The 20 Greatest Arcade Games Of All-Time!
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- This video counts down the 20 greatest arcade games of all-time as voted for by you - the viewers!
Facebook Groups and pages that contributed to this video:
Retro Gaming Hysteria - / 1174206102963529
Atari History Group - / atarihistory
Retro Gaming Nostalgia - / retrobitsbobs
Retro Showcase: / 315489155144452
My Patreon: / lairdslair
#Arcade #RetroGaming #StreetFighter
My parents owned an arcade so I had a blessed teen years :) My list top 10:
1. Space Invaders 2. Pac Man 3. Asteroids 4. Galaxian 5. Donkey Kong 6. Joust 7. Defender 8. Tempest 9. Tron 10. Dig Dug
Some honorable mentions: Centipede, Bezerk, Marble Madness, Venture, Missle Command, Galaga, Q-bert, Crazy Climber, Scramble, Warlords, Pole Position, Star Wars, Star Trek, Robotron, Ms. Pacman, Gauntlet, Gorf, Wizard of Wor, Zaxxon, Pong, Breakout, Sea Wolf, Battlezone. All of these ate tremendous amounts of quarters!
ah...forgot about Joust...that was one I played alot
It really WAS just the experience of walking into an arcade and hearing all those sounds at the same time, wasn't it 😏
A Star Trek arcade game ? I never knew that. I'll have to Google that one
Whoa, great memories, names on this list! I don't see Moon Cresta which had the oddest enemies, we named them eye lashes, moths, chickens, cabbages, corn stalks. With the docking stages, so fun!
Spy Hunter was pretty cool .
To be fair, these games were the times the arcade became popular and wide spread. Games in late 70's and early 80's there were longer lines to wait for your turn to play because it wasn't everywhere yet. Asteroids, Space Invaders, Pac-Man and Ms Pac-man were the longest lasting popularity before one on one fighting arcades came out.
Any respectable arcade would have a selection of pinball games, and none are listed here.
The greatest thing I've ever seen in an arcade is 8 linked big screen Daytona USA cars with driver cameras in 1994. That thing still looks epic in 2024.
For me Berserk has no equal. Hard to say why, but I’m just at total peace when playing, and could get very far on just one life from the first time I played as a kid. It surprised me to find such an easy game that was still fun. Then I watched it absolutely destroy other players and realized it’s not easy, I was just very good at it
Double Dragon was so influential and a staple in arcades. You had to be there to truly understand. A few years ago, I tracked down an original cabinet and brought it home. I plan to play that game on that cabinet as long as it lasts. Hopefully another 30-40 years.
My old roommate still has one. I set the high score using backwards elbows almost exclusively.
Backwards elbows were the key. Loved this game.
I still remember the first I played it. I looked over my shoulder at one point, and at least 3 or 4 people were gathering around watching. I didn’t last long, but it blew my mind. It took me forever to finally beat Abobo, though, and now I have 1CCed it many times.
@@markmierau5189Out of curiosity, what was your score? I’ve scored over 100K never doing anything single elbow.
Mis packman married her brother
Asteroids! I could flip the score numerous times on one quarter. I remember first seeing the cabinet, at a pizza place, down the street from our house. I was immediately in love with that game.
Could you?
If we got five minutes or past the really fast 🛸, we got our quarters worth.
Me too. By hitting the coin return really hard with my knee, I reset them all.
Yep, I use to line up a nice row of ships, then let a friend take over while I went out back and had a smoke. I was 15 years old then, best summers ever back then.
Certainly one of the most important games ever but it aged quickly.
Great video 😎
I think due to the impact made at the time Street fighter 2 should of been higher on the list, I can still remember the queues to play that game and the crowds of people that were watching.
This game was huge!
Kicker, Ghosts´n Gobblins, Joust, Black Tiger, Tetris, Dangar, Elevator Action, Kung-Fu Master, Cabal, Darius... These are serious contenders that could be considered among the best 20 also. I would make another list with the top 30 or 50.
Kicker. I swear i played that once at a Pizza Hut and never saw that game again. I remmeber loving that game and it's like it vanished. So much so, i started to think it never existed and i imagined it since its so rare (at least to me)
What! No space invaders, asteroids, paperboy, or crazy climber
Zaxxon is missing as well...I get why space invaders & asteroids aren't on the list but they are on the top of the vintage list definitely
Or dig dug, centipede, joust..
