What were the hardest arcade coin-op games?

[ericwierson]

Super Bagman

Not sure I played this one, but I remember the first was tough and I never got very far. Which one was the harder of the two?

[roadrunner]

Super Bagman

Not sure I played this one, but I remember the first was tough and I never got very far. Which one was the harder of the two?

The first one is harder, Super Bagman is a little easier. I got just over 27,000 points on it. I like the music, it would be nice if bagman moved a little faster.

 

I just played Super Bagman again and i did even better. 31,630 points.

 

Edited November 11, 2009 by roadrunner

[retrorussell]

Super Bagman

Not sure I played this one, but I remember the first was tough and I never got very far. Which one was the harder of the two?

Super Bagman allowed you to bring the wheelbarrow down to a lower level (on the last screen). That alone made Super Bagman a little easier than the first game.

[tz101]

1. Make Trax

2. Bubbles

3. Sinistar

4. Robotron 2084

5. Defender

6. Joust

7. Qix

8. Phoenix

9. Bosconian

10. Pole Position

[ericwierson]

1. Make Trax

2. Bubbles

3. Sinistar

4. Robotron 2084

5. Defender

6. Joust

7. Qix

8. Phoenix

9. Bosconian

10. Pole Position

I never played #1 or #9.

Since I owned Robotron it was not too bad.

Defender is pretty much impossible.

Joust very easy to get 200k

Qix is a tough one, but did not play it enough to give an honest opinion.

Phoenix was pretty easy for the first few rounds of completion.

I forgot how hard P.P. was I very rarely made to the end (after 3 or 4 races?).

[retrorussell]

Bosconian's pretty easy IMHO. Just don't take too long or the enemies go nutso and bombard you like crazy to the tune of "CONDITION RED!!!" "CONDITION RED!!!", etc.

 

Maketrax is hard to get past more than a handful of rounds. The fish are pretty smart. Though it's tempting to smush the stupid bird, feet, tire, etc. that add more tracks they really help you, since you move faster when wiping trails, as opposed to moving across clean floorspace, where the fish can catch up to you.

 

I own a Phoenix cabinet. It's fairly easy to pass all the levels at least a few times when you implement some basic strategies.. especially on the egg round, where you stay at the edges mostly as the birds/eggs slow down when they reach them. Also, using the infamous 3 diagonal bird trick (shoot 3 diagonal flying birds in 2 seconds to score 200,000 points)and letting the mothership come all the way down before destroying it for 9,000 or so points boosts your score a good deal.

 

I pretty much agree with 3-7 being tough. I was never particularly good at those.

[S1500]

Pole Position, at least the NES version of it, is possible to play & enjoy. Even though it's not analog control for the steering, I managed quite well. I just played the Xbox 360 port, and was hitting the rumble strips non stop.

 

Make Trax. Yep, only half the # of enemies, but they are faster than you. They will kill you.

[VectorGamer]

 

Maketrax is hard to get past more than a handful of rounds. The fish are pretty smart. Though it's tempting to smush the stupid bird, feet, tire, etc. that add more tracks they really help you, since you move faster when wiping trails, as opposed to moving across clean floorspace, where the fish can catch up to you.

 

 

Make Trax - Walter Day's favorite game. It was moderately popular for a brief period of time. My local bowling alley probably had it for a month and yanked it for something else.

 

The introductory music is abrasive and I never made it past the second screen, mainly because it never got too many repeat plays out of me.

 

But, despite all this, I own a Make Trax cabinet. It was a good deal - control panel, monitor glass, marquee and coin door for $75. Also, it was attractive because it wasn't a marquee title. It would have been predictable to buy a Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man cabinet to sit next to my Galaga cabinet. Some folks my age will look at it and say "I've never even heard of that one."

[tz101]

 

Maketrax is hard to get past more than a handful of rounds. The fish are pretty smart. Though it's tempting to smush the stupid bird, feet, tire, etc. that add more tracks they really help you, since you move faster when wiping trails, as opposed to moving across clean floorspace, where the fish can catch up to you.

 

 

Make Trax - Walter Day's favorite game. It was moderately popular for a brief period of time. My local bowling alley probably had it for a month and yanked it for something else.

 

The introductory music is abrasive and I never made it past the second screen, mainly because it never got too many repeat plays out of me.

 

But, despite all this, I own a Make Trax cabinet. It was a good deal - control panel, monitor glass, marquee and coin door for $75. Also, it was attractive because it wasn't a marquee title. It would have been predictable to buy a Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man cabinet to sit next to my Galaga cabinet. Some folks my age will look at it and say "I've never even heard of that one."

 

My arcade experience with Make Trax was on a cocktail table cabinet. I never got past the second level. The fish were always going over where I had already painted. It was maddeningly difficult.

[ericwierson]

Played Donkey Kong on an original cabinet today. I forgot how hard it was. I could not get past the 1st elevator screen in 3 attempts, I stopped playing after that. I might be going out on a limb here, but this is one tough game.

