The 50 Greatest Arcade Cabinets In Video Game History!
 

Automatically generated comment thread for The 50 Greatest Arcade Cabinets In Video Game History!.

Incredible article...

Cruisin' the World though is one of my most memorable arcade games.

"Computer space" ? That thing is crazy, it belongs in a museum :O
It looks like Gumby fucked a tv.

In 1971??? Crazy old.
I know there this game made in the 50s though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2E9iSQfGdg

Crazy!

Wow - I had forgotten about some of these beauties..."Two Tigers" ruled my life once...

A few humble inclusions? "Gauntlet" was always a fave, because it was the first co-op game I really got into. And I always went for "The Simpsons" over TMNT every time. "Operation Wolf" and its sequel "Operation Thunderbolt" were doozies too - the first time I ever saw a gun on a cabinet.

A fantastic trip down memory lane; thanks heaps guys. Damn, where can I get these things?

I totally remember Gauntlet ;o I was always the Valkrye.

Beootifool game of football (or soccer as you say) where you rolled a sphere instead of moving joystick to play. Veeery beootifool but don't think was in usa so forget about me... :domo

Oh yeah, operation wooolf! Mr Killgrave very right! And strip poker!

i was hoping to see Lucky & Wild there, totally one of my favorite arcade games

I have a few additions I would also like to suggest.

One thing I did not see that was a fun memory for me was a style of arcade unit, the tabletop arcade game. Games like Pac Man, Moon Patrol, Galaga, Wizard of Wor, and Crazy Climber were sometimes put into tables that you could also have your drink and pizza on.

A nice looking multiplayer arcade unit would be a game called Crime Fighters, It didn't just look cool on the cabinet either, it was huge fun because you could kick your enemies while they were down and even better, at the end of every stage, you usually fought a boss that was from a mainstream horror movie. Freddy Kruger, Jason, and Leatherface all made cameos.

Smash TV was another one that I will always remember, it had such a comical look to it and was such a campy theme game wise.

I came...

Alright, a comment on each page: In this page, I choose TMNT to win checkmate in 11 moves.

Didn't realize the comments moved to all pages of the article neato. But T-Mek gets KO in round 3, and Sinistar wins the kewpie doll. Oh, yes.

I never got to experience most of these... I had no idea Computer Space even existed.

Ahhh, what a refreshing trip down memory lane. It gave me something to think about while I was avoiding work. I wonder if arcades would just end up throwing out the grips from paperboy for health concerns. Not that arcades were usually a shining example of cleanliness. The combination of prepubescent hand sweat and pizza grease collecting in the grooves over the years.

I know I spent enough that would equal roughly half of my college tuition on the X-men game. Jump-Fierce Attack-Jump-Fierce Attack. Also one that I never got the hang of which I'm surpised wasn't included is Dragons Lair, especially for as cutting edge as it was when it came out (I think it cost $1.00 to play, which would be like $43 dollars today).

In New York City a few months ago and there is a Bar called Barcade that has about 30 different classic arcade games and they keep track of high scores on a chalk board. Its exciting. Played Tapper for about 2 hours.

Well done - what a splendid article written by two nice young men.

I distinctly remember the Time Traveler "hologram" game. This was the ultimate excitement for me as a 13-year old boy, even if they weren't real holograms. I also had weird demonic action figure toys that had removable souls with holographic images. The packaging warned not to immerse the toys in water, which of course I did, in the bathtub, to see if the demonic spirit would be released from his plastic prison. Does anybody else remember these toys? I've forgotten what they were called.

this is one LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG article!

didn't Arm Kings break a few arms? Now that's an arcade game!

I remember the X-Men one, it was...


Awesome

that was great! it really took me back to my childhood, going to blackpool with my bro and spending a stupid amount of 20p coins XD

actaually, its just reminded me to set up my home arcade machine! im not sure what to stick in it tho:
cap'n american and the avengers, cap'n commando, avp, simpsons, xmen, aliens, or the punisher... the choices are endless!

