What console games have you played and later discovered it was an arcade game?

[simbalion]

Pac-Mania. I had this as a Tengen cartridge on NES and never realized it was an arcade game until years later when I saw and played an actual unit that was at a local laundromat for a brief time. Up until then, I had never seen one in an arcade or anywhere.

[The Usotsuki]

1 hour ago, Tickled_Pink said:

Galaga. Believe it or not.

 

I never once came across an arcade machine. Plenty of Galaxians but never a Galaga. So I was definitely surprised to find it was an arcade cabinet.

That game was about everywhere for me growing up.

[Tickled_Pink]

3 hours ago, The Usotsuki said:

That game was about everywhere for me growing up.

I know. That's the weirdest thing. Apparently it was everywhere, just not anywhere I went to. The first time I even saw the game was a clone on a friend's BBC Micro. Don't think I ever played the game until the late 90s on an emulator.

Mind you, there were a lot of games that I never saw. Never saw a Donkey Kong Jr. And I'm not sure I ever saw a Ms. Pac-Man either. Other games were everywhere ... mainly Galaxian, Space Invaders (and variants), Pac-Man, Star Wars (never saw one modded to TESB), Return of the Jedi, Astro Wars, Phoenix, Berzerk, Defender, Asteroids. Wasn't Gyruss an arcade game as well? Never saw that. Or Tempest. Seems you had access to a far wider range of games than we did.

There is a retro arcade about 3-4 hours' drive away. Once the lockdown's over, I'm going to "treat the family" to a trip to Leeds. ? Maybe I'll find the missing games there. 

[zzip]

21 hours ago, Tickled_Pink said:

I never once came across an arcade machine. Plenty of Galaxians but never a Galaga. So I was definitely surprised to find it was an arcade cabinet.

I saw Galaga machines, but I always thought they were Galaxian under a different name (Like Jungle King/Jungle Hunt).   Didn't realize until later when the retrogaming scene started how highly regarded Galaga was.

[zzip]

For me Arkanoid.    A friend had it on his ST and I thought it was just a flashier version of Breakout.   Was surprised to find it was an arcade game, because even at that time "Breakout" seemed too old-school for the arcade scene of the late 80s.

 

Also someone should point out that there are a handful of games that started out on console/computer and later got ported to arcade.  Pitfall II, Lode Runner come to mind.    So if you bought them when they came out, your weren't buying an arcade port

[+Cafeman]

I knew a lot of younger people who never knew Super Mario Bros was a coin-op first, until I told them I used to play it at the arcade.  Myself, the only examples would be 70s Atari games like Tank or Gunfight or whatever. I never saw those at an arcade. I do remember playing Night Driver though. 

[+wongojack]

I'll throw a vote in for Warlords.  At one point I heard that the arcade version came out AFTER the 2600, but I'm too lazy to look that up.

 

A surprising one for me was Mario Bros.  I played it on the C64 and shortly after encountered SMB on the NES.  It never really occurred to me that it was an actual arcade game until I saw it in MAME.  Still took years to see an actual machine.

 

There are a lot of really great 2600 Activision games that are based on Arcade games that I had never heard of, examples:

Megamania - Astro Blaster

Kaboom - Avalanche

 

 

[Tickled_Pink]

59 minutes ago, Cafeman said:

I knew a lot of younger people who never knew Super Mario Bros was a coin-op first, until I told them I used to play it at the arcade.  Myself, the only examples would be 70s Atari games like Tank or Gunfight or whatever. I never saw those at an arcade. I do remember playing Night Driver though. 

I always thought that the original Mario Bros games on the Ataris were cheap knockoffs that Atari made when they couldn't be bothered making a full Super Mario Bros clone. It wasn't until emulation came around that I discovered the truth. I only discovered quite recently that Combat was based off an arcade game. Remember playing both Gunfight and Night Driver in the arcades.

[Tickled_Pink]

54 minutes ago, wongojack said:

I'll throw a vote in for Warlords.  At one point I heard that the arcade version came out AFTER the 2600, but I'm too lazy to look that up.

 

A surprising one for me was Mario Bros.  I played it on the C64 and shortly after encountered SMB on the NES.  It never really occurred to me that it was an actual arcade game until I saw it in MAME.  Still took years to see an actual machine.

 

There are a lot of really great 2600 Activision games that are based on Arcade games that I had never heard of, examples:

Megamania - Astro Blast

Kaboom - Avalanche

 

 

Astro Blaster was a tough game. I wasn't very good at it back then (still not brilliant at it now) but had an older cousin who was very good at pretty much every arcade game he played. This is one I remember watching him play. I was in awe of his skills with the game. Never even heard of Avalanche.

[zzip]

1 hour ago, Cafeman said:

I knew a lot of younger people who never knew Super Mario Bros was a coin-op first, until I told them I used to play it at the arcade.  Myself, the only examples would be 70s Atari games like Tank or Gunfight or whatever. I never saw those at an arcade. I do remember playing Night Driver though. 

