What is/was your favorite arcade game?

[Neo-Scholastic]

I like Qbert and Tempest.

[AkiraTheViking]

In my country they mostly had fighting games, of which I hated, so I mostly played racing games. I can't remember their names though. Would've loved it if there was a proper Tron Light cycle arcade game instead of the boring one we got in the real world.

Every year for my birthday, from when I was 25 - 29, instead of having a big party I would go to the arcade, called Galactica, in the mall and play Pacman while blasting Journey in my ears. Makes me super nostalgic for the early 90s and fun times with my late Dad. Haven't been able to do it for 3 years now due to covid lock down which ultimately pushed back my big 30th party to this year for my 33rd.

[paulpablo]

When games first started becoming 3d it seemed amazing at the time but they definitely look like a bag of shit when I look back at them.

I remember playing on tekken 1 before i had a ps1 at the arcade and being amazed by it (fuck I feel old) and I remember games like time crisis.

Nostalgia is a weird thing, for some reason the way this nightmare on elm street pin ball machine looked really sticks in my memory, I used to think it was amazing.

I remember seeing games like golden axe around but I knew I had that at home on my Sega so it seemed like a waste of money to play it at the arcade.

[AkiraTheViking]

^I know what you mean. I remember Tomb Raider Legend and Need for Speed Underground 2 blowing my mind at how "advanced" it looked and GTA: San Andreas had me floored at how much I could explore and do. As a result, those low polly explore games feel more immersive to me. Like I was playing Crash Bandicoot for the 1st time a few months ago and I felt like wanting to explore that world more.

[HappySkeptic]

I always liked Defender

[Neo-Scholastic]

Having had the pleasure of twice recently to replay many original cabinets at the Galloping Ghost arcade in Illinois, I can say that as a late middle age player, I mostly found the early iconic games the most fun to play: Space Invaders, Asteroids, Qix, Missile Command. The later generation of games: Centipede, Tapper, Dig Dug, marble madness, Qbert, etc. were creative and quirky...but IMHO everything after that felt derivative and formulaic. Sp

[emjay]

I can't say I remember playing many arcade games growing up, but I'm pretty sure one of my earliest consoles had some games that were also arcade games. The console was a big and ugly 'CBS' console (I think) with controllers that looked like telephone handsets. Two games Neo mentioned I think were on it, Missile Command and Dig Dug, which, if it's what I think it is, I knew as 'Mr Do'... pretty sure that was an arcade game. Other than that, the only others I can vaguely remember perhaps trying were Streetfighter 2 and Mortal Kombat, but that would have been a few years later, in the nineties.

[GrandizerII]

Haven't touched an arcade in ages, but it would be any of the beat 'em up games I used to enjoy in the 80s/early 90s (TMNT and Simpsons, for example).