I miss arcades :( Used to be a staple of every mall. Now I don't know of any in my area (East Coast) that are like the ones I grew up with - dank, loud, buzzing, dangerous. All that's left now are arcades bosting a few older cabinet games and a bunch of Dance Dance Revolution set ups. Only one I actually still know of is up in the middle of the white mountains of NH, attached to a 2 lane bowling ally, mini golf, run down extravaganza called " UN T WN", which I'm assuming is missing its F an O, or is something really dirty. Seasonal place only open in the summer. Last and only time I was there the old geezer that ran the place shuffled out to greet us. "Heh, you guys wanna play the games do ya?" he snickered as he limped out back to start up the generator that powered the room. Granted, having Pac and Mrs Pac, and Moon Patrol and a working BattleZone and Tron Deadly Disks along side Galaga, Galaxian and a few others was a nice boost of nostalgia, but raccoons had nested in some of the cabinets and each screen needed to be wiped down from the decade of dust accumulated. I think the newest game there was The Simpsons.
Place has closed down, to be turned into whatever it is they turn things into up in the forest primeval up there, and I'm kicking myself for not being around when the old guy had a big sale and got rid of all his cabinets. I'm assuming they were going for dirt cheap.

I would've liked to see a Triforce cabinet in the list. Nintendo, Namco, and Sega worked together to make it. It even let's you insert a Gamecube memory card for the F-Zero game they made for it. It tilts left and right (As long as you buckle up, of course!) as well. One helluva ride. Here's a look at both versions(I played on the original cabinet): http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=10971

Nice article...Ive seen black painted versions of diretruck at a hotel...and i agree for the most part with your listings

I strongly suggest Virtua-On, Virtua Fighter 2, and The Lost World!

Virtua-On's cabinet was similar to T-Mek.

Virtua Fighter 2's cabinet was just plain pretty, a nice paint job.

And, The Lost World had you sit in miniature car with a big monitor as the windshield!

Wow, Panic Park was weird. The arm wrestling game was okay, but it was too easy too cheat by using two hands. X-Men was awesome too. It is a shame that this article didn't include one of the Sega games with the HUGE machineguns. Prop Cycle is missed too.

Midway just loves to crush dreams. >:C

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.

I thought the 'Addams Family Generator' Looked pretty nifty in the arcade. It was the first thing I was drawn to when I saw it there anyway. I gotta say the vibration didn't feel like shit though. It was pretty fun to piss about with though.

Great article, I thought I knew them all but I was wrong! Here are my comments:

1. Fire Truck - Thank you for including that. That was a very unique game.
2. Smash TV - More 'evolutionary' than revolutionary. As mentioned before, Robotron was the first to employ 2 joysticks for movement and firing. Smash TV just added a second player.
3. I agree with an earlier comment: Wacko should be considered for the next list.
4. Tempest had a very unique cabinet. Great artwork, rotary control. Always drew me in.
5. Galaxy Force (1988) was quite impressive
6. Joust cocktail version. One of the few cocktails you can sit side by side. Good game too!
7. Sprint 1 was one of the first stand-up driving games, but Sprint 8 was the first 8 player stand up driving game. The cabinet is quite a spectacle to see. Take that Ivan Stewart!

I loved this article simply for the nostalgia of the arcade. A damn dirty shame that they're becoming more and more extinct these days. All well. On a different note, I'd love for somebody to get a snapshot of the original Splatterhouse arcade cabinet and post it, simply to see what the game that continually kicks my ass looked like in arcades.

Police 911...i played it for the first time a few days ago. normal shooter with a gun but it detects your bodily movements to hide behind obstacles and what not so you don't get hit by mobster fire...time crisis be damned!

Hehe yeah I loved that one too, but that wasn't really a video arcade game. It was more of a novelty attraction that people would tease their friends about. Still amazes me when I see a grown adult who can't last through that entire thing. It's not like it's real electricity... it's just vibrations as you said.

Thanks man, glad it brought back some memories. I miss arcades too, but there are more classic arcades popping up around the country. Search around and maybe you can find one close to you. We've also got some killer Japanese arcades around here, complete with Typing Of The Dead (highly recommended).

As for Splatterhouse, the only place online that has a photo of it is klov and sadly, it doesn't look all too impressive, even though the game was awesome. I dig the cheesy marquee though.

Even Destructoid loves it! :)

http://www.destructoid.com/i-mockery...me-64717.phtml

I agree with most of 'em.

Yeppers, Destructoid has always been really cool about featuring whatever our latest gaming stuff is. Real nice group o' people writing for 'em too.

although i like most of the cabinets in this one, i'm disappointed that they left out the original Darius which was notorious for being the first shmup that spanned 3 screens wide (which was quite innovative for its time).

Ah, Smash TV, a game i first played on a "Atari History" disk, and i only thing i can say is that its a bitch to play Smash TV on a Ps2 controller.

Amazing article. I hope that cabinets and arcades come back into style.

Discs Of Tron!

