idk about consensus best, but my personal underrated pick is Tempest
― broken breakbeat (sleeve), Friday, 9 June 2023 16:44 (eleven months ago) link
Dodonpachi's a good one, but is that consensus best or underrated?
Trying to think of 4-player genre, but should Gauntlet, Simpsons, TMNT all be in the same genre?
― Philip Nunez, Friday, 9 June 2023 17:08 (eleven months ago) link
its a cult classic i guess, whichever that falls under
― ciderpress, Friday, 9 June 2023 17:23 (eleven months ago) link
That's a conundrum, cult classics already being categorically underrated! I guess the counterpart would be a game that's more cult than cult like some polybius legend.
― Philip Nunez, Friday, 9 June 2023 21:06 (eleven months ago) link
dodonpachi and ddp doj are def "consensus best" tier, they're almost on par with ikaruga when it comes to non-stg players being aware they exist. all cave stgs are fairly well known, in fact
underrated arcade gems would be something like thunder dragon 2, ninja spirit, and many more highly revered titles that i'd never even knew existed until hamster re-released them as part of their arcade archives lineup
― chihuahuau, Friday, 9 June 2023 23:19 (eleven months ago) link
lol it doesn't sound like any of you are actually playing coin op games in an arcade, perhaps I misread this thread
― broken breakbeat (sleeve), Friday, 9 June 2023 23:29 (eleven months ago) link
In the genre of FPS vector graphic tank games, is Battle Zone under or over-rated?
Is it controversial to prefer Stargate to Defender for side scroller shoot-em-ups?
also what genre is Tron?
other considerations:maybe Zaxxon for that odd mock-3D perspective (see also QBert & 720) ...
Track & Field for the butter knife/pencil "hack"...
― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Friday, 9 June 2023 23:50 (eleven months ago) link
re: Stargate, I may have mis-ID'd it, that was the Defender clone with like 15 buttons plus a up/down joy?
― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Friday, 9 June 2023 23:51 (eleven months ago) link
ha that sounds right
― broken breakbeat (sleeve), Friday, 9 June 2023 23:53 (eleven months ago) link
720, best skateboarding/trackball thing?
― two grills one tap (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 10 June 2023 00:24 (eleven months ago) link
720 soundtrack is great.
― Chewshabadoo, Saturday, 10 June 2023 00:34 (eleven months ago) link
ooh if trackball is a genre then marble madness must make an appearance!
re: actual coin-op in an arcade -- i'm afraid my setup will be much closer to this:https://lokalise.com/blog/wp-content/webp-express/webp-images/doc-root/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/arcade_machine_photo2.png.webp
― Philip Nunez, Saturday, 10 June 2023 01:51 (eleven months ago) link
I’m pretty sure the Atari vector Star Wars was terrible, but I loved it for some reason.
― assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 10 June 2023 01:58 (eleven months ago) link
Everyone loved it!https://arcadeblogger.com/2017/06/16/atari-star-wars-arcade-cockpit-development/
Even this guy:https://missilecommand.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/george-lucas-sw1.jpeg
― Philip Nunez, Sunday, 11 June 2023 22:50 (eleven months ago) link
I didn't realize there was a real sequel to Qix!https://archive.org/details/arcade_volfied
― Philip Nunez, Friday, 23 June 2023 17:10 (ten months ago) link
The most underrated arcade games imo: Klax, Super Hang-On, and most-of-all, Galaga 88, which just rules in every possible way
When I was a kid I got addicted to a Packrat machine but I haven’t ever seen one since I was 10, nor have I attempted to MAME it (so I can keep the positive memory intact)
― professional window (flamboyant goon tie included), Friday, 23 June 2023 20:11 (ten months ago) link
It seems consensus and cult-classic both that Medieval Madness is the greatest pinball game ever (and is fairly uncommon), I never saw a machine til I was in my 30s and it was as terrific as they said, I found a local machine afterward and played the shit out of it
I think it’s Wreck-It Ralph that very cleverly has a MM machine displayed in the arcade, tipping their hat to all the pinheads
― professional window (flamboyant goon tie included), Friday, 23 June 2023 20:14 (ten months ago) link
Personal fave = ShinobiUnderrated = 1943, Splatterhouse
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 24 June 2023 05:01 (ten months ago) link
I'm going to dissent on galaga88 based on this mame exhibit -- this is an unforgivably hard game!https://archive.org/details/arcade_galaga88
Maybe there are dipswitches to crank down the difficulty level?
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 27 June 2023 15:42 (ten months ago) link