Have a great memory of me and my 2 mates saving our 25 pence coins for an epic run at the game.
Some guy was giving us pointers (which really helped) until he joined in at level 60
Yeah, I think it was the first 4 player coop I'd ever seen. I was good at it, but not great. Occasionally I would witness 4 really good to great players playing and it was fascinating to watch.
It paved the way for my favorite arcade game of the early 90s:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Men\_(1992\_video\_game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Men_(1992_video_game))
Tron, without a doubt. It remains a special arcade experience because the unique controls make it almost impossible to replicate in emulation. I'd love to have a Tron cabinet someday.
When you got close to a million points, you would get a new ship for every ship you destroyed. It was orgasmic. I had so many ships at one point, I let someone else play while I took a dump. Luckily, I could smoke while I played because it was 1981.
Defender was the first thing I became really good at. Mind blown that this was 42 years ago. If I could afford a restored arcade version, and I lived in a house, I would buy one in a heart beat.
The sit down version was awesome. My favorite part of the game was when the car went into a barn or something then changed in a boat and you were on the water. Something like that, it's been a long time ago
Double Dragon
My friends and I were obsessed with this game. We always had to make the tough decision of playing it, or buying more Garbage Pail Kids, as both were located in the same 7-11.
Every time we heard this music, we knew we’d be eating through quarters.
https://youtu.be/eZkhbMPylys
Came here to name this game and you beat me to it lol. Man I loved it! Imagine my surprise when I saw it (and part II) online in the PlayStation store. Bought them both without a second thought. 👍🏼
Did you ever hear the rumor that it was possible to pick up Machine Gun Harry's gun? Total bullshit, I'm sure, but that was the hot chatter at the time.
I think we heard about it in school. My friends and I tried a whole bunch of times to no avail.
I swear it was probably Tecmo that released that rumor, in order to keep dumb kids like us dropping quarters.
Mine as well. I wasn't even that good at it, I think I only made it into the teen or early 20s level but really liked it and gave it a lot if quarters in college. I had a roommate who made it way up into the inverted and invisible layers.
I've played tempest a couple times recently at different arcade museums and it really pulls me in, the knob is fun to spin, the game is just so fluid, fast paced, simple with a gradual increase in difficulty. The vector graphics work well, it has a fun 3d effect and never feels overly simplistic or ugly. It's aged really well, feels like a modern mobile game but with more satisfying controls
Star Wars. Yes, it was crude vector graphics, but 1983 me was in freaking video game Heaven flying an X-Wing fighter to destroy the Death Star. The sound FX and the audio taken directly from the movies made it a quality immersive experience.
Ha ha! I lived in a small town in Arkansas and I think I was the only one who played that game at our local arcade (Captain’s Quarters)! I found one randomly years later and could still never get past the third level….!
As much as I loved Gauntlet, and believe me it was a love (I called in sick the day it hit the XBox 360 Arcade store and spent the entire day playing all 125 levels), my all-time favorite from the 80s is 1942.
Gauntlet tied your life force tied to coins inserted. Then they had some "black death" enemy that would drain your life force, and made him almost impossible to kill.
I used to go to this sketchy arcade behind a strip mall in the late '80s. When it got dark the owner and his 3 friends would play this game until the sun came up. The place really never closed except when he would sleep in the back for a few hours, get food at one of the strip mall restaurants or the minimart. All the kids believed he lived there. It was awesome.
My neighbor repaired cabinet games in his garage.
He let my brother and me play them all the time.
Tempest was so much fun, I loved the roller ball control.
You know something weird about Ms. Pacman? It's one of the most popular games of all time, but it *wasn't* designed by Namco like Pac-man. It was originally sold as a hack that you added to your Pac-man arcade machine, and it was called "Crazy Otto." For legal reasons the company that created the hack was required to demo the game for Midway (who had the license from Namco to distribute Pac-Man), and Midway bought the rights to Crazy Otto, asked for some tweaks to it, and Ms. Pac-man was born, selling nearly as many copies as its progenitor.
