Journey. A total shitfest of what-in-the-hell-is-going-on.

I honestly didn't think I would enjoy pac-man as much as I am now after getting one. I'm slightly interested in pursuing a perfect game, since it can be done in under 4 hours, a much more approachable challenge to me than a 40 hour investment in asteroids or robotron. But in the meantime the wife and I are having fun with it nearly every night.

Pinball...

+++1

Open wallet, remove money, throw it in the trash.
 
gotta agree with this on some level

the cost VS "return on fun" just isn't there. if money is no object, then i get it because you print money, so who freakin' cares how much they cost

but for us normal schlubs for the price of a mediocre pin, you can get half a dozen excellent arcade games

Pinball...
 
Ha yeah I mostly mean just in relation to the level of fanaticism around them. I can dig a nice pin though and even had a small collection of somewhat crappy ones (farfalla, spectrum, space invaders).. not never got into them all that much. My favs back in the day were Cyclone, Strange Science, and Banzai Run mostly.
 
Flappy Bird

(And don't say it isn't an arcade game because you know it is !)

JD
 
A lot of them. It is interesting to me how much nostalgia masks for people. A lot of the "good" arcade games I have played are the ones far from the "classic" list. Mostly operator conversions KLOV effectively is destroying and shoving into extinction daily to bring back the 20,000th Donkey Kong when they could just buy one from their neighbor. A shame.

Pinball...

That's (usually) user error. It's funny how many people legitimately still think it's "just knocking a ball around", when it's SO much more. I'm pretty much a full on pinball nut now, I've stopped buying arcade machines unless they're free. I am not selling mine though, and I still service them as a hobbyist and as a job very very very often, as well as surround myself with them in arcades and friends' homes. I'm sure there's a pinball machine out there for you somewhere. :D

I feel like once I have enough heated space to include both pinball and arcade, I will start grabbing more again. The cold garage is no fun, while the heated pinball basement is comfy even on the coldest days. (and unfortunately out of room for arcade machines, and I also worry about water) I'm getting 7 arcade machines for free in a while - better make some damn room regardless. :S
 
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Asteroids deluxe. Great cabinet mediocre version of the game.

All PAC's after ms pac man

All fighters - aside from mk2 and sfce. The rest all samey.

All shmups (you can buy your way through most of them.

Racing games (and I own one) they just all seem kind of the same.
 
Space invaders. I can't play it long enough to clear the first screen. Also agree with all the previous posters on pacman. Total snooze fest.

I agree on SI. I've owned a few of them over the years. They never last. It's a shame since it's such an iconic and important game. It helped pave the way for Galaxian, Galaga, etc.
 
I was wondering what games are in high demand but leave you really wondering why?

Star Wars - fly around aimlessly for a while and then shoot the death star. My son got through the first level on his first or second try when he was 3 or 4 years old.

Gauntlet - Just don't see the appeal

Mortal Kombat (entire series) - and the rest of the button mashing fighting games.
 
Punch Out - this one is hard for me to put on the list but they are getting pricy and the NES version is just better anyway. Gameplay for the arcade version feels stiff.

My biggest gaming disappointment ever was when I played Mike Tyson's Punch-Out on the NES for the first time in 1987. I had gotten fairly good at Punch-Out in '84 when I was 9 years old and it was my favorite video game until Super Punch-Out came to town in '87.

When my friend from school, Ryan, said he got "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out" for the vaunted NES, and invited me over to try it out, I was excited as the day is long. I was expecting it to be perfect, because I'd played Excitebike on the NES and it was exactly like the arcade version, aside from some minor details. I didn't realize at the time that arcade Excitebike was just an NES in disguise. I just figured that if they could do one arcade game perfectly on the NES, they could do any arcade game perfectly.

Instead of the perfection I envisioned while walking to Ryan's house after school, I got bad graphics, simplified sound (no announcer), bad animation (many of the movements are just 1 frame of animation, such as the dodge animation; and ironically, "stiff" is the way I've always described the MTPO controls), a ridiculous pull-down-to-block-up scheme, an equally ridiculous hold-up-to-punch-high scheme, an asinine hearts/stars scheme, and an absurd multi-round-have-to-knock-the-opponent-down-up-to-seven-times-before-he-stays-down scheme. Additionally, there are unskippable intermissions, your playable character is a 2' 6", 25 lb. Ultra Midget, and the opponents are 100% patterned, which is why it's possible to beat the game blindfolded.

