What was the arcade game you played once on vacation, and could never find again?
Posted by LilMoWithTheGimpyLeg@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 128 comments
We've often spoke of "the movie only your family seemed to have on video" (The Tale of the Bunny Picnic for me).
But I remember a few times playing arcade games while at hotels, bars, or arcades on vacation that I never played again. Or until I discovered MAME anyway. There was Alien3: The Gun, which I only saw once. And while it may be popular with fans, I only ever saw Darkstalkers in one arcade.
What was your "forgotten arcade game"?
SnazzyStooge@reddit
Not an arcade game, but pinball: it was called “Big Guns” in the basement of the Patowatomi Inn. Man, that game was the bomb!
ThepalehorseRiderr@reddit
I present to you, Time Travelers. The first holographic game. I only ever saw the one cabinet in the one place. It was a buck a play so alot back then. Last time I was in there long ago, it was for sale with the tag on it for 5k.
larrythegrobe@reddit
We used to play this every time we were in Gatlinburg.
graveybrains@reddit
They had one at the Star Theater on Gratiot for a while. I was really excited until I saw it and realized how it worked. I had kept the lid from an old record player my sister had, a big plastic dome, because anything you put inside it looked like it was floating in midair... same shit. 🤦♂️
HratioRastapopulous@reddit
I remember being blown away by this back in like 92-93 or something like that. It was at a Celebration Station.
nonexistentnight@reddit
Saw this in the wild once somewhere in Niagara Falls. Gameplay was utter garbage.
Lucky_Louch@reddit
I just commented about this game and couldn't remember the name! The controls were so bad but the hologram graphics were mind blowing. Playing as the cowboy and shooting guys blew my mind.
Karadek99@reddit
I remember seeing that one. Too much to play; I stuck to my quarter to play ones.
Just-a-Guy-4242@reddit
I didn’t actually play this game until it appeared at the Nickel-A-Play arcade I took my kids to a couple years ago… no way I was paying a dollar to play it when I was a kid, that was too much.
jessek@reddit
This a game that has to be seen in real life. The 3d illusion was so cool, even though it cost $1/play (which was insane at the time) and was just a shitty FMV game. At least you could watch the attract mode to appreciate the 3d effect for free.
RoiVampire@reddit
Turn before you shoot!
ThepalehorseRiderr@reddit
Lol. I remember that. It was basically just a fast twitch game and the difficulty was brutal, especially at a buck a play.
RoiVampire@reddit
They had it at my local arcade in the mall and I saw a dude who worked there beat it once. Never saw anyone else get near as far. Shit made me so mad
ThepalehorseRiderr@reddit
I learned my lesson with the arcade staff. If one walks up to you and politely asks if they can put their quarters in the Mortal Kombat cabinet you're playing, say no. Fuckin guy juggled me all the way across the screen and a 99% dmg combo but only because the game wouldn't let him get 100.
joshhupp@reddit
I remember when this showed up in the mall arcade, but at $1 per play, I stayed away.
ThepalehorseRiderr@reddit
I don't blame ya. We would balk at the 50¢ cabinets back then. You gotta stretch that five bucks out man!
LilMoWithTheGimpyLeg@reddit (OP)
Yes! This one 100%! I was beginning to think I imagined it, until someone posted it to Instagram some years back, and everyone in the comments thought they'd imagined it too! Sega might not have been hitting it out of the park with every swing in the 90s, but you have to give them credit for trying new things.
ThepalehorseRiderr@reddit
It was so cool. It really gave me high hopes for the industry as a whole. Never seen anything like it before or since.
detourne@reddit
The Terminator pinball machine. It was so cool.
graveybrains@reddit
I've never had that problem but there did used to be this weird store near my old house called Mysterio that sold a bunch of weird shit. Like custom fitted ceramic vampire fangs weird, and they had a Darkstalkers machine they kept set to free play.
Miss that place.
therobotscott@reddit
I can't remember the name of the game, but about 30 years ago I played a racing arcade game that was at the hotel we were staying at a few times. I liked it a lot, but never saw it again. I remember it was a top down view with sprite graphics (like Spy Hunter), had a steering wheel control but no seat, was single player, and I believe the right half of the screen might have had your score, lives, what stage you were on, etc.
I have watched video compilations of arcade racing games for this, but never found it.
drummer_who_codes@reddit
You might be thinking of Super Sprint. My orthodontist office had a few arcade cabinets on free play. I remember Ms. Pac-Man and Super Sprint with steering wheels and pedals, but no seat. Super fun game!
therobotscott@reddit
No, it wasn't that. Thanks for trying with the suggestion, though!
