What was the best Arcade Machine you've tried?

[PlayerJuan]

police 911 machine left me sore from the waist down and lame the next day after playing it. It was also quite slow compared to the Sega machines. It was weird, you had to bend down in every corner, but the machine forced you to stay down all the time. Also, the place where they had it was set to ultra hard mode.

It's also a strange one to play in a packed arcade with loads of people watching you bobbing and weaving and ducking all over the place!

 

[sadasa]

It's also a strange one to play in a packed arcade with loads of people watching you bobbing and weaving and ducking all over the place!

On top of that, the gun does not have good aiming. When you crouched down and shot in one of the 2 corners, it either didn't fire or it fired outside the screen. The screen would flicker but nothing happened. Many times the game forced you to walk crouching from one corner to the other.
The next day I couldn't even sit on the toilet.

 

[PlayerJuan]

The next day I couldn't even sit on the toilet.

Goddamn! That doesn't sound good!!

Time for a squat poo

 

[DjQuick2008]

Goddamn! That doesn't sound good!!

Time for a squat poo

Squeezin one out

 

[popckorn]

I have amazing memories of playing Time Crisis II at the arcade outside the Cinema back at my home city in the 90s, with my best friend.

We would make it a challenge to play it all without using more money than the movie ticket price.

Post automatically merged: May 12, 2025

It's also a strange one to play in a packed arcade with loads of people watching you bobbing and weaving and ducking all over the place!

It would make you feel silly, but it truly was a revolutionary Machine!
I loved dodging attacks, it did feel like doing a bunch of squats at the gym.

 

[Skeleben]

My local pub used to have this arcade cabinet that was just an all-in-one for like 50 of the best arcade games of all time. I'm talking Pacman, Dig-Dug, Galaga, etc. I was really bummed when the fuse blew and they couldn't get it turned on again.

 

[Daughter of Janus]

The best arcade machine I ever tried? Definitely a DDR machine. Those are the best. Oh wait did you mean playing, not sexually

 

[PlayerJuan]

Squeezin one out

The look of concentration on his face you can see the little turtle popping his head out

Post automatically merged: May 14, 2025

I have amazing memories of playing Time Crisis II at the arcade outside the Cinema back at my home city in the 90s, with my best friend.
View attachment 68411We would make it a challenge to play it all without using more money than the movie ticket price.

Post automatically merged: May 12, 2025

Love Time Crisis 1-3, still haven't played Time Crisis 5 yet haven't seen it out in the wild.

It would make you feel silly, but it truly was a revolutionary Machine!
I loved dodging attacks, it did feel like doing a bunch of squats at the gym.

100%! I'm surprised that motion tracking wasn't used more in the arcades

 

[tigg]

Killer Instinct and Silent Scope

 

[zacharinolongpants]

My answers won't be too interesting or novel but here's a stream of random thoughts:

I love the Time Crisis and House of the Dead games. The game store I worked at for years had a Time Crisis 2 setup put in so I played that a TON.

Nothing gets more intense and heated than getting a full group to play NBA Jam. I'm not really a big sports guy but that game is perfect.

It was surprising to find myself getting hooked on Centipede of all games recently lmao. A nearby bar put an old cabinet in and now a group of us have been going there to have high score competitions.

Also Metal Slug rules.

 

[moonbits]

SEGA's Gunblade was so fucking hardcore, with those big ass machine guns that rumbled.

 

[chxshire22]

i dont go much these days anymore, but i used to love playing run and guns like metal slug with my friends back in the day. also those bullet hell games. i loved those.

recently i went with my friend and was so excited to try the rhythm games. like ddr. and boy i think it's my new fav arcade game now :D

 

[Rusk]

When I was a kid, I would spend a lot of money on the machines that had Metal Slug games.

I have amazing memories of playing Time Crisis II at the arcade outside the Cinema back at my home city in the 90s, with my best friend.
View attachment 68411We would make it a challenge to play it all without using more money than the movie ticket price.