++++1

I can get to Bald Bull without dying on the NES but can't make it past Glass Joe in the arcade

I've never seen anyone lose to Glass Joe. I beat him, and Piston Hurricane, the first time I ever played the game when I was 9 years old. If you do nothing but constantly tap one of the punch buttons (with your guard down for "body blows"), you'll beat Glass Joe without him even landing a punch. You'll beat Piston Hurricane that way too, though he may land some punches. Bald Bull is the first opponent who requires any sort of technique to beat.
 
Let's factor money out of the equation...

My pick is Playchoice 10. I just understand the draw to these anymore years later. It's one big appeal in the arcades was the fact Nintendo released games on there first before the retail market. Mega Man 3 and 4 come to mind for me.
 
There are two that come to mind:

Pole Position - Just don't see the appeal of it. Perhaps it's because racers aren't that interesting to me.

Playchoice 10 - I remember these in the arcade as a kid, but they were never in use. I just don't see the appeal of playing the exact same games that I can play on my NES.

As a kid, the arcade was the place to play games because they had the most advanced hardware, etc. I've always believed that arcades died when the home hardware began to equal, and then eclipse, the hardware offerings available in arcades.
 
Mappy, I played it a couple of times on my 60n1 and can not even get past the first level.

I liked Mappy, but the music drove me insane. I still hear it in my sleep. I got pretty good at it back in the day, but had to stop because of the repetitive music.
 
He did say "high demand" so I will stick to those.

Those only two I can think of that tend to sell fast for higher numbers that are actually fun to play are zookeeper and foodfight.

I can list pretty much every other usually expensive in demand game as a big meh.. Journey, Discs of Tron, Major Mavoc, Quantam, Paperboy etc etc

They all have cool things about them but the worst bang for your buck unless you are just a collector and dont play the things.
 
My biggest gaming disappointment ever was when I played Mike Tyson's Punch-Out on the NES for the first time in 1987. I had gotten fairly good at Punch-Out in '84 when I was 9 years old and it was my favorite video game until Super Punch-Out came to town in '87.

When my friend from school, Ryan, said he got "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out" for the vaunted NES, and invited me over to try it out, I was excited as the day is long. I was expecting it to be perfect, because I'd played Excitebike on the NES and it was exactly like the arcade version, aside from some minor details. I didn't realize at the time that arcade Excitebike was just an NES in disguise. I just figured that if they could do one arcade game perfectly on the NES, they could do any arcade game perfectly.

Instead of the perfection I envisioned while walking to Ryan's house after school, I got bad graphics, simplified sound (no announcer), bad animation (many of the movements are just 1 frame of animation, such as the dodge animation; and ironically, "stiff" is the way I've always described the MTPO controls), a ridiculous pull-down-to-block-up scheme, an equally ridiculous hold-up-to-punch-high scheme, an asinine hearts/stars scheme, and an absurd multi-round-have-to-knock-the-opponent-down-up-to-seven-times-before-he-stays-down scheme. Additionally, there are unskippable intermissions, your playable character is a 2' 6", 25 lb. Ultra Midget, and the opponents are 100% patterned, which is why it's possible to beat the game blindfolded.



I've never seen anyone lose to Glass Joe. I beat him, and Piston Hurricane, the first time I ever played the game when I was 9 years old. If you do nothing but constantly tap one of the punch buttons (with your guard down for "body blows"), you'll beat Glass Joe without him even landing a punch. You'll beat Piston Hurricane that way too, though he may land some punches. Bald Bull is the first opponent who requires any sort of technique to beat.

2'6?:D

MR, I agree with your assessment. It's a *very* loose interpretation of '84 Punchout.

I prefer the SNES version over the NES just for this factor. Don't know if you gave that one a go before. It's actually more of a quasi Super Punch-Out. In which, I player Super more that the P.O '84 bitd.
 
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