Am I the only one who's confused about how the controls might have worked? Did one player use both gloves/rods or did two players use one glove/rod each?
I couldn't remember off the top of my head if he was directly referenced in DK Jr. as Mario for the first time. Yes-- it's shown in the arcade version as the "Marios" pull DK up in the cage. It reads: GET KEY FROM MARIO. SAVE YOUR PAPA!
Alvin G. and Co did a few head-to-heads in the mid '90s that played similarly to Joust...
They're quite rare though, so it's not a surprise that most people haven't heard of them.
Update: The owner of the place came back to me unexpectedly and told me they were going out of business.
They asked if I still wanted the machine and offered to do $600 if I could take it away asap. I took it.