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Rare arcade games you've seen


retrorussell

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I'm guessing Saker One was never released. I can find no information on it other than the page you posted. Sounds like it might have been cool.

Another rarity: Lost Tomb by Stern. The most obnoxiously loud game next to Zoo Keeper. Basically an Indiana Jones-explorer type of game. Not too memorable save for the above detriment.

Last one for tonight: Williams' "Make Trax". I liked that a lot, actually.. basically a PacMan clone but instead of eating dots you paint a new pattern in a maze. You are a paintbrush being chased by 2 goldfish (!) and some critter comes out and makes tracks on your paint, forcing you to go back over

their tracks. Unlike Pac-Man the enemies here are faster than you when you're not "eating", and you are faster than them when painting. I liked this game quite a bit due to the good AI of the goldfish. They would team up to try to corner you.

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In the mid-90s when I lived in Matsuyama, Japan, I saw a bunch of very exotic stuff in those arcades: Dig Dug II, Elevator Action II, Rolling Thunder 2, and a bunch of stuff I have no idea what the names in English might be.

 

I just played Elevator Action II for the first time (on Taito Legends 2)... somehow I wasn't expecting people being burned alive! There are quite a few games on there I hadn't played before... and they're all kind of strange.

Edited by pinball22
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In the mid-90s when I lived in Matsuyama, Japan, I saw a bunch of very exotic stuff in those arcades: Dig Dug II, Elevator Action II, Rolling Thunder 2, and a bunch of stuff I have no idea what the names in English might be.

 

I just played Elevator Action II for the first time (on Taito Legends 2)... somehow I wasn't expecting people being burned alive! There are quite a few games on there I hadn't played before... and they're all kind of strange.

Is that rare? The arcade by me had an Elevator Action II machine for years. I must have beaten it 20 times (great quarter muncher). I have it for the Sega Saturn now and as far as I can tell it's arcade perfect (I'm assuming the arcade version runs on some Taito System hardware).

 

It's been awhile, but I swear if you don't destroy the final boss at the end in time when you go to enter your name on the high score table it says something like "Thanks a lot!" next to it. I could never tell if that was supposed to be sarcastic or not.

 

Tempest

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I'm guessing Saker One was never released. I can find no information on it other than the page you posted. Sounds like it might have been cool.

Another rarity: Lost Tomb by Stern. The most obnoxiously loud game next to Zoo Keeper. Basically an Indiana Jones-explorer type of game. Not too memorable save for the above detriment.

Last one for tonight: Williams' "Make Trax". I liked that a lot, actually.. basically a PacMan clone but instead of eating dots you paint a new pattern in a maze. You are a paintbrush being chased by 2 goldfish (!) and some critter comes out and makes tracks on your paint, forcing you to go back over

their tracks. Unlike Pac-Man the enemies here are faster than you when you're not "eating", and you are faster than them when painting. I liked this game quite a bit due to the good AI of the goldfish. They would team up to try to corner you.

 

I got a famiclone multicart that I play on my NES and that game is on it... its not called that though. I thought it was a fantastic game, the AI on that one is really good. I didn't know they made an arcade rom out of it... I'm gonna have to try it out!

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Got-Ya

This one has to be up there as the strangest game I've ever seen. The only one I've ever seen period counting ebay and arcades is in my friend Chuck's garage. It's a rock paper scissors pac man clone.

 

 

 

(http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9775)

 

This is the link to Got-Ya

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7984

Edited by MattG/Snyper2099
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There was a pizza place by my house when I was younger that had an arcade where the image was projected using a hologram instead of a screen. I played the game a few times, but never really got the hang of it. If I remember correctly, you had your choice of a couple regular-looking people to play as, and you would do random stuff, like jump over a fire ball, and then be sitting in a graveyard. I think the game had something to do with time travel. I would like to revisit this game to see if I could understand it now that I'm older. Does anyone have a clue as to what game I could be talking about? The specifics like a fireball and grave yard could be completely off, but I know that it was projected using a hologram. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Dusty

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Oh scratch that I just found it on google, it's called time traveler. But I still think that it's the weirdest game I've seen.