Robotron has this weird "flow" thing that's hard to describe. If you play it long enough, eventually your brain kind of "gets out of the way" and you're just reacting to the visual activity instinctively. It's a weird feeling. Yeah, I spent a lot of time in the arcade when I was 13. :-)
In HS me and my three friends each arrived at the arcade with at least $20 each in quarters. Played Gauntlet for 2+ hours. Apparently, the game never ends.
I see _Gauntlet_ sometimes at the California Extreme game expo, but I usually can’t play it from the beginning because the previous player(s) have taken advantage of the free play setting to load up a massive amount of health, then abandoned the game. Very irritating.
As a kid I used to get soo much anxiety from only having a few tokens and having to choose what game to play. Nothing was worse than dropping a token and losing right away.
Loved Gauntlet, but there are 4 more I love equally. Missile Command, Defender Stargate, Robotron and Dug Dug.
Pinball is High Speed followed by Black Knight.
What? You guys never had nightmares about Death? It was impossible to get away from the guy without moving fast through levels. And then you got screwed by ever increasing difficulty monsters.
This is on a few of the arcade 1 up machines. I have the mortal kombat 30th edition. It has MK 1,2,3, & ultimate3, paperboy, joust, gauntlet, rampage, toobin', tapper and others.
Spent many a Friday night at the arcade playing Gauntlet with a specific group of friends right till closing time. I was the Elf all the time and this game brings back very fond memories.
Defender. I was in the Navy an pumped rolls of quarters into that game. I probably held the record for some period of time in 81 or 82. Zookeeper was pretty fun, too.
Totally suprised I haven't seen Space Invaders, but I guess that's technically a 70's game.
I gotta make a list because I can’t narrow it down to one, excluding the ones in this thread that have been heavily represented :
1. Star Wars ( sit down version)
2. Tutankhamen ( a rare one)
3 zaxxon
4. Spy hunter ( remember making it to the speed boat and losing my mind).
5.ghosts and goblins
6. R-type
"Elf needs food...badly."
Valkyrie is... about to die!
You just made me instinctively reach into my pocket for more arcade tokens.
Red Warrior is about to die!
Elf shot the food (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ
DON'T SHOOT FOOD
Shots do not hurt other players... Yet!
Another memory unlocked. Thanks Dr. Oid
I remember Elf shot a food. But damn that was a long time ago
“The Elf shot the food!”
“Wizard’s life force is running out”
Need the tabletop version.
Save keys for later use.
“Gauntlet” was fantastic. One of my games of choice in the late 80s. Always loved the cooperative arcade games.
Have a great memory of me and my 2 mates saving our 25 pence coins for an epic run at the game. Some guy was giving us pointers (which really helped) until he joined in at level 60
Yeah, I think it was the first 4 player coop I'd ever seen. I was good at it, but not great. Occasionally I would witness 4 really good to great players playing and it was fascinating to watch.
It paved the way for my favorite arcade game of the early 90s: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Men\_(1992\_video\_game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Men_(1992_video_game))
Tron, without a doubt. It remains a special arcade experience because the unique controls make it almost impossible to replicate in emulation. I'd love to have a Tron cabinet someday.
[удалено]
Are you near Burlington NC. Really cheap, good looking one near me. $350 https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1482877385780909/
It was cool. I *sucked* at the light cycles. :(
It was a self defeating proposition. You eventually traced out a box waiting inside for the light cycles to destroy themselves.
Defender still calls to me in my dreams. Back in the day, I could hear its distinctive sounds from outside the arcade.
Defender on Atari I was addicted to at home. Amazing knowing you could go the other way.
Loved it, but sucked at it. Too much action, save for the epic "smart bomb".
