Games everyone hated that you thought were awesome...

[pookdolie]

I liked "Shootout" when I was a kid. No one else played it but me.

I still love that game.

Also, Empire City - 1931.

Bally/Midway Two Tigers (dedicated)

Very underrated classic.

Alot of people hate Donkey Kong 3 (including me in the past), but once you get past the fact that it's not a DK platformer type game, but a shooter that just happens to include DK, it's pretty fun.

Totally agree. Just started playing it as a shooter, and now I love it.

Here's another guilty pleasure of mine:

 

[MXV]

Mine's easy: Time Traveler.

I also like Space Ace, which doesn't get much love around here.

I liked both of these a lot. I long for the day I can play Time Traveler again, even emulated like in Daphne or MAME.

Also I LOVE Super Basketball. I played that game incessantly when it came out.

 

[JamesJH]

I love Space Dungeon, Wacko, Magical Spot, and Challenger. And, yes, I really liked Robby Roto! Not the most popular games but I enjoyed them.

 

[Pac-Fan]

Well known classics that don't get a lot of appreciation:
Blue Print (Loved this on the Commodore 64 and have a cab converted back)
Kick/Kickman (Also played lots on C64 and have the boards but no cab)
Amidar
Space Panic
Jungle Hunt/King
Qix
Lock n Chase
Circus Charlie


Lesser known classics I've recently played and think they're underrated though definitely not as good as the above games:
Eyes
Lizard Wizard

 

[YellowDog]

Everybody is still ignoring it: Bubbles. Bubbles never seemed to get any love until JROK put it on the multi-Williams board.

ken

 

[Mimatt]

I'm going to go w/ the lineup of the Bally/Sente series. I know they don't get much love here, and back then, the one I only liked was Hat Trick. Now, I got a new fav of the series and that's Stocker.... It's too bad some of the rarer titles are the best ones!

Another one I l 'liked' and people really didn't care for (Laser aficinados) was Star Rider. Not sure why but love the "speeder bike" race theme, compound w/ visually beautiful backgrounds....

I love Stocker and Star Rider. I only played Star Rider (the sit down version) on a trip to Disneyland back in '87, but I remember spending alot of money on it. There was also a roller skating rink back in the mid 80's that had a Stocker machine. I loved it too - especially the music.

And speaking of Bally/Sente games, I loved Night Stocker, as well. I loved the driving/shooting mechanics.

Another unloved favorite of mine is Nintendo's Vs. Gumshoe. It seems like no one liked that game. A Pizza Hut near me, back in the day, had one. And when I first got my NES back in 1986, Gumshoe was one of the first games I got for it.

 

[pacman71]

Astron Belt.

I was easily impressed by the laser disc newness.

All the same. Thought it was the shiz.

 

[Vongoosewink]

Xenophobe -- I loved it but could never get any of my friends to play it with me.

 

[Tornadoboy]

Mine:

The Pit - Yeah it's only got one level thus you get sick of it really quick, but I like the gameplay. Could have been a classic if the developers had worked on it a bit more.

Victory - Kind of like Defender except you can rotate the ship 360 degrees, probably obscure more because of unreliable hardware than any shortcomings of the game itself.

Vindicators - Seems like more people like it only for multiplayer gameplay, personally I find the single player mode addictive and it's on my grail list.

Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory - Now that I've figured out how to play it I absolutely love it! Unfortunately it's a frustrating game until you do, and being that is was based on the notoriously unreliable DECO cassette system it's no surprise it's a mostly forgotten about game. Getting/building a working dedicated cab is one of my grails.

Kangaroo - It's hardly a grail of mine but I've never understood the contempt some people seem to have for the game, it's fun in its own way.