[VectorGamer]

Played Donkey Kong on an original cabinet today. I forgot how hard it was. I could not get past the 1st elevator screen in 3 attempts, I stopped playing after that. I might be going out on a limb here, but this is one tough game.

 

 

You're not - Donkey Kong was voted the toughest arcade game of all time.

[ericwierson]

I have a new one to add after playing it in emulation : Lunar Lander. This is a very tough game to do well on. I watched the video of the guy setting the world record and I was truly amazed. I could not get half his score even after I used his tricks.

Edited March 6, 2010 by ericwierson

[ericwierson]

Played Donkey Kong on an original cabinet today. I forgot how hard it was. I could not get past the 1st elevator screen in 3 attempts, I stopped playing after that. I might be going out on a limb here, but this is one tough game.

 

 

You're not - Donkey Kong was voted the toughest arcade game of all time.

I guess it depends on which list you go by, but the lists I have seen voted Ghosts and goblins the hardest. And I agree it is a pretty impossible game.

[retrorussell]

I just don't see Donkey Kong being all that hard.. I can get up to about the 3rd elevator sequence.

 

You want hard, I will always say Gravitar's difficulty level is crazy high.

[retrorussell]

And I'll throw in Space Panic as a close second. I will NEVER master killing the enemies that need to be dropped more than one story.

[Bountybob]

1. Make Trax

2. Bubbles

3. Sinistar

4. Robotron 2084

5. Defender

6. Joust

7. Qix

8. Phoenix

9. Bosconian

10. Pole Position

I never played #1 or #9.

Since I owned Robotron it was not too bad.

Defender is pretty much impossible.

Joust very easy to get 200k

Qix is a tough one, but did not play it enough to give an honest opinion.

Phoenix was pretty easy for the first few rounds of completion.

I forgot how hard P.P. was I very rarely made to the end (after 3 or 4 races?).

 

Defender was far from impossible you just needed to learn how to play it.Tip Landers are the primary objective and reduce the number of humanoids to a managable level.It's very important to learn how to use Hyperspace correctly.

Edited March 17, 2010 by Bountybob

[ledzep]

Never really played Sinistar in the arcades (tried once or twice, got wasted fast) but just watching others play it I knew I'd never get the hang of it.

 

For me, counting only the games I actually tried to play, I'd say Stargate was one of the hardest. Defender was hard enough but something about Stargate's controls made that task even more terrible.

 

Lunar Lander was basically impossible for me. I might get to the third try once in a while but I'd eat up all my fuel too quickly.

 

Gravitar is an extension of Lunar Lander and so was even harder.

 

Karate Champ hasn't been mentioned. Usually I'd play against a friend for a few quarters. Once we decided we were done feeding more quarters the "winner" would take on the computer opponent and that guy would just strut out and beat me or my friend unmerciful. We would laugh at that and play each other Karate Champ just so one of us could get creamed by the computer.

 

Another game nobody mentioned is Empire City: 1931, that one started out easy but at a certain point the tommy gunners were too difficult.

 

Rip-Off was hard mostly because of those controllers and the increasing speed of the enemies (and never getting your little triangle pods replenished). Just thinking about playing that game again gives me carpal tunnel.

 

Tailgunner was hard, once you lost that shield (and you never got it back) it was only a matter of time before you died.

 

Robotron 2084 was too difficult for me, I would watch my friends who were good at it and try what they did but I'd always get wiped.

 

The laserdisc game Cobra Command beat me solid, too. I loved the anime look to it and being the gunner for that copter but at a certain level I just couldn't kill the enemies the right way. Love the sound effects for the guns and the explosions, that cost me a lot of quarters.

 

Moon Cresta owned me. I loved that game and would try and try to get a high score but having that stacked ship made it so hard to avoid getting killed.

 

I own a Xevious machine, it's one of my favorite games, but I still never got that good at it, it was always so difficult once I died the first time, the enemies got harder, especially those exploding black balls.

[ericwierson]

Never really played Sinistar in the arcades (tried once or twice, got wasted fast) but just watching others play it I knew I'd never get the hang of it.

 

For me, counting only the games I actually tried to play, I'd say Stargate was one of the hardest. Defender was hard enough but something about Stargate's controls made that task even more terrible.

 

Lunar Lander was basically impossible for me. I might get to the third try once in a while but I'd eat up all my fuel too quickly.

 

Gravitar is an extension of Lunar Lander and so was even harder.

 

Karate Champ hasn't been mentioned. Usually I'd play against a friend for a few quarters. Once we decided we were done feeding more quarters the "winner" would take on the computer opponent and that guy would just strut out and beat me or my friend unmerciful. We would laugh at that and play each other Karate Champ just so one of us could get creamed by the computer.

 

Another game nobody mentioned is Empire City: 1931, that one started out easy but at a certain point the tommy gunners were too difficult.

 

Rip-Off was hard mostly because of those controllers and the increasing speed of the enemies (and never getting your little triangle pods replenished). Just thinking about playing that game again gives me carpal tunnel.

 

Tailgunner was hard, once you lost that shield (and you never got it back) it was only a matter of time before you died.