Or Defender, Joust, and Centipede...!?
Outrun. To this day when I drive my car I hear the music of this game and remember the pure joy of it.
Full Top 50 List:
50 - Defender
49 - Dig Dug
48 - Rolling Thunder
47 - Bomb Jack
46 - Gyruss
45 - Pac-Land
44 - Asteroids
43 - Paperboy
42 - Space Invaders
41 - Operation Wolf
40 - Daytona USA
39 - RoadBlasters
38 - Final Fight
37 - Alien Vs. Predator
36 - Galaxian
35 - BurgerTime
34 - Spy Hunter
33 - Phoenix
32 - Centipede
31 - Ghouls 'n' Ghosts
30 - Marvel Vs. Capcom
29 - Wonder Boy
28 - Joust
27 - Mr. Do!
26 - Time Crisis
25 - Pole Position
24 - WWF WrestleFest
23 - Gauntlet
22 - Dragon's Lair
21 - Mortal Kombat
20 - Frogger
19 - House of the Dead
18 - Shinobi
17 - Bubble Bobble
16 - Mortal Kombat 2
15 - Robotron 2084
14 - X-Men
13 - Golden Axe
12 - Donkey Kong
11 - The Simpsons
10 - Tempest
9 - Galaga
8 - Tron
7 - Ms. Pac-Man
6 - Street Fighter II
5 - Out Run
4 - Star Wars
3 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
2 - Pac-Man
1 - Double Dragon
Lots of good games but dd at #1 oh please lol
Without battle zone and space invaders, this is a total fail.
The same Space Invaders that is right there in 42nd place or a different one?
What, no Q-Bert?!!
Or did I miss it?
@@oriondx72It’s a terrible game now but it was awesome at the time. You had to be there. Lol.
I miss the Good Ol'" Arcades Days.... played every game shown here. Im glad there's a huge community that still admire, collects, and plays these classics! I hope future generations will keep these games alive and the upcoming games that will become classics. Thanks for this!
Gary Kitchen, famous Activision programmer, stated, without a moment’s hesitation, “Missile Command is the greatest arcade game of all time.” This was at a Classic Gaming Expo in Vegas.
It's one of my favourite games ever too, sadly it didn't even make the top 40!
Activision made great games for the Atari!
Bomb Jack is number 1 for me.
Pong, Pacman, astéroïde, donkeykong, galaga, Moon patrol, Defender, pole position, Daytona usa, scramble, track n field, Space invader, burger Time, out run, frogger, arkanoid, kung fu master, mortal combat
You forgot dig dug, space ace, dragon's lair, cliff hanger, gladiator, and altered beast
@@lewokejames Bump n Jump, Spy Hunter, Paper Boy, Gauntlet, Contra, 720°, Ghouls and Goblins, 1941, the list goes on and on.
It might just have been my age and friend group at the time, but Track and Field was a big deal. We all made custom sticks to tap faster.
@@mjwbulich And the tournaments in the arcades were epic! Our arcade had a television over the TnF game because so many wanted to see the screen. Great, great days.
Definitely felt heavy on the Beat em' Ups which is no great surprise but the absence of Centipede was almost unimaginable to me. Small consolation that Tempest actually made the cut. I guess I'm more of an early 80s Arcade fan but you can't really moan about progress ;-) Great video and thanks for all the work to put this together :-)
Centipede made the top 40, I did a second video from 40-21 for my Patreon supporters.
@@TheLairdsLair Good to hear and thanks for letting me know :-)
I was a kid of the late 80s and early 90s. I have distinct memories of crowds around Double Dragon, Final Fight, and Street Fighter 2. I also survived the Bit Wars of that era.
Missing for me are Kung Fu Master, Paperboy, Space Harriet, Rush N Attack
For sure! You list is much more refined. + Comando and 1942
Paperboy and Rush N Attack were some of my faves.
Space Harriet. 😂
Great choices. I love all of these.
Paperboy for sure.