Emergency_Rush_4168@reddit
Top sk8r. Didn't find one again for over a decade. Such a great game with an even better soundtrack.
drummer_who_codes@reddit
They had this in the University Center when I was in college! Maybe a lunch break was spent playing this and Gauntlet Legends.
SplakyD@reddit
Polybius in Portland, OR. Some men wearing black suits, sunglasses, and earpieces came in and drug me away. I don't remember much after that and just kinda woke up as a broke, balding fatass.
NoArmadillo5788@reddit
Double Dragon
bendingoutward@reddit
Night Slashers was literally the only thing I was interested in during a visit to a Midwestern theme park that I'd unfortunately outgrown.
Physical-Name4836@reddit
Rastan
Fucking Rastan
Markoff_Cheney@reddit
Not forgotten, so much as just the only time I saw one. It was at a hotel in Steamboat Springs when I was a kid going to a tae kwon do tournament. They had Street Fighter in the small arcade area, and one other machine. But I had never seen Street Fighter 1, I didn't know that there was a Street Fighter 1, I thought they just started at II and that was it.
Weird memory. I used to live close to a big suburban place called Fun Plex that had a ton of arcades and was within biking distance so I have a lot of arcade memories as a kid. Finding Street Fighter 1 at some random mountain hotel in the summer on a kung fu tournament holiday with my family was a weird one. I was maybe 11 at the time.
LH99@reddit
Whatever Star Wars arcade game where it went through different scenarios. I remember jumping and duckin the Ewok trip wires and then the Death Star run was more horizontal maneuvering.
NoContextCarl@reddit
Knights of the Round. Side scrolling beat em up with up to 3 players co-op. Think Double Dragon with a medieval twist.
Played this while at camp A LOT around 91-93 and don't recall ever seeing it again in arcades elsewhere.
CantFindMyWallet@reddit
This one had an excellent SNES port.
MrGreen17@reddit
I used to play that one all the time down at the mall arcade! Great game!
Weird_Vacation8781@reddit
Played in Morgan Hill Luckys in 1992, fell in love, never saw again.
jessek@reddit
The local arcade I hung out at in the mid 90s had a copy. I only played it a couple times, though.
limelight022@reddit
Great game!
It is available in the Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium Collection.
RedDawnWlvrines@reddit
The Star Wars pinball game. Found it once on vacation in an arcade in the 90s and never saw it again
MinusGovernment@reddit
My local arcade in my hometown had it for quite a while. I know I spent at least $400 playing it through the years but it was five plays for a dollar.
GutsAndBlackStufff@reddit
I worked at a company that had one in the break room. It was unplugged since it belonged to the owner.
CurtG79@reddit
Mazan: Flash of the Blade. I only seen it once in NY. You hold a sword hilt as a motion controller.
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
They had Super Mario World, in an arcade cabinet. Everyone told me it was a fever dream until I could actually prove it
joshuastar@reddit
weird! i remember playing Super Mario Bros. as an arcade in a grocery store, circa ‘88, but never saw World as an arcade! cool!
Xibby@reddit
Sunset Riders four player… was one of two games at the lodge for a Michigan ski resort that has since been renamed. Brother and I dumped a lot of quarters in. Never saw it at an arcade.
burnafter3ading@reddit
I used to play what was essentially an Aliens rip-off game at a pizza/Italian place. It was dark and atmospheric, with the screen having 3 linked passages. The little "chest-bursters" and eggs would spawn in, acidic blood was a hazard. It was essentially a side-scroller with multiple levels.
instant_ramen_chef@reddit
I remember playing an arcade game in the upstairs area of a Sears in a mall in the late 80s. I dont remember the name of it, but it was a vertical scrolling game where you were a cop car chasing bad guys. But if you hit too many civilians, the other cops would come and throw you in jail.
adamroadmusic@reddit
APB ?
instant_ramen_chef@reddit
I looked it up. This was it. I never saw that game anywhere else
adamroadmusic@reddit
Yeah I never actually played it on an arcade cabinet (or saw it in person for that matter). I played it on an arcade compilation during the PS2 era. I enjoyed it, it reminded me of that top down driving style like Spy Hunter and the original GTA
instant_ramen_chef@reddit
Spy Hunter was my shit. So hard to get back into the truck.
moronomer@reddit
On a band trip in high school we stayed at the Washington State University dorms, and they had this amazing space simulator called Space Lords in the cafeteria, which had multiplayer on either side of the cabinet. I've never seen it at any other arcade.
therealpopkiller@reddit
Fire Trap. had a unique control where you used two joysticks to simulate climbing. Played it once for days at a campground I stayed at as a kid and never saw it again. Would kill to play it
adamroadmusic@reddit
Whoa, Fire Trap is mine as well! Played it in 1986 at a corner store in Mexico City. Never saw it again. Found out the name of the game years later in a forum thread
nonexistentnight@reddit
Gals Panic at an arcade in Niagara Falls. They had Sega's Time Traveler as well, and probably some other oddball games that I don't remember.
ilazul@reddit
DJ Boy.
