Rare arcade games you've seen

[darthkur]

I remember a couple more:Lunar Rescue and Mappy, both in that bowling Alley and Space Dual in Captain Video's.

[retrorussell]

I remember a couple more:Lunar Rescue and Mappy, both in that bowling Alley and Space Dual in Captain Video's.

Lunar Rescue I've never seen at an arcade/bowling alley/theater/whatever, but I played it on a Taito Legends TV game, I think. I've seen Mappy and Space Duel in MANY places. They really aren't TOO rare. Space Duel is on the cover of The Who's album, "It's Hard". Neat, huh?

 

Some more:

Mazer Blazer, Stern 1983. Kinda lame gun game, perhaps Stern's only gun game.

Intruder, Game Plan 1980. There were numerous games with this same premise: 2 ships (you vs. cpu or you vs. another player, I think) trying to shoot each other, one at the top and one at the bottom, with asteroids or other space debris impeding your shots.

Boot Camp, Konami 1987. Neat take on the Track & Field series as you undergo military training. Also known as "Combat School".

[70sgamefan]

Demon by Rockola. I only saw this (cinematronics based) vector game once at Atlantic City, NJ in the early 80s. I didn't play it, just watched the demo mode.

 

Maneater by PSE (the shark head cabinet version), also located in AC, sitting outdoors on a pier on the boardwalk in late 70's. I wanted to play it but mom wouldn't let me.

 

Exidy's Death Race, again at AC in late 70s, got to play that one!

 

Armor Attack by Cinematronics, again AC in early 80s. I played that one too. I don't think this one was THAT rare, but oddly, I never saw it anywhere in Northern Virginia, where I was living back in the day. Nor did I see any of the above mentioned machines either in VA.

[retrorussell]

I hadn't heard of Demon until recently. The Rock-Ola games I remember playing were Fantasy, Eyes, Nibbler, Pioneer Balloon and Jump Bug (my fave Rock-Ola game by a mile). The other Rock-Ola games I only heard about through klov.com.

 

I remember seeing Sky Raider by Atari at a theater somewhere near Renton, WA in about 1981 (the game was 3 years old). Simply a black-and-white vertical shooter where you just shoot targets while the timer ticks down, and try to score enough for the timer to reset.

 

Nintendo's Arm Wrestling was also rare; it was just like Punch-Out!! except with arm wrestlers.

 

Sega's Bank Panic was rare but very fun. You were a sheriff/deputy at a bank, shooting outlaws coming in to rob the place, and trying not to hit customers depositing money. You got to mind 3 doors at once. You had to get cash flow through every one of I believe 20 doors.

 

I saw some lame-ass complete rip-offs where a company stole the game from another company and renamed it. Aseroids was changed to Meteor, and Star Castle was changed to Fort Cosmos. Kellogg Bowl in Milwaukie, OR had some weird games back in the day.

[Lauren Tyler]

I can't believe I forgot to mention this one:

 

TX-1. It was the first game I had to pay .50 to play! I still remember it in the corner of my arcade, that three-screened monitor in the giant cabinet. I saw it at Weirs Beach a few years ago, it might still be there. But TX-1 was a great game.

[GameGirl420]

I can only think of 2 really rare arcade games I've seen

 

 

 

 

 

Super Dimension Fortress Macross....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and

 

 

 

 

VS. The Goonies.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have very vague memory of seeing the Goonies arcade game once at a Straw Hat pizza parlour in the '80s..... saw the Macross game only once back in '94 at an anime convention. It was very popular and people used to form lines just to play it. Never saw it at an arcade since. I would also add VS. Super Mario Bros....it's like the NES version but a little better.

macross.bmp

Edited May 10, 2009 by lushgirl_80

[Keatah]

Earth Friend Mission, a color vector space flight shoot-em-up game from Bally/Midway, circa 1982.

[retrorussell]

I barely remember TX-1 and the 3-screen display.

I have Macross on MAME and it is a great shooter.

I've seen VS. Goonies at a few places but liked the NES Goonies II better.

VS. Super Mario Bros. is a good degree harder than the NES version.

