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Rare arcade games you've seen


retrorussell

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Don't know if it was rare but got to play Death Race.

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7541

I used to go to the arcade when I was 6 or 7. The op was a old man by the name of "Cotton".

I only got to play it a few times. I wasn't my favorite game. I liked Stunt Cycle and a projection game where you flew a bi-plane and shot at other planes. BTW Does anyone know what the name of that game was?

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About 6 months ago, I checked out a place to buy a cabinet for my MAME project. He had a bunch of "shells" but they were too small for my liking. He had some working machines that he said he'd gut out for me, and showed me a game called "Hippodrome." I hadn't heard of it and I figured it probably wasn't a blockbuster game, so I considered buying it from him. I told him I'd think about it and get back to him.

 

I researched the game on KLOV and it seems pretty rare. I couldn't justify killing what looks to be a rare game for a MAME cabinet, so I gave up on it. I'd rather someone enjoy the game.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Don't know if it was rare but got to play Death Race.

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7541

I used to go to the arcade when I was 6 or 7. The op was a old man by the name of "Cotton".

I only got to play it a few times. I wasn't my favorite game. I liked Stunt Cycle and a projection game where you flew a bi-plane and shot at other planes. BTW Does anyone know what the name of that game was?

Sounds like Atari's Sky Raider from 1978.

 

Hippodrome is an awful, awful game. I played it and refuse to touch it again.

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I remember playing the stand-up Discs of Tron game... albeit when I was too young to fully get up there!

 

Other games I remember playing are Baby Pac-Man, The Three Stooges, Galaga 3 (better known as Gaplus,) Herbie Goes To The Olympics, Pitfall 2: Lost Caverns (the arcade version made by Sega,) and a few others I can't think of.

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The two rare games I used to play (that I loved) were Star Fire and Zwackery. Star Fire is a great, ignored first person shooter, ala Star Raiders. It was a great year with the 2600 homebrew got released. It's still the my favorite homebrew :)

 

Zwackery is one of those ultra obscure games that just doesn't emulate. Buttons, spinners, joysticks, and a quirky 'everything but the kitchen sink' games that isn't like anything else. Good stuff!

 

I also used to play Discs of Tron in one of those super rare (and unbelievably awesome) stand-up environmental cabs. You have to have played one to understand.

I remember the environmental Discs of Tron. The 3D and movie-style colors were just jaw-dropping at the time.

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Baby Pac-Man was terrible. I'm glad Namco stayed away from that concept.

Firefox was a pretty rare laserdisc game. Based on a very boring Clint Eastwood movie of the same name.

An early maze game I remember seeing back in 1980 was "The Adventures Of Robby Roto". Not one of Bally/Midway's shining moments.

I remember a crappy game called "Digger" by Gremlin/Sega that was basically a remake of "Heiankyo Alien" from Japan, and was remade as "Space Panic" the same year, in a much better platform format.

2 more: "Dazzler" by CVS (who made Hunchback), which was a Turtles/Donkey Kong hybrid, where you feed an ape bananas while dropping snakes to fend off attacking vultures, and GTI's "Slither", which was actually a fairly good Centipede clone. You were a laser cannon in the desert fending off attacking snakes from above and below.

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Fire Engine (?),

 

Probably Atari's "Fire Truck", aka "Smokey Joe" circa 1978 by Atari.

 

A couple others:

Zaccharia's "Money Money" from 1983. Pretty weird hybrid maze game/rooftop chase/swimming/driving game. You're just after money bags as muggers/crocodiles/sharks/falling rocks attempt to impede your progress. Some voice samples play on occasion but I'll be damned if I can understand them.

 

Zaccharia's "Jack Rabbit" from 1984. The characters are taken directly from the old "Brer Rabbit" stories. Sort of like Q*bert but more of an isometric landscape scroller than on a pyramid.

 

Konami's "Pandora's Palace" from 1984. Kind of fun platform game where a Roman with toga and olive leaf crown jumps over enemies/gaps/fire to reach the bottom-right area of the screen. The enemies themselves don't kill you but they tend to knock you off ledges or into the fire. Picking up grapes turn you into a centurion, which lets you smash enemies when you jump on them.

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I always liked when Major Havoc whacked his head on something, and he'd shake his head trying to shake off the pain. At the time it was innovative personification of a video game character.

 

Pirahna: Lame Pac-Man clone by GT in 1981.

Spiders: Okay shooter by Sigma in 1981, which some creepy goth chick winking at you after a few stages. That's my reward for getting this far?

The Electric Yo-Yo!: Major failure by Taito, 1982. They've had plenty enough success to allow disappointments like that.

Space Odyssey: Okay but unmemorable multi-stage Sega shooter from 1981. Understandably lost in the shuffle of better shooters (i.e., Scramble, Super Cobra, Astro Blaster, Galaga, etc.).

Jump Bug: Far and away my favorite Rock-Ola game. You drive a jumping VW Bug over various terrains, shooting enemies and collecting diamonds and gold bags. Oh, and you jump on clouds for points too. So whack it's enjoyable.