Imagine telling people about a beat em up on roller skates where the 1st boss is some lady that farts at you.
Wasn't a great game by any means, but was memorable.
nonexistentnight@reddit
Total fever dream of a game. There was a console release for the Genesis. Also an arcade sequel called B. Rap Boys. It took a long time for either of them to come to emulation because of some proprietary chips and/or encryption used by the company that made it.
IAmNotMyName@reddit
Awfully specific
thegreatgoonbino@reddit
Not on vacation but my local arcade had a Neo Geo/SNK machine with Kizuna Encounter: Super Tag Battle. I played it once and was obsessed. Next time I went, they had rotated it out and I never played it in an arcade again.
Super-History-388@reddit
In Italy I played a strip poker video game. The computer opponents were very curvy women.
JosephBlowsephThe3rd@reddit
The original Star Wars cockpit game where its all line graphics (vector i presume) and its just the attack on the first Death Star
Lucky_Louch@reddit
Can't remember the name but It was a holographic game, early 90's. I had never seen anything like it prior and never saw it again. You played as a cowboy and the controls were horrible but it was so cool to see the characters and environment in actual 3D space.
_death_before_decaf_@reddit
A local amusement park has both the X-Men and Simpsons 4 person cabinets. It blew my little mind.
Country_Gravy420@reddit
There was a game at my local pizza place that was like a Dragon's Lair laser disc animated quick time game, but it was people robbing a bank. I think it was set in the 20s or 30s.
I don't know the name and haven't been able to find anything about the game
PlagueDrWily@reddit
We did a lot of family roadtrips growing up, including one that had a stop at a hotel with a giant arcade/mini-golf/water park; aside from being the first time I played Street Fighter II, that was the only time I saw Turtles in Time as well as something called Golly! Ghost! (had to search the name, I only vaguely remember using a light gun to shoot ghosts) and King of the Monsters.
There was another trip where the hotel had a much smaller games room with Simpsons pinball, Magic Sword and Golden Axe.
Looking back, other than the hugely popular games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct, most of the arcades I recall going to had unique lineups of games which I only ever played in those specific locations, which is interesting considering we had 3 arcades in our relatively small town (pop 80,000).
djsynrgy@reddit
Your "small town" has literally 10x the population of mine. 😆
867-53-oh-nein@reddit
The Michael Jackson Moonwalker game
OG_Christivus@reddit
The bowling alley in my small town had this. Over the years probably dropped several hundred dollars on it. My wife and I went to a Barcade and they had. We both played and spent $10. It was still fun.
Sodamyte@reddit
It was on Sega Genesis too
blading_dad@reddit
Not even close to the arcade game. I liked the genesis one but the arcade game was great
hombre_bu@reddit
Polybius
man_teats@reddit
There was this one pizza place we only went to twice and it had an old (even for the time) video game called Elevator Action which I thought was super cool
Lower-Tomatillo-9513@reddit
They made a sequel in the 90's that got ported to the Saturn (and much more recently to Switch).
CaptainsYacht@reddit
I had the NES version of that. It wasn't a bad game for the time it was made.
djsynrgy@reddit
Time Killers. Approximately 1996-ish, IIRC.
The cabinet was in a random building where my sister's ex boyfriend played pick-up soccer. It was in-between machines for Pit Fighter, and Mortal Kombat. I never knew exactly where the place was, and I was only there the one time.
Time Killers was like Street Fighter meets Mortal Kombat meets Samurai Showdown. On (more) crack/cocaine. With not-fantastic graphics, but extremely 'graphic' gameplay based on dismemberment.
I picked a character with a Mohawk and a chainsaw. I was literally chainsawing off my opponent's limbs. I won two matches with my one quarter, and that was that.
megan00m@reddit
This is an absolutely phenomenal question. Good job! 🙂
red286@reddit
To specifically answer the question, Toobin'. It was at the mini-arcade at a waterslide park I went to one year on vacation, which was kinda fitting. Never saw it anywhere else.
