What Are The Hidden Gems of the 80's & 90's Arcade?

Post by **racketboy** » Mon May 07, 2007 6:52 am

It's a bit easier to come up with a list of hidden gems for a console since there is a reasonable number of games to browse through, but the arcades in the 80's and 90's had tons of games to choose from.

Try to think of arcade games that were top-notch, but a lot of people don't know about...

Here's what comes to my mind

Road Riot 4WD - cool dune buggry racer with shooting
Knight of the Round - beatemup
'Cisco Heat - I used to play this racer in Chuck E Cheese many years ago had some great graphics at the time
G-Loc - the Sega fighter jet game that got overshadowed by Afterburner

Post by **fastbilly1** » Mon May 07, 2007 7:48 am

Gems to the general public, or gems to the fans of the era? I ask because I never saw an 88 games cab in the southeast, but it is easily a top tier arcade game, and the mame community agrees - they are actually the ones that got me to play it.

Post by **extrarice** » Mon May 07, 2007 5:13 pm

Blue's Journey - NeoGeo. Usually passed-over as too cute of a platformer, but it's a lot of fun.

Mon May 07, 2007 10:07 pm

I personally like Blood Storm alot, it is a rip off of Mortal Kombat, but something about cutting your opponents limbs off and continue fighting just makes the game awesome.

I also liked Combatribes (sp?), now thats a lost gem by the legendary Technos, 3 players beat em up, beat the shit sh*t out of clowns and smashing there painted faces into the pavement is just freaken fun.

thats all I got for now

Post by **marurun** » Wed May 09, 2007 11:18 pm

Silkworm! 2 player simultaneous shooter with DIFFERENT abilities.

Thu May 10, 2007 10:29 am

I would like to add, Lucky & Wild to my brief list. Lucky & Wild is a Driving/Shooting game, One player Driving and other player does the shooting.

Post by **4ppleseed** » Fri May 11, 2007 5:00 pm

Rompers, Japan-only 1989 arcade game by Namco

It's hidden because it was only released in Japan and it's a Gem because it plays great and have a very unique take on the bomberman/pacman style genre.

Post by **fastbilly1** » Fri May 11, 2007 7:54 pm

I am going to go out on a limb and say the two D&D brawlers, since I have frequented arcades since about 90 and have yet to see either of them. Though I have seen the CSP2 carts at auction.

Post by **turkey** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:02 am

this is one i loved as a kid and got my mates hooked on, its quite tough (but i am no shmup wizzard)

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?let ... e_id=10077

quite cool as you collect parts to your ship as you go and can split them up to make more firepower for a short period.

nothing amazing but probably less well known so worth a blast on mame.

Post by **Majors** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 12:15 pm

Crime Fighters, Konami, 1989
Pre-TMNT/Simpsons 4-player craze.

Assault, Namco, 1988
Used to have this at the movie theater where I saw Robocop 2 three times.

Willow, Capcom, 1989
Ghouls and Ghost overshadowed it. When that wolf howled on the first stage...

Ninja Master's, NeoGeo, 1996
Never had it in a local arcade, but I have my own arcade with it now.

Twin Eagle. Seta, 1988
Thought this one was so much beter the Tiger Heli and Twin Cobra. I found out the sequel is quite good also, thanks to MAME.