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I've seen a few of the less known machines as well.

 

 

Fire Truck,

Starship I,

Sea Wolf,

280 ZZZAP,

Battle Shark,

F-1,

among many others I can't clearly recall. Most, if not all were either in the game room of a camp ground near Hershey, PA or in Hershey Park itself. Then again I'm not certain these would even count since at the time they were all new. :P

 

There was a bowling alley that used to keep two or three games at a time. For some reason they tended to get the really oddball ones more often. Probably because they were cheaper to rent. The ones I can remember the most are:

 

Astro Invader

Cosmic Alien

Make Trax

Moon Cresta

Major Havoc

Amidar

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Interesting thread, brought back a lot of early 80's memories. My local arcade had for at least a few days, most of what has been mentioned. Two that I have never seen anywhere else: LeMans by Kee Games/Atari. Fun black and white driving game, a smaller version of Sprint II. Would have been more fun if you had had at least a small chance of getting "extended play" 90 seconds (I think) for a quarter was quite a rip off to a 12 year old on a $2 a week allowance.

 

Also, Beezer by Tong Electronics 1982. It stayed for about a week, then was gone. I never saw another one anywhere again. I was disappointed as I was quite good at it. You were a bee trying to line up parts of the inside of a hive and each section turned to a honey color when you had that section lined up, meanwhile the enemy beez were trying to kill you, and ruin your efforts to line up the hive sections. It used a trackball and was quite fun. Hard to steer with the mouse using MAME, loses a lot, but nice to play again.

 

Another few that nobody mentioned showed up at Great Games for short appearances. Sea Wolf, Astro Blaster (nice voice sysnthesis), zzyzzyxx (one day and gone,) Route 16, Robby Roto squished into a Wizard of Wor with the bezel for Wor still there, how lazy! Tazz-Mania (could have been fun, but having to stop moving to fire? you were screwed! It got one quarter from me.) There was also a Taito game; Moon something, which has never been emulated as it was encrypted and had one of those batteries that Taito liked to use which would leak and ruin the board, though they probably had no idea of this at the time. You were a space ship and moved up and down the side of the screen as enemies came from the right, a round of space rocks going in rows up and down the screen was another challenge. I'll have to look on KLOV as I had forgotten about this game, but it was there for several months. I seemed to be the only one that ever played it, could never understand why it was still there. Same with Stratavox and The End. Visiting after supper the high score was usually still zero on all three of these, yet they were there for the best part of a year.

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.....Another few that nobody mentioned showed up at Great Games for short appearances. Sea Wolf, ......

 

Umm, I mentioned that one just the post before. :ponder:

Anyways, I remember a few more. That same bowling alley had Qix for a while too. Then there was this record shop in a small plaza just up the road from there called Rock 'n' Video. I got my INTV from there plus a few games, along with a bunch of albums of coarse. :P They had a small, nice selection of games in the back all the time. It's were I got to try out Robotron and DKjr for the first time. But the did get a few obscure ones in at time as well, like Star Castle and Space Zap.

I also frequented a small arcade a couple miles away called Captain Video's. They used to put a coupon in the local "Penny Saver" that allowed you to get $10 worth of tokens for $5. I would do this every time they offered that. :D Oddly though I can't really remember any obscure games from there. I'm sure there must have been a few at times. I just remember stuff like Gorf, Phoenix, Stargate, Berzerk, etc. Probably the most uncommon one I can recall is that they had Crazy Climber which I played excessively. I still love that game.

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I've seen a few of the less known machines as well.

 

 

Fire Truck,

Starship I,

Sea Wolf,

280 ZZZAP,

Battle Shark,

F-1,

among many others I can't clearly recall. Most, if not all were either in the game room of a camp ground near Hershey, PA or in Hershey Park itself. Then again I'm not certain these would even count since at the time they were all new. :P

 

 

I will be at Hersheypark in June for a company picnic. I will make it a point to stop in the arcade and post my findings.

 

On another note - Hershepark is so expensive nowadays that I can only go once a year for the company picnic since it is free. Their Xmas Candylane used to be free but you have to pay for that as well nowadays. What the heck?

 

On a positive note, Hersheypark still provides the fond memories I had as a youth as I can see this now in my two kids.

 

At least Chocolate World is still free. I just took my daughter there on Friday.

 

Sorry if I went off topic - but you started this. : ]

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Cinematronics' Jack The Giantkiller, 1982.

Blue Shark by Bally/Midway, 1978. Gun game where you shoot sharks and octopii. Shooting a diver decreases your score.

Radar Zone, CVS 1982. Amidar rip-off.

Bally/Midway's Space Zap, 1980. Like Imagic's Cosmic Ark for the Atari 2600, at least the shooting part.

Game Plan's Pot O' Gold, 1982. Also known as Leprechaun for the small cabinet designed for little kids. Terrible, unbelievably easy game I could play forever on one quarter.

