If you're a Gen-Xer like me you likely spent some time in arcades as a kid. I personally loved them, and still go when I find one. It can be a standup video game or a pinball machine or...other? Internet Arcade (playable games) for your reference This is subjective so I'll list the top 10 grossing arcade games of all time: Much attention is often lavished upon the vast profits generated by the latest editions of today's biggest franchises. So much so, you'd think that this sort of financial success is something new. Actually, it isn't. Even during the very earliest days of video gaming, there were products that made mountains of money. The difference between now and then, however, is that back in the day, that revenue was earned one quarter at a time. This is the third revision of this list, which I originally published in 2010, and then updated in 2013. Since then, additional data has been uncovered that has enabled me to further improve the accuracy of the numbers, plus rotate in new games whose data was previously unavailable. This has resulted in a more accurate list, although it's still not complete, with some estimates being made on revenue numbers – most notably, Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat II. 10 - Donkey Kong Nintendo Cabinets Sold: 132,000 Revenue by 1982: $280,000,000 Inflation adjusted: $686,262,000 9 – Mortal Kombat Midway Cabinets Sold: 24,000 Revenue by 2002: $570,000,000 Inflation adjusted: $748,462,000 8 – Mortal Kombat II Midway Cabinets Sold: 27,000 Revenue by 2002: $600,000,000 Inflation adjusted: $787,607,559 7 – Asteroids Atari Cabinets Sold: 100,000 Revenue by 1991: $800,000,000 Inflation adjusted: $1,346,548,823 6 - Defender Williams Cabinets Sold: 60,000 Revenue by 1993: $1,000,000,000 Inflation adjusted: $1,588,463,873 5 – NBA Jam Midway Cabinets Sold: 20,000 Revenue by 1994: $1,100,000,000 Inflation adjusted: $1,704,501,968 4 – Ms. Pac-Man Bally Midway Cabinets Sold: 125,000 Revenue by 1987: $1,200,000,000 Inflation adjusted: $2,494,552,816 3 - Street Fighter II/Champion Edition Capcom Cabinets Sold: 200,000 (60,000 SF II, 140,000 CE) Revenue by 1995: $2,312,000,000 Inflation adjusted: $3,582,553,228 2 - Space Invaders Taito Cabinets Sold: 360,000 Revenue by 1982: $2,702,000,000 Inflation adjusted: $6,612,228,000 1 - Pac-Man Namco Cabinets Sold: 400,000 Revenue by 1990: $3,500,000,000 Inflation adjusted: $7,681,491,635 Arcade flyer illustrations sourced from Arcade Flyer Archive
My favorite stand-up is Street Fighter 2 Champions Edition (above). @tinman I loved it so much that I paid $180 for the Japanese Superfamicom (Super Nintendo) import to play it early. Was a big chunk of change in the early 1990s for a young guy. Pinball is Medieval Madness.
For stand up, its definitely SF 2, X-men, Simpsons. Probably in that order. Damn, I forgot Time Crisis.
I was an 80's kid (born in 77) so my favorite arcade games (good old Tilt in the Galleria bottom floor...forget what the arcade was called pre-Tilt) were: Pole Position (that's going a bit earlier to the Malibu days so early 80's) Double Dragon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
That damn Gauntlet machine was a quarter sucking son of a suckin' sucker. [whoever] NEEDS FOOD BADLY No ****, I'm Aware!, every 68 seconds.
Street fighter 2, MK&MK2, NBA JAM. I enjoyed the graphics of TMNT and X-MEN but they required a lot of quarters. Nintendo should have kept that princess.
Ms. Pacman,The Simpsons, and Marvel VS Capcom 2. I put together a MAME arcade cabinet and am now moving to MiSter FPGA especially since the CPS 1 core was released. Cycle accurate emulation and in essence zero input lag make a big difference to me with shoot em ups and fighting games. This is also why I've moved away from emulation on a raspberry pi and beefy x86 setup for retro consoles and some arcade emulation. When you push a button in Mike Tyson's Punch Out you need it to happen with no lag.
The best Gatti's buffet in Houston! Man I miss Gatti's...have a friend with a house in Lakeway and we always pick up 6-8 pizzas from the one up there and destroy them when I make an annual visit. Far and away my all time-favorite pizza chain. Really the only one I legitimately enjoy.
Had to see some gameplay... Phoenix is so weird. Stargate felt so advanced for games of that period. Forgot to mention Missile Command I loved the premise of the game -- the roller ball really made it unique. I also really liked the table top football game with the roller ball, but I can't remember the name.
SF2 probably (original/championship - pretty much any version). I remember the 1st time seeing MK, that was definitely interesting with the controversy vs other games at the time other than primal rage etc. But i think other than SF2, my other all time favorite was NBA Jam. I also liked some of the coop style games double dragon/crime fighters/bad dudes/gauntlet/TMNT. I really miss arcades, I liked on nba jam/sf games playing against people, especially street fighter ie you were playing for free at the arcade and could play forever on 0.25 cents or got your ass handed to you repeatedly and basically learned how to play better. Oh and of course Rampage and various neo geo titles.