 

Dusty

 

I think this is the game that the arcade I played at in college had that I never tried cause they wanted $1 a play and there were so many better things in there to spend my money on.

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Great Topic!

 

To this day I've only ever seen one Cliff Hanger cab in my life. I played it back in the early 80s at Chesterfield Mall in Richmond, VA. Great laserdisc game based on the Lupin anime.

 

I started a arcade location site last year for those of us with the desire to play the good stuff.

Aurcade.com

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

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Great Topic!

Thanks!

Another one I can think of is Sega/Gremlin's "Pulsar". Fairly good game with a tank picking up keys to open gates while being shot at by different colored spheres. The maze moves constantly making you scramble to get to the gate before you have to reroute suddenly.

Also.. "King And Balloon" by Game Plan/Namco. Weird Galaxian clone with balloons trying to steal the King (not Elvis, nor the Burger King mascot, but an actual king) from your castle. A goofy "Help! Help" (when grabbed), "Thank you!" (when saved), or a "Bye-Bye" (when taken away) would be vocalized by him.

I've noticed a lot of oceanside arcades and the old drive-in theaters had a good share of the obscure, hard-to-find games. Just my observation.

Off to karaoke.. catch y'all later!

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Well, I don't think I have encountered too many rare ones. Here are some I can think of..

Crazy Climber

Tron Enviromental (after reading this topic they do not seem that rare though)

The ninja warriors (cool 3 monitor cabinet)

Dedicated Metal Slug Neo Geo with Metal Slug side art/marquee, etc..

Double Donkey Kong

Polaris

Red Baron

My Hero (way too hard to be fun)

A strange dodge em style game (was at the MGC in 06 if anyone remembers?)

Joust 2

 

I am sure I have played or seen some pretty obscure stuff but here is the thing about them. The rare and obscure stuff, at least most of the time, is not very good. When a game is not very good, it is not very memorable.

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Joust 2

I forgot about this one. They had one at the Great Scott grocery store by my house when I was a kid (I think GS became A&P and the Kroger). I used to love playing that game for hours while my mom went shopping. I think there was a VS Mach Rider next to it, but I didn't care about that. I was seriously bummed when it was never ported to any of the home systems, and it wouldn't be until I got MAME in college that I'd get to play it again.

 

Tempest

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There was a Fernandez Fun Factory near me that used to get all kinds of rare stuff: Cliff Hanger, I Robot, Scud Racer, Tac Scan, Subroc 3D, Discs of Tron Environmental, Sonic Blast Man (I saw Tommy Morrison, who was the WBO Heavyweight Champ at the time, play this one and he broke the machine), Joust 2...probably nearly every game mentioned here. I miss those places...

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Joust 2

I forgot about this one. They had one at the Great Scott grocery store by my house when I was a kid (I think GS became A&P and the Kroger). I used to love playing that game for hours while my mom went shopping. I think there was a VS Mach Rider next to it, but I didn't care about that. I was seriously bummed when it was never ported to any of the home systems, and it wouldn't be until I got MAME in college that I'd get to play it again.

 

Tempest

Yeah, cool game. I didn't spend much time with it but had a few good games. I do remember playing games in a small arcade the local Airport Pharmacy had while my Mom would shop. Nothing rare though, Defender and Pac man come to mind. If I close my eyes and think hard enough I can still smell the popcorn machine :) :)

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Professor Pac-Man Cab....

 

I have a close friend that owns his own Professor Pac-Man cabinet. the cab has been converted into a Neo Geo cab but it still shows evidence that it was a Professor Pac-Man cab. theres stickers on the machine itself and a slight burn in when the system is booting up....

 

incredibly something neat..

 

could it fetch anything on the rcade market?

 

thanks,

ace

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  • 4 weeks later...
Professor Pac-Man Cab....

 

I have a close friend that owns his own Professor Pac-Man cabinet. the cab has been converted into a Neo Geo cab but it still shows evidence that it was a Professor Pac-Man cab. theres stickers on the machine itself and a slight burn in when the system is booting up....