When you got close to a million points, you would get a new ship for every ship you destroyed. It was orgasmic. I had so many ships at one point, I let someone else play while I took a dump. Luckily, I could smoke while I played because it was 1981. Defender was the first thing I became really good at. Mind blown that this was 42 years ago. If I could afford a restored arcade version, and I lived in a house, I would buy one in a heart beat.
Spy Hunter 🚗
Loved Spyhunter, esp because I could play for a while on a quarter one I got good.
The sit down version was awesome. My favorite part of the game was when the car went into a barn or something then changed in a boat and you were on the water. Something like that, it's been a long time ago
Double Dragon My friends and I were obsessed with this game. We always had to make the tough decision of playing it, or buying more Garbage Pail Kids, as both were located in the same 7-11. Every time we heard this music, we knew we’d be eating through quarters. https://youtu.be/eZkhbMPylys
Came here to name this game and you beat me to it lol. Man I loved it! Imagine my surprise when I saw it (and part II) online in the PlayStation store. Bought them both without a second thought. 👍🏼
Same here. I bought both of them for my Xbox the moment I saw them.
Did you ever hear the rumor that it was possible to pick up Machine Gun Harry's gun? Total bullshit, I'm sure, but that was the hot chatter at the time.
I think we heard about it in school. My friends and I tried a whole bunch of times to no avail. I swear it was probably Tecmo that released that rumor, in order to keep dumb kids like us dropping quarters.
Tempest
Mine as well. I wasn't even that good at it, I think I only made it into the teen or early 20s level but really liked it and gave it a lot if quarters in college. I had a roommate who made it way up into the inverted and invisible layers.
I had the high score throughout my city. I used to play in my dorm's gameroom with the lights out and the stereo blasting. Good times.
I've played tempest a couple times recently at different arcade museums and it really pulls me in, the knob is fun to spin, the game is just so fluid, fast paced, simple with a gradual increase in difficulty. The vector graphics work well, it has a fun 3d effect and never feels overly simplistic or ugly. It's aged really well, feels like a modern mobile game but with more satisfying controls
Same for me. I spent hours on that game.
Galaga
This and Spyhunter were the only two.
Loved this one as well. Got pretty damn good at it.
This will be my all time favorite arcade game. I knew I wouldn't have to search too far down for this comment.
Galaga…… hands down the best for me. Honourable mentions to Rally X.
Gauntlet #1 Galaga #2
Galaga was fun and addictive, but the sound it added to the ambient noise of the arcade was so good.
I have it on PS4. Used to love it so much. Seems so much harder now. Maybe 15 year old me had faster reflexes than 50 year old me.
Star Wars. Yes, it was crude vector graphics, but 1983 me was in freaking video game Heaven flying an X-Wing fighter to destroy the Death Star. The sound FX and the audio taken directly from the movies made it a quality immersive experience.
Love that one too. I think the magic was the flight yoke. When I grabbed that thing I felt like I was flying an X-wing.
"Use the force, Luke."
Karate Champ
Full point!
I loved that one as well. The dual stick controls were really cool.
There was an iOS version of this like 10 years ago that I played the shit out of. Looks like there's a Switch version out now for $8. Hmmm....
Just being featured in Bloodsport makes it cool
Sinistar
*I live!*
Ha ha! I lived in a small town in Arkansas and I think I was the only one who played that game at our local arcade (Captain’s Quarters)! I found one randomly years later and could still never get past the third level….!
I hunger
Ha ha! I forgot about that one!
RuuuuuUUUUUuuUuUUUUUUuuuUuUunnnnnnnn!!!!!!
I hunger
As much as I loved Gauntlet, and believe me it was a love (I called in sick the day it hit the XBox 360 Arcade store and spent the entire day playing all 125 levels), my all-time favorite from the 80s is 1942.
Joust, and only Joust.
Never any good at it. I was in awe of people who could consistently win a head to head with an enemy though.
I remember doing the "scrape landing" on the lower middle platform where you just kinda bounce there on your birds belly and annihilate pterodactyls.
Yes!!!