My parents use to own a Tron arcade cabinet, which had a prominent place in our video store, shared with Donkey Kong Junior and Star Trek. I probably played DKJ more than the others, but Tron was always the most mesmerizing.
That would have been awesome to have a Tron cabinet growing up. Awesome Parents!!
The big question is: Did mom and dad make you pay for credits with child labor ? 🤣
No Defender? I guess this list of voters found it to be too difficult. Best game ever IMHO.
I agree with the overly difficult part, $10+ in quarters proved to me back in the late 1980,s to give up on it and Spy Hunter. Way too many other real fun ones to play and get your money’s worth out of with not so much money needed to learn well. Moon Patrol, Tron, Karate champ, Shinobi, Rastan, Ghouls and Ghosts….Frogger.. need I go on?? 😝
That game changed everything for me. Like it was the first modern generation game after Space Invaders and Pong. AND the Atari 2600 version was near identical to the arcade version. It was like a big black obelisk in the world of gaming.
I love these lists so much - I never agree with the placing of titles, but in a good and intrigued way! Great video.
I didn't really agree with most of it but the voice of the people has spoken!
I agree, well said!
Get outta my brain hole, 😂
There is a bar called 8-bit that has about 80 arcade style cabinets all around the place and also old pinball games where you can play for free. It’s a great way to remember the old days. Cheers
I never saw Double Dragon coming in first place, especially since all of the Konami beat em ups are far better (probably due to years of gameplay and hardware improvements). Made me think of a couple titles I haven't thought about in years. Very unique list. Good stuff!
Back in those days games were more fun than Today. Now they make them better looking and less fun.
Yeah I prefer to play retro games more than modern games.
My personal top 10 favorites: Berzerk, Discs of Tron, Assault, Shinobi, Rolling Thunder, Street Fighter II Champion Edition, Elevator Action, Elevator Action Returns (yes, both of them), STUN Runner, and Bump ‘n Jump. Berzerk, Discs, and SFIICE would’ve gotten my 1st/2nd/3rd place votes.
For some other genres that aren’t represented in my top ten:
Favorite arcade racing game: Cruisin’ World. Favorite puzzle game: Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-Move. Favorite multiplayer brawler: King of Dragons. Favorite vector game: Omega Race. Favorite trackball game: Cabal. Favorite 1970s game: Sea Wolf. Favorite 2-player co-op game: Lucky & Wild (this one was perfect for me and one of my best arcade buddies because I was good at driving games and terrible at gun games and he was the exact opposite).
Oh man... Sooo much nostalgia from this list. Thank you making this video, and thank you to everyone who contributed with their votes. Lastly, since the X-Men arcade cabinet (I was lucky enough to have the six player version at my one neighborhood's arcade) didn't get any specific comments, I will leave one in the form of this quote:
"X-MEN... WELCOME... TO DIE!"
Nothing stops The Blob!
The White Queen welcomes you to die...
Come, X-CHICKEN!!!
Shiiiieeeeeeeeld!
I'm not a nostalgic person so when I play something, I play it because it is still a great game, and Galaga never disappoints. If I see it somewhere, I play it.
Shinobi. Yes!
Robotron is hands-down my all-time favorite. Still play it to this day. Never a dull moment with that game.
Tempest was amazing but I could never master it.
Star Wars, the sounds alone trigger some hardcore nostalgia.
Great list. So many memories.
Robotron was so good! Simple game, but tons of replayability
The list reflects the age cohort of the respondents. Shinobi, Golden Axe, Simpsons and some others are really good games but I don’t think in the long run they will ever be looked back on as among the top twenty arcade games in history.
Without also polling the age of the correspondents it's quite hard to know, but I suspect you could be right.
I wouldn't say it is objectively the best for everyone, but I pick Asteroids as my personal top arcade of all time. It pulled me into its world like no other arcade game has before or since. The loneliness and dread of the ufos and the speeding up music/beat...it drove me to try over and over again.
Wow! What an amazing trip down memory lane. Great video.
My first major arcade influence was Kung-Fu Master. I was around 10 and I saw it at my local arcade back in '85. Thanks for the upload.
Question for everyone...
Does anyone else remember the Zoom button on Mrs. Pac-Man?
Certainly do! And one of the quotes I didn't use talked about it too.
