Rarest games that you saw on location/in the wild?

pookdolie

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If you can remember back in the heyday, what were the rarest machines you saw out in public? My small town had two arcades, and I remember seeing (and playing):

*NFL Football (Saw this in brand-new condition in 1984. Was on location for maybe a week before it died and disappeared for good.)

*Missile Command cockpit (tucked away in the "abandoned arcade" in our local dead mall)

*Taito Ring Fighter (Same dead mall arcade. Converted cab with bad caps on the monitor, which caused the boxer in the stretcher to get warped when he was taken offscreen)

I've never seen these three games since.
 
When i was a kid, i lived in a little BFE town in Iowa. the only arcade game within walking distance of my house was at a grocery store a couple blocks from my neighborhood.

I'd love to find a Rockola Fantasy someday...
 
i played Time Traveler at the Seattle Funplex. put money in it only once or twice 'cuz dang, it was terrible. kinda fun to watch other people struggle with it though.
 
Kind of how I remember it too. I walked up to it and thought wow, thats amazing, then I played it once and thought, wow, that sucked.
 
I am still trying to get a local casino to sell me their broken (apparently) Sys1 Indiana Jones.
 
played a super don on location around 90 or 91. I would call it a somewhat rare game. And by 90-91 it was definitely rare to see one on location. As I remember this one was always in working condition for the year or so I frequented this arcade.
 
The Aladdin's Castle in the King of Prussia Mall in PA had a Quantum about 1983 or 1984 that I played a bunch of times.

Had no idea they were so rare until I got into the hobby.

RM
 
I lived in Panama until 1985. There was an arcade in Ft. Gulick that had the following classics that I remember:

Astron Belt
Cliff Hanger
Firefox Cockpit
MACH 3 Cockpit

They also had Robotron, which was rare for that part of the world.

I also had the pleasure of playing a Journey in the Paddock Mall arcade in Ocala, FL circa 198x...
 
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Time traveler seemed to be a flop. I played it once, it cost a dollar. I definately did not get my moneys worth
 
Probably a dedicated Major Havok. The funny thing is the game was common around me, because Spaceport was big in my area and they must've had some kind of deal with Atari, because they got everything. The one in the mall by me also had a Quantum, which never got played.

The games I didn't get to see much in the wild were some of the second tier classics like Time Pilot, Mouse Trap and Venture. That stuff was in the Mom & Pop arcades, and I was dying to find the "real" thing since I had the games on my ColecoVision. :)
 
Rarest I can remember was a Night Driver sit-down at the Galaxy arcade in Christiana Mall, DE. I say rare because it was the only place I ever saw it.
 
Rare for now

Looping in the Daryland by my house.
Mach 3 at the Pizza place down the street. This is the first game I remember being 50 cents.
Trimline crazy climber at the Grocery store
 
Three stooges once and never again
Cosmin Chasm
Funai Interstellar
Sit-down Star Rider
Looping
Mousetrap
Venture
 
Time Traveler, again, sometime in the early 90s at a ski mountian resort's arcade in maine.... I can't remember the mountian though.

It seems Time Traveler wasn't "rare" a while back, unless it was the same machine that moved around a lot :D
 
If you can remember back in the heyday, what were the rarest machines you saw out in public?

The Chicago area must have been a hot spot for Vectorbeam/Cinematronics games as I remember them all over when the arcades were popular. I specifically remember Sundance at at least two different locations and I'm pretty sure it was at a third one too. I remember Warrior at two places also. Pretty strange in that I don't know of a single Sundance or Warrior in the Chicago area now.

On the other hand, Exidy shooter games were pretty uncommon in Chicago. I remember a Crossbow at one place and that was it. Never heard of Chiller or several other Exidy 440's until I started collecting. And I never came across any Exidy 440 shooter stuff in any op raids I've done in the midwest.
 
Time Traveler wasn't rare when it was new. It's just that the cabinet sucked and was either trashed or converted to another hologram game (Holloseum) once its useful life was over.

And yes, I got to see Time Traveler when it was brand new at the local mall arcade. It was awesome to watch, but I was too young and intimidated to actually play it. There was always a crowd around it though.
 
My local Family Fun Center in Montclair California had some of the newest coolest stuff all the time. I played EDOT constantly... SW cockpits (two)... Dragon's Lair (there were 3 in a row all with additional display monitors on top).
 
Rarest I can remember was a Night Driver sit-down at the Galaxy arcade in Christiana Mall, DE. I say rare because it was the only place I ever saw it.

Wow!! Christiana had a huge arcade back in the late 80's. I remember it well, I also used to frequent the Deptford mall arcade.
 
I used to play Combatribes at a local Mountain Mikes growing up. Its my grail.
 
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