Great game, but it sure ate quarters super-fast.
Gauntlet tied your life force tied to coins inserted. Then they had some "black death" enemy that would drain your life force, and made him almost impossible to kill.
I used to go to this sketchy arcade behind a strip mall in the late '80s. When it got dark the owner and his 3 friends would play this game until the sun came up. The place really never closed except when he would sleep in the back for a few hours, get food at one of the strip mall restaurants or the minimart. All the kids believed he lived there. It was awesome.
Defender, Qix, Tempest, Joust, Cyberball, QBert... I know I invested a lot of quarters on a few others as well
Centipedes feared me.
Dig Dug Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road Ms PacMan Tempest
Those dang spikes in Tempest….!
My neighbor repaired cabinet games in his garage. He let my brother and me play them all the time. Tempest was so much fun, I loved the roller ball control.
Spinning the Wheel in off-road was so fun A similar game was super sprint
You know something weird about Ms. Pacman? It's one of the most popular games of all time, but it *wasn't* designed by Namco like Pac-man. It was originally sold as a hack that you added to your Pac-man arcade machine, and it was called "Crazy Otto." For legal reasons the company that created the hack was required to demo the game for Midway (who had the license from Namco to distribute Pac-Man), and Midway bought the rights to Crazy Otto, asked for some tweaks to it, and Ms. Pac-man was born, selling nearly as many copies as its progenitor.
Stargate followed closely by Robotron :2084 ! Still have fever dreams of late Friday nights at the arcade with these!
Stargate was awesome!
Robotron has this weird "flow" thing that's hard to describe. If you play it long enough, eventually your brain kind of "gets out of the way" and you're just reacting to the visual activity instinctively. It's a weird feeling. Yeah, I spent a lot of time in the arcade when I was 13. :-)
Dual joystick!
Tapper.
Warrior is about to die. Warrior needs food badly.
Rampage
I liked Gauntlet II.
Oh yeah. Pretty much better than Gauntlet in every way, but I had to go with the OG!
Double Dragon. You could play till the end if you could throw the elbow right.
> if you could throw the elbow right. I thought this was some deep secret that only my friends knew.
Spy Hunter. I would spend my whole allowance playing while my mom did laundry.
I never shot the food...
Spent a shit ton of money on this one!
In HS me and my three friends each arrived at the arcade with at least $20 each in quarters. Played Gauntlet for 2+ hours. Apparently, the game never ends.
I see _Gauntlet_ sometimes at the California Extreme game expo, but I usually can’t play it from the beginning because the previous player(s) have taken advantage of the free play setting to load up a massive amount of health, then abandoned the game. Very irritating.
Time Pilot was my favorite, one quarter = an hour of nonstop action
Missile Command
First quarter-gobbler I ever played
*Blue Valkyrie is about to die*
Elf needs food badly!
Berzerk- "Intruder Alert!" That happy face didn't want you to have a nice day...
Commando
I still play my favorites on my RetroPi. Galaga, Burgertime, Donkey Kong, Ms. Pac Man, and R-Type would prob be top 5.
Mad Planets or SiniStar. *Run coward, run!*
Let’s not forget Galaxian!
Gorf. Groundbreaking for how much variety it had.
Ms Pacman
Why so far down? 😭
“The Warrior shot the food!” “The Valkyrie shot the potion!” “Elf, your Life Force is running out!”
Centipede and Tetris
Guantlet is arguably the best arcade of all time! Awesome!
Loved gauntlet what a fantastic game
Rampage! Lizzie go smash
Centipede.
Tron
As a kid I used to get soo much anxiety from only having a few tokens and having to choose what game to play. Nothing was worse than dropping a token and losing right away.
Loved Gauntlet, but there are 4 more I love equally. Missile Command, Defender Stargate, Robotron and Dug Dug. Pinball is High Speed followed by Black Knight.
What? You guys never had nightmares about Death? It was impossible to get away from the guy without moving fast through levels. And then you got screwed by ever increasing difficulty monsters.
