The Top 15 Most Nostalgic Arcade Games Part I

The darkness was broken, almost blindingly so, by the blinking, flashing, rainbow klaxons of the towering beasts therein. The atmosphere was electric, sure, but it was also somehow foreboding as though at any minute someone could literally come wandering, grinning like an idiot, out of the cloying shadows and knock you over. But, despite the inkiness of the huge room, folks managed to steer clear of one another on their merry ways to yet another of the coin-swallowing beasts. It was our arcade, Star World, and it was beautiful. Once you shoved open those double doors and stepped into stunning beeps, dings, bloops, and a prismatic overload of hues exploding like fireworks through the dim, you just knew you were right where you belonged for as long as your pockets retained their overstuffed jingling. Yeah, we had more arcades around Kalamazoo -each having some sort of draw to bring in the video game hungry crowds- but none had the same feel, the same smell (ozone and pizza, believe it or not), or the same comfort that Star World offered. Alas, as many things we've come to love it, too, faded into obscurity after a redesign and a make-over or two, and closed up something like fifteen years ago. Well, anyway, as I sit here and reminisce, I am reminded of just how much I miss a nice arcade. Here are fifteen of the most gone but not forgotten video arcade games of all time. Oh, and feel free to stroll down memory lane with me by adding some of your own favorites for a future list. Enjoy!

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15) TMNT

One of the first four-player models that allowed you to control each of the turtles (one at a time) or each one separately if you had a multitude of people with you. It was tough, it was long, and it was really funny as well. Remember getting tossed into the screen effectively breaking the 'fourth' wall as well as slipping down sewer grates? Good stuff.

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14) DONKEY KONG

Oh, come forth the classic. When I lived in the first house I can remember as a kid in a neighborhood called Maestro Acres on a street called Liszt, our corner store had a few video games, not the least important of which was Donkey Kong. I would bring slews of quarters down the street and go nuts on this thing. It was tough as hell and never actually beat the damn thing, but it was fun to try. Check out the original artwork of Mario on the front! HA!

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13) KANGAROO

Just look at that disheartening picture of that poor, poor machine up for sale... so sad. I digress. This very same machine was directly inside the Star World arcade after you passed through the cafe doors, so, therefore, it was generally the first thing I played out of sheer blind excitement. I actually got pretty stinking good at it, too. It was strikingly similar to Donkey Kong in its layout, but you had to save your baby roo from various jungle assholes. Oh, and you had boxing gloves. Excellent concept.

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12) AREA 51

This game wasn't so much a far past classic as it was just a blast for me to play. It made its initial appearance sometime near the beginning of my college tenure, as we had one in the quads of NMU. I was always feeding this bitch and she tossed me around like a dominatrix. This shit got tough, but I, surprisingly, got pretty decent at it enough so to start drawing crowds and playing for money. Well, I played anyway, just losing most of the time to far better players. Humility is good for you, right?

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11) STREET FIGHTER

This game was featured prominently, and by that I mean featuring several machines, at the mall arcade called Pocket Change. Often I'd head out alone and blow some of my paycheck at said arcade waiting and eventually getting schooled by kids ten years my junior at this machine. Boy, nothing screams emasculation like a little bastard kid whooping your ass at a fighting game before you even have a chance to throw a punch. Memories.

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10) JOUST

Boy talk about a ridiculous and stunningly illogical basis for a video game, huh? Why ostriches, which, by the way, aren't supposed to fly? Or, for that matter, why did everything, including the riders, hatch from eggs? Or maybe they didn't... I forget. Anyway, I do remember the lava rising slowly from the bottom, so that was always a constant concern. It was all a matter of timing when it came to really mastering your flight, but it was damn fun to try.

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9) ELEVATOR ACTION

It's hard to imagine a whole lot of fun stemming from riding a bunch of elevators throughout a constantly similar building, but man was it ever! There was a certain spy aspect to the game where, sometimes, you were able to sneak up on people after just exiting the lift, but more often than not, you just had to crouch, shoot, and hope for the best.

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8) SUPER MARIO BROTHERS

For some reason this was never all that popular. I'd venture a guess that it was because the arcade version came out only shortly before the Nintendo version. But I don't really know. What I do know was that the controls, especially after getting so used to it on the home copy, were really screwy and it was never quite as easy. Well, one thing's for certain, after Donkey Kong, it's the game that really spawned the whole Mario mythos.

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7) TABLE-TOP PAC-MAN

Sorry about the less-than authentic pic, it was the best one I could find. Anyway, there was a great version of this classic table-top game at a local restaurant called Pappy's years ago. We used to go there after my dad played his softball games on Friday nights and I'd always bring my earned change from my piggy bank to kill some time in front of this guy. I was never a huge Pac-Man fan, but when in Rome (as it were), right?

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6) DRAGON'S LAIR

Holy shit, Princess Daphne was smokin'! It's hard to believe that the same guy who brought us the seemingly innocuous films Like An American Tail and A Land Before Time (Don Bluth) could draw such a HOT CHICK! This game was really hard, too! There wasn't so much free fighting as there was specific timing and great eye-hand coordination to get through this 'filmed' animated video game. I was never very good but I sure wasted a lot of money trying.

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5) GALAGA

Man, this game was EVERYWHERE you could conveniently get power. I think I played one once in a hotel lobby bathroom! It was such a basic game but oh so difficult as the levels progressed. All you had to do was shoot up... not that mind-blowing of a concept, but it was nasty later in the game when those aliens came fast and furious. It sucked!

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4) MOON PATROL

My God, another neglected arcade game left to rot away into obscurity. So wrong. I can not express just how much I loved this game. Again, simplistic as hell, but since you had to do two things at once, it really wasn't as simple as it let on. You had to shoot up, yeah, but you also had to bounce all over the place avoiding shit in front of you. Not fair! I was relatively decent at it and I recall it being against the back wall in Star World. Man do I miss this one.

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3) GOLDEN AXE

Sweet Donnie and Marie was this game ever fun! A three-player masterpiece that let you choose between a big-ass male warrior, a sleek and sexy female barbarian, and a little dwarf dude with a big axe. The idea was to traverse to the right wiping out all the bad guys in a variety of ways (special moves for certain button combos) and collecting little blue and red canopic jars used to elevate your spell abilities. It sucked getting robbed by the little blue-clad monkeys in the middle of the night, but at least you could kick their asses to retain most of your wealth.

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2) GAUNTLET

"Wizard is about to die." Those echoing words haunt me to this day. Nothing chased away an afternoon more effectively than having a few buddies toss a couple of bucks into Gauntlet and just going crazy shooting arrows, chucking daggers, fighting ghosts, chomping piles of dungeon-hidden meat, and turning bad guys into piles of bones. This game was so much fun but you really had to keep an eye on that moving door or else you were bound to get chomped on by a slew of cackling ghosts.

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1) TEMPEST

This game featured a knob and a button that aided you on your quest as you got juggled through geometric nightmare shapes shooting beams from your red 'crescent' for no discernible reason other than to make noise and move as quickly as humanly possible. It was fun, it was crazy, and if you pretty much just spun the shit out of your dial and shot a whole bunch, you could get pretty far. I loved this game so much!