 

incredibly something neat..

 

could it fetch anything on the rcade market?

 

thanks,

ace

You may have to reconvert it back to a Prof Pac cab, as that is pretty rare and if you post it on Craigslist or Ebay for sale you may find collectors willing to shell out something decent. You could still probably sell it as a NEO GEO but people might want the original cab. Don't know for sure.

 

Another weird, rare game I only came across at an arcade once was Williams' "MYSTIC MARATHON". Strange game where you are an elf? troll? goblin? that races against other similar creatures while avoiding apple throwing trees, whirlpools, and other hindrances or taking various shortcuts to get ahead. Just weird, not terribly good.

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Another weird, rare game I only came across at an arcade once was Williams' "MYSTIC MARATHON". Strange game where you are an elf? troll? goblin? that races against other similar creatures while avoiding apple throwing trees, whirlpools, and other hindrances or taking various shortcuts to get ahead. Just weird, not terribly good.

Created by the "Wizards" at Williams! I remember this coin-op - too hard and very frustrating. I've played around with it in MAME and now have a better appreciation for the game.

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Violence Fight! This gem was stuffed waaaaay in the back of the arcade in the Northway Mall outside of Pittsburgh ,PA It was indeed a fighting game with such characters as Bad Blue and the ever popular Lick Joe :roll: and for the bonus round you got to beat the crap out of a tiger! Think Pit Fighter only with regular graphics and at least 37% more suckage.

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Not sure if anybody said this, but when I was in Disney World back in 2002, they had DisneyQuest. It was a dream! They had an entire FLOOR to classic games. Some machines that were rare. Like Space Wars, an Environmental version of Discs of Tron, Major Havoc, a working Warrior, and a few others.

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Maybe it died a quick death because it was controversial - but I played Death Race all the time at the mall back in the good ol' days. Maybe you could call it rare since there never was a long line to play it or perhaps the other kids were prohibited from playing it. But others call it rare because it is scarce.

 

Also, help me peg the name of this game...

 

It was a racing game that had to be made in the mid 70s. It had a vertical overhead view and had a green screen (which was probably an overlay) similar to this one http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9801 . But the one I'm talking about was a one player game and I remember the steering wheel was a bit bulky. It may have had a gear shift like "low" and "high." Also, it was a "stand up" game not a racing game where you would sit down in the cockpit.

 

I'm sure this game was the inspiration for Activision's Grand Prix

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Maybe it died a quick death because it was controversial - but I played Death Race all the time at the mall back in the good ol' days. Maybe you could call it rare since there never was a long line to play it or perhaps the other kids were prohibited from playing it. But others call it rare because it is scarce.

 

Also, help me peg the name of this game...

 

It was a racing game that had to be made in the mid 70s. It had a vertical overhead view and had a green screen (which was probably an overlay) similar to this one http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9801 . But the one I'm talking about was a one player game and I remember the steering wheel was a bit bulky. It may have had a gear shift like "low" and "high." Also, it was a "stand up" game not a racing game where you would sit down in the cockpit.

 

I'm sure this game was the inspiration for Activision's Grand Prix

Sprint?

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an arcade up the road from me has the star wars arcade machine.

 

don't know if its rare but the same arcade has a pinball/game jr pac man. they have alot of cool retro games. ive also seen alot at the boardwalk (seaside heights, im in nj).

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Maybe it died a quick death because it was controversial - but I played Death Race all the time at the mall back in the good ol' days. Maybe you could call it rare since there never was a long line to play it or perhaps the other kids were prohibited from playing it. But others call it rare because it is scarce.

 

Also, help me peg the name of this game...

 

It was a racing game that had to be made in the mid 70s. It had a vertical overhead view and had a green screen (which was probably an overlay) similar to this one http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9801 . But the one I'm talking about was a one player game and I remember the steering wheel was a bit bulky. It may have had a gear shift like "low" and "high." Also, it was a "stand up" game not a racing game where you would sit down in the cockpit.

 

I'm sure this game was the inspiration for Activision's Grand Prix

Sprint?

OOP's, not green.

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