I knew Mario Brothers was in the arcades, but was Super Mario Brothers?   I've never seen it.

[+Cafeman]

19 minutes ago, zzip said:

I knew Mario Brothers was in the arcades, but was Super Mario Brothers?   I've never seen it.

Both. 

Note - after googling around to see if I had invented the memory, it is possible that the coin-op Arcade version of Super Mario Bros was released AFTER the NES game.  I know I played it in the 80's and I've seen a few cabinet pics online too.  But there are so many newer homegrown multi-system cabs now that it was difficult to find an authentic 80's pic. 

[mbd30]

My next door neighbor friend had a TI-99/4A back in the day and we played Munch Mobile. I was surprised to find out that it's a port of an obscure SNK arcade game.

 

 

 

 

[zzip]

1 hour ago, Cafeman said:

Both. 

Note - after googling around to see if I had invented the memory, it is possible that the coin-op Arcade version of Super Mario Bros was released AFTER the NES game.  I know I played it in the 80's and I've seen a few cabinet pics online too.  But there are so many newer homegrown multi-system cabs now that it was difficult to find an authentic 80's pic. 

The wikipedia page makes it sound like it was developed for NES, but does mention "Arcade" listed as a platform, but yet gives no details on the arcade release.  Weird.   Is the arcade version identical to the NES, or more advanced?

[+GoldLeader]

I bought Tac-Scan (Sega) on the Atari 2600 not knowing it was an arcade game, or maybe I had some vague notion that it might be,  Then I saw the real deal at Circus Circus's arcade in Las Vegas.  Very cool as I recall.

 

Another one is Circus Atari.  Somewhere along my travels I saw the actual arcade game, which is called Circus (Exidy, 1977) and is in black and white.  I was pretty surprised.  Technically I think the 2600  version is like an unlicensed clone...

[+GoldLeader]

FWIW,  I have a vague memory of Super Mario Bros. as an arcade game.   Mainly, that when my friend got an NES before anyone else I know of, (1987 I'm pretty sure), it came with Super Mario and he said, 'Yeah, it's an arcade game"...

 

Later,  I saw one of these...(Or something similar)...At that point I still didn't have an NES so I couldn't tell you if it was the same or not...

 

[+Cafeman]

Same experience as gold leader, I didn’t own an NES at that time so I couldn’t tell you if it was identical or not. But from memory it might’ve been a little harder at the arcade.

[DragonGrafx-16]

9 minutes ago, Cafeman said:

Same experience as gold leader, I didn’t own an NES at that time so I couldn’t tell you if it was identical or not. But from memory it might’ve been a little harder at the arcade.

The arcade game came later... it's actually has some levels from the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2. 

[zzip]

10 minutes ago, Cafeman said:

Same experience as gold leader, I didn’t own an NES at that time so I couldn’t tell you if it was identical or not. But from memory it might’ve been a little harder at the arcade.

It would have had to have been harder.   My memory of that game on the NES was that it gave out free lives like water.

 

Back then my friends and I were in the habit of playing games, one one person's game ended, they'd pass the joystick to the next person.   SMB's extra lives always let one guy hog the game for long periods and ruined the fun of hanging out with friends, playing games.

 

So that would have denied arcade owners their quarters..   Or maybe that is why the arcade version is rare?  ?

[The Usotsuki]

Vs. SMB has the levels tuned to be harder.  It even has some of the Lost Levels.

[+Cafeman]

What does the VS.signify?  2 player I assume but that isn't really a Vs. Mode. 

[The Usotsuki]

Vs. Unisystem arcade platform

[NE146]

I'm fully from the time when arcades were the king attraction, and console games were just kind of what we had to deal with.. so there's really not many arcade games I didn't know. If I didn't see an arcade game, I most likely had at least seen or read about it in a magazine.

 

That said! SPACE DUNGEON comes to mind. I didn't realize it was an arcade game until I read it on the friggin box.

 

There's probably a couple more I can't remember at the moment..

 

[derFunkenstein]

Tons of games from my youth, since arcades weren't very big in my area in the late 80s, early 90s. 

 

Tiger Heli

Contra / Super C

Revenge of Shinobi

Moon Patrol

Mario Bros

Tetris

 

Heck, today I learned Pac-Mania was an arcade game. I've never seen that cabinet. 

[roots.genoa]

6 hours ago, derFunkenstein said:

Revenge of Shinobi

Are you sure Revenge of Shinobi is an arcade game? Or did you ignore there was a Shinobi arcade game before the Genesis games?

[Lord Mushroom]

8 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

Are you sure Revenge of Shinobi is an arcade game? Or did you ignore there was a Shinobi arcade game before the Genesis games?

According to Wikipedia it was first released on the Sega Genesis, and then on a coin-operated thing called Mega-Tech.