Arcade games

[AArdvark]

OK, the recent top ten and not so recent top 100 games of all time posts, set me to thinking of something similar. If you were to walk into an arcade today, what are the ten machines you would want to be in residence? Imagine if you will, that you have a roll of quarters (the 1976 drummer-boy on the back ones!) and you stroll into a nearby arcade..
(For the full effect, please play this in the background now)
What games would you want to play? And please, no MAME cabinets, just the OEM games.

My list would be, in no particular order…

DEFENDER.

keep them safe!

The first game I played that allowed you to shoot every time you press the fire button. None of this wait-till-the-last-shot-is-gone or restart-your-shot, (a-la Gorf) crap, but simply a semi-auto fire button. Wonderful! I would pound that fire button like a telegraph operator with Tourett’s. I never really got good at that game, tho. Another thing I likes was the sense of purpose. Sure the aliens are the bad guys, but in this game they demonstrate their badness by picking up all your helpless ground hugging pilgrims and turning them into mutants. And then when they go through all ten of them they blow up the planet! My job was to prevent these things from happening and ultimately fail I would. But it was sure fun trying.
I cannot imagine playing that in a cocktail cabinet!

GORF

Aside from the abovementioned lame firing scheme, the game really gave you bang for the buck, or quarter-buck, to be more accurate. Where else could you play five separate video games at one time? With a blue, light-up flight-stick for a controller. It even insults you in a warbling, foreign accented voice. Which now seems rather pointless, but damn was it cool when it first came out. Get it here!


STAR TREK

beam me up!

The Captain’s chair, that is the only reason for making this list. Game play was kinda lame.


BOSCONIAN

Blast off!

I have seen a sit-down version of this game. (NOTE: some purists may wish to call them ‘environmental cabinets’. They really mean sit-down style. Unless you mention Discs of Tron, but that’s another ball of wax.) It must have been a conversion, tho. The second game I have ever played with speech. Actually it’s more like a speech impediment, but certainly not as gay sounding as gorf. I could understand it after only 2 quarters. The gameplay wasn't bad either.


THE
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AARDVARK

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

1. Wacko. Game I am currently obsessed with. I would love it if this were the next game in my basement.

2. Discs of Tron. Now that I know it's a push-pull spinner, I'd clean up. Clean up the scores. The scores are otherwise dirty, I guess. Discount sentencing on this one, sorry.

3. Ms. Pac-Man. I've been playing every day since I got it and I would like to set a possible high score on someone else's. It's more likely that this would be the case for CC. Oh, who am I kidding, I'm terrible at all these games.

4. Boon-ga Boon-ga. You were all thinking it, anyway.

5. Spy Hunter (environmental). If it's working properly, which I understand is a delicate situation.


TBC, after you finish your list.

[AArdvark]

I don't need to describe how these games are played, right? that can be found elsewhere, if one chooses to look. ditto with a screenshot. Although screenshots would add panache. Anyway, this is why I would choose them*.

(*A note on the arcade experience. Since these games were originally designed to remove quarters from your pocket and have them pay for the arcade operator's rent, I have to stress the importance of actually traveling to a nearby arcade, rather than going to a personal basement or den where play is free. I spent a lot of Saturday nights at the Greece Putt-Putt dropping disposable income, one quarter at a time, on these money monsters. The act of playing one of these games for longer than the designers intent (3-5 minutes) is actually a feeling of beating the system. A very satisfying feeling, actually.)


And so;
Speaking of Spy Hunter...

SPY HUNTER

Get them bad guys!

This can only be played in the sit-down version. The stand up one is too tricky trying to balance on one foot while trying not to jam the gas pedal to the floor. Plus the Peter Gunn theme is way cool. Driving the car into the van for upgrades was a stroke of genius on the part of the programmers.


XEVIOUS

This about sums it up..

Really good gameplay. I was always pretty good at this.
Decent graphics, I liked the name Solvalou for the ships you controlled. Sounds like a French restaurant.


SINISTAR

I Hunger!