My mother's first husband's best friend owned an arcade that, well I used to go to all the time when I was a kid. The had the full version and I remember playing that bad boy religiously. I was barely tall enough to actually PLAY but my god was that an amazing game.

It's the loss of games like that, that make me furious to see the loss of the arcade.

Amazing article. The only time I did a lot of jumping up and down and screaming to a video game was when my foot accidentally hit the Power button just as I finally got to the Great Palace in Zelda II and I realized I hadn't saved the game at all!!(Yes, I know. Stupid of me). Lots of memories here. I'll never forget standing on tiptoe at the age of five to play Ms.Pac Man. Keep up the good work, guys. I can't wait for the next 50 greatest Arcade Cabinets.

I'll echo that. Of course, Lucky & Wild was about the only thing to do in the town I lived in.

We have been robbed of our arcades...Now they only languish in disrepair at bus stations and movie theaters...

Nice article.

Funny thing about T-Mek, it was the grand pappy to the Mech Warrior Franchise & later Mech Assult

I loved the X-Man game so much when I was little, I bought my very own a few years ago. I love it. It wouldn't even fit through the house entrance until the front door was taken off! Whale of a game, but fun as hell!

discs of tron in the arcade in the contemporary hotel at disney world. i can still hear the loud bangs as the discs bounced of the walls during the battle

I never knew that they had already created guitar hero based arcade cabinets. Before reading this, I never knew they existed. o_O

You know what you forgot "or I may have just not seen"

Carn-evil. I may buy the cabinet refurbished for 1400$

BOOO I was hoping to see Galaxy Force II on this list. But instead After burner II took it's spot. Ok yeah after Burner was more popular. But Galaxy force II had superior game play and graphics. As for cabinet design innovation. It had a really cool sit in cockpit, that had a purple flying saucer design. Also it was the first cabinet that not only tilted up and down like after burner but also spined in a full 360 degrees.

Hi I have a game that you all have overlooked as one of the best/coolest games ever. It is a game by Global VR call "Vortek V3" the cabinet is absolutely awesome looks like a bee landed on the top of the cabinet and got stuck and it is a great game. When I got it the counterbalance was not right so the person I bought it from said it was too hard to play for extended periods of time and after 10 mins of tinkering it is now weightless effort to play for hours at end. The one I own has 5 different games on it and it is always good for a night with my friends. It is the first full sized arcade I have bought. This game should definately be remembered if the list goes to 100

I know this answer comes about two years late, but I believe the action figures you are referring to were called "Visionaries". I personally never owned one, but I remember seeing them back in the day.

Excellent article, by the way, and also brings back some fond memories for me as well. And 8-track? Let me tell you, son, back in the day, 8-track was the shit. Hell, I can even remember N.W.A.'s 'Straight Outta Compton' being on 8-track.

You know, after posting that, I suddenly feel very old. Not to mention remembering playing Pac-Man, Galaxian, Moon Patrol, and Space Invaders as a young'un, maybe 6 or 7. We didn't go to an arcade, oh no. My dad took my mom and me to a truck stop. Now, this place wasn't what one would normally picture a truck stop to be. It was actually a nice clean place to grab a good burger and spend the evening playing the arcade games. We all loved it. Ah, what memories. Good times, good times. :)

One of the greatest gaming experiences in my life was playing the 4 player version of The Simpsons with the cabinet that had 4 seats and the monitor was in the shape of the Simpsons tv set. We played it from start to finish, I wasn't even bothered that I had to play as Marge.

Daytona USA they have up to eight players.

This article brought me to tears. So much nostalgia...I miss arcades...and I mean real arcades, not the pathetic excuses of ones you see nowadays. I mean ones from the good old days. Ones that were busting at the seams with awesome retro video games like TMNT, Simpsons, Space Invaders, Street Fighter, Final Fight, etc.

Too bad most of these games can mostly only be played via emulation nowadays... :(

Awesome list, but there were two cabinets that I was hoping would have made the list:

1. "Beast Busters" - the first zombie FPS that I can remember. What was rad about it was that the controller was an uzi a la "Operation Wolf" - except this baddie had three of them! Plus some really cool zombie apocalypse artwork on the sides.

2. "Lucky and Wild" - a driving/shooting game clearly inspired by the "Lethal Weapon" movies. The controls for player 1 (Lucky) were a steering wheel, gas and brake pedals, and a mounted hand gun so you could drive and shoot(!) while player 2 (Wild) just had a gun. If you wanted though, player 1 could focus on the driving while player 2 could wield both guns John Woo style. Man, I wish I could find these games...

This article brought me to tears. So much nostalgia