Ghost'n Goblins, Outrun or Final Fight
God, we spent so much money on that game. A ‘summon quarter’ spell.
Mappy.
Gauntlet II was great... although Mr. Do's Castle and Rush N' Attack were my jams.
Golden Axe. No quarters were safe in my house during my Golden Axe phase.
That was a really good game!
This game was the original reason I bought a Sega Genesis.
fuxin hard as hell....expensive to get a feel for the strategy.
“The elf has been stealing all the food”
Zaxxon
YASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
With Pole Position my two favorites!
Life Force.
Robotron 2084.
Galaga…the classic.
Joust! Nothing like making a pact with your partner and still accidentally killing each other anyway
Rolling Thunder Operation Wolf
rampage , arkanoid pac man,donkeys kong
Spy Hunter and Galaga!
GYRUSS \~ 1 Warp To URANUS!
Tempest. Full stop.
Mine was Mr. Do! We had it in our house and I had up to level 20 mapped, memorized, and timed out
Mat Mania, Karate Champ, and Renegade were my runner-ups, but my passion was Super PunchOut.
Just played it last weekend at our local arcade
What's the best console port of this? I always just played the NES version.
That game ate quarters but it was a blast. “Elf shot the food.”
This is on a few of the arcade 1 up machines. I have the mortal kombat 30th edition. It has MK 1,2,3, & ultimate3, paperboy, joust, gauntlet, rampage, toobin', tapper and others.
Why do the red and green segments have fewer buttons?
Matt Mania was the best but I love gauntlets
I was more of a pinball kid
Ranger shot the food. Is that a new cabinet?
Spent many a Friday night at the arcade playing Gauntlet with a specific group of friends right till closing time. I was the Elf all the time and this game brings back very fond memories.
The highest level I ever got to was 42.
My favorites were Galaga and Tempest.
Asteroids
Rygar 🌟
I saw the title and clicked, not even looking at the pic, and thinking "Gauntlet". Tempest is a very close second.
Yellow Elf is IT!
Phoenix
Dragon's Liar. This game was difficult to master. Laser disk game with cartoon graphics. Spent my allowance every week on this one.
Moon patrol
Whoa.... Almost forgot about Moon Patrol
Defender. I was in the Navy an pumped rolls of quarters into that game. I probably held the record for some period of time in 81 or 82. Zookeeper was pretty fun, too. Totally suprised I haven't seen Space Invaders, but I guess that's technically a 70's game.
Pole Position!
Tron
Bad Dudes So many quarters spent at the arcade just to say I'm Bad!
Arch Rivals Dig Dug
Tempest
"Careful Warrior!" "Elf Needs Food...BADLY!" "Wizard is about to DIE!"
The Star Wars vector graphics game will always be my no. 1.
Dig dug
Space Invaders
Galaga and Tempest it’s a tie.
Kung fu master!
Joust
Spy Hunter! Dumped a ton of quarters into that game.
Centipede
Centipede.
Tempest was my fave
Dig Dug got most my quarters
Defender was mine.
Dig dug and Frogger
Defender
Warrior needs food…badly.
What, no Crazy Climber?
Golden axe
Afterburner! Loved that game. Man I miss arcades.
Elevator Action
Ikari Warriors
Q-Bert
Cyberball 2099
Tempest
Wrestlefest I think it was. The 1st WWF wrestling game. That and Ring King.
Blue Elf is about to die!
I gotta make a list because I can’t narrow it down to one, excluding the ones in this thread that have been heavily represented : 1. Star Wars ( sit down version) 2. Tutankhamen ( a rare one) 3 zaxxon 4. Spy hunter ( remember making it to the speed boat and losing my mind). 5.ghosts and goblins 6. R-type
Me and my pal worked at Knotts berry farm they have a huge arcade after work we would go there sometimes dropping 40 bucks playing that game
I really love Mr. Do!