When a game starts roaring at you, it's sure to be a good one. Real tough to get thru the levels but a definite quarter sucker! Reminded me of Robotron and Beserk and Crystal Castles all in one.


THE
MORE ON THE WAY
AARDVARK

[bruce]

#1 DONKEY KONG

Never surpassed. Hell, never even equalled. DKJr was good, but none of its sequels ever even came close.

#2 STAR WARS (environmental)

"R2, try and increase power"

#3 ASTRO FIGHTER

I really, really love this obscure little game. Maybe because it was the first arcade game I was ever *good* at.

#4 POT OF GOLD/LEPRECHAUN

Wacky, stupid, and tons and tons of fun.

#5 BLACK KNIGHT (pinball)

No, not Black Knight 2000. The original. When split-level playfields were brand new (I think Black Knight *invented* that) and, of course, the Magna-save.

#6 XEVIOUS

Best. Vertical. Scroller. EVAR.

#7 ROBOTRON 2084

Bestinsanelyfastatthehigherlevelsgame EVAR.

#8 GYRUSS

BEST MUSIC EVAR. Also best version of Galaxians/Galaga/etc. EVAR.

#9 DRAGON'S LAIR

Yeah, fuck you all. I *love* this game. Sure, the GAMEPLAY sucks. So what?

#10 HARD DRIVIN' (environmental)

I learned how to drive stick from this game. No, really. My friends still don't like what I do to their clutches.

Also:

Mistake! There was an attempt of an automatic insert of the message in a forum. Your message is sent to hell. Try still times who knows - can it will turn out? Still probably, that you too long wrote the message - then pass to page back, copy the text, update page, insert the copied text and press button "Send".

FUCK YOU.

Bruce

[pinback]

#10 HARD DRIVIN' (environmental)

I almost put this at #10 in my all-time best games list, due primarily to the fact that HARD DRIVIN' SAVED MY LIFE.

It was a slick, slippery, icy road in Rosslyn, VA that day, and to my great surprise, right there in the right-hand lane of route 66 was a truck, stopped dead in the middle of the (otherwise empty) freeway. Not something you generally see.

I hit the brakes. And started to skid! Skid left, skid right, nearly fishtail into a 360 with every turn of the wheel!

But still the car stayed straight, stayed in the lane, and came to a stop 20 feet from the back of the truck.

And the ONLY reason I was able to keep the car under control was that most of the previous year, working in Florida, I would spent all of my free time at the arcade under the hotel, playing Hard Drivin' for a quarter a pop. It taught me how to drive.

It saved my life.

(Or at least some significant damage to my auto.)

[AArdvark]

Ok that's it... all posts from me from now on WILL be written in Word and pasted into the reply box. That's the last time I lose a 4 paragraph reply. Now I must start from the beginning again...


THE
DEEP BREATH
AARDVARK

[AArdvark]

Hmmmm, forgot about pinball machines. How silly of me.

OK, Due to an astounding advancement in fuzzy logic and non-specific numbers, this top ten list is now as long as I need it to be in real time.


Pinballlllll!!!!

BLACK KNIGHT

I will slay you , my enemy

This machine is awesome. Not only the first 2 level playfield but it also talks to you. I read about this game and Star Castle in ‘Science 80’ and just HAD to find them. There was a story about enhancing the word 'slay' to avoid embarrasing misunderstoodments. Lucky for me BK was at U.S.A.* and they had free play on the machines. I barely got on the rink because of that machine.

(*United Skates of America, a roller skating rink, dontchaknow)

FIREPOWER II

what time is it

I cut my pinball teeth on two machines and this is one of them. Awesome gameplay. You could get pretty good at this and go an hour on one quarter, with all the free credits it would give away. A must have for any uber arcade.

EL DORADO

the city of gold

This is an oldie but a very goodie. The first time I played this machine I was standing on a step stool at Ackerman’s restaurant. (it’s now the Mobil station in the Gates Wegman’s parking lot, for you Eastern folks) The big challenge is hitting that tenth cactus drop target way over in the corner. A funny thing about this particular machine, it’s featured in the book ‘Pinball Wizardry’ that I picked up back in high school. It really got me into pinball again, in a big way.

