The Aliens: Extermination arcade cabinet has pulse rifle replica lightguns that look and feel pretty damn sweet.

You forgot SEGA's 360, that was the ultimate arcade machine.

I once saw a Fist of the North Star arcade game where you actually had to punch parts of the screen that would pop out at you to damage your opponent.

First fighting game to ever cause me to actually break a sweat.

God DAMN do I miss having a decent arcade. My 360 just isn't the same...

The Franklin once had a traveling exhibit of the greatest Arcade games in history...Much of what was in there was also on this list. Go yell at them and demand they bring it back and make it permanent!
http://www2.fi.edu/

Incredible article. I also miss arcades. The only places I know for sure that still has them are a flea market (flesh-eating bacteria included!) and the bus station (Sadly, flesh-eating bacteria sold seperatly.). Oh, and the miniature golf courses.

But still, RiverFair in Indiana had hundreds of them (Including Beasturrizer, which was Bloody Roar with a really gay name.) and this one that closed down years ago in small area near my house also rocked the boat.

Best part of APB was..
 

After you captured each criminal you had to beat a confession out of them by wacking buttons and moving the joystick before the sarge came downstairs.

I remember clearly the 'Hum dee dum humm de dum" of the sarge walking downstairs (you saw his shadow in the glass window) while the suspect cried out as you beat them.

Anyhow, they don't make um like that anymore I guess.

I consider this list null and void with the omission of the R-360 version of "G-Loc" that was essentially a giant pod that you had to strap into. It was able to rotate a full 360 degrees on the horizontal and vertical axis and even had a built in "barf button" to quit the game if you started to get sick from spinning.

Pity the Midway Space Invaders cab was chosen, when the original TAITO Space Invaders cabinet blows it away in so many respects. It has superior artwork in it's cabinet, backgrounds, and control panel. It also has 2-way Joystick control (not button control).. the way it's meant to be played by it's makers. It's by far the superior cabinet.

Also it's worth mentioning the ghostly holographic effect both the cabinets have for their display which uses mirrors to achieve it's effect. You don't see much of those anymore :)

Nice article
 

It certainly brought back some fond memories, and made me mourn the loss of many, many quarters.

I'd like to point out that Robotron 2084 had the dual joystick move/shoot setup a few years before Smash TV.

I'd also like to nominate the original Street Fighter cabinet, which used pressure-sensitive rubber pods instead of buttons. To deliver a punch or a kick, you punched the pod - the harder the you hit the pod, the harder your character punched.

It was kinda neat because nobody could dominate the game for hours, like they would with some of the other arcade fighting games. After a few matches in a row, your arms would get so tired you couldn't deliver a hard punch any more, and any newb with fresh arms could beat you. :lol

i remember the "race Drivin " game you sit in a car molding and try to avoid the block shaped things and run out of time, it was funny but kind of good at the time

Man, I remember playing TMNT back at my old arcade...never got past the first level, but enjoyed it nevertheless.

I wasn't around to see those vintage cabinets, but as a kid, I truly adimired that of Mortal Kombat 2. The huge screen and the imponent Raiden figure on it's side marveled me for quite a couple years. But I was a shitty player and barely could reach for the joystick, so I never really played it... but let's face it, I was chicken-shitting a little. A lame performance on that arcade would be like standing naked in front of your classroom. That's how I felt like.

I was hoping that Time Traveler would make the list! I can't think of how many quarters I wasted on that one *laughs* I actually lucked out and found a used copy of the game disc at EB (complete with 3D glasses no less!) that plays on a PS2...

...

...

Still can't beat the thing...

I know its not really one of the greatest but i always like the mortal kombat 4 cabinet. They had pictures of the real actors that playd the characters in the game and quan chi's big ass white head loomin at you as soon as you walk in the arcade is always a good motivation to burn off some quarters. Before they recently closed the arcade at our mall they had one but the game inside was like, dragonball z or somethin like that. But back when new 3d mk was all the rage, i think i stood there lookin at the thing while waitin my turn long enough to fully be engrossed by the droning stare of quan chi. now i have a fear of bald men, albino people and cakey black makeup. *shudder*

I can't believe you guys missed Wacko - should be in the top-10!

i remember playing guitar freaks it was really fun. i never liked DDR, i prefer Pump it Pump

I'm surprised Mad Dog McCree isn't on the list.
I remember when this came out it cost 50p a go! At a time when arcade games cost either 10 or 20p.
Damn worth it though. It was almost worth getting killed just to see the creepy undertaker dude standing over your casket talking to you.

Another great game, which I can't quite remember the name of right now, had a puchbag on it and a camera so that before the game started you could have your own mug superimposed over the game character. I'm sure some psychologists made a good living off of kids who had an uncontrolable urge the punch the crap out of themselves.

Mad Dog McCree cabinet here:
http://www.klov.com/images/11/11812421365.jpg

Awesome article!

I would give my left nut and half of my right for a STUN Runner machine.

Aaah, the French.

Kid N is right. The Taito space invaders cabinet is a thing of beauty! Surely would have notched it up the list a few.

Fantastic and well researched article. and thank you for these fine urban champion icons!

Good call on the Space Invaders, but if and when we turn this into a "top 100" list, I think the Space Invaders cocktail style table will make it onto the list as it's one of the earlier ones and definitely one of the cooler looking ones.

It's crazy, even with all the research and work that was put into this thing, there are still loads of games I've never even seen. We've received soooo many great suggestions for the list that I'm sure we'll eventually update it to make it a top 100 instead of a top 50.

Thanks again for all the compliments everyone and keep those arcade cabinet suggestions a' coming!

oh all i can rember palying is gauntlet being the Dwarf though never the ranger or what he was as seemed to be a bit rubbish

Time Crisis probably ate more of my quarters than any other machine.