Grew up in a seaside town in the 80s and was blessed to have around 10 different fantastic arcades with a huge variety of games. Dad use to give me a coupke of quid and leave me for an hour to play. Just got a retroid pocket 3 just to install these games and a load more for on the go fun
A lot depends on the age you were when you discovered arcade games - and what stage of development the arcade game industry was at. For me it was from about 1983, when I was twelve, up to about 1988. That was the golden era for me, when arcade games were a new thing - utterly magical, and the genres were being invented as they went along. Here are the games that absolutely blew me away...
Karate Champ - just incredible. The complexity of controlling a human fighter and pulling off different moves was unheard of. The unbelievable satisfaction the first time you successfully knocked your opponent out - there was nothing like it.
Kung Fu Master - it was like this game made you the main character in a Kung Fu movie. There was a real exotic and magical feel to this.
Green Beret - the sheer coolness of controlling a soldier! And the novelty of picking up weapons, like a bazooka and flame-thrower.... this was just so innovative and amazing.
Ghosts n' Goblins - the music! So entrancing and atmospheric. And the gimmick of your character losing his armour but carrying on in his underwear - that was startlingly original!
Street Fighter - Karate Champ was brilliant. But then I got to thinking: what if you had a fighting game where it doesn't stop and reset when a fighter gets hit? What if the fighter took damage but could still keep fighting - like in a real fight. And then Street Fighter came along in answer to my wish!
Marble Madness - Wow! This game just looked amazing. It was graphically beautiful and the obstacle-course gameplay was ingenious. Again, it was something I had never seen before nor could have imagined. And the music and sound effects were so compelling.
Rastan Saga - my favourite of all time. I was big into "heroic fantasy" comic books, and the Conan the Barbarian movies. Rastan put you right in that world, with utterly spectacular graphics and powerful music. And they got the animation + feedback loop just right on the swordplay. Taking out an enemy with a single swing of the sword was endlessly satisfying just by itself.
Glad to see Tempest represented. It was always the one I went to first in any arcade full of many games.
Tempest also had the greatest cheat codes of all time. No, I'm not going to tell you what they were. You have to discover them for yourself.
This is my list. No particular order.
Donkey Kong, Street Fighter 2, Pac-Man, The Simpsons, X-Men, Metal Slug, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mortal Kombat 2, Time Crisis, Galaga, Daytona USA, OutRun, Rampage, Final Fight, Gauntlet, Afterburner, Centipede, Star Wars, NBA Jam, Pong.
Great video - brought back lots of memories!
I’d be curious how the list might change by adjusting the scoring as follows:
1st favorite - 5 points
2nd favorite - 3 points
3rd favorite - 1 point
The thinking here is that even a second and third favorite vote would still not equal a 1st favorite vote. Therefore, added weight to everyone’s individual #1.
I am thrilled that my comment made it into the video! You made my day! Keep up the excellent work! 👍🏾
Thanks for contributing and glad you enjoyed it!
This video brought back so many great memories.
Apologies to shotgunl and Tempest Fennac. Somehow I attributed the quotes about Mortal Kombat 2 and Double Dragon to Tempest Fennac when they were in fact stories from shotgunl. I had put the wrong name next to them in my database. Very sorry once again 😞
No "House of the dead"?
I hated the game enough to buy it on my Dreamcast for a fraction of the money I lost in the Arcade playing it.
Still haven't beaten it.....
House of the Dead is literally one of the first games that comes up . . . .
All is forgiven! Honestly, I'm surprised Double Dragon ended up in number 1: though I figured it would make the top 20 here, I was expecting Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man at the top.
Thanks for your understanding and for the great stories. I very much expected the No.1 to be Pac-Man, Street Fighter II or Space Invaders - the latter didn't even make the top 40!
@@TheLairdsLair Yeah, Space Invaders is one that is really surprising, especially for being as popular as it was and having fairly universal appeal.
I spent a small fortune on:
TMNT
Rampage
After Burner
X-Men
King of the Monsters
Time Crisis
Capcom vs. Marvel
Simpsons
Street Fighter 2
Cruisin' USA
Samurai Shodown
Games that got every last one of my quarters late 80's but mostly early to mid 90's before home systems made arcades obsolete.
