Arcade games that were apparently super popular but you only saw once at an arcade, if ever.

[retrorussell]

What arcade games did you remember hearing about from all your friends or reading about them in gaming magazines, and you only saw once in an arcade-- or never?

 

I only saw R-TYPE once at a nickel arcade in Tigard, OR.  I certainly liked what I saw but that was the only arcade I ever saw it at.

 

How 'bout you folks?

[zzip]

This is kind of hard,  my friends frequented the same arcades I did,  so if they were raving about a game, then chances are I saw it

 

And the games I only saw at one arcade are a stretch to call "super popular".

 

So here are some semi-popular games I only ever saw at one arcade:  (and my definition of 'semi-popular' is 'popular enough to get a home version')

 

Qix

Vanguard

Crossbow

 

 

 

[retrorussell]

Yeah, I believe I only saw Vanguard in the arcades a couple times-- it was kind of rare in my neck of the woods.  Electric Palace at the Beaverton Mall and either Gold Mine in Sea-Tac Mall or Aladdin's Castle at Vancouver Mall in Washington state.

 

It's kind of hard for me as well to only remember seeing a popular game once, since I was a die-hard arcade junkie BITD.  It was in the later 80s when my passion started to die down just a smidge.

 

I don't know if anyone could call Hunchback popular but I only saw that one once, at an arcade in Raleigh Hills a couple miles from my current house.  I think that was the only place I saw Super Zaxxon as well.  Also not sure if that's popular enough to mention.

[RodLightning]

Baby Pac-Man comes to mind.  It was talked about very much and I seem to remember reading about it in a magazine.  I saw one once with 'out of order' sign at Aladdin's Castle.  A manager there told me the pinball portion was broken.  Later, it was gone.

Other than it being part of the Pac-Man series of games, I can't say if it was super popular.  Maybe it wasn't upon closer examination?

 

[retrorussell]

2 hours ago, RodLightning said:

Baby Pac-Man comes to mind.  It was talked about very much and I seem to remember reading about it in a magazine.  I saw one once with 'out of order' sign at Aladdin's Castle.  A manager there told me the pinball portion was broken.  Later, it was gone.

Other than it being part of the Pac-Man series of games, I can't say if it was super popular.  Maybe it wasn't upon closer examination?

 

I may have only seen BPM at Malibu Gran Prix.  I think people were clamoring for Pac Man games and would play any that came out but shortly after playing BPM turned their nose up at it.  It is IMHO pretty bad.

 

Up 'N Down had numerous ports so maybe it had a decent bit of popularity but I only saw it once at an Aladdin's Castle.

[+cvga]

I wouldn't say super popular but I never saw a Zoo Keeper at an arcade until a couple of years ago.

[zzip]

15 hours ago, retrorussell said:

Yeah, I believe I only saw Vanguard in the arcades a couple times-- it was kind of rare in my neck of the woods.  Electric Palace at the Beaverton Mall and either Gold Mine in Sea-Tac Mall or Aladdin's Castle at Vancouver Mall in Washington state.

Vanguard was actually in a nearby laundromat.  It was the closest place with arcade games, and my friends and I would ride bikes there to play it.   We became obsessed with it for awhile.  But I've never seen it anywhere else.   I was kind of surprised when Atari released home versions, and even more surprised the 2600 version wasn't half bad

 

12 hours ago, retrorussell said:

My YouTube channel (as Crazyclimber80):

That reminded me..   I only ever saw Crazy Climber in a single arcade

 

10 hours ago, cvga said:

I wouldn't say super popular but I never saw a Zoo Keeper at an arcade until a couple of years ago.

I think I only ever saw Zoo Keeper at a sub shop back then

[retrorussell]

Ghouls 'N Ghosts I'm not sure how popular it was in the arcades (perhaps more popular for home systems).  I only saw it once at a Malibu Gran Prix when I was staying in Orlando in the late 80s.

[str0m]

They have Qix and R-Type at an arcade here in the UK

[+x=usr(1536)]

Mappy.  Apparently this was really popular, but I only ever saw it on location once when it was current.