I was hoping to find a screenshot of Earth Friend, but no luck so far. Never heard of it, I bet it was neat for its time.

 

I saw Ms. Pac-Man Plus once. Nothing really special, just different mazes and I think the fruits could float through walls.

 

(Video) Eight Ball by Century Electronics. Don't think I played it but I saw it at a couple places. My favorite pool game would come out 4 years or so later (Side Pocket).

 

Konami's laserdisc game "Badlands". Funny deaths in this western-themed game!

[mcjakeqcool]

As far as rare arcade systems go, Skycopter ridable gaming unit, I saw whan outside some supermarket 3-4 years ago.

[edwood13]

Saw Maneater at an old Bowling Alley I went to. The place burned down and I'm guessing the machine was destroyed. it's too bad, it was a fun game honestly.

[JimmydelaKopin]

It's been over a year since I've been at this site...so where better to start than at a thread dear to an old gamer's heart?

 

Rare arcade games I've seen? Well, Boomerang'r at Fun Arcade (now a used-car dealership), Lost Tomb, Time Traveler, and Cliff Hanger at Putt-Putt (now an Ochsner's Medical Center), and various games at various stores:

Pirahna at Winn-Dixie (now a craft store)

Leprecaun at Schweggmann's (now a different grocery store)

Ms. Pac-Man Plus at Sunbasket Supermarket (now a pizza place)

Tank-Tank at the Lakeside Mall (the mall's still there, but no more arcade or freestanding machines there)

a cabaret Pac-Man at K&B in the Clearview Mall (again, the malls still there, but the place has been renovated heavily--and K&B was bought out by another drugstore chain long ago)

...and my orthodontist had a quadrapong game set on free play in his waiting room. (Only problem is that one of the paddles didin't work.) Don't know if he still has it....

[Mark Wolfe]

I grew up in University City, Philadelphia, pretty much on the doorstep of the University of Pennsylvania. There were two really big and well known arcades there within two blocks of each other, one of them, University Pinball is still there to this day.

 

UCPB got all sorts of games that I found out much later were not released in many other places. One of them was Joust 2, the sequel to William's Joust. Another was the Pac Man game that was half video game and half pinball game called Baby Pac-Man.

 

There were quite a number of other rare arcade games but these two stand out the most. I spent many many hours at UCPB and have been back recently, and no they do not still have all those old games, but they still have a nice collection of pins and classic games but not nearly what they used to have in the arcade hay-days.

 

I remember they had a stand alone Nintendo Hogan's Alley cabinet and it was NOT a Playchoice. This thing was huge and had a big blue gun.

 

I also recall the line around the block when the laser disc game Dragon's Lair came out and people shelled out a whole dollar bill per play to spend like 5 seconds playing before they died. It was amazing and the line literally wrapped around the block that day.

Edited May 11, 2009 by Mark_Wolfe

[retrorussell]

The Wunderland in NE Portland had a lot of cabaret games, including Missile Command, Dig Dug, Pac Man and Centipede.

I remember Leprechaun as "Pot O' Gold" in some cabinets by Game Plan, and as Laprechaun by Tong, in the kiddie cabinet. They both sucked hard because it was way too easy.

I saw Stern's "Rescue" at a Pietro's Pizza back when pizza from major chains was REALLY good.

Kicker was fairly rare. I was/am rather good at that game. Played it quite a bit at Tigard Fred Meyer's.

I remember Baby Pac-Man, and how bad it was. Namco did well to keep their hands off that one.

Mr. Do's Wild Ride was pretty rare. I did not like how they took out some of the staples of the Mr. Do series (letter monsters, no weapon whatsoever, and the concept was just stupid) but at least they still had the free credit diamond and the letters collected for the extra life. Saw it only once, at the Oregon coast.

Universal's Zero Hour, not a very good shooter from what I recall. I think I found that at some Vancouver, WA grocery store.

Exidy's FAX, Hard Hat, and Pepper II. Weird title for the latter, as there was no Pepper one!

