Nebulon Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 Here's my list of recommended 1980s arcade video games (with Gauntlet marking the halfway point in the decade): TRON Centipede Defender Space Fury Galaga Tempest Missile Command Battle Zone Donkey Kong Pac-Man Mr. Do! Gaplus Mr Do's Castle Burger Time Ms. Pac-Man Robotron Crystal Castles Moon Cresta Dragons Lair Stargate Frogger Phonix Gorf Jungle King Pengo Pole Position Elevator Action Pole Position II Tapper Punch-Out!! Spy Hunter Bag Man Tutankham Time Pilot Krull Venture Satan's Hollow Zaxxon Black Widow Sinistar Tac/Scan Zektor Turbo Armor Attack Food Fight Space Wars Subroc 3D Star Castle Super Pac-Man Firefox Donkey Kong Jr. Millipede Jr. Pac-Man Time Pilot '84 The Glob Mappy Regulus Paperboy Super Cobra Carnival Mouse Trap Star Jacker Mega Zone Space Odyssey Bump 'n' Jump Orbit Blaster Popeye I Robot Roc'n Rope Scion Track & Field Vulgus War of the Worlds Space Dungeon Phoenix Bosconian Pooyan Future Spy Wizard of Wor Rampage Marble Madness Starforce Eliminator Kangaroo Gyruss Scramble 1942 Two Tigers Dig Dug Juno First Star Wars Joust Moon Patrol Qix Turtles Front Line Strong X Berserk Exerion Cosmic Avenger Gravitar Discs of TRON Astro Blaster Frenzy Star Trek Omega Race Asteroids Rally-X Q*Bert Congo Bongo Q*Bert Cubes Asteroids II Star Force Vanguard Vanguard II Major Havoc Xevious Gauntlet Gauntlet II Armored Scrum Object The Empire Strikes Back Ghosts 'n Goblins Green Beret Metal Soldier Isaac II Gradius/Nemesis Section Z Space Harrier Terra Cresta Bubble Bobble Darius Gladiator Ikari Warriors Outrun Rampage Rolling Thunder Rygar Side Arms Spelunker Victory Road 1943 Ajax Alien Syndrome Bionic Commando Black Tiger Blazer Contra Double Dragon Galaga 88 Heavy Barrel Karnov Pacmania R-Type Shinobi Terra Force The Ninja Warriors Time Soldiers Tiger Road Twin Cobra Xenophobe Xybots Altered Beast Assault Cabal Operation Wolf Cobra-Command Double Dragon II Ghouls'n Ghosts Image Fight Last Duel Mirai Ninja Raimais Scramble Spirits Shadow Warriors Silk Worm Sky Soldiers Super Contra The New Zealand Story Truxton Turtle Ship Twin Eagle Vindicators Vulcan Vunture Act Fancer Arbalester Blast Off Burning Force Dangerous Seed Darius Darius II Dyger Escape from the planet of robot monsters Galaxy Gunners Gigandes Golden Axe Gradius II Gradius III Hellfire Ikari III Klax Legend of Hero Tonma R-Type II S.T.U.N. Runner Saint Dragon Search and Rescue Shadow Dancer Strider The Astyanax The Next Space U.N. Squadron Volified Night Striker Omega Fighter Pang Plus Alpha Top Gunner/Jackal Rambo III Arkanoid E-SWAT Battle Shark Tetris Ninja Spirit Fighting Hawk Forgotten Worlds Chelnov - The Atomic Runner Armed Formation Rainbow Islands Gemini Wing Afterburner Afterburner II Xain'd Sleena Tiger Heli TwinBee MX 5000 Blasteroids 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 That's quite a list. What should we do with it? Play them because you like them? I'm down with that. :-) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nebulon Posted March 12, 2018 Author Share Posted March 12, 2018 (edited) That's quite a list. What should we do with it? Play them because you like them? I'm down with that. :-) Well, tastes may vary. Personally, I find these to be fun games (along with Chack'n Pop and Rodland which I forgot to include). So if I were to edit the list, I'd add those two and I'd also add the missing apostrophe in Dragon's Lair and move Mappy onto its own line). Anyway, this is the combined result of my mis-spent youth along with a quest to see what neat games I missed back then. Edited March 12, 2018 by Nebulon 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nebulon Posted March 12, 2018 Author Share Posted March 12, 2018 (edited) Here's a fixed-up list in alphabetical order and without the break halfway through the decade: 1942 1943 Act Fancer Afterburner Afterburner II Ajax Alien Syndrome Altered Beast Arbalester Arkanoid Armed Formation Armor Attack Armored Scrum Object Assault Asteroids Asteroids II Astro Blaster Bag Man Battle Shark Battle Zone Berzerk Bionic Commando Black Tiger Black Widow Blast Off Blasteroids Blazer Bosconian Bubble Bobble Bump 'n' Jump Burger Time Burning Force Cabal Carnival Centipede Chack'n Pop Chelnov - The Atomic Runner Cobra-Command Congo Bongo Contra Cosmic Avenger Crystal Castles Dangerous Seed Darius Darius II Defender Dig Dug Discs of TRON Donkey Kong Donkey Kong Jr. Double Dragon Double Dragon II Dragon's Lair Dyger Elevator Action Eliminator Escape from the planet of robot monsters E-SWAT Exerion Fighting Hawk Firefox Food Fight Forgotten Worlds Frenzy Frogger Front Line Future Spy Galaga Galaga 88 Galaxy Gunners Gaplus Gauntlet Gauntlet II Gemini Wing Ghosts 'n Goblins Ghouls'n Ghosts Gigandes Gladiator Golden Axe Gorf Gradius II Gradius III Gradius/Nemesis Gravitar Green Beret Gyruss Heavy Barrel Hellfire I Robot Ikari III Ikari Warriors Image Fight