[Tanooki]

I think I've only once seen a Dragon's Lair, and it was at this round table pizza place.  Coincidentally the only time I too had ever seen a Ghouls n Ghosts machine.  I had seen a few GnGs though, had one at a place I went to daily where I learned to finish it like 30 years ago too.  There are others, seen just once some of the old Nintendo stuff like DK, DKjr, DK3, Popeye, and both Punchouts, and also a vs Castlevania and Hogan's Alley.  Not sure all of those were super popular but given the NES ties they're well enough known.  Funny thing, the one shot I ever had at that DK3, it was partly broken, only the red color worked so it was like DK3 for Virtual Boy.

[+Cafeman]

In the prime coin-op years, from 1980 to 1984,  my family frequently visited malls, plazas and other stores in 3 different nearby cities,  also pizza places with arcades,  also amusement parks in the summer (which had huge arcades), and even fairs in the fall (which had an arcade tent or two).    So I saw a lot of variety of coin-op games,  even if only once.     So, I can't think of a game that I read about but never saw at least once.   The funny thing is, I remember various stores based on what arcade or console games they had hooked up.   Gee Bee's in Johnstown had a Vanguard in its lobby.  Showbiz Pizza Palace in Johnstown had Donkey Kong 3, Space Ace, and Mario bros (which weren't anywhere else that I can remember).   There was a cramped, small, and dark arcade in Indiana PA in the Hills Plaza, it always got cool unique games like Reactor and Star Rider.   The Ebensburg fair had Phoenix, the first time I ever saw it and it was exciting.   I remember Conneaut Lake Park (near Erie, PA) had tons of games, including a sit-down version of Space Harrier and I remember seeing a Super Zaxxon too. 

[retrorussell]

I'd never heard of JUNO FIRST, WILD WESTERN, LOCO MOTION or the MAGICAL SPOT games until well after arcades had died down.

[John Stamos Mullet]

10 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

Mappy.  Apparently this was really popular, but I only ever saw it on location once when it was current.

The only time I've ever seen Mappy in the wild was at Funspot in NH, in the mid-2010's. Never saw it once in the 80's.

[John Stamos Mullet]

The local arcade I went to every week, G-Wizz at Boston Bowl, had a lot of Cabs that people consider rare.

 

I, Robot

Baby Pac-Man

Space Ace

Cliff Hanger

Vanguard

Donkey Kong 3

 

But all those years I frequented it, 1979-1988 or so, they never had a Galaga. The only place I ever played Galaga in the wild during the 80's was at the small 4 machine "arcade" at Papoose Pond Camp grounds in ME. In fact - I'm pretty sure I played the Atari 7800 version of Galaga before I ever played the arcade version.

Edited February 16, 2021 by John Stamos Mullet

[+Cafeman]

Galaga was at a local Sheetz (like a 7-11 store) arcade room,  but I'd see it at other arcades too.  I remember kids would claim they saw somebody at another arcade get a triple ship at the bottom.  I always thought they were just lying, since you can only get 2 ships in Galaga.  But later with the Namco classics discs, I realized they must have seen Gaplus.  Personally,  I never saw Gaplus at an arcade or even knew of its existence until the 90's. 

[schuwalker]

I don't know if these are hits to some:

 

Atari Quantum: Atari's last vector. Never recall seeing one bitd.

 

Gottlieb Mad Planets: I live in the Chicagoland area (HQ of Gottlieb) and I don't remember this one. Game is incredible on the real cab. Wonder what the production # was?

 

Williams Turkey Shoot: Another one I don't remember. This was "84 and a lot of these games are somewhat rare.

 

Joust II: Never seen this one bitd.

 

Bally Sente Snake Pit. Probably the best game for the system. I'll include Snacks n Jaxson and Chicken Shift

[+x=usr(1536)]

3 minutes ago, schuwalker said:

Gottlieb Mad Planets: I live in the Chicagoland area (HQ of Gottlieb) and I don't remember this one. Game is incredible on the real cab. Wonder what the production # was?

Only ever saw one of these on location in a supermarket, and agreed - in the actual cabinet, the gameplay is fantastic.

 

Production run was definitely small - I want to say over 1200 but under 1500 machines is rattling around in my head.

[schuwalker]

7 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:

Only ever saw one of these on location in a supermarket, and agreed - in the actual cabinet, the gameplay is fantastic.

 

Production run was definitely small - I want to say over 1200 but under 1500 machines is rattling around in my head.