In no particular order. I just know I had so much fun playing. Some weren't even mentioned in the video.
I had Bomb Jack at the servo which became an obsession. Fast forward 40 years later and I'm still good at it. I can get 50k bonus in 5-6 rounds. Track & Field, Speed Spin, and Windjammers are a sports must. Other shooters that should be in the library are Moon Cresta and Gyruss. Wonderboy and Circus Charlie are 2 platformers that rarely get mentioned but are fun addiction A+ .
Snubbed. Asteroids, Defender, Space Invaders, Missile Command, Centipede, joust and breakout
If nobody stood next to you and put their quarter on the machine or there wasn't a line behind you to play plus a bunch of spectators who ran out of money, then why is it on this list?
Because it still made MONEY.
My favourites.
Killer Instinct 2
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Ninja Baseball Bat Man
Konami’s X-Men
Street Fighter Alpha 3
King of Fighters 98 & 2002
Metal Slug X
Marvel Vs Capcom 1
JoJo Heratige For the Future
Capcom vs SNK 2
Best stand up arcade games in my opinion… top 20-no specific order…
1- Karate Champ
2-Double dragon
3-shinobi
4-Spy Hunter
5-Paperboy
6-Tiger heli
7-Russian Attack
8-Stryder
9-Galaga game that you can keep adding ships, I forget the name of it. It was awesome…
10-off road
11-Virtual Fighter
12-operation wolf
13-tapper
14-Tekken
15-Xevious or whatever…
16-cruisin the world
17-teanage mutant ninja turtles multiplayer
18-Mrs Pac-Man
19-Galaga
20-dig dug
I am missing a few other that I just can’t remember the names. But these games were awesome and a lot of fun.
My favorite 3 would be
-karate champ,
-tapper
-paper boy
Runner ups would be
Star Wars
Outrun
Gauntlet
Shocked terminator 2 did not make this list. I have a home arcade with 15 titles and people always gravitate to that one
Oh I remember that Teminator 2 game. Pretty good! I’ll have to try it again someday soon if I ever get a light gun. Any particular light gun you can recommend? I have a Steam Deck.
1- ghost goblins 2 - star force 3- commando 4- kun fu master 5- space invaders
In no particular order: Scramble, Sprint, Asteroids, Missile Command, Donkey Kong, Out Run, Bubble Bobble, R-Type, Metal Slug, Varth, Flying Shark, Centipede, Pang, Gauntlet, Arkanoid, Phoenix, Moon Patrol, Crazy Climber, Qix, Bomb Jack.
With the coming of MAME, two-player games like Puyo Puyo and Penguin Brothers quickly became some of my most played games
I fondly remember playing most of these games, in the arcade, as a young person.
I believe X-men Vs Street Fighter came out in 96 so I suppose it wouldn’t make this list. But when I first saw it at a bowling alley I was completely blown away as a kid. It was the first time I saw such fast paced super powered anime style combat. I only got to play it once or twice but I was obsessed. I now own one of the arcade 1 up machines and it’s an excellent addition to my video game collection. Also I believe Crazy Taxi came out in 99. I would say that’s probably my all time favorite arcade.
Most memorable for me (80s player) - Asteroids, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Super Sprint, 720, Spy Hunter, Gauntlet, Ms Pac-Man, Galaga II, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Tron, Q*bert, 1942, Rampage, Paperboy, Arkanoid. Then there were many that I loved but only knew the console versions.
Mortal Kombat missing out is a travesty. I was around 12/13 when it first came out and there was 2 places in my local town that had the machine. One was a greasy spoon cafe, I don’t think they had any idea what they’d got, and the other was at laser quest! There used to queues to play them. Something I’d never really seen before or since!
