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What are Your Favorite Arcade Games of all Time?

C

CoachKevin

Member
As some of you have seen from the Pickup thread, I have acquired a few Japanese candy cabs in the last few weeks. Two Sega Astro Cities and a Sega Blast City.



One of the main reasons I bought these machines specifically is for their versatility. It is really easy to open the front door and swap out games. Now that I have the machines all up and running I want to put together a collection of JAMMA boards (PCBs) so I can rotate some games in there.

For reference I already have:

- Marvel vs Street Fighter
- Street Fighter Alpha 2
- Super Street Fighter II
- Neo Geo with all the games I want for it.

And just today I bought this from a fellow collector:




In your opinion, what am I missing? What are your favorite Arcade games from the late 80's into the 90s? I know an NBA JAM board and TMNT is on my want list as well.
 
V

Vercimber

Member
I personally love Battle Circuit (CPS2, Capcom) and Osman, aka Cannon Dancer (Mitchell) -- a great Strider clone. There are tons and tons. My favorite Cave shooter is probably still Ketsui, which, if you're into the genre, I would recommend.
 
J

Jarnet87

Member
flyer1.jpg
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
Flying shark

Atomic runner

Bubble bobble got loads of play on my mame cab.
 
G

goldsoundz

Member
NFL Blitz is my personal favorite.

NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat 2 & 3, Killer Instinct also rank high on the list. Arcades. 8(
 
F

fubarduck

Member
Unfortunately, The Simpsons won't work on your cabinets unless you find a 2P version and those are VERY rare. Been looking for 3+ years!

The widely circulated 4P version requires a coin slot for each player to determine what character you get (so with a candy cab, you'd be stuck on Marge); the 2P version allows you to choose your character before you begin.

TMNT has swapable Eproms, so you can convert a 4P board to a 2P (European/Japanese) for compatibility with your cabs pretty easily, but Simpsons doesn't.

Also gonna recommend you pick up a JVS kit for your Blast City, this will allow you to run many more titles, most notably Naomi games!
 
A

Andrew.

Banned
Turtles
Turtles in Time
SunsetRiders
Knights of the Round
Punch Out
NBA Jam
Street Fighter II
XMen
The Simpsons
 
N

nullref

Member
Leaving out Neo-Geo games, these are a few of my absolute favourites:

  • Alien vs. Predator (Capcom)
  • The Punisher (Capcom)
  • Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara (Capcom)
  • Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (Capcom)
  • Dodonpachi, and pretty much anything else by Cave.
 
gunstarhero

gunstarhero

Member
Mr. Do's Castle, Rally Bike, Qix, and Pooyan get a lot of play on my cab when I have friends over.

For me personally, Battle Garegga, Dogyuun, Ibara, and Outzone are my current favorites.
 
D

Danneee

Member
Ganbare Ginkun, collection of great and really weird mini games. Cool art style too.

Burger Time/Super Burger Time, just awesome games.

Elevator Action Returns, good platform shooter with great graphics.
 
dyreschlock

dyreschlock

Member
Outside of Dance Dance Revolution games, I think the two games I've spent the most money on in arcades have been Time Crisis 2 and House of the Dead 4
 
R

Raptor

Member
Street Fighter Champion Edition
Mortal Kombat
Killer Instinct
Raiden Fighters
Turbo
Tetris

And so much more.
 
F

friskykillface

Banned
Turtles in time
Turtles in time
Turtles in time


:D , was lucky enough to play it a few weeks back in an amusement park, brought back memories.
 
D

Dog Problems

Banned
My top three are:

1. Alien vs. Predator
2. Battle Circuit
3. Ninja Baseball Bat Man

I really miss arcades, particularly because that's where a lot of the beat'em ups were.
 
Sintoid

Sintoid

Member
Ghosts'n Goblins
Gun Smoke
The Speed Rumbler
Gauntlet
Black Tiger
Rastan
Rampage
Psychic 5
Kiki kai kai
Spy Hunter
Marble Madness
Buggy Boy
Out Run
Super Hang On
Power Drift
After Burner
Strider
 
G

GreggTheGrimReaper

Member
Too much to list but the ones I played the most in my youth:

- Street Fighter II
- Mortal Kombat
- Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja
- Robocop 2
- Golden Axe
- Daytonaaaaaaaa USA
- Killer Instinct
- OutRun
 
Vol5

Vol5

Member
Shinobi
Space-Ace (because I was young and it looked incredible)
Track & Field
Star Wars (Vector gfx, 1983)
Mortal Kombat
N.A.R.C
Chase HQ
Crazy Taxi
 
R

rdaneel72

Member
Nothing beats Robotron 2084!!! The ORIGINAL twin-stick shooter

images



images


Also, I have a fondness for Centipede, the first game on which I got my initials in the top ten! It was an important day!

images
 
M

mujun

Member
Street Fighter 2
Spikeout
D&D
Cadash
Fatal Fury Real Bout 2
KOF 98
Willow
Punisher
Double Dragon
Wonderboy in Monsterland
Gauntlet
Neo Geo Battle Coliseum
Samurai Showdown 4
Capcom vs SNK
 
S

Satchel

Banned
Daytona USA
Scud Race
Street Fighter 2
Captain Commando "COMMANDO COMMANDO!!
Virtua Tennis
TMNT 89
The Lost World Jurassic Park
Virtua Cop 2
Virtua Fighter 2
Knights of the Round
Altered Beast
Sega Rally 2

Honestly I could go on forever naming all of Sega and Capcoms arcade games from the 90's.
 
