Looking for a list of popular arcade games, anyone knows a reliable one?

[ranma]

So, here is mi problem. I've build an cab before and I have in it all mame games except for casino, mahong, etc. Now I'm building a second cab and I want a more selective list of games, I want to go with games I like, good classic games taken out of some "best arcade games of all times" lists, same of the best fighters and shmups taken from other lists, etc.

My problem is that I definitely want to include any popular classic arcade games, even if they aren't the best or known by me, I want anyone that sits on the machine to find their desired game within the list if the game was more or less popular and could be found in most arcades.

Since I can lists lots of classic games but for sure don't know all of them, I'd like to find a list, but could't find anything really. Any ideas?

[Rick]

My problem is that I definitely want to include any popular classic arcade games, even if they aren't the best or known by me, I want anyone that sits on the machine to find their desired game within the list if the game was more or less popular and could be found in most arcades.

That's a fantastic idea, and I'm watching the thread because of it.  Consider this, though.  Are you asking for a specific timeframe?  If you're building a cab to look like one from the early 80's, do you want to dedicate those games to the time during which the cab existed?  Or, are you asking for a 'definitive list' of the best of the best?

[garnerb350]

Im in the same boat as you ranma...

Currently I have my main cab...
I plan on making a vertical cab and then make a fighter cab
There has also been projects where they had rotatable monitors...
Do a search on the forums, there is a post that has fav lists of games...


I agree with Rick....pick a certain time frame...then go from there

[BadMouth]

I started by googling "best arcade games of all time"

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=best+arcade+games+of+all+time&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=CG_omzrluTKLqIZDezASOrvX1DwAAAKoEBU_QZCB-&fp=11865768db5fc4d7

Pick any list to start, then look at other lists for games not on the first list.

Personally, I like to keep my main list limited to 200 games.  I have seperate lists for gun games, fighters, trackball, etc.
If I like one of those well enough, I add it to my main list.
Occasionally I'll delete a few that I find boring and replace them with gems that I find out about in this forum.

[ranma]

I started by googling "best arcade games of all time"

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=best+arcade+games+of+all+time&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=CG_omzrluTKLqIZDezASOrvX1DwAAAKoEBU_QZCB-&fp=11865768db5fc4d7

My problem with these lists is that they are about the best games, take klov's for example (which I already used), there are lots of classics, but it doesn't include bubble bobble, kung fu master, mercs, bomberman, to name a few, and I guess those are not the best games out there, but they are certainly popular classics. With all the "best" lists is the same, there are a lot of popular ones that are not so good to be included in them. Those are the ones I'm missing.

[Rick]

With all the "best" lists is the same, there are a lot of popular ones that are not so good to be included in them. Those are the ones I'm missing.

I can't tell you where to get them, but I have over 3,000 ROMs on my own system.  I don't know if it's a complete set, close to a complete set, or what have you.  Rather than being reactive, I can be proactive, and whittle the games I don't enjoy out of the list of the ones I have.  I might recommend going this route, if you can, or else find an easy way to list the games most of us have.  Which might be possible, if someone can answer me this: is there a file (is it the XML file perhaps) with the titles of all installed ROMs that I could 'export' from Maximus Arcade?  If so, I'm happy to PM you my list, if it helps.

[ranma]

That's a fantastic idea, and I'm watching the thread because of it.  Consider this, though.  Are you asking for a specific timeframe?  If you're building a cab to look like one from the early 80's, do you want to dedicate those games to the time during which the cab existed?  Or, are you asking for a 'definitive list' of the best of the best?

It doesn't really have to be 80's games or anything, just popular. But on the other hand, I'm not looking for the best, just popular... I know there were many popular games that were not so good, but if someone expects to find it in my cab I would like that to happen. Take for example, the other day someone came home and on my main cab, with almost all MAME games, he could find a game he was looking for (I don't remember which one now) and I didn't even know about it, when I searched the internet, I found it was very popular, had ports to multiple systems, etc.

I do have a complete set of roms, but that's too much, even for me... I'd like to limit my total games to something in the 300 games, with good games, personal favorites and popular classics.

[ragnar]

I love wikpiedia.  Noticed this a few weeks ago:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_age_of_video_arcade_games#Most_popular_games

Maybe there should be a new thread similar to the high score competition threads.  The idea being that people pick random games starting with A and play them and review/rate them.  If everyone did just one game a week, one heck of a list could be compiled.