But also there was a light gun game called "Chiller" that was available for like 2 months at my local arcade before some concerned parents group got it pulled for being "too violent/gory". Mind you, I was like 11 at the time, so probably shouldn't have been playing it anyway.
FoofaFighters@reddit
On vacation, it was a 4-player version of Ivan Stewart's Offroad something. Other games I never played again were Zaxxon exactly one time on an arcade machine, and Sunset Riders.
Sodamyte@reddit
The Terminator 2 FPS, only ever saw it at the Arcade in Darrien Lake amusement park.
RoiVampire@reddit
It was literally Super Mario 1 but you were a little guy in a Hawaiian shirt on a skate board and when you powered up you’d get bigger and lose the board. It was so weird like someone had overlayed Mario with a new sprite paint job
Sodamyte@reddit
Sounds like someone did a romhack of SMB to have Hudson from Adventure Island
Serious-Mulberry-596@reddit
Run n Gun basketball.
The best basketball game I'd ever played up to that point and I only ever saw it in a hotel arcade in Myrtle Beach
NBKiller69@reddit
Time Killers! Played it on vacation, but the arcades in my city didn't have a copy of it.
GristleMcThornbody1@reddit
We had a time killers machine at our local arcade. It was a pretty blatant "shock value" game, and the difficulty felt pretty unfair against the CPU, but I pumped a ton of quarters into that one.
Grunblau@reddit
1942
Was in the community center where we slept on the floor before a BB gun tournament. Requirement for quarters was turned off and was a blast.
EvandeReyer@reddit
BurgerTime at a Novotel in northern France. It must have been before 1989 as my mum was there.
rtekaaho@reddit
NARC. I only ever saw it in my local arcade.
Stompedyourhousewith@reddit
The speed rumbler, at a putt putt
Gondomania in a 7-11 in Bellevue
Important_Power_2148@reddit
Domino Man. Saw it in a hotel in the mid-late 80's and never saw it in public again until like 5-6 years ago at a barcade.
Notchersfireroad@reddit
There was a F-16 game with full cockpit that was damn near close to an actual simulator at Sam's Town in Cameron Park, Ca back in the early 90's. Can't remember what it was called but it was amazing and I've never seen another one like it.
mizlurksalot@reddit
This post sent me to google for the bame of a game that Inplayed in the arcade every summer as a kid. Turned out it’s called Xain’d Sleena, no wonder couldn’t remember the name! Had so much fun!
tweedchemtrailblazer@reddit
Whirlwind pinball machine. It came out in 1990. I remember being on a North Woods, Wisconsin lake house vacation and spending hours at the bar nearby playing this game. The memory is so vivid I can taste the Sprite in my mouth and the smell of the bar. I never saw it again anywhere else.
rjcpl@reddit
It was late 80s/early 90s some sit in cockpit flight sim game that was very immersive for the time. One of those that cost like $1.25 a game at a mall out on the floor.
werty@reddit
If any of you are in the Chicagoland area my friend runs the largest arcade in the world. (I think anyway). He has over 1000 games all set on free play. Here is the list: https://www.gallopingghostarcade.com/games-list/
bascule@reddit
The Johnny Mnemonic pinball machine with a magnetic glove:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Mnemonic_(pinball)
jessek@reddit
The local punk rock dive/concert venue I went to shows at in my late teens/early 20s had one. It was great to play it while waiting for a band to start playing.
bivo979@reddit
This one, Title Fight.
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
My brother beat that game on the first try on one quarter in a lazer tag place!
Literally spamming jabs and no techniques. Some teenagers tried to fight him on his quest to beat the AI opponents and lost.
LilMoWithTheGimpyLeg@reddit (OP)
This game was a great stress reliever with those joysticks.
jessek@reddit
The first video game I ever played was a cocktail table version of Amidar at a bar & grill my parents stopped for lunch at when I was little kid. I never saw that game again until my mid 20s when I was going through the entire MAME set.
GutsAndBlackStufff@reddit
Played this weird assed game named Polybius back in the 80’s. Don’t remember too much about it. Thinking about it is giving me a headache though. Think I’ll go lie down.
Cute_Researcher_6578@reddit
had to scroll further than I thought for this comment x
GutsAndBlackStufff@reddit
I’m glad so many people are familiar with this story.