M

McBradders

NeoGAF: my new HOME
In no particular order;

Daytona USA
Rolling Thunder
Double Dragon
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Street Fighter II
Paperboy
Star Wars (Atari)
APB
Gauntlet
Virtua Cop

Too many to list really, it was a great time to be young!
 
H

Hunter-Zero

Member
RedNumberFive said:
The centerpiece of my game room:

bpcQql.jpg
Click to expand...
I´ve lost my youth in that game...for real, countless hours in the arcades playing the shit of it

I´ll add some more:

Kof 97 and 98
Tekken 2 and 3
Soul Blade
Alien Vs Predator
Cadillacs & Dinosaurs
D&D Shadow over Mystara
House of the Dead 1 and 2
Mary Shelley´s Frankenstein (pinball)
and the list goes on
 
D

djplaeskool

Member
I didn't get heavy into the arcade scene until well into the 90s.

Beatmania/IIDX
Vampire Savior
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Viewpoint
Dungeons and Dragons: Tower of Doom/Shadows Over Mystara
After Burner II
Time Crisis
Lucky and Wild
Virtua Racing
 
B

Bobby Roberts

Banned
I will play Ms. Pac-Man with the speed-hack until my hand blisters up. In fact, I'll often leave Ground Kontrol with tiny baby blisters specifically from spending so much time on their 2 Ms. Pac-Man machines. My problem with MAME versions is that a lot of those cabs leave you using a regular 8-directional joystick, which leaves me getting stuck against walls a LOT in Ms. Pac-Man. Some cabinet makers simply stick a 3rd stick dead center of their control panel, and position the square gate on it so you really can only hit up/down/left/right, but that's a lot of work for one game.

Paperboy and Star Wars are probably my next favorites, but they're useless on a MAME/modded cabinet. Same with Spy-Hunter. It's probably why I'll never actually go to the trouble of making/building one.

so far as more standard arcade games go:

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
Mortal Kombat II
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
X-Men
The Simpsons
1942
Donkey Kong (so fucking frustrating/annoying/addictive)
NBA Jam
Bubble Bobble

Not much for racers or gun-games. Always had a soft spot for Capcom Bowling, though.
 
T

Tain

Member
I'll have a candy cab some day. I keep pushing it back, but it's happening.

But I can't answer the OP's question. There are way too many that I've played, and there are way too many to play and clear in so many genres.
 
terrisus

terrisus

Member
My dream one day is to purchase a Galaga (or the newer Galaga/Ms. Pac-Man) stand-up machine, a Burgertime cocktail table, and a Taxi pinball machine. (Oh, and a Neo Geo cab, of course)
One of these days...

But, yeah, pretty much those three.
 
P

Platy

Member
LastWindow said:
My top three are:

1. Alien vs. Predator
2. Battle Circuit
3. Ninja Baseball Bat Man

I really miss arcades, particularly because that's where a lot of the beat'em ups were.
Click to expand...

I like you !

Only missing on this list is D&D:SoM and Ninja Turtles.
 
K

kms_md

Member
terrisus said:
My dream one day is to purchase a Galaga (or the newer Galaga/Ms. Pac-Man) stand-up machine, a Burgertime cocktail table, and a Taxi pinball machine. (Oh, and a Neo Geo cab, of course)
One of these days...

But, yeah, pretty much those three.
Click to expand...

I only want a Defender machine. Given its age, I imagine the upkeep to be problematic.
 
V

ViewtifulJC

Banned
Time Crisis 2-3
Metal Slug 1-3
Aliens vs Predator
Total Carnage
LA Machine Guns
DoDonPanchi

I think that covers most of the genres
 
G

ghibli99

Member
That's a tough one... just too many. Here's just a handful:

Star Wars
Dig Dug
Donkey Kong
Ms. Pac-Man
Space Harrier
Out Run
Shinobi
720
Street Fighter II Turbo
DDR 3rd Mix
IIDX 3rd Style
Sega Rally 2
Point Blank

...the list goes on and on.

If I could *own* just one machine, it'd have to be the sit-down version of Star Wars or Space Harrier. Either one, and I could die happy... after playing them for a bit, of course. :)
 
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