Does anyone remember arcade gaming? You know, back before home systems had internet connections? You know, the yesteryear of gaming. Back when going to the arcade or the pizza parlor that had arcade games was a weekend or after-school norm. People would gather around and play games, letting the machines eat up their quarters. See, back then, social gaming meant ACTUALLY meeting up and socializing. Not connecting with faceless people from god-knows-where, doing god-knows-what. Don’t get me wrong, the current age of gaming has brought about wonderful ideas and innovations. But I would be remiss if I didn’t speak on some of the aspects that were left behind.
Arcade gaming was an event in itself back in the day. The sounds of dozens of different gaming machines mixed with discussions, laughter, and sometimes competitive gamers yelling at each other is something that as an older gamer, I’ve come to miss dearly. So with this topic, let’s humor ourselves. Suppose you had a chance to revive the arcade experience in your home. What games would you use to make your own personal home arcade? For the sake of both provoking careful thought and average space in most homes, let’s say we can only have 15 arcade cabinets. It’s worth noting that we’ll only be using games that have official arcade cabinets. None of the makeshift ones that were around during the final years of arcade relevance.
First up, we need to give some love to the arcade pioneer games. These are the games that your parents and grandparents would have known about. Had it not been for the influence of these games, who can say what gaming would be today. The games I choose to start with are Pac-man, Centipede, and Dragon’s Lair
Pac-man is not only a staple of Namco Bandai’s company, but gaming as a whole. In general terms, Pac-man is seen as gaming’s first official mascot. This is definitely one of those games that are a must for any home arcade to be taken seriously. It’s hard to say any home arcade should be taken seriously without a Pac-man cabinet in there somewhere.
The second pioneer game I would have in my arcade is Centipede. Now, when it comes to classic shump games, they’re plenty to choose from. The genre dominated the arcades in the earlier days of arcade gaming. But what made Centipeded stand out was the fact that you had barriers that protected you from enemies that you had to shoot through. And the more notable aspect of the game was the trackball controller. Not many games used it outside (but there is one that did that we’ll talk about later).
The last pioneer game I would add to my arcade is Dragon’s Lair. This game was literally you playing QTE events through a cartoon. It was based on the Hanna Barbera animation of the same name. Gamers enjoyed Don Bluth’s cartoon of Dirk the Daring saving Princess Daphne. The main draw for this game was the unique nature of playing a cartoon as a video game.
Ok, for the next 3, I’m going to go with the old-school beat-em-up genre. There were normally the ones that were able to let multiple players play at once. In a way, you can view these as “party games” before the term party game was ever a thing. Now, the three games I choose here are X-men, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Aliens vs. Predator
The choice of the X-men arcade machine from Konami was easy. Not only was this a pretty good game back in the day, but it also did something not many arcade games did before or after. That is have the ability to have six people playing at the same time. Normally, the standard was two, sometimes four. But six was rare.
You could have truly considered this game a party game based on that fact alone. As a comic fan, it was a pleasure for me to face off against the X-men’s polar opposites at the time, the Brotherhood of Evil mutants.
My second choice, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was an easy one. Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was riding high. Video game, toys, and apparel sales for the franchise were at all-time highs by the metrics of that era. And the TMNT arcade machine definitely capitalized on the hype. Complete with a great soundtrack and gameplay. This was a four-player cabinet for obvious reasons.
My third beat-em-up choice is one that never had a home gaming system port. Yet, is probably the best beat-em-up game ever made. Alien vs. Predator was a true gem. The game allowed you to choose between four characters. Two space marines and two Predators. They team up to fight off the Alien threat. Oddly enough, I’ve only ever seen a 3 player cabinet for this one. Even when it’s clear this should have been a four-player one.
For my next three arcade games, I’ll go with the fighting game arcade cabinets. Toward the end of the arcade era, this genre was the one that took up the most space in any given arcade. The three fighting games I choose here are Super Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat 3, and Virtua Fighter 2.
No home arcade would be complete without a Street Fighter game of some sort in it. Super Street Fighter 2 was my choice out of all the versions of SF2 because of the importance of the new warriors, It’s also when the series started having a combo counter, which became common in most of the franchise thereafter. The franchise is a staple of the genre.
My second pick, Mortal Kombat 3 was chosen as the franchise itself back then was considered the premiere mature fighting game. Complete with blood, brutalities, fatalities, and the like. Much like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat is also a genre staple. Mortal Kombat 3 was also when the franchise began experimenting with a legitimate combo function and the dash feature.
The final fighting game I chose was Virtual Fighter 2. This game was the epitome of arcade gaming. Fluid controls with colorful characters and colorful backdrops. I actually chose this over Tekken 2 because it was more user-friendly compared to Tekken. The game’s story is admittedly very weak. But when it came to the majority of arcade games, lore was the last thing on people’s minds.
Now we have to have at least a few driving games in our arcade right? For those gamers who like being behind the wheel, I’ve chosen Daytona USA and Crazy Taxi.
Daytona USA was a great game back in the arcade. Although the game really just licensed the Daytona name, there wasn’t any relation to Daytona beyond that. The controls were loose and the game was fast. The color palette was extremely bright. But what really made this game shine was the excellent soundtrack.
My second choice, Crazy Taxi was probably the most unique driving game out there. It was the first game where you were playing as a taxi driver while trying to bring people from point A to point B within the time limit. Another thing that made this one unique was the licenses involved. Levi, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and others allowed their likenesses to be featured in the game. Which in turn actually added to the enjoyment of the overall package.
Now, for my final four games, it was hard to categorize these for various reasons. But they each have their importance in arcade nostalgia. I chose G.I. Joe, Time Crisis, Outrigger, and Run & Gun.
G.I. Joe was a run-and-gun game based on the popular cartoon series of the same name. You were able to choose between Duke, Roadblock, Scarlett, and Snake Eyes as you against the evil organization known as Cobra. The real draw of this one was it can be played by up to four players. Anyone who was a fan of the cartoon without a doubt found enjoyment with this one
Outrigger is the second trackball game on the list. This game was in both the arcade and later ported over to the Sega Dreamcast. This was a true arcade gem. A fast shooter with a unique controller. Not only was there a trackball for movement, but instead of having conventional buttons like most arcade games, the game functioned with a trigger joystick. If you ever wanted something “different” in your arcade games, this is the kind of thing you’d want.
Now light gun games were somewhat popular in the arcades. And one of the more popular ones was Time Crisis. Namco’s light gun shooter was one of the premiere games in the light gun genre. And one of the cooler aspects was the cover system for the game, activated by a pedal to step on. I know there were games like Sega’s Virtua Cop, Konami’s Silent Scope , and Midway’s Area 51 out there, but I feel Time Crisis was at the top of the mountain.
And for my final game, it’s one for sports fans. Normally, most people would have gone with NBA Jam or NFL Blitz. But for me, I chose the game Run & Gun. This was a vertical-view basketball arcade simulator. This was a great four-player simulator. The characters looked a little exaggerated. This game had a great balance between simulating classic NBA action with the loose controls of the arcade.
Those were the 15 arcade machines I’d have on my list to recreate my own arcade. I tried to put together an arcade cabinet package that would be able to cater to everyone from the boomer, to the millennial, to the Gen Z. If you could recreate the arcade, which games would you use?