My personal favourite is Time Crisis. I actually completed the game with a total stranger in Amsterdam! Probably why it’s my favourite!! It was back when they used Gilders as their currency and we got 3 Gilders to the £…so lots of credits for my money! We just started going through the game and because it was so cheap to play, relative of what I was used to, I had Gilders laid out on the machine to play one after the other. Another guy saw set up for a run and asked if he could join, he got himself a nice stack of coins and we just played until it was over! Never even knew his name…hope you’re doing well and thanks for the memory Player 2 😂
Its not that big of a deal...MK2 was a better game overall and his list obviously has a lot of games his poll takers liked that shouldn't actually have made the list if it were known to the general public
Double Dragon was the first game I discovered I could beat with one move, ie, the elbow punch. Sure, it’s cheap, but the bad guys can almost never counter it.
so well said , for us born in the 80s Double Dragon was like god sent , you cant forget that music and those moves
u nailed it! double dragon (the arcade version specifically) is literally my favorite of all time. my time 5 arcade games r: 1) double dragon 2) super street fighter ii 3) nba jam 4) wwf wrestlefest and 5) teenage mutant ninja turtles: turtles in time
Very cool format, not just with the voting, but also the voter's comments. This felt a lot more like a community list rather than a lot of the 'my personal fav' lists. Just the right amount of screen time for each game. Arcades forever!
We had Gorf when I worked at a pizzeria, I could just play it non stop until I felt like just walking away :D I finished Dragon's Lair first in our hometown arcade, that was probably my "crowning achievement" ...good times.
Somewhere between Wolfenstein and Doom, Taito dropped Operation: Gunbuster in the arcade, an actual first person arena shooter. I would drop quarters into it to reach the end.
Some other all-time favorites over the years: Reactor, Spy Hunter, Turbo, Steel Talons, Hippodrome, and Space Ace.
I played a lot of Turbo and Spy Hunter. Never cared for Pole Position or Outrun much.
Great video. I think a problem with a list made by a group of retro game people specifically is they had a community across all video games at the time. Over time, it got more diverse. Fighting game players had more than Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat II during the peak of fighters. Music game players have their own community too. Outside of being great games, they all brought people together as communities to have fun, compete, make connections and have the same friends for decades because of those games. My top 20 is absolutely different but it's important to understand that there are elements which transcend the game itself which make them truly special. (Oh and beatmania is the best arcade game series of all time if you're wondering. 1997 to present and still going strong, even has a pro-league.)
greatest for me is Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Truxton, Battle Garegga, Raiden 1, 2, DX, Fighters 1,2,JET, RTYPE, The Metal slugs, Street Fighter Series, Tekken series, Outrun, Black Tiger, in fact I think Capcom are the greatest coin op developers the goats if street fighter 2 never came out the arcades would of died 10 years earlier.
I love playing Truxton too. I’ll try the other arcade shooter games that you’ve mentioned.
Wrestlefest was by far my favorite arcade game growing up, dumped way too many quarters into that one. Still play to this day with emulators....love it! All time classic. Double Dragon comes in 2nd.
If I’d off had the chance to vote, my favourite arcade machine was Double Dragon 🐉 from 1987. Great game which I could do on one credit. The WWF Wrestlemania was great as well. Ahhh the memories 💭
My list: TMNT, super off road, moonwalker, punch out, ms Pac-Man, kung fu, Daytona USA, the Simpsons, silent scope, virtua cop, terminator 2, high impact football, street fighter rainbow, wrestle mania arcade, killer instinct, shinobi, double dragon, bad dudes, marble madness, crusin USA, super Mario bros, house of the dead
There’s a Super Mario Bros arcade version?
Great list, many great ones that belong. However Moon Patrol & Rastan should be involved as well. Moon Patrol with its revolutionary and new at the time backgrounds, Rastan with it’s great, loud soundtrack got gamers the hook well before Mortal Kombat 1 & 2.
My Uncle who past away last week his funeral is today, he was basically my father after my father left my brother and I when I was 11. My uncle was a very great and positive influence in my life also. You have my deepest most heartfelt condolences. Nice list, I love the old arcade’s and love playing them when I can. Thanks!!
Shinobi was excellent, I remember learning to 1 CC it in the arcades and it saved your backup highest score like the NEO GEO games too.
I'd include Sega Rally in my top driving games. With the seated cabinet, pedals and gearstick. Such a blast!
Some great games on this list, but my all time favorites weren't there:
Spy Hunter (played 1.5 hrs on 1 quarter!)