Coreland/Sega's Bull Fight, 1984. Unique bullfighting game. Complete with gore when you stab the bull, or when he collapses and spits blood. Yummy!

Up 'N Down, Sega 1983. Cool 3/4 view scrolling racetrack where you can jump and land on cars, destroying them (like Bump N' Jump) and jumping over gaps in the road, all while collecting colored flags to complete the level. Pengo makes an appearance!

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I've seen a few of the less known machines as well.

 

 

Fire Truck,

Starship I,

Sea Wolf,

280 ZZZAP,

Battle Shark,

F-1,

among many others I can't clearly recall. Most, if not all were either in the game room of a camp ground near Hershey, PA or in Hershey Park itself. Then again I'm not certain these would even count since at the time they were all new. :P

 

 

I will be at Hersheypark in June for a company picnic. I will make it a point to stop in the arcade and post my findings.

 

On another note - Hershepark is so expensive nowadays that I can only go once a year for the company picnic since it is free.

On a positive note, Hersheypark still provides the fond memories I had as a youth as I can see this now in my two kids.

 

At least Chocolate World is still free. I just took my daughter there on Friday.

 

Sorry if I went off topic - but you started this. : ]

 

I haven't been there in over 30 years and it was expensive then. :P Let me know if by some miracle they still have the huge mechanical shooting gallery with the realistic light gun rifles and the two mechanical life sized cowboys that you could duel with.

 

 

Chocolate World is the large building in the front parking lot with the cars on a large moving track that takes you on a "tour" of how chocolate is made, including a trip through the oven, right? I'm told that back in the 50's you could take a guided tour of the actual factory.

 

Cinematronics' Jack The Giantkiller, 1982.

Blue Shark by Bally/Midway, 1978. Gun game where you shoot sharks and octopii. Shooting a diver decreases your score.

 

I remember that one.

 

 

Bally/Midway's Space Zap, 1980. Like Imagic's Cosmic Ark for the Atari 2600, at least the shooting part.

 

Almost exactly like Space Fortress for the Bally Arcade/Astrocade. :cool: In fact it's really the same game with only minor graphical differences. The Bally Arcade also has a great version of Wizard of Wor too, which they called The Incredible Wizard.

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More..

Super Bagman, Stern 1984. Actually pretty good sequel (you can shoot, set bombs, and jump across gaps). Unfortunately, the home gaming consoles were taking major business from the arcades and Super Bagman disappeared.

Exerion, Jaleco/Taito 1983. Nice parallax scrolling of landscapes below as you fly around shooting enemies by either one shot at a time, or a steady stream of shots by holding down fire (but it eats your shot supply quicker). A bit monotonous after a while but enjoyable.

I think someone mentioned Zzyyxxyyzz earlier. I saw it as "Brix".

One that was semi-rare and I love to pieces is Taito's Halley's Comet, 1986. Great shooter; graphics are not that good but the action really delivers.

Strider 2, 1999 Capcom. ABSOLUTELY AWESOME game!!! The panoramic viewpoints when you are scaling skyscrapers just totally floor you. You feel like you're right there.

Nichibutsu's Radical Radial, 1982. You are a TIRE, shooting at enemies. Oh, those kooky Japanese!

Mag Max, Nichibutsu 1985. It wasn't totally rare but I didn't see it too often. Loved it though. Building yourself into a powerful robot as you fought enemies and picked up body parts was a cool concept.

Samurai Nihon-Ichi, Taito 1985. Kung Fu Master with swords, and killer birds. Funny anime-like exaggerated expressions on you and your enemies when killed.

Ninja, Sega 1985. Pretty good game with a female ninja protagonist! (novel for its time) You shoot shurikens at foes as you scroll usually upwards to the final enemy (always the same guy). When she got hit (one-hit kill), she fell to her knees and cried. I felt bad for her. :(

Return of the Invaders, Taito 1985. Pretty unremarkable sequel to Space Invaders. SI 91, and SI 95 were much better (and FAR more humorous!).

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That racing game I played back in the 70s may be Speed Race. There are pictures of the cabinet at KLOV.com, but I wouldn't be able to tell for sure without seeing the game. The game was released in 1974, which would be about right.

 

If there is a ROM for this game and someone could do a screen print, that would be a help.

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Jump Bug: Far and away my favorite Rock-Ola game. You drive a jumping VW Bug over various terrains, shooting enemies and collecting diamonds and gold bags. Oh, and you jump on clouds for points too. So whack it's enjoyable.

Was that a Rock-Ola game? I never knew that! Jump Bug was actually released on the Arcadia 2001 family of systems. I think this is the only port to a home system (as far as I know anyway).

 

Tempest

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Earth Friend Mission, 7 of these were made and tested around the Chicagoland area in the early 80's.. A vector flight simulator from bally/midway or something.

"Earth Friend Mission"? With a title like that, I guess I'm glad the game never saw the light of day.

 

Leland's Pig Out, 1990. Weird platform game with pigs eating food items and running from a wolf.

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