Cloud_Disconnected@reddit
NOVEMBER. FOXTROT. DELTA. HOTEL. QUEBEC. ACTIVATE ACTIVATE ACTIVATE. MESSAGE REPEATS. NOVEMBER. FOXTROT. DELTA. HOTEL. QUEBEC. ACTIVATE ACTIVATE ACTIVATE.
GutsAndBlackStufff@reddit
kl1n60n3mp0r3r@reddit
The Typing of the Dead. Played at a random arcade in Japan and never see again.
Gorkymalorki@reddit
You can get that on Dreamcast..or emulator. I still have the Dreamcast keyboard boxed up somewhere.
kl1n60n3mp0r3r@reddit
Yes, but have never seen the actual arcade cabinet again.
exitlevelposition@reddit
Michael Jackson's Moonwalker got me through 2 days of unplanned layovers in Columbus Ohio in 1993.
antisocialnetwork77@reddit
Not that I couldn’t find it again, but I remember playing the TMNT arcade game on vacation at Disney World in like 1990. It was in the pool area.
Complex_Mention_8495@reddit
Time Crisis 2
theglatmachine@reddit
Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder. It was at the arcade at the beach one summer. Never beat it. Was excited to try again the following summer but it was no longer there.
Traditional_Entry183@reddit
I have no idea what the name was, because I only saw it once. But in the mid 90s, there was this really advanced, fun racing game where you sat in the game and used the steering wheel, gas and breaks. It had cartoon style graphics almost like a cart racer, but for the era they were really amazing.
Just_call_me_Face@reddit
Splatterhouse
Jsmith0730@reddit
Zookeeper. There used to be one at the Ames near our timeshare in the Poconos.
IcanhazShame@reddit
There was a Tommy pinball game and Ale-8-1 on tap at this gas station in the parking lot of the hotel we stayed in one year when my band did a weekend long trip to a competition, I played the fuck out of it and never saw it again, never found the nectar of the gods on tap again either
Gohomepatyouredrunk@reddit
There was a version of street fighter that has only a big padded button for punch and kick and the harder you hit it, the stronger the attack. Got bruises from playing that one, and only ever saw it once.
The_C0u5@reddit
Captain America and the Avengers
It was at a hotel we stayed at one time for I believe Cedar Point, and I didn't want to go to the park cos we were on a hot streak.
Gravy_Sommelier@reddit
Lucky and Wild
It was a hybrid driving/light gun game where you played a pair of cops with one player driving and the other shooting at bad guys.
jtho78@reddit
Qix and Buster Bros.
Qix when I was a wee lad and I think I tracked it down and was able to play it on a PC emulator in my late teens.
Buster Bros I think I played in jr high and took decades to figure out the name and add it to my emulation stations.
And I played them for maybe 5 minutes. Its funny how we dreamed of infinite quarters and now that we have it we move on to the next flashy thing (with better graphics)
icanliveinthewoods@reddit
I loved Qix! We had it on floppy disk for our Commodore 64 computer. That and Jump Man were my two favorite games for that computer.
jtho78@reddit
Seriously? My dad bought me a sleeve of 1000s of Commodore 64 games at a garage sale. Probably 10-20 games per floppy. I bet it was in there and I didn't know the name of it or never made it through the entire catalog.
Ditzy_Davros@reddit
It was one of those ones that had a vibrating seat. You were in a minecart with a gun. You're going really fast down rails and shooting guys along the way. I remember it because it was an arcade game I did pretty well at when I was 7 or 8 years old.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit
I only ever encountered the Real Ghostbusters cabinet on vacation. It wasn’t until recently that I played it again in emulation.
quickblur@reddit
We went to a lake one summer and there was an old arcade game with two cowboys shooting at each other. Turns out it was Gun Fight (1975).
ohwowimonredditcool@reddit
time killers (1992). forgot about it for a few decades heh. i remember it only being 25 cents where i lived. was overshadowed by mortal kombat but i enjoyed the gameplay of using weapons and cutting limbs off.
bivo979@reddit
This one. Title Fight. It was fun the few days I got to play it on vacation in the mid 90s.
limelight022@reddit
64th Street: A Detective Story.
Great beat-em-up...you can throw dudes into the backgrounds. Played it a lot on mame last year and finished it.
Significant_Dog412@reddit
Mine was a Final Fight type scrolling beat em up called Violent Storm, at a travelling fairground that came to my Stepdad's town every year during the February half term.
The art style was fun, a kinda cartoony take on post apoc and being Konami, you'd have thought it'd be more widely available. I think it came just too late in the 90s for scrolling beat em ups.