NAME UNKNOWN

I can’t remember the name. The weirdest pinball game I have ever played. I can’t find it anywhere on the internet so maybe I was dreaming the whole thing. Of course my buddy Kevin had to be dreaming it too because we were both playing it. OK you have none of the ordinary pinball stuff in the game. The entire surface of the table is rather bowl shaped. There are a number of electro magnets trying to pull the ball into a hole that’s sort of in the middle of the table. You have flippers but they are all alone in front of the hole. The ball rolls like it’s in a bathtub. There are two circular bumpers placed rather randomly on the table They have a rotating magnet underneath causing the ball to orbit around and around faster and faster until it breaks free and rolls towards the hole. The machine is rather orange-brown in color. If anyone can give me info on this machine I would appreciate it.

EDIT:
After a lengthy search, including registering to the Pinball dataBase, the game is called: ORBITER 1
Descriptions are mostly accurate.

THE
MORE LATER
AARDVARK

[Bugs]

South Park pinball is a fantastic pinball game. Even if you don't like the show.

[itgirl]

Tempest.

Attack from Mars (pinball).

Twilight Zone (pinball) for the same reasons ICJ wants Ms. Pac-Man. I play it every day since I got my own and want to set my own high score.

Black Knight 2000 (pinball) for same reasons above.

Ummm...the game where you build a hamburger. I kicked ass at that game.

[bruce]

Tempest.

Shit! How could I forget that one?

Ummm...the game where you build a hamburger. I kicked ass at that game.

Burger Time. Rawk.

Bruce

[AArdvark]

A-Kay, back to video machines...


STAR CASTLE

A.I. in a nutshell

The trick the programmer had in this game were the sparks that tried to track you down. I read that they only were told your ship position, N,S,E,W, updated about 10 times a second. This was a cheap and easy way of faking intelligence. It also made it hard for them to travel diagonally. So you could use the screen wraparound and avoid them about forever. Also a vector style game, new at the time. Good for MAMEing into a handy home Vectrax.
Asteroid wizards could KILL on this game, as the flying was the same.


POLE POSITION II

Vroom Vroom!

Sit-down cabinet only. The stand up kind is toopid.
The race course to choose is the test (Indy) one. Four left turns, and keep that pedal mashed. Very hard to NOT get at least four extended plays, as long as you keep that inside red and white stripe under the left wheels. Stupid puddles!


MOON PATROL

jump shoot jump

This one is lower on the totem pole than the rest. The gameplay is addictive, tho. It's one of those deceptively easy
games that suddenly gets really hard. Maybe it's because the moon buggy cannot STOP! Who ever heard of a moon buggy that could not come to a full stop? Slow down, sure, but STOP! never. It's should have been called Moon Rally, because of the checkpoint factor. Also there's the shoot forward and up at the same time thing that I won't get into here.

THE
DIGGING DEEPER
AARDVARK

[pinback]

MARBLE MADNESS

[hygraed]

The current state of video arcades is deplorable. You basically have two options: Generic Driving Game and Generic Rail-Shooter.

Anyway, my ideal video arcade would include:

Marble Madness
The trackball control made this game incredibly fun. It's also a great time to play it with your friends and try to make each other fuck up.

Pong
Still fun with a friend. Vs. computer can't even touch it.

Bosconian
Spin around and blast the shit out of space things. Offered full top-down 360 degree movement. I was addicted to this game one summer.

Crazy Climber
You move two levers to make a guy climb a building. Just the control scheme was incredibly fun.

Sky Shark
WWI action with biplanes. Blast the shit out of the enemy. This game was incredibly hard, but nothing beat the satisfaction of spraying bullets all over the damn screen.

Star Wars
Pretty much the most awesome thing ever.

Spy Hunter
I always loved hitting the motorcyclists and then shooting them.