 

Robotron 2084 was too difficult for me, I would watch my friends who were good at it and try what they did but I'd always get wiped.

 

The laserdisc game Cobra Command beat me solid, too. I loved the anime look to it and being the gunner for that copter but at a certain level I just couldn't kill the enemies the right way. Love the sound effects for the guns and the explosions, that cost me a lot of quarters.

 

Moon Cresta owned me. I loved that game and would try and try to get a high score but having that stacked ship made it so hard to avoid getting killed.

 

I own a Xevious machine, it's one of my favorite games, but I still never got that good at it, it was always so difficult once I died the first time, the enemies got harder, especially those exploding black balls.

Great list.

Stargate - Tough one. I did find I was able to play longer on this than Defender.

Xevious - Loved this game, but I was only able to get past the first mother ship and was done.

Karate Champ - Not trying to brag, but could get quite far against the comp.

I never played Empire City, Rip-off, Tailgunner, or laser disc Chopper Command.

[VectorGamer]

 

 

Moon Cresta owned me. I loved that game and would try and try to get a high score but having that stacked ship made it so hard to avoid getting killed.

 

 

Eagle is way harder than Moon Cresta simply because of the lousy collision detection.

[Derek]

Now that I know there is no 'end' to Xevious, I don't feel any need to ever play it again. The exploding black balls, and the fact that you had to start over and see all the same stuff, only to die again when you got to the black balls. Really, they exploded into about 20 seperate fast moving deadly projectiles, and your ship slogged around the screen as though it was immersed in molasses. You had no chance of evading your demise especially since they appeared out of nowhere and detonated right near your man who was busy trying to move through the invisible molasses that impeded his movement on the screen.

 

Strategy X, with the fuel that runs out faster than anyone could possibly have a chance to replenish it. Crater Raider, so fucking hard to steer, even in MAME where I could change the sensitivity. Many other games I could mention with steering sensitivity being the ruining factor. For example, anything by Cinematronics, jeez, did they have an allergy to joysticks? All of their games could have been so much better with joystick instead of left, right, thrust, fire, and having the left and right send you wildly in circles unless you gently tapped them. Boxing Bugs and Solar Quest, no one can argue that they were impossible to steer gently enough to find the game any fun.

 

Sanritsu's Dream Shopper, you just seem to walk into black holes and die??? Taito's Electric YoYo, basically impossible to steer as things would move into your path and you had no recourse to change your direction, thus you died every time. Any of the Stern games with the one pixel enemy fire that was virtually invisible, especially if you weren't playing the machine in a completely dark room, Minefield and Rescue come to mind. Berzerk could have been fun, but Stern's greed to finally have a quarter eater ruined it. Did anyone ever score 10000 and get a free man? I thought that was laughable as after three boards the robots shooting at lightning speed in 16 directions and you walking slowly despite feet moving at 100 mph...just insane. I know I have said it in previous posts about games being annoyingly hard, but really, what were the test groups playing versus the insanely difficult to stay alive games that were unleashed on us in the arcade?...Anything from SNK, other than Vanguard needed far more refining toward playability.

 

I think after sifting through MAME for the games that I didn't immediately delete, I could easily add others. Joust, too hard to steer, as was Bubbles, Defender had a certain amount of annoying 'drift' to the controls as well.

 

Time Limit wich doesn't even appear now in MAME, (it's not on the list of games on the version I am using, anyway,) though I know that it only got one quarter out of me, and playing it using MAME, I wasted no time in deleting the rom before I got myself pissed off again...Such an absolutely shitty excuse for a game. You hardly had time to focus on the screen and find your man before the shots of the enemy appearing magically out of thin air and shooting you quickly ate up your three men. I'm sure the game was over in 15 seconds. I have no idea whether there was a second screen. There really was no need as no one could have made it to the top of the first screen as there was no way to evade the enemies who just appeared out of nowhere. Many more games I could pick apart, as I just don't get how every game that was programmed was subjected to test groups to see if it was ready, and still so much total shit made it to the arcades...

[retrorussell]

Jail Break. I really, really hate that game.

[mightymage]

mr do castle

street fighter 1

defender

[Steeler]

I didn't read all the pages; did anyone mention the 1989 version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? I got it on XBLA about a year ago... dang, that game is hard.

[ericwierson]

mr do castle

street fighter 1

defender

Agree on Mr. Do's Castle, I played it a few times, but gave up.

Street Fighter was pretty easy for the first 3 or four fights, after that.........Good luck.

Defender.....see earlier posts.

[CARTRIDGE STEALER]

I wouldn't put Space Ace on the list. All it was is basically a 'memorize the move list' type of game. After practicing for a few weeks I was able to beat it easily and for many months there after. Of course once I stopped playing it and forgot the moves list then I went back to sucking. Still, Space Ace and DL aren't about skill they're about memorizing moves. Even a person who is really bad at games could beat it with a little practice.

 

Tempest

 

most arcade games are like that. they all have patterns and when you memorize them, theyre easy to beat.