Cavalcade of Awesome

I-Mockery put up a fascinating question on Tuesday. What games would be in your own personal dream arcade?  I thought this was a good topic for a lazy Friday afternoon.

So I decided to pick 10 arcade machines I would love to have in my own personal arcade.  They are in no particular order.

I want to thank the International Arcade Museum for the awesome images of the video game cabinets. I surf their site regularly for images of my favorite arcade and pinball games as well as images of some awesome video game advertisement flyers. To see more images (including screen shots of game play) of these and thousands more arcade games as well as get more detailed info, click the images to go to the International Arcade Museum.

Anyway, on to the games.

Street Fighter II: Champion Edition (1991) – There were like a million different versions of this game.  I’d take any of them, but I hold a special place in my heart for Champion Edition and Champion Edition Turbo.  This was one of the first great fighting games. Great for competitions. It attracted large audiences to watch two guys just go at it.  Lots of fun characters with cool move combos.  The character I preferred to use was Chun-Li.  She was both pretty and deadly.

Mortal Kombat II (1993) – The only one in the arcade franchise to use Roman Numerals. The next two games would be MK3 and MK4. The first Mortal Kombat was almost too easy but Mortal Kombat 3 was way too damn hard. This fell right in the sweet spot of hard but fun. Also, this game rivaled NBA Jam for the amount of hidden Easter Eggs you could find. Characters, finishing moves like fatalities, friendships, etc. It was insane and fun.  I liked to use Sub Zero and my friend, Steve, liked Scorpion.  I still hear Scorpion’s “GET OVER HERE!” in my nightmares.

NBA Jam: Tournament Edition (1993) – I talked about this game in-depth over on Strange Kid’s Club. Greatest. Basketball. Game. EVER. I would also like to have NBA Maximum Hangtime, but it’s so close in gameplay to NBA Jam that I am reluctant to have two machines that are so similar in the same arcade.

Karate Champ (1984) – This is the game that got me into fighting games. I LOVED THIS GAME. I used to play it at my local movie theater arcade.  I got pretty good and made it through a punch of matches.  The scenery changed constantly.  One time you’d be in the forest, then on a log spanning a cavern, then on a cruise ship deck.  The bonus stage had you battling a bull.  This game was kicked all kinds of ass.

Ms Pac Man (1981) – The sequel that actually surpasses the original. When I was growing up we actually had a Pac-Man machine in our basement. I’d play it constantly. However, I prefer Ms Pac-Man. And this is what goes in my personal arcade. And obviously I want the speed up chip installed so the game is super fast.

Galaga (1981) – Classic and iconic, one of the greatest games ever created.  It’s kind of an amped up, more awesome Space Invaders.

Donkey Kong (1981) – Another balls-out classic. Such a fun game.  Even the sequel, Donkey Kong Jr, was pretty damn good.

Dragon’s Lair (1983) – While this game was a huge spectacle, it was also somewhat addicting to play. Don’t get me wrong, I was TERRIBLE at it, but I really enjoyed the visuals and game mechanics. Having it in my own personal arcade may allow me to get at least mediocre at it.  There was a sequel, but it wasn’t as fun.

Discs of Tron (1983) – This game was originally designed to be a part of the first Tron game the year before (which I’d also like in my dream arcade). However it was bumped out into its own game. There were two versions, the stand up regular arcade cabinet and the awesome environmental cabinet you see above. It was lit up all blue and the inside was cramped and you had to scrunch down while you played. If you played too long your neck and back started hurting.  Now that I think about it that was very uncomfortable.  Maybe I should get the stand up cabinet.  But that environmental cabinet just looks so BAD ASS.

Spy Hunter (1983) – I love this game.  The Peter Gunn theme blasting while you shoot machine guns and missiles from your car and dodge other vehicles that are bulletproof and have tire blades.  Then all of a sudden your car turns into a damn BOAT.  Just so much fun.  Again, I have to get the sit down version because it just looks so AWESOME.  I actually don’t remember playing this version, I played mostly the stand up cabinet.  Woh!  They made a Spy Hunter II!!

So those are 10 games that would definitely make it into my personal collection.  There are others I’d like, but these are my “most wanted”.

UPDATE 06/2013 – This was also a League topic recently. Check out some other bloggers’ choices for a dream arcade.
-Shawn Robare pics three upright cabinets and a cocktail Ms Pac Man for his arcade
-Classik Material over on the Cold Slither Podcast blog talks about the awesome cockpit version of Afterburner II

This entry was posted on March 25, 2011 at 12:03 pm and is filed under nostalgia, pop culture, video games with tags arcades, Cavalcade Arcade, LEB, nostalgia, pop culture, video games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.