Donkey Kong
This needs no explanation, mainly because bruce already said it. But I could play this damn game for hours. I was awful at it, too. I think I got to level 4 once.

Double Dragon
Beat the shit out of 10000000000 bad guys. The thing where you could grab their heads and smash them against your knee was great.

Asteroids
Now this one, I was good at. I once rolled over the high scores on the one at the pizza place near my house over a period of six days.

[AArdvark]

Someone called them kiddie casinos, what with the ticket redemption and all. I agree. I was thinking about the ten worst arcade game but decided not to open that can of rottom pineapples.


Honorable mention games!


REACTOR

Only because of the theme music, with it's heavy metal riffs

I think this game allowed you to write your name with the trackball if you got a high score. I remember most of the top ten players' names looked like a parapelegic wrote them.


SIDEBAR NOTE:

check this website out...

OMFG! This game shows is....Well, there are no words. The games are cool tho.


THE
TV WORTH
AARDVARK

[bruce]

REACTOR
Only because of the theme music, with it's heavy metal riffs

Reactor rocks. The Parker Bros. Atari 2600 version is surprisingly good, actually.

I think this game allowed you to write your name with the trackball if you got a high score. I remember most of the top ten players' names looked like a parapelegic wrote them.

I don't think that was Reactor. That was (perhaps among others) Atari's Quantum, one of their late color vector games, and perhaps the most awesomest game for physics nerds ever.

Bruce

[hygraed]

check this website out...

OMFG! This game shows is....Well, there are no words. The games are cool tho.

Thank you for this. This is going in the Awful Link of the Day box over at SomethingAwful.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I don't have any money for them (I just changed this into a me-buying-arcade games thread) right now, but I think I'd rank the ones I'd buy as follows, with the stuff that is obviously impossible to get out of there. That includes Wacko, the game I want the most, because it just doesn't exist. If that one showed up at a Super Auctions in either Wisconsin or St. Louis I'd be at Roody or Bruce's doorstep. I am that desperate.


Q*BERT: Someone is making a 9-in-1 kit. What possible games does it have besides Q*bert, Q*bert Cubes and then the difficult version of original Q*bert that the designer said was the one that should have gone out to the arcade when we were all at the 2003 CGE? There's six missing games there. I need to find out what they are. If they found a way to squeeze Krull and Blaster in there the CGE trip could essentially rise again.


TEMPEST Itgirl made a great point. Why not? Everyone loves it and you can bypass the first few screens, which you'll want to once you're great at them. I'm also a little sick of my own spinner due to the fact that I stupidly tried to disassemble it. Let's bypass the middle man.


ROBOTRON Blah blah blah, they don't exist around here. Oh! Oh, so I was going to just make one, right? YOU CAN'T GET THE ROBOTRON JOYSTICKS ANYWHERE. Here, here are some goddamn italics and bold tags, just put them fucking anywhere in the previous sentence: b < [ </i color] i. There's no new old stock. The sticks are longer than the Ms. Pac-Man sticks, which are otherwise pretty close. No wonder this goes for $2000. It was reissued, but with Joust and Bubbles and shit. You know what, put them in the game but make the cab say ROBOTRON everywhere. Nobody gives a shit about "Bubbles." Don't fruit up the art on the side, just re-issue Robotron. (I guess I am talking to Williams engineering there. Who knows.)


SPY HUNTER Yeah, either version. They are a little more common than some of the others, but not much.


There's a Mr. Do! locally for $200. I could embezzle that money out of the fantasy football funds I've been given. But the game can be perfectly replicated through MAME and there are no joystick issues, so I am thinking no.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I don't think that was Reactor. That was (perhaps among others) Atari's Quantum, one of their late color vector games, and perhaps the most awesomest game for physics nerds ever.Bruce

A guy made a game for the Vectrex recently called Star Sling and, IIRC, he got it all done before realizing that Quantum existed... the gameplay was similar. I should have mentioned that at the beginning.

At any rate, I found something that I am even worse at than skiing: Star Sling. I don't think I have ever scored a single point in that game.