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The 12 greatest arcade machines of all time

Decades later, we still feel these dinosaurs' footsteps – and they still play perfectly

Words: on June 29, 2009
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61 comments

  • gmilf71 - June 30, 2009 7:18 p.m.

    Dude WTF? where the hell is Asteriods?!

  • TheWebSwinger - June 30, 2009 6:41 p.m.

    Ahh, yet another article whose impact I can't fully feel, since I was born in 1990. Thanks NostalgiaRadar! p.s. i lol'd at calling Space Invaders a "bleak sci-fi shooter".

  • iluvmyDS - June 30, 2009 2:47 p.m.

    My neighbor has an NBA Jam arcade machine. I agree with all the points on the Gauntlet entry.

  • G1drake - June 30, 2009 2:31 p.m.

    NBA Jam.........just...great

  • bensurfs - June 30, 2009 11:44 a.m.

    Hows about Space harrier? First use of a hydraulic moving cabinet. That blew me away at the time...

  • 435 - June 30, 2009 9:31 a.m.

    I would write a long, involved entry here for Double Dragon and the reason why this list needs to be bumped to 13 for it's inclusion, but I am lazy. Just to say that the game essentially spearheaded a whole genre that people spent billions on; the side-scrolling beat-em-up. Such games as The Simpsons, TMNT, Sunset Riders, Alien vs. Predator, Final Fight and Streets of Rage owe direct lineage to the title's popularity, and even games such as God of War, Prototype, Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Crackdown, Dynasty Warriors and the GTA series can be considered 3D derivations of the genre. reCAPTCHA: invisible bikini

  • ELpork - June 30, 2009 5:34 a.m.

    And Tekken 4. First time I ever said "DAMN, Them's some sexy graphic's" in a crowded arcade.

  • sixboxes - June 30, 2009 4:21 a.m.

    No 4-player games, like TMNT, or X-Men, or (like someone else mentioned) the Simpsons. No shooters like Operation Wolf. No racing games. No Shinobi. No Bubble Bobble. No Tetris. this list is BULLSHIT. (ok, it's a good list. but it clearly doesn't pander to my bias well enough!)

  • linkganon - June 30, 2009 4:11 a.m.

    half life 2 is a series you wouldn't find in an average arcade.

  • linkganon - June 30, 2009 4:07 a.m.

    i know this may not have been in arcades but wasn't wolfenstein the first espionege based game in history? if so, if it was never created, there might have never been a solid snake nor metal gear solid series we have today. also without him, some playstation 1, 2 and 3 players may have never got into the gaming industry.

  • Harmon20 - June 30, 2009 3:34 a.m.

    a lot of this stuff is at that 5 story arcade in Downtown Disney. It was like a walk into the past, a past I never got to witness (since I was born in '92...)

  • Pytor - June 30, 2009 2:07 a.m.

    What! No Daytona USA? No Virtua Cop? No TMNT Arcade? No Time Crisis? Too a lesser degree, no Star Wars Arcade? No T2? No Aerosmi... Eh, scratch that last one.

  • Montag - June 30, 2009 2:07 a.m.

    Double dragon was era defining

  • bjt2012 - June 30, 2009 1:56 a.m.

    DDR FTW!

  • Cyberninja - June 30, 2009 1:13 a.m.

    no mvsc2 why that game is awesome and is in arcades

  • Ddz53 - June 30, 2009 1:13 a.m.

    Damn! Why was I born in '93!? The only game on this list that I had the chance to play in an arcade was DDR...

  • Defguru7777 - June 30, 2009 12:48 a.m.

    Donkey Kong also launched the movie King of Kong. Awesome movie.

  • SwampRock - June 30, 2009 midnight

    GR has a major bias for SF4

  • Jacob816 - June 29, 2009 11:44 p.m.

    No Simpsons arcade? Fail!

  • Hobojedi - June 29, 2009 11:21 p.m.

    Contra.. or Metal Slug. Those are cool.

Showing 41-60 of 61 comments

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