50 Best Arcade Games - Donkeys and Bubbles and Robots, Oh My!
by Michele Christopher

Welcome to Day 2 of the nominating process for The Almost Final Countdown - Arcade games edition.

These are the four from yesterday that the FTTW started the process off with:

1. Rampage
2. Tecmo Super Dodge Ball
3. Berzerk
4. Spy Hunter

And now, six more, culled from yesterday's reader nominations:

lightcycles.jpg5. Tron

From KLOV:

Based on scenes from the Walt Disney movie of the same name, this game has four distinct games per level: Lightcycles, Grid Bugs, Tanks, and the MPC Cone. All four games must be completed before you can advance to the next level.

Play Tron lightcycles (java)

6. Sinistar

From KLOV:

A small, triangular fighter ship is maneuvered by the player through a series of "Zones" in the galaxy. The player must blast Sinisite crystals out of planetoids while fending off attacking enemy drones and Warrior ships. Collect enough crystals to destroy the evil Sinistar before he kills you.

I Hunger!

7. bubble.jpg


Trivia: There were eight different versions of Bubble Bobble, spanning 13 years and various gaming systems as well as coin ops. That's not including several PC versions of the game. The characters fo Bubble Bobble, Bub and Bob, also appeared in Bust-a-Move in the United States.

Play Bubble Bobble, The Revival

robotron.jpg8. Robotron 2084

Each level, or “wave” of Robotron consists of a small humanoid mutant ("the last hope of mankind"), representing the player, in the center of a swarm of enemy robots. The player uses the two joysticks to simultaneously move away from the enemies and dodge their shots, while firing back at them. Once all the destructible enemies are eliminated, the player progresses to the next wave, facing increasingly faster and more numerous enemies.

Play Robotron online (and Defender and Joust and Sinistar and a bunch of other Midway games)
9. Pole Position

(ed note: this game ate ever single cent I made in 1982)

Trivia: This game was one of the choices presented to Bally/Midway from Namco for sublicensing. Bally/Midway chose Mappy while Atari was left with Pole Position. Pole Position went on to become the biggest game of 1983 .


What the driver is thinking during Pole Position.

10. Donkey Kong

You are a workman named Mario who climbs girders and ladders and will stop at nothing to save his stolen love from the clutches of the giant ape.

But....where's the donkey?

zDonkey_Kong.png

A really long list of Donkey Kong games


Donkey Kong on Futurama

Play Donkey Kong online

So that's the first 10 out of 50. Don't worry if the one you nominated isn't listed. There's always tomorrow.

And if your favorite game isn't listed at all, nominations are open til Friday, and this is the place to do it. And the more people that nominate a game, the more likely it is to get into the final poll. So even if your game is already mentioned, throw it in there.

I have the sudden urge to fill my pocket with quarters.


Archives

Comments

I've never been a huge arcade game player, mostly because I'm not very good at them. The one game I was actually halfway competent at, and which therefore earned its place as my favorite, was Alpine Ski. I don't think it was particularly popular, but I did expend quite a few quarters on it until it faded away from the arcades. Come to think about it, I have always loved the Winter Olympics...

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Rygar. I spent an entire sumer playing that game with my best friend. We kept playing it over and over, no matter how many times we beat it, so we could be the top two highest scorers all the time.
We lived in a vacation town in Maine for the Canadians and people from places like Mass, CT, VT, etc.
We just didn't want the tourists to own at our game...LOL

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I'll reiterate After Burner and Ms. Pac-Man. And, of course, The Simpsons because it really was ridiculous and fun. Nothing like using a vacuum cleaner or a skate board to beat people up with. Or whipping them with a jumprope.

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Track and field just cause it was always funny to see the blocks of wood screwed onto the buttons so you couldn't beat the hell out of the game.

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1. Fire Truck (atari).

It was a two player game, one sat in fron and drove the truck and the other stood behind and steered the BACK of the truck. I did loads of dammage on some fictional town the summer I turned 13. Ahhh Sauble Beach Arcade, how I miss you.

2. Frogger

Who didn't love getting to the other side of the highway or avoiding the crocs! I didn't - apparently I liked getting killed. Buh-Bye allowance.

3. Street Fighter 2

The cheap movie theatre had this in their lobby for some reason - I had to fight off the children to get my turn, but it was so worth it!

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I think George Costanza still owns the Frogger high score

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After you beat the first four events in TRON the game gets completely impossible.

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galaga

missle command

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