Karate Champ
Battle Zone
Crazy Climber
Crossbow
I have recently played Battlezone again using the PSVR headset that is connected to a PS5 machine. There’s an option to play the game in classic wireframe! Very unforgiving game as it only takes one hit to kill me. Lol
Mrs. Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Street Fighter 2, Galaga and Double Dragon
oh yeah, dig doug really deserves a spot
Space Invaders and PAC Man still Rules
having grown up in the one-on-one fighter era, i'll always have a soft spot for them, and being a kid in Latin America, i'm a lifelong fan of The King of Fighters. the character roster is incredibly cool and larger-than-life, the effects are awesome, gameplay has consistently been smooth and the soundtrack is infectious. i mean, i love fighters in general even though i'm not as good at them as people like Justin Wong, and SF is just as special to me, but it kinda bums me that SNK games aren't as big in the US and Europe as they are over here, because they - and especially KOF - can be some of the finest games you've never played.
after burner, time crisis with the slide clicking pew pew made it 100x more fun, dragons lair, there was a 3d hologram gunslinger game, bionic commando, galaga, centipede and on and on. so many quarters.
Three monsters I expected: Missile Command and Asteroids, as you anticipated in the outro, but also Space Invaders. Those were everywhere when I was a young teenager. Even my Mom knew what Space Invaders was. That and Pac-Man were probably the only arcade games she knew by name.
All of them are in the longer list - see the pinned comment.
Double Dragon is badass. Lost count how many quarters I've pumped into this game.
When Street Fighter 2 first hit the scenes in 1991, there was a mob of people around the machine. People would stand on milk crates to see the action. And there was a line of quarters at the bottom of the screen for who was up next and you had to remember which one was yours. Great memories.
For me it would be Galaga. I was ten years old playing for hours at my local convenience store pumping in quarters, drinking RC cola and eating dill pickle chips.
sunset riders was one of my favorite games as a kid. I could beat it on about $1.50-$2.00 as a kid. which i liked most of the konami games
Mine in no particular order - Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat 2, Aliens vs Predators, Shinobi, Outrun, Daytona USA, Sega Rally, Metal Slug games, TMNT, Golden Axe 1 and Golden Axe 3(?) Revenge of Death Adder, Double Dragons, Wonderboy in Monster Land, Truxton 1 and 2, The Simpsons, and Bust-a-Move/Cookie and Bibi, Sunset Riders. Most played were MK2, A vs. P, and Truxton.
Always loved Pacman, Kung Fu Master, Out Run and Donkey Kong.
One of my favorites was a demolition derby arcade game with a horizontal screen. IIRC, there was room for 6 players, 3 on each side.
Strikeforce, 1991 (aka Defender 3) -- the 2 player co-op is a BLAST! Flight controls are much better than Defender and 1 person does that while player 2 can switch to a "pod" that sits on the 1st player. The orthogonal enemies and worlds combine such that you talk strategy as you play, with the pilot player saying "Going for that Walker to the right next." for the pod player to switch weapons to target Walker legs.
Love your taste. The perfect arcade has everything you listed
100% agree on Double Dragon being #1. This game was a big deal when it came out.
On Frogger: imho ultimate skill is demonstrated by getting a frog to the house before the opening music ends on Stage 1
The OG Star wars game. That was my favorite as a kid. I also really like joust and defender. They just didn't give you much playing time if you didn't know what you were doing
Gauntlet was my favorite in the late eighties. I was surprised it didn't make it in the top ten, considering that that's where all the action was in the arcade I hung out at. I was also expecting to see Mr. Do and Centipede somewhere on the list.
I fell in love with SF1 and while I could beat Aron, I could not beat Sagat. I was a skinny kid so imagined myself as Adon though. Many years later I started training Muay Thai and then found out Sagat was based on a real guy. My master in Thailand knows Sagat well and he came to the gym to train me a few times. And I did actually beat him this time…but it was during a grappling exchange. We still keep in touch and I will see when I go back next year.
I loved Double Dragon. That is my era of beat em up video games. I was around for Street Fighter 2 but was never hooked as I couldn’t quite figure out the joystick and button combos to do the special attacks.
Never gets a mention anywhere, but Street Smart was my gateway game. Street Fighter and Turtles in Time being the best of the known ones, IMO.