Joust Jr. Pac-Man Jungle King Juno First Kangaroo Karnov Klax Krull Last Duel Legend of Hero Tonma Major Havoc Mappy Marble Madness Mega Zone Metal Soldier Isaac II Millipede Mirai Ninja Missile Command Moon Cresta Moon Patrol Mouse Trap Mr Do's Castle Mr. Do! Ms. Pac-Man MX 5000 Night Striker Ninja Spirit Omega Fighter Omega Race Operation Wolf Orbit Blaster Outrun Pac-Man Pacmania Pang Paperboy Pengo Phoenix Phonix Plus Alpha Pole Position Pole Position II Pooyan Popeye Q*Bert Q*Bert Cubes Qix Raimais Rainbow Islands Rally-X Rambo III Rampage Regulus Robotron Roc'n Rope Rodland Rolling Thunder R-Type R-Type II Rygar S.T.U.N. Runner Saint Dragon Satan's Hollow Scion Scramble Scramble Spirits Search and Rescue Section Z Shadow Dancer Shadow Warriors Shinobi Side Arms Silk Worm Sinistar Sky Soldiers Space Dungeon Space Fury Space Harrier Space Odyssey Space Wars Spelunker Spy Hunter Star Castle Star Force Star Jacker Star Trek Star Wars Starforce Stargate/Defender II Strider Strong X Subroc 3D Super Cobra Super Contra Super Pac-Man Tac/Scan Tapper Punch-Out!! Tempest Terra Cresta Terra Force Tetris The Astyanax The Empire Strikes Back The Glob The New Zealand Story The Next Space The Ninja Warriors Tiger Heli Tiger Road Time Pilot Time Pilot '84 Time Soldiers Top Gunner/Jackal Track & Field TRON Truxton Turbo Turtle Ship Turtles Tutankham Twin Cobra Twin Eagle TwinBee Two Tigers U.N. Squadron Vanguard Vanguard II Venture Victory Road Vindicators Volified Vulcan Vunture Vulgus War of the Worlds Wizard of Wor Xain'd Sleena Xenophobe Xevious Xybots Zaxxon Zektor Edited March 12, 2018 by Nebulon 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shack Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 Who knows of the game that started with “Bon Voyage” was a space game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wavking Posted October 16, 2019 Share Posted October 16, 2019 I would add Zookeeper, Space Zap, Crazy Climber, Congo Bongo, Toobin, (to name a few off the top of my head) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted October 16, 2019 Share Posted October 16, 2019 (edited) On 9/9/2019 at 11:00 PM, Shack said: Who knows of the game that started with “Bon Voyage” was a space game. Vanguard. Skip to about the 1m20s mark to bypass the attract mode. Edited October 16, 2019 by x=usr(1536) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZXATARIAMIGA Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 Who knows of an 80's arcade game that had a character similar in appearance to that from Stormlord (it was a short character, kinda stocky, he might have had a beard)? It was a dynamic game requiring constant shooting (to the point that it was often played by two people where one would only have shooting duties), levels looked like from Stormlord but the game was faster. I remember that one bonus tool or skill that the character was finding was a ladder (it was a short ladder) and if I'm not mistaken also a mask and shoos allowing him to jump higher, but that last one I'm not sure about. I believe this game was also available on ZX Spectrum platform in a simplified version. Thank you so much!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodreign Posted April 19, 2020 Share Posted April 19, 2020 (edited) Life Force/Salamander is one not on this list, and is part of the Gradius timeline. You listed Gradius II and Vulcan Venture on this list, they are pretty much the same game, VV is the western revision of Gradius II. Cadash, Burning Force, Marvel Land, and Final Fight are 4 great games from 1989, damned great year for arcade games. Edited April 19, 2020 by Bloodreign Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoyous Posted April 19, 2020 Share Posted April 19, 2020 I had a chance to play Time Soldiers recently. I liked it when it first came out, because the whole time travel idea always appealed to me. But playing it recently, my main takeaway was that it's a completely unfair quarter-stealin' game that just throws you into impossible situations. And I was playing it on unlimited credits at an arcade expo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Stamos Mullet Posted April 19, 2020 Share Posted April 19, 2020 I like seeing lists like this to be reminded of games I forgot about that I need to add to my RPi MAME/FBneo cab. also - you left off a bunch of popular Atari classics: 720 APB Steel Talons 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 23, 2020 Share Posted April 23, 2020 OP. Man there are TOO MANY great coin-ops out there. BUT I am glad you put the mighty Bubble Bobble in there. For me: Midnight Resistance is missing. You get points for Ninja Warriors and Operation Wolf but no place for Karnov or Victory Road for me. Pair of stinkers. No Smash TV. Mercs might be up your street. As may be Ninja Princess and indeed Ninja Spirit. Another dud spotted Shadow Warriors which looks quite good but plays like a dog. No Commando ? If you're into the 1941/2 you should really check out the wonderful Loop Master. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Razzie.P Posted April 23, 2020 Share Posted April 23, 2020 From what I can tell, it gets crapped on a lot, but Speed Rumbler (Capcom) was one my favorites from the 80's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 34 minutes ago, Razzie.P said: From what I can tell, it gets crapped on a lot, but Speed Rumbler (Capcom) was one my favorites from the 80's. 33 minutes ago, Razzie.P said: Speed Rumbler (Capcom) was one my favorites from the 80's. Well... It was pretty original at the time, Looked amazing for '86. There is an iffy c64 port knocking about but the arcade original is a lot of fun. A lot of people must love it too because I think it came out on a Capcom collection for PS2 if I remember correctly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonesonny Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 This has been bugging me a while, can any of you remember a car shoot em up game in which you go round dodging enemy fire and when your car gets beat up you exit the car and can shoot and dodge enemies until a replacement car gets brought to you. it was a birds eye view. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 11 hours ago, Bonesonny said: This has been bugging me a while, can any of you remember a car shoot em up game in which you go round dodging enemy fire and when your car gets beat up you exit the car and can shoot and dodge enemies until a replacement car gets brought to you. it was a birds eye view. Sounds a lot like Speed Rumbler, the title being discussed above: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unbeliever Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Recently got acquainted with Xybots. I wasn't really a big fan back in the late 80's of this game, but now it's holding my attention. That and my favorite Wizard of Wor, which I can't seem to get enough of. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 1 hour ago, Unbeliever said: Recently got acquainted with Xybots. I wasn't really a big fan back in the late 80's of this game, but now it's holding my attention. That and my favorite Wizard of Wor, which I can't seem to get enough of. It's a good game. Some of the conversions were good, others iffy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archie94 Posted March 28, 2021 Share Posted March 28, 2021 I used to play a fighter pilot type game that made you dock your fighter for the bonus round. I thought it was called double eagle. It was somewhat similar to 1943, with a fighter pilot shooting game. The docking of your fighter was the standout characteristic. Any help in finding the correct name or a pic of a graphic would be cool. Thanks, Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted March 28, 2021 Share Posted March 28, 2021 19 hours ago, archie94 said: I used to play a fighter pilot type game that made you dock your fighter for the bonus round. I thought it was called double eagle. It was somewhat similar to 1943, with a fighter pilot shooting game. The docking of your fighter was the standout characteristic. Any help in finding the correct name or a pic of a graphic would be cool. Thanks, Pete Twin Eagle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 28, 2021 Share Posted March 28, 2021 OP what are you intending to do, get a mame Bartop? You could put all your favourites on there and like most people I personally have not got round to 'weeding' the crap titles out of my collections. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted March 29, 2021 Share Posted March 29, 2021 It's a Great list! (From a few years back) Personally, just to kind of have (almost) everything: I'd add Rip Off, Reactor, Dragon Spirit, Break Thru, Space Panic, Looping, Red Baron, Pulsar, Super Zaxxon, Spectar, and a game I constantly play on MAME, Targ. PS: Weird though it looks, it's spelled Volfied (though I just tend to call it Ultimate Qix, haha) PPS: If you wanted some more weird or obscure shooters you could also add Stratovox, Space Firebird, Zero Hour, and New York, New York. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted March 29, 2021 Share Posted March 29, 2021 23 hours ago, ∞ Vince ∞ said: OP what are you intending to do, get a mame Bartop? You could put all your favourites on there and like most people I personally have not got round to 'weeding' the crap titles out of my collections. Indeed. Sometimes the question is to weed or grow. Either trim and cull a large collection of everything down till only your favorites remain. Or grow your collection, adding favorites as you encounter them or recall them. Having started in the pre-golden days of emulation there weren't large collections, so I tend to build up and add as time progresses. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted March 29, 2021 Share Posted March 29, 2021 25 minutes ago, Keatah said: Indeed. Sometimes the question is to weed or grow. Either trim and cull a large collection of everything down till only your favorites remain. Or grow your collection, adding favorites as you encounter them or recall them. Having started in the pre-golden days of emulation there weren't large collections, so I tend to build up and add as time progresses. I think the question is to grow your collection or smoke weed? And the answer is Both! HAhaHaHAAhahahahahahha! Yeah, I slay me! Haa! So for me, I like to collect Anything AND Everything, Just have ALL of the ROMs because you never know, but then you can make smaller lists of Favorites. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 29, 2021 Share Posted March 29, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, GoldLeader said: So for me, I like to collect Anything AND Everything, Just have ALL of the ROMs because you never know, but then you can make smaller lists of Favorites. Well... I've been retro gaming since 1988 or earlier. * 1983. By the time I got to various systems, their golden days were gone so I was looking back the first time I played a game. Mum used to get Nintendo Game and Watches on the secondary market through a guy who used to buy bankrupt stock. So I would play Mario in 1985-6, years after it had came out. I got a Atari 2600 in 1988, which was a decade and a bit after it came out. In 1990 I had my c64 which came out in 1982. In 1992 I had my Amiga which came out in 1985. I got my PS1 in 2001, My PS2 in 2006, My PS3 in 2013, My PS4 in ? not straight away. Hopefully I will get another PS3 at some point. I remember when some of the failed systems came out, like the Jaguar (over-rated, over-priced, late to market) or the Amstrad GX4000 (8 bit in 16 bit generation and no games) I got, which was probably the only system I got in the same year it was released, only to find that by Christmas they had stopped making them and they had no games. I leave it now, even if I could afford one right out of the gate. Let them iron out issues first (red ring of death anyone), and wait for an established market and some good games first. At every single step I have been Retro Gaming. I couldn't afford new games, so I would buy cheap rereleases on cassette for £1.99, £2.99 and £3.99 for Hit Squad (Ocean) titles. If you paid £1.99 it was probably an old game, 90% of the time. They discounted them. Some would sit on the shelves for years, but I didn't care. They were NEW to me! I got them all the time because they were good games and it meant I could get two or maybe three if I asked my lovely dad, nicely. This left me in a strange world where the games I was buying, a lot of the time had been reviewed in the mags years ago before I ever saw them. But I was getting mags all the time so wanting these news beautiful expensive games but only being able to afford the old ones. This was actually a fantastic thing because when they were inevitably discounted and reissued on HS usually I could play them fresh and enjoy them more having only limited funds. Amiga mags here used to have coverdisks with faithful reproductions of Arcade classics on them, like Pacman like Space Invaders. I fell in love with SI, and I found it through a coverdisk with a really fantastic CLONE. ** ** I wrote my own authentic Emu for SI. That Amiga game was right on the money, resolution aside. My first experience of gaming was a Pong TV game. Which came out in the 70s but I was playing sometime in 1983. I also saw a lot of knockoff handheld consoles, that looked like my Gameboy, but had one game and the display of the Games and Watches. Anyway. When I first got the 'friendly internet', I downloaded my favourites. It was painstaking and quite arduous. Then one day I got an archive for the c64, it was a CD retail release. Then I got the Spectrum one and the Amstrad CPC one. Then in 2001, Retro Gamer UK came out for its first issue. This was early in the year and it came out 4 times that year I think. Coverdisks full of Emulators and Remakes but no roms. Once I had the Emus I sought out the games for them. At some point I got broadband and downloaded a huge 40Gig archive of every system I ever wanted. Anyway, then I built an upright arcade and put the computer into it. I then got one made with a Pi running it. I will get round to culling, the main issue is, the roms do not have the same name as the games themselves so it can be a seriously tedious endeavour let alone the possibility of losing games by accidently 'offing' one of your faves you thought wasn't named that. The knack of the 'got everything' is, knowing your games. Know the good ones. Play the good ones. Worst case you can just ignore the crap ones. Edited March 29, 2021 by Guest Bit More + 'CLONE' missing from end of a sentence Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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