Top 20 Arcade Games of All Time?

[Knightshade Dragon]

I'd like to compile what you believe to be the top 10 Arcade Games of all time.  No limitations on region or time, so if you think that Lunar Lander is the top of the shelf, go nuts.

Here are some of my tops in no particular order:

Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom - complex arcade D&D with classes, spells, and levels!
Altered Beast - First real co-op game action game I can remember playing
Zaxxon - welcome to 3D folks - this pretty much kicked it off from what I can recall
Street Fighter II - Ushered in the vs. genre in a big way.  It wasn't the first, but it is undoubtedly the biggest.
Yie Ar Kung Fu - A special place in my heart for this one - I played it every day as a kid in a corner grocery.  It sat next to...
Karate Champ - Complex combat for the time, this was more of a Karate 'sim'
Galaga - Wait, if I let it take my spare life I can then recapture it, paint it blue, and use it as a second gun?? Pew pew pew!
Gauntlet - 4 players?  Like, at the same time?  (sounds of hundreds of quarters dropping)
Mortal Kombat - Welcome to the brutal world of fighters with finishing moves.
Asteroids - Simple - just shoot the rocks right?  Vector gaming at its finest.
Pac-Man - I had that little yellow monster burned into my retinas I saw him so much.
Space Ace / Dragon's Lair - Looking back, isn't this the precursor to the God of War / Shenmue button pressing prompt craze?
Joust - Four player competition.  A classic even today.
Tapper - Simple in concept, but how fast did this get difficult?
Choplifter - Did anyone ever beat this?  I swear it was in every grocery store I went to as a kid.
Rastan - Conan ripoff?  Check.  Most badass soundtrack ever?  Double check!
Soul Edge - My wife and I spent what little cash we had at the arcade and on this machine.  She was unstoppable. (Ask the Namco developers that she clubbed like baby seals at her first E3)

I'm sure I've forgotten a great deal of fantastic games, so hit me up with your list!

[wonderpug]

Here's my brainstorm:


Demolition Derby - The screen was a table so up to four players had a top-down view of the destruction, controlled by steering wheels, forward/reverse stick, and a pedals.  SO FUN
Time Crisis 2 - The best arcade shooter ever, especially with 2 players
Ironman Stewart's Super 4x4 Offroad Racer - One of my most favorite games ever.  I could last 20-30 minutes on a single quarter.
Ms. Pac-Man - Just plain fun, especially with the table version you could set your meal on
Street Fighter II - No explanation necessary.  There's just nothing like it in its arcade heyday
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo - Tons of fun, but I don't know if it's strong enough to hang with my other contenders
Virtual On - SO MUCH FRIGGNI FUN!!!!  If I was an eccentric millionaire I would need this in my living room.  Giant robots controlled by two 2-button joysticks, with head to head battles and a ton of special moves and tactics to discover.
Rampage - Fun
The Simpsons Arcade - One of the best beat-em up sidescrollers ever, especially with 4 people
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - see: Simpsons
Qbert
Spy Hunter

[Lordnine]

The closest arcade to me as a kid was a 20 minute drive away so I never got to play in the arcades much.  I do remember being taken out on one birthday where we played some X-men game from start to finish.  That was a fun day; I think the game was Children of the Atom or something like that.  Probably not on anyone else’s list but that would be my top!

[chaosraven]

Xevious - the Vertical Scroll Original with the Wicked Soundtrack.
Sinistar - you nearly crap yer pants when you hear "I LIVE" in that evil voice
Galaga - Don't forget to double up firepower before the Challenge Stage
Rampage - as much fun as destroying the buildings was, this really turned into trying to beat another player into his human form and eating him...
Buster Brothers - blowing up balloons has never been this much fun
Defender - Fly around the ENTIRE planet in a horizontal scroll? Admit it, if you saw this sitting in the corner at a pizza place you'd HAVE to get change
Missile Command - only because the trackball led us to...
Centipede - the Spiders and Fleas consume Quarters
Phoenix - I liked the sound better than Galaxian
Wizard of Wor - Ah-ah-ah-ah In-sert Quar-ter

[Knightshade Dragon]

Ahhh, some good entries right there.  I can tell you that I have no love for Ridge Racer - I used to work in an arcade and that box just wouldn't STFU. 

"RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDGE RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"

Ugh. 

[coopasonic]

Only ones I would insist be given consideration that aren't mentioned above.

Gain Ground
Hard Drivin'

[chaosraven]

One of the things I really liked about small town pizza joints was that you could usually find an older game that you hadn't seen for some time and it always felt like running into an old friend.

That bummed money off you and never paid you back 

I knew a guy who actually owned Venture when we were in High School.

[chaosraven]

Actually a really good waste of time is a trip down memory lane at http://www.arcade-museum.com/

[Boudreaux]

That's kind of tough.  I mean, you have the classics, the most popular, the best-looking, it's as subjective as anything else.  Growing up in the 80's arcade golden days, I'd have to put the Top 10 at:

Pac-Man
Asteroids
Galaga
Centipede
Star Wars
Zaxxon
Dragon's Lair
Gauntlet
Tron
Street Fighter II

Even with that there are still dozens of games that I'd put on an equal footing with most of these.  Top 10 is pretty tough.

[wonderpug]

Actually a really good waste of time is a trip down memory lane at http://www.arcade-museum.com/

I'm going to get a tear in my eye from that site!


So many quarters.


I completely forgot about how it used two screens side by side: one direct and one projected.

[chaosraven]

Oh man what was the name of the one where you were this yellow crescent at the top of the walls (control was a spin knob) and firing down into the pit where the monsters were?

Graphics colored lines like the Star Wars game.

[Pyperkub]

Oh man what was the name of the one where you were this yellow crescent at the top of the walls (control was a spin knob) and firing down into the pit where the monsters were?

Graphics colored lines like the Star Wars game.

Tempest

[Daehawk]

In no order...just as I can remember them..

Frontline

Omega Race

Star Wars

Dragon's Lair

Jungle King

Demolition Derby

Berzerk

Space Invaders

Mortal Kombat

Atari Football


If i could add more there would be stuff like Crystal Castles, Satan's Hollow, Quix, and that one in space that would say stuff like "I live" and "RUN HUMAN!" among many many many many others.

[chaosraven]

Yes!

Oh thank you!

Add TEMPEST to my list

[Teggy]

OK, my standbys were:

Rolling Thunder
Elevator Action
Marble Madness
Crystal Castle
Paperboy
720
RoboCop (although I couldn't never get very far - I just loved RoboCop)
10 Yard Fight
NARC (because it was just funny with the flying syringes and so on)
Galaga

oh, and Tron.
oh wait, and that one where you ride a motocross bike but you have to pull the handlebars up to make a jump. No idea what it was called.  There are too many.

[Knightshade Dragon]

OK, my standbys were:

Rolling Thunder
Elevator Action
Marble Madness
Crystal Castle
Paperboy
720
RoboCop (although I couldn't never get very far - I just loved RoboCop)
10 Yard Fight
NARC (because it was just funny with the flying syringes and so on)
Galaga

oh, and Tron.
oh wait, and that one where you ride a motocross bike but you have to pull the handlebars up to make a jump. No idea what it was called.  There are too many.

Wow, I missed all of those.   I totally agree with all of them except 10 Yard Fight - never really played that so I can't commit.    Man, I put WAY too many quarters into Paperboy and Rolling Thunder. 

As for the motocross game, I recall what you are talking about - it was from Namco, but I can't recall the game name...

[Zekester]

Crazy Climber

And there was an old vector-style game called star control (or something like that)

ahh, got it......Star Castle
http://www.thepcmanwebsite.com/media/star_castle/

[Harkonis]

Xenophobe, Rampage, Disks of Tron, Demolition Derby, Star Wars (the line graphic one) were probably my favorites.

I also liked Moon Rover

[Destructor]

Shame on you all - you've forgotten one of my favorite classics:

Bump and Jump. So much fun just jumping on cars for fun.