Donkey Kong was my first favorite game- we talked about it at school all the time. Dragon's Lair was also incredible at the time- there was nothing like it. Of course, the gameplay wasn't there but you were playing a freaking *cartoon*! For MKII, I remember the incremental upgrades at the arcades and seeing what was new in each one. MK3 was also good, but we of course don't speak of MK4. I figured Street Fighter II would be on the list, but I wondered which one before it came up- the original it appears (unless that just represents all of them).
People just said "Street Fighter II", hardly anyone was specific, so I just used the first game and lumped all the votes together.
Ah, I understand- thanks.
TRON cabinet was really good and 4 bigger than mini games? However I Love Discs of Tron which came out a year later! 😎 Also one of my favorites of all Time from ‘89 is Tournament CyberBall 2072! 🤩
There’s so many 80s and 90s classics… Stryder, Marble Madness, T2 Judgement Day, S.T.U.N. Runner, Space Ace, Pole Position 1 and 2, Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe, SpyHunter, RoadBlasters, CrossBow, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, CyberSled, Smash TV, NARC, Golden Axe 1 and 2 and so many others! 😉😎
Street fighter, Shinobi, killer instinct, super spike volleyball, altered beast, golden axe, rampage, 1942, t2 shooter and pinball game, raiden, contra, bad dudes, bubble Bobble, fatal fury
I love that old Shinobi game. I play it on my MAME emulator. it is still awesome.
Very respectable list! Loved Tetris, Dig Dug, and Centipede ‼️‼️👍🏾🙂
How many of these games are truly GREAT vs just what someone remembers playing as a kid?
There are lots of games that have a special place in my heart that I know are not great.
Also, how was NBA Jam not on a list of greatest arcade games? Criminal.
Yeah they're mostly not great games, but I love them anyway. The nostalgia is off the charts for me. The thing was I would never get to play them that much, maybe get one coin which would last for like a minute. So I always yearned for more and mostly stared at the demo screens. There was obviously no internet either so you had no way of knowing what games existed. You'd just see one machine on holidays or something and then wonder if it was even real or were you dreaming. Lol. Now if you play them with an emulator or something with unlimited credits you realise they aren't good games. That inability to play them as much as you wanted to was what made them so amazing.
To me, my all time favorite was The Main Event. It was fun wrestling 4 way with people i didnt know
WHAT ARCADE GAME came out between 1985 - 1990 where Two Players walk around like in Akari Warriors but instead of shooting Guns, they Fight using Punches and Kicks, and the Players can walk into Houses and collect Weapon like, Knives, Sticks, Nunchakus, and the Players had to fight a Main Boss at the end of each level?
One of the Bosses I remember, was a Man with a Ball & Chain
River City Ransom?
If I were to compile my own top 20, it would not include any fighting games. But it would also not include many games post mid-1980's so that would probably be why. (Early fighting games were just not that good)
My top 3 would be:
Moon Patrol
Bosconian
Ms PacMan
Simply by virtue of them eating more of my quarters than any other, and continuing to be the games I play most regularly at home to this day.
What is unusual about my selection is that my favourite genre is platformers (without one in my top 3). I attribute that to the best platformers (Jumpman, Lode Runner, Miner 2049er) being home releases rather than arcade (yes, lode runner got a few cutesy arcade ports, but none as good as the home versions, and none ever appeared in any local arcades).
Over 500 people voted to compile this list and there weren't even two Top 3s that were the same!
None of my personal Top 3 even made the list!
The location of the games and atmosphere were just as memorable.
Nice to see a couple of my choices make it, even if Chase HQ didn't.
Straight shocked not one Neo Geo game made the list. I can forgive not having any of the variety of fighters on here, but no Metal Slug 3, Magician Lord or Puzzle Bobble.
While I am Here pedalling SNK IP, how does Athena stack up to other arcade platformers?
Metal Slug was by far the highest rated Neo Geo game, but didn't even make the top 40.
Hey, thanks for using my comment in the video!
You mentioned that OutRun is a personal favourite of yours, which has sparked my curiosity, so I have to ask - what are YOUR top 3 arcade games of all time?
Mine would be Pit-Fighter, Road Riot 4WD and WWF WrestleFest - none of which made it into the Top 20!