[mcjakeqcool]

Pepsi Invaders was rare, but that's not a arcade game so I don't count. Still a rare game though! I'm trying to get that for my 2600.

[STICH666]

Revolution X and Speed Racer

 

Don't flame me about Rev. X. That's a fun ass game for only a quarter. And with a friend, it's epic.

[mos6507]

Back in the day I caught the very tail end of the bronze age when I was really young. I did play Vectorbeam Speed Freak (the game is impossible to control) and Starship I, Sea Wolf, and Gunfight. There was a Sprint 2 at the Dedham, MA theater for several years, well past the bronze era. They recently tore down the theater to make room for a new mall. The bronze age games always had a fascination to me because of their hazy memories in my youth. That's why I picked up a Death Race on eBay on a lark, winding up giving it to Chris Wilkson last year who has since gotten it mostly functional. I hope he brings it to California Extreme this year as the game hasn't been seen in public for a long time.

 

I played a Star Fire sitdown. I think those are rare. And I came across Empire Strikes Back once. At the time (1985 post crash) I felt like I had literally found the holy grail but I don't think it's quite as rare as a lot of others, it being an upgrade kit. Later on the local arcade had a Space Lords. I don't think many of those made the rounds. Great Ed Logg quarter-sucker.

Edited May 12, 2009 by mos6507

[retrorussell]

I used to see Sprint 2 everywhere, but all the others mentioned I hadn't seen in many places.

I think I saw Zarzon once at a drive-in theatre. It seemed drive-in theatres often had really hard-to-find games.

Peter Pack-Rat and Road Runner were kind of rare.

Irem's Red Alert was super-rare.

I'm working on more and more YouTube videos of rare arcade games. I'm not usually one to self-promote but I thought some people might get a kick out of some of these rarities.

http://www.youtube.com/user/crazyclimber80

[the.golden.ax]

I wasted more coins on Baby Pac-man than any other machine in the 80's.

 

AX

[retrorussell]

I was never a fan of the video game/pinball hybrid. It really needed to be one or the other The only thing close to that that would work would be like Video Pinball, Gee Bee, etc.

 

Sky Kid was pretty rare in American arcades. I saw it at some RV park near Seattle back in the late 80s, in a little game room cabin. Weird. I think it may have had Looping there, too, which was sort of rare too.

[mcjakeqcool]

I agree with the.golden.ax, I was well adicted to Baby Pacman at one stage, though it must be said, that I was equally so with Pacman and Ms. Pacman.

[Tempest]

Funny you should mention Pot Of Gold/Leprechaun in the little kids cab. I played Noah's Ark in one of those, and even though I was only about 9 or 10 at the time I STILL had to kneel down to play it. According to Klov it's a pretty rare game. I seem to recall you had to look around and grab sets of animals and take them to the ark at the top of the screen. IIRC there was a unicorn that randomly appeared and if you grabbed it quick enough you got bonus points and there was water rising from the bottom of the screen.

 

Tempest

[retrorussell]

Wow.. never heard of Noah's Ark. Probably as disgustingly easy as Pot 'O Gold/Leprechaun. I don't think they released more than 5 games for that "Moppet Video" cabinet. The kiddie cabinet idea died a pretty quick death.

 

Konami's "Martial Chamion" was not that good a game, but it did have some large sprites for the fighters.

Sega/Coreland's "My Hero" was pretty rare, though it got a SMS release, I think. Kung-Fu Master with cartoony characters. None too special.

Gremlin/Sega's "Pulsar". Decent old game where you commandeer a tank to pick up keys and open doors. Secret bonuses were picked up by shooting an enemy the same color as the key you had, or by getting the doors opened in numerical order.

[mcjakeqcool]

I know Noahs ark! No wait, I'm thinking of Bible Adventures on the NES/MD/GEN/PC, diffrent game interialy.

[retrorussell]

I know Noahs ark! No wait, I'm thinking of Bible Adventures on the NES/MD/GEN/PC, diffrent game interialy.

Yeouch! That game sucked arse!

[mcjakeqcool]

It is about the only game that was not on the 2600 or Wii that could be used for R.E though. Lol!