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Best Obscure MAME Experiences

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The legendary Double Dragon MAME cab of Omaha has been getting quite a workout. The best part has been showing many of my favorite games from back East to the childhood-arcade-deprived MMF. He now knows the joys of Future Spy and hopefully soon will obtain Mystic Marathon. Meanwhile I somehow never saw Zookeeper until now, so happy fun to me.

 

Then there are the games which came out of nowhere. We tried out one called Screw Loose which is worth a few spins. It's a prototype which had been developed for Mylstar by Tim Skelly (Reactor/Star Castle) and in an interview at the time of the crash he called it the best game he ever made, but it was abandoned after testing.

 

It's a lightning-fast shooter. You control a disembodied spirit which somehow has a springy head and hands which fly off when you take a hit. It's one of the most bizarre games I've ever seen, and over 20 years after reading about it I finally played it and was blown away.

 

Is there anything else worth abandoning Wizard of Wor for?

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Here's a quick (long) list of some favorites. I'm not sure how obscure they are, but I've never seen any of them in the arcades. A lot of these are cutesy platformers too... so be warned (if you aren't into that sort of thing).

 

Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves

Anteater

Arabian

Bagman

Baluba-louk no Densetsu

Baseball Stars II

Ben Bero Beh

Black Widow

Bogey Manor

Boggy '84

Bonanza Bros

Burning Force

Capcom Baseball

Capcom Sports Club

Chack'n Pop

Chameleon

Charlie Ninja

Chicken Shift

Circus Charlie

Complex X

Dr Micro

Funny Mouse

Guzzler

Hopper Robo

I,Robot

Intrepid

Jump Coaster

Jumping Jack

Kitten Kaboodle

Kram

Major Havoc

Marvin's Maze

Minky Monkey

Monster Bash

Mouser

Naughty Mouse

Nibbler

Noboranka

Oli-Boo-Chu

Pandora's Palace

Penguin Bros

Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory

Pipi & Bibis

Ponpoku

Pop Flamer

PuLiRuLa

Quantum

Round-Up

Scrambled Egg

Sinbad Mystery

Space Dungeon

Space Invaders '95 - Attack of the Lunar Loonies

Spelunker I & II

Splendor Blast

Super Glob

Tactician

The Amazing Adventures of Mr. F. Lea

The Pit

Thunder Ceptor

Tinkle Pit

Tube Panic

Volfied

Warp & Warp

Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa

Yam! Yam!?

Edited by mojofltr

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I was pleasantly surprised with The First Funky Fighter. It's not a versus fighting game at all, but a battle against hundreds of bloodthirsty sharks and crocodiles, seen from a first person viewpoint. It works a little like Whack-A-Mole... nasty creatures appear on the screen, and you punch the button that corresponds to their onscreen location. The game is short, but the graphics are terrific, with stylish comic book artwork and some of the most outrageous violence you've ever seen in a video game. Violence is nothing new in video games, but even after a decade of Mortal Kombat, some of the stuff you'll see in The First Funky Fighter will leave you speechless.

 

The only problem you may encounter is that the game requires nine buttons, while the standard arcade cabinet only has six at most. I played the game with the numeric keypad on my keyboard, and it works pretty well that way (although you lose the visceral impact of sinking your fists into giant padded buttons!).

 

JR

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Check out Cameltry. That is a great game I wish I would have seen in the arcade around where I lived.

 

EDIT: I also like Chicken Shift.

Edited by Inky

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Check out Cameltry.  That is a great game I wish I would have seen in the arcade around where I lived.

 

EDIT:  I also like Chicken Shift.

996157[/snapback]

 

I've actually got Cameltry for SNES, although for the US release of the game they changed it's name to "On the Ball."

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My recommendations:

 

Pandora's Palace

Dock Man

Dr. Micro

Major Havoc

ESP Ra.De.

 

--Zero

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My recommendations:

 

Pandora's Palace

Dock Man

Dr. Micro

Major Havoc

ESP Ra.De.

 

--Zero

996382[/snapback]

 

Everybody should play Major Havoc. Everybody should know Major Havoc. Talk about your unheralded classics.

