If I were to build an arcade I'd want just the games that you can't play on home console systems. Games like Tron and Satan's Hollow. What are some other I might never have played. Looking for the best games never available at home.
If I were to build an arcade I'd want just the games that you can't play on home console systems. Games like Tron and Satan's Hollow. What are some other I might never have played. Looking for the best games never available at home.
Tron got a Live Arcade release, I believe.
Satan's Hollow is in Midway's Arcade Treasures Volume 1.
A few arcade games I want that never had home releases are:
Capcom's Alien Versus Predator
Simpsons
X-Men
Isn't the Simpsons arcade game a bonus unlockable on The Simpsons game on X360 and PS3?
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Plus the OP asked for "best" and "classic," the Simpsons is neither.
Major Havoc and Spider-Man come to mind.
There are several early Nintendo titles (Radar Scope, Arm Wrestling) and many early Sega titles (Eliminator, Pulsar, etc.) that never made it past the arcades.
Also released on the Commodore 64 (although technically not a 'console' release, I suppose).
Agreed...I could never understand the enduring popularity of this game. It's just a quarter-munching button-masher...and it goes on forever. To each his own...
Not to take this thread on too far of a tangent, but Simpson's gameplay is adequate, the source material is very popular, and it supports four players at once.
What do you guys define as "classic" games? Simpson's is nearly 20 years old. I figured anything DDR and onwards is not classic.
I remember every ice rank, bowling alley, and skating rank in the early 90's having a Simpson's arcade game. Classic, yes but not by the whole retro late 70's to mid 80's era. Its presentation just isn't the same as those earlier games, though it is fun to play.
Thinking about it, every arcade machine that comes to mind has some release on console or home computer at some point. They even have a plug-n-play Golden Tee game in addition to PC ports.
Last edited by cyberfluxor; 01-14-2009 at 07:00 PM.
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Capcom's AVP is my natural choice.
I would add the Taito's Super Speed Race V (1978) or Super Speed Race GP V (1980) but as far as I know they cannot be emulated yet.
I liked Mad Planets. I don't think that was ever released because it had different controls.
Few others I am not sure about.
Death Race?
Mystic Marathon?
Turkey Shoot?
Now that I think of it was the 1st arcade game ever computer space ever released on the home systems?
Joe's well advertised philosophy is it doesn't have to be old to be classic. By those standards, one could reasonably call Resident Evil 4 or the first Guitar Hero a classic. Or going by arcade games, let's say Crazy Taxi and Top Skater (that's right, I can't even NAME an arcade game less than 10 years old).
In my eyes, there was a time when video games and arcade games were officially over. There was a point when I wondered if there would *ever* be another dedicated home video game console. If I had to put a year on it, I'd say 1985. Really 83 and 84 were kind of lean years, but 85 was the year you could show up in an arcade and chase crickets around.
Of course soon Nintendo and Mario would bring consoles back, but I don't feel arcades ever truly recovered. You basically had one huge game a year (the Gauntlets, Double Dragons, and Street Fighter IIs of the world) for like 20 years.
I'm looking at a book on my shelf called "Supercade: a visual history of the videogame age 1971-1984". 1971-1984 to me is classic.
To the OP: I don't recall a home version of the brilliant Pac-clone "Thief". Juno First was never seen on a console IIRC (there was a bad C64 version). And if you ask me we never got a proper Berzerk.
That's not entirely accurate. The full phrasing used is "it doesn't have to be old to be classic."
Every square is a rectangle, but every rectangle is not a square.
Anyway, the important thing here really is the context of the OP's post. I'd have to go with Kid Ice on the timeframe cited, as that really is the classic time period for arcade gaming, and it addresses the OP's context. Exploration and creativity were at a fully saturated high point - a point that can never be equalled because 99% of video gaming ground has been covered by now. There may occasionally be new games that tread on fresh ground, but they'll be few and far between, instead of two dozen games or more per month.
And finally, I'll second Mad Planets and add Krull to the list.
There's a very good version of Mad Planets on the C64 called "Crazy Comets".
Based on your specific criteria, I'd say Disks of Tron, preferably the environmental version.
What I did when I was building my arcade is specifically went after machines that had controls that were unique enough that you couldn't emulate them well. That got me a set of games that I actually spend time playing.
That said, I do have the mandatory Pac and DK cabs. Have to keep the spousal acceptance factor high!
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Was Zookeeper ever released?