
Gotta say, awesome topic! Arcade gaming will always be the fondest part of my gaming experiences, as I grew up playing them probably more than I did with consoles as a kid with no money to invest in many cartridges (even as a rental). And still today, I often pick up a modern game and think to myself: how does this stack up against the arcade experience? Why? It's because I think the arcades contain the very videogame's essence the minute you put in a coin in the cabinet. Developers at the time had to think of how to keep drawing people's attention to their game without the clutch of storylines and cutscenes. Competition was brutal as once your game was not bringing in coins, another game would replace it right at that spot the next week. At least that's how it was where I lived.

Anyway back to the topic, these are probably my favorites:

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D&D: Shadow Over Mystara

Beat'em up with the allure of RPG dungeon crawling with cooperative tactics, treasure rooms, shop/town exploration, secret areas, puzzles, inventory management and choose your route. What's not to like about it? This game might be my favorite arcade game ever. I recall I had no patience for turn-based games but loved the idea of RPGs, so match made in heaven from Capcom to my young self!

*There was this time I almost 1cc the entire game back in the day. It takes about 30 minutes of so to reach the final boss. Kept coming back over many weeks to try it again and again at the local arcade. One day, as usual I went to the arcade only to see a sign saying it's broken. Later I found out from an employee that the owner just really disliked the idea that my friends and I were using only one credit each for an entire half an hour worth of gameplay, so he just intentionally turned off the cabinet every time I gave the arcade place a visit.


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Samurai Shodown 2

I'm really picky about fighting games. Had a hard time choosing between this and The Last Blade. SS2 came out first at the height of arcade popularity and had a more fantastical over the top aspect about it, so I guess this is the one. Zoom in and out camera for extra epic dramatic effect, characters having a little nod to each other before each the fight, "fatalities", memorable art direction and cinematic action packed soundtrack, weapons breaking mechanic, etc. SNK at its best.
Shout out to Art of Fighting as well, for the still unique single player campaign in which you could take in a mini-game to upgrade a special move to the next level.


CD1_1024x1024.jpg

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs

At the time after watching Jurassic Park, just wanted to play a game in which I could shotgun them in the face or just beat the crap out them, and boom, Capcom once again granted me that wish. I believe this game was never released anywhere outside the arcades to this day.


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Captain Commando

Sci-fi themed beat'em up? Sign me up anytime. Also, I believe Captain is one of the original Capcom's company mascots.
 
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My brothers and I are arcade gamers at heart

Street Fighter
Virtua Fighter
Marvel Vs Capcom 2
Street Fighter III
Dance Dance Revolution
Para Para Paradise
Beatmania II DX
Punchmania
Boxingmania
Rescue Heroes
Time Crisis
Virtua Cop
Hang On
OutRun
Initial D
Maximum Tune
Crazy Taxi
Final Fight
Ninja Turtles
Turtles in Time
Die Hard Arcade
X-Men
The Simpsons
The Punisher
Captain America and The Avengers
Spider-Man

Too many to list lol
 
Only two really come to mind:

Ninja Turtles the Arcade Game:
TMNTArcade.jpg
I played the hell out of this. Whenever I saw this in an arcade... didn't matter where or when, I took a few minutes to play it. Sadly, as arcades have mostly gone the way of the dodo, I rarely see it anymore. Last played it in like 2013 but I got to play it with my brother like old times. Classic. They really should bring this game to modern systems. Remake it with updated graphics and put it on all platforms; PS4, Switch, PC, Xbox. Make sure it has online capabilities as well as couch co-op. It would be a must buy for me.

Daytona USA:
daytona.jpg
This is THE arcade racing game. The first may have had few tracks but the game was fun as hell to play. I remember first seeing this at the arcade and thinking the graphics were just insane. I really wish that Sega would release this on modern systems again. I would buy this on PS4 in a heartbeat.
 
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