Post automatically merged: May 12, 2025

It would make you feel silly, but it truly was a revolutionary Machine!
I loved dodging attacks, it did feel like doing a bunch of squats at the gym.

Time Crisis was also my jam.
That "Reload!" and "Action!" will stick with me for the rest of my life.

 

[popckorn]

That "Reload!" and "Action!" will stick with me for the rest of my life.

For real tho!

 

[Spyrone]

My personal favorites are the first House of the Dead, Rail Chase 2, Silent Scope, Halo: Fireteam Raven, Mario Party Challenge World, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition and The Grid. All of them are impressive looking cabinets (or a row of them strapped together, in the case of The Grid) with eye catching designs and impressive graphics or mechanics, like the titular physical scope you have to look through in Silent Scope, or the multiplayer 3PS experience that The Grid has. The last three are also insanely rare, and I consider myself very lucky to have played them. The Midnight Club 3 cabinet is so damn rare I can't even find it a pic of it online, though if I ever head back to Silverbow Pizza I'll try and take a picture of it.

Honorable mentions go to Atari's Star Wars, the Battletech Pods and the Virtuality setups, as I've never actually played those but they are cool as hell.

 

[Plutopuff]

Probably showing my age...but the first time I ever saw the Afterburner cabinet...it was like something out of space...there was nothing like it at the time and it was the first machine that charged $1...back then $10 could keep you going for a few hours but this machine took our money and then some.....it was fantastic to play...

 

[ThunderBoy]

 

[Pinballbuzzbro]

Juno First.

ANY time that game is available on those 50-in-1 cabinets I ALWAYS pivot to it. That game is genuinely the perfect evolution of the classic galaga formula and despite being 25 years older than me I always get sucked into the damn thing everytime I boot it up, literally has me shifting my head left and right as I move like that Atari 2600 Star Wars commercial

SO glad that game has a modern port via arcade archives now, it’s easily Konami’s most underrated game IMO

 

[Gyro_5000]

L.A MachineGuns,Ghost Squad,The House Of The Dead 4,Initial D,Jurassic Park 3

 

[Vardalis]

I've got to agree with most of the posts; House of the Dead and Time Crisis are very special arcade cabs to me. House of the Dead especially for some of the sit down cabs to really immerse you (although other kids leaning in and distracting you back in the day was never fun).

I'll raise two that I hadn't seen mentioned that I really liked though:

Outrun 2 "DLX" arcade machine. Yes, my local arcade had one with all four cars back in the day and it was just as hype as the picture implies.

Gun Survivor 2 is so much better when played as a cabinet and it's why I've really liked it ever since first trying it. The gun itself is like a joystick; you move it to shift the position and camera. You shake it to get zombies off. I can't remember if the game had vibration or force feedback since it's been way too long, but if memory serves correct it did. If I had the space for one, this would be right up there as a cab I'd want to own alongside House of the Dead 4 and Time Crisis 2.

 

[myhosea]

 

[here4outbreak]

i only just realized that i greatly prefer arcade games over the 30+ hour triple a stuff and that sucks cuz like another thread mentioned youre just kinda stuck with kiddie casinos and ticket grinds these days in us based locations

but going to evo back in 2023 was a super cool chance to try out a bunch of stuff that you wouldnt see in like dave & busters and stuff, although there was a bias for old fighting game cabinets like 3rd strike and mvc2 ( it was a fighting game convention after all )

anyway the ones i liked the most would likely be sound voltex and cyber troopers but if i had to pick one that isnt a japanese import id say aliens extermination was a lot of fun as a kid though i think the only place i was able to play that was a chuck e cheese back in like the early early 2010s

 

[Segadude113]

Joust. It's still just as responsive as ever. Still fast. Still fun.

 

[rootCompute]

My local cinema had this one when I was growing up, was always fun to try out while waiting for the movies to start. I'd love to try emulating it some day

 

[Mr. SyS]

Hydro Thunder was pretty fun.