[ranma]

I love wikpiedia.  Noticed this a few weeks ago:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_age_of_video_arcade_games#Most_popular_games

Already have that too, but that only spans 76 - 83...

Maybe I should have started from there, for now I have:

KLOV's top 100 games of all time
KLOV's 10 most popular games
top 25 shmups of all times and honourable mentions according to shmups.system11.org
MAWS golden ranked games
TOP 10 fighters according to multiple sources
WP golden age of videogames list

But none of those lists (and some others) list essential games like those I named: bubble bobble, kung fu master, rainbow islands, metal slug, bomberman, mercs... and those are obvious ones...

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

I've suggested this before, but what we need is a Pandora/Last.FM style system for identifying enjoyment trends between games. Does this already exist and I've just never noticed?

A webpage that lets you tick off what you like or dislike in a standardized list games (not just arcade) to track trends between what people enjoy.

Perhaps also a client on the PC that tracks number of times a game is played (mame does this already, right?) and then "scrobbles" them, again similar to Last.FM.

Certainly all video games ever produced is a substantially smaller set than the number of songs tracked on Last.FM.

[CheffoJeffo]

Already have that too, but that only spans 76 - 83...

...

But none of those lists (and some others) list essential games like those I named: bubble bobble, kung fu master, rainbow islands, metal slug, bomberman, mercs... and those are obvious ones...

Then what you need to understand is that "best of all times" and "most popular of all times" likely predate your exposure ... with a few exceptions, most anything after 84 ain't making a "most popular of all times" list, just due to the sheer shift in popularity after the crash.

Best way to do this is to step through, game by game, to meet your needs.

I did this recently when shopping for an xxxx-in-1 board to replace an old MAME box and didn't find a better solution than stepping through the games lists one at a time.

[ranma]

Then what you need to understand is that "best of all times" and "most popular of all times" likely predate your exposure ... with a few exceptions, most anything after 84 ain't making a "most popular of all times" list, just due to the sheer shift in popularity after the crash.

Best way to do this is to step through, game by game, to meet your needs.

I did this recently when shopping for an xxxx-in-1 board to replace an old MAME box and didn't find a better solution than stepping through the games lists one at a time.

Well, yes, I understand what you're saying and you're probably right, maybe there is no game after the crash that can compare in popularity to those before, but nonetheless, if I go to the arcades today I see puzzle bubble games, all of them have it. Mortal kombat is probably not the best fighter, the best game or anything, but it was certainly popular at some time, etc.

Although, you're probably right, maybe I'll have to do it manually. It's what I'm doing anyway, but just wanted to know if someone knew some kind of list or something to make it easier. 

[releasedtruth]

Definitely a thread to watch. I keep adding to my favorites on my front end, but I know I'm missing a ton of great games from my fav era (85-92). Even when you sort by year, hard to sort through them all.

[JustMichael]

About the best advice I can is go through the games yourself to get the ones you like.

Many years ago I bought my brother in law a "Hotrod" and made him a Mame dvd for it also.  I have attached the frontend's list of the games from that dvd.  If I remember right the list has over 800 games in it.  There are no chd games in the list (wanted to keep the dvd to just 1 dvd).

[nitz]

I want anyone that sits on the machine to find their desired game within the list if the game was more or less popular and could be found in most arcades.

I actually only had about 200 games on my cab when I first started and had thought I had accomplished this - and then had someone asking for games I didn't have that I suppose were somewhat common/popular.

I guess what I'm saying is, there were a ton of games that were either common, popular, or both. So it would end up being a fairly big list and hard to compile without missing something. My suggestion is to keep all the roms on your cab, make your list, but keep it as a favorites list. You could even make the All Games list difficult to access (maybe you need a special key combo or something), so that you can avoid what I suppose you're trying to avoid - people being able to go through a list of thousands of games and spend more time choosing games than actually playing. If you do this, and someone asks for something not on your list, you can always go to the All Games list, let them play it, then add it to your favorites list after. I suppose the only danger is, once someone sees your All Games list, they may want to go to it all the time which defeats what you're trying to do.