What's really weird is... I had seen Three Stooges and Qberts Qubes and Krull on location - just never the aforementioned

[+x=usr(1536)]

Just now, schuwalker said:

What's really weird is... I had seen Three Stooges and Qberts Qubes and Krull on location - just never the aforementioned

Ditto Three Stooges and Krull for me, but never Q*Bert's Qubes - and we were nowhere close to Chicago at the time.

 

A lot of games achieved popularity after emulation made them available to a wider audience.  That may be distorting what's popular vs. what was popular due to availability BITD.

[Cynicaster]

2 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

Only ever saw one of these on location in a supermarket, and agreed - in the actual cabinet, the gameplay is fantastic.

 

 

 

I don't disagree; I think Mad Planets is a bangin' game, but I just can't enjoy it using the original control panel layout.  I tried an actual cabinet at Galloping Ghost a few years ago and I really wanted to enjoy it but I had to walk away from it.  The problem is, many years of playing Robotron and Smash TV and Black Widow has burned into my brain that the left hand controls character movement and right hand controls direction of fire, and Mad Planets does it the other way around.  I tried for about 10 minutes to play it and it was maddening and hopeless, almost like trying to play guitar left handed or something.  

 

Luckily I have a spinner on my MAME cabinet and am able to enjoy the game that way using a control scheme that my brain will accept.   

[zzip]

20 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

Mappy.  Apparently this was really popular, but I only ever saw it on location once when it was current.

I've seen Mappy in a few places.  Not the most common game,  I also don't think it was all that popular back then.   But now it's been included in so many Namco compilations that I wonder if that makes it seem more popular than it was?

 

15 hours ago, Tanooki said:

DK, DKjr, DK3, Popeye, and both Punchouts

DK3 was kinda uncommon.  I always played it when I found it,  I thought it was more fun than DKjr.

 

14 hours ago, Cafeman said:

Showbiz Pizza Palace in Johnstown had Donkey Kong 3, Space Ace, and Mario bros (which weren't anywhere else that I can remember).

I think Showbiz is the only place I saw a Mario Bros arcade system too.   I played the home version long before I ever saw the arcade version.

[+wongojack]

The first two that came to mind have both been mentioned - Punch Out and Space Ace.  Only saw either one a single time, but they both made a BIG impression.

 

I would NOT have considered Baby Pac Man popular, but I do remember actually playing it a single time and then never seeing it again.  I think I was frustrated by it after only a few plays because I wasn't patient enough to figure out the way the game actually worked.  IMO that game has aged very well and it seems much more accessible now.

 

Now that I'm typing this, I do remember seeing Mad Dog McCree one time in the 90s.  I thought it looked like a joke and walked right by.  Same arcade was where I first saw Star Wars Trilogy (98) which of course was everywhere for years (and still kind of is).

[John Stamos Mullet]

1 hour ago, wongojack said:

The first two that came to mind have both been mentioned - Punch Out and Space Ace.  Only saw either one a single time, but they both made a BIG impression.

 

I would NOT have considered Baby Pac Man popular, but I do remember actually playing it a single time and then never seeing it again.  I think I was frustrated by it after only a few plays because I wasn't patient enough to figure out the way the game actually worked.  IMO that game has aged very well and it seems much more accessible now.

 

Now that I'm typing this, I do remember seeing Mad Dog McCree one time in the 90s.  I thought it looked like a joke and walked right by.  Same arcade was where I first saw Star Wars Trilogy (98) which of course was everywhere for years (and still kind of is).

I saw at least two Punchouts in my time. One at the arcade mentioned above, and one at Steve's Sub shop, down the street from my house. I don't know who their arcade game supplier was, but they had EVERYTHING. They had room for 3 cabs, and they were in heavy rotation for the longest time. Shinobi, Hang-On, Afterburner, Legend of Kage, APB, Paperboy, Punchout, Karnov, Championship Sprint, Cabal, all kinds of oddballs, mixed in with the usuals MsPac, DK, etc.

[20ohm20]

Starcade at Disneyland had many "older" games that I've never seen anywhere else.  Most of them were still there (on the upper level where the queue for Space Mountain used to be adjacent) until at least 1992 or 1993.  I remember Steeplechase, Drag Race, Shark Jaws, Stunt Cycle, and a cockpit Star Fire off the top of my head.