And Moon Patrol. There was a fun little game.

[Purge]

Girls Panic

[wonderpug]

I've got lots of love for the classic 80s cabinets, but I'm surprised there isn't more love here for the early 90s stuff.  I mean, that two screen X-men sidescroller could have six players at the same time!  That was huge!

[depward]

Bubble Bobble, Windjammers (along with the select other NEO-GEO games in the particular cabinet), Killer Instinct 1, NBA Jam, The Simpsons Arcade Game, X-Men & Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Oh, and Toobin' or whatnot...

[coopasonic]

I'm surprised there isn't more love here for the early 90s stuff. 

Isn't that when all the fighting games took over and arcades died?

[chaosraven]

I'm surprised there isn't more love here for the early 90s stuff.

Isn't that when all the fighting games took over and arcades died?

Turtle turtle foot sweep turtle turtle foot sweep

When home systems reached PS2 level the arcades needed a serious boost.

[Teggy]

I've got lots of love for the classic 80s cabinets, but I'm surprised there isn't more love here for the early 90s stuff.  I mean, that two screen X-men sidescroller could have six players at the same time!  That was huge!

Some of us are old folks (relatively) and were in college then and trips to the arcade had become infrequent. I think mostly what I remember from then is Mortal Kombat, which they had in one of the student unions and was very popular. There was also a Rampart cabinet in one of the dining halls.  I have gotten to the arcade more in the past 7 or 8 years because now there are places like Dave and Busters and Jillians, but it's hard to call any of those new games favorites. They are more about giving you an experience you can't get on a console (firehoses, moving cabinets, etc.) and once you are paying over a dollar to play a game it starts to get a little silly. I did have an 8 person race with friends in one of those linked together racing games in Vegas one time - that was fun.

[mb737]

Hoo boy, let's see what I can remember...

Sinistar
Robotron 2084 (the second best game EVAR besides Sinistar, both of which can be impossibly hard)
Satan's Hollow
Moon Patrol
Stargate (but not Defender with it's always cigarette-mutilated control panel  )
STUN Runner
Spy Hunter (which I totally and completely sucked at and still do)
Crazy Climber
Street Fighter (the first and greatest)
Xybots
Xenophobe
Galaga 88 (I played it every time I took my break when I worked at Pizza Hut)
Ms. Pac Man
Tempest
Tron
Ikari Warriors
Victory road??? (a fantasy version of Ikari Warriors that you could get a sword in and if you could live with the blisters you get from incessantly spinning the controller you could basically whack away every bullet and baddy that the game threw at you)
Space Duel
Space Harrier
Rampage
Wizard of Wor
Rampart
The sit down version of the Star Trek simulator game

  There are probably plenty more.  The first time I played Rampart I was in Berlin in an arcade that was apparently connected to a strip club by a door inside the building.  All I cared about was the game.  Silly me.   

[CeeKay]

Me and my friends loved Cadash!

[CrayolaSmoker]

What?!? No Smash TV?

I'll put in my nod for the following, in particular order:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Ms. Pacman
Star Wars
Gauntlet
Dragon's Lair
Silent Scope
Tron
Donkey Kong Jr.

[Daehawk]

Im adding Lunar Lander and ..shit I cant remember..had it right there too..damn Oxycodone or Hydrocodone. Ill post more ..I cant limit myself to 10...or maybe even 20

Oh and I liked Tailgunner too.

[Semaj]

Lesse

Dragons Lair made me spend many a quarter.  As did dragons lair 2 and to a lesser extent space ace.
Defender
Street Fighter 2
gauntlet
Star Wars
Tron
I played a lot of that wrestlemania game with Ted Dibiasi and ultimate warrior as my team to face off against those dreaded road warriors.
Dig Dug
Galaga


More as I think of em....


the motorcycle game was probably excite-a-bike or whatever that nonsense was.

[Destructor]

I mean, that two screen X-men sidescroller could have six players at the same time!  That was huge!

And who could forget that soundtrack? X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-Men. Repeat until you went crazy.