 

BTW Ze_ro, get an import version of Bonk 3. It's much cheaper than the NTSC.

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A lot of those games were common in arcades around me in New Jersey:

 

Ones I've seen:

 

Anteater, Arabian, Bagman, Baseballk Stars II, Black Widow, Circus Charlie, Scrambled Egg, and the Moo Mesa one. Some of them I've seen in multiple arcades.. Moo Mesa, Arabian, Baseball Stars II, and Circus Charlie.

 

I recall a bootleg Circus Charlie that allowed you to select what stage to play and one where you had to go through them from start to finish. Baseball Stars II was very common. It was in a lot of arcades. I recall the roller rink (yes roller skates not blades) had it.

 

A lot of those games are really fun and interesting.. Jumping Jack, Jump Coaster, etc.

 

You should check out Gals Panic. There's a few different. It's like QIX but better and with japanese women in it.

 

Here's a quick (long) list of some favorites.  I'm not sure how obscure they are, but I've never seen any of them in the arcades.  A lot of these are cutesy platformers too...  so be warned (if you aren't into that sort of thing).

 

Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves

Anteater

Arabian

Bagman

Baluba-louk no Densetsu

Baseball Stars II

Ben Bero Beh

Black Widow

Bogey Manor

Boggy '84

Bonanza Bros

Burning Force

Capcom Baseball

Capcom Sports Club

Chack'n Pop

Chameleon

Charlie Ninja

Chicken Shift

Circus Charlie

Complex X

Dr Micro

Funny Mouse

Guzzler

Hopper Robo

I,Robot

Intrepid

Jump Coaster

Jumping Jack

Kitten Kaboodle

Kram

Major Havoc

Marvin's Maze

Minky Monkey

Monster Bash

Mouser

Naughty Mouse

Nibbler

Noboranka

Oli-Boo-Chu

Pandora's Palace

Penguin Bros

Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory

Pipi & Bibis

Ponpoku

Pop Flamer

PuLiRuLa

Quantum

Round-Up

Scrambled Egg

Sinbad Mystery

Space Dungeon

Space Invaders '95 - Attack of the Lunar Loonies

Spelunker I & II

Splendor Blast

Super Glob

Tactician

The Amazing Adventures of Mr. F. Lea

The Pit

Thunder Ceptor

Tinkle Pit

Tube Panic

Volfied

Warp & Warp

Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa

Yam! Yam!?

993822[/snapback]

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I love Taito, one of my favorite developers. However, I had never played or even heard of "The New Zealand Story" until I downloaded a bunch of ROMs. It may not be everyone's cup of tea but I enjoy it!

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You can't exactly call them obscure, but I'll say that I wouldn't have gotten addicted to KLAX and the Puzzle Bobble series if it weren't for MAME.

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I had a chance to steal a bootleg Scrambled Egg board along with a few other boards sitting up top of a pharmacy/deli in one building. I always regret not taking them... or atleast I should have asked to buy them cheap.

 

There was also a whole display and just about every Smurf figure ever made. I want them too.

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I love Taito, one of my favorite developers.  However, I had never played or even heard of "The New Zealand Story" until I downloaded a bunch of ROMs.  It may not be everyone's cup of tea but I enjoy it!

996977[/snapback]

 

That game got released for NES under the title Kiwi Kraze. On SMS it stayed the same.

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I love New Zealand Story, was addcited to it in the arcades. Cameltry as well, I feel sorry for those who haven't played it.

 

It's interesting to revisit games I've played a lot to see if they still hold up. Did I play so many hours of Magic Sword because it was a brilliant game, or because it was readily available in my student union? The second, definitely the second.

 

Try out Blaster Master as well.

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Did I play so many hours of Magic Sword because it was a brilliant game, or because it was readily available in my student union?  The second, definitely the second.

 

 

 

I played the game Arabian all the time at the local arcade. I thought it was a fun little game. Recently replayed it on MAME, and I can't for the life of me see what I was so enthralled about.

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klax

bomberman

rampart

bubble bobble

 

are the only games that come to mind that I became hooked on and have never seen (or at least paid attention to) in an arcade.

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