[disarm]

I'm surprised there isn't more love here for the early 90s stuff.

Isn't that when all the fighting games took over and arcades died?

i think you're right...was a few years after arcade games took down pinball

I mean, that two screen X-men sidescroller could have six players at the same time!  That was huge!

And who could forget that soundtrack? X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-Men. Repeat until you went crazy.

X-Men was one of my absolute favorites...played it so much that i could actually beat the game by myself without a single continue.  it was always more fun with a full set of characters though

as for other favorites...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Spy Hunter
Star Wars
Zaxxon
Afterburner
Race Drivin'

on a side note, any of you guys ever been to DisneyQuest in orlando?  they have a pretty good collection of arcade classics with unlimited play once you pay for admission.  they have a ton of other neat stuff in the place, but i think i spent more time in the retro arcade than anywhere else when i was there a few years ago.

[Dreamshadow]

My list:

Steel Talons (Helicopter Flight game)
Cadash
Time Crisis (All of them,including Crisis Zone)
Hard Drivin (and Race Drivin..same hardware as Steel Talons)
the D&D games
StarBlade (Come in Geosword, come in...)
Tokyo Wars
Xybots
Xenophobe (Thank you Ps2 Arcade games collections for both of these)

That's my short list right there. Steel Talons was fun to play, especially if you had a clue about flying a helicopter.  It rewarded proper pop-up and shoot tactics.

[wonderpug]

I totally forgot about Point Blank, the 1994 light gun shooter.  I loved that game.  IIRC it was one of the first to have tactile feedback when you fired the gun, and was a great test of light gun aim and agility.  If I was in a Back to the Future part II remake, that would be the gun game I'd show off with in a retro-90s diner. 

I nominated Time Crisis 2 in my list above but I think I surely poured a lot more quarters into Point Blank.

[Graham]

Anyone remember Firefox?  (Maybe it was Foxfire?)  It was based on a Clint Eastwood movie where you moved the aiming cursor.  IIRC, the screen also moved.

Here are some that I can think of

Smash TV
Rampage
Donkey Kong
Mortal Kombat II
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
X-Men
Elevator Action
Klax
Space Invaders
Ms. Pac-Man
Rush'N Attack -- Insanely hard
Star Wars (original arcade)
M.A.C.H. 3 (I think it was 3, used digital graphics to simulate jet flying)
Marble Madness
Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting
Virtua Fighter (might not be the best fighting game, but it's one of the most influential)
Burger Time
Spy Hunter
Gauntlet
Xevious
Final Fight
Arkanoid
Blasteroids
Track and Field
House of the Dead
NFL Blitz/NBA Jam (great games in their day)

I have a hard time narrowing down lists like this.

[Eel Snave]

There were only a couple for me:

X-Men
Ninja Turtles
Simpsons Game
Arkanoid
Soul Calibur II (Highest-ranked Voldo player in my arcade!)

And that's it.

[bonefish]

Marble Madness – my all-time favorite

In no particular order:

Moon Patrol
Crystal Castles
Pole Position
Defender
Punch Out
Track and Field
Joust
Asteroids
Spy Hunter

[Zinfan]

Battlezone  took a lot of my quarters back in the day

I also played lots of Defender, Space War (I think this was the first game I ever played) and many of the others listed above.

[EngineNo9]

STUN Runner
Ms Pac-Man
Mortal Kombat
Super Off-Road (Ivan "Iron-Man" Stewart's )
The Simpsons arcade game
Moon Patrol
Smash TV
Hard Drivin'
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
X-Men

[morlac]

Super sprint

Only one not named that was a massive quarter muncher for me.  I went to a summer camp that was at some smallish college in Tennessee.  In the student lounge they had this game and my roommate had a large freezer ziplock bag full of quarters.  We would sneak out at night and play it until dawn.  By the fifth day we musta looked like a couple of zombies due to sleep deprivation.


Add:
About Galaga...  I missed my stage que once at The Alliance Theater production of Our Town due to an intense game of Galaga in the green room.
The Director was not amused.  I was sooo gonna get the high score too.