[ranma]

I actually only had about 200 games on my cab when I first started and had thought I had accomplished this - and then had someone asking for games I didn't have that I suppose were somewhat common/popular.

Yeah, I'm doing something like that right now, my problem is that another requirement I want to achieve is to be sure all games boot fine, have controls defined fine, that performance of the PC is fine to run every game on the list, etc. But yeah, I guess that there is nothing much better than this option.

[oyama82]

its not good only to have the popular games,because there other games less popular which are very cool to play and you lose them if you do that

[CheffoJeffo]

its not good only to have the popular games,because there other games less popular which are very cool to play and you lose them if you do that

As a counter-point to this, you will NEVER again see any machine in my collection presenting more than 100 games to the user.
 
There is a reason why people consistently point out that their 60-in-1, 48-in-1 and Neo Geo machines get more play than their all-powerful MAME boxes.

People want to spend their time playing games, not choosing them.

It is easy to have a game list for general consumption and to have a seperate game list so that you can play eleventy12! games when you want.

[ranma]

Additionally if you put 100 games in there, the user might actually browse through the games and pick games they didn't remember. If you put 5000 games, they will look for the game they want and ignore everything else.

[oyama82]

the more games the better for the years to come
having only 50-60 games on mame cab is a shame

[CheffoJeffo]

the more games the better for the years to come
having only 50-60 games on mame cab is a shame

Nobody said that he should only have 50-60 games on the cabinet, but having a single menu for 5000 games is going to overwhelm people who don't know every game. It is the same with trying to replicate the controls to play those 5000 games. There is a reason why so may experienced MAMErs choose to go to dedicated cabinets and limited multigames instead of just building the same old "IT CAN PLAY 50,000 GAMES, INCLUDING THE NEW STREET FIGHTER ELEVENTY TELETUBBY EDITION".

I recall very clearly several years ago when Paige posted that his NeoGeo cabinet was played more than his MAME cabinet, even though the same games could be played on both and his MAME cab could play thousands more games.

The coin counters on my machines show the same results -- if people have to spend too much time choosing, they spend less time playing.

It really is that simple.

Install all the games that you want, but set up a game list that makes sense to people who aren't arcade nerds.

Actually, even arcade nerds hate the thought of 5000 games.

[oyama82]

if you put off most of the clones,mahjongs,quiz and gambling(ok if you play those keep them) games,then you are fine
you will have the finest gamelist

[CheffoJeffo]

if you put off most of the clones,mahjongs,quiz and gambling(ok if you play those keep them) games,then you are fine
you will have the finest gamelist

How is that the finest gamelist ?

Have you ever tried what I talk about ?

[Rick]

In my opinion.

(No. That's it. Just "in my opinion".  I figure those are the three words that everybody can afford to add to their discussion points. Especially when dealing with a question of 'preference'.)

-- Rick

[oyama82]

when you see a full gamelist with the correct and clear games,you feel cool and happy
making 1 list for me,1 list for my friends,1 list for my grandma and another list for my neighbor,all the magic is lost

[CheffoJeffo]

Additionally if you put 100 games in there, the user might actually browse through the games and pick games they didn't remember. If you put 5000 games, they will look for the game they want and ignore everything else.

I agree with this 100%.

My brother-in-law LOVES Blue Print (which I think is a really fun game and would love to have as a dedicated cabinet, although I would almost certainly give it to him).

He would search and search on my MAME boxes to play one game and one game only -- Blue Print.

He plays more stuff on my 60-in-1 and 48-in-1 than he ever did on the MAME boxes.

[Rick]

making 1 list for me,1 list for my friends,1 list for my grandma and another list for my neighbor,all the magic is lost

You must go! Go forth, and seek out the magic that is eluding you!! Don't look back! It is calling your name! You too can share in the magic that we have all found!!!

[CheffoJeffo]

[oyama82]

dont put fire here  again.....

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

I thought we stopped letting creatures use cross-mana powers in Planeshift? 

[Hoopz]

I think the bigger issue is why he had that card so readily available? 

I thought we stopped letting creatures use cross-mana powers in Planeshift? 

[CheffoJeffo]

I think the bigger issue is why he had that card so readily available? 

 

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

I think the bigger issue is why he had that card so readily available? 

 

maybe sadder-- i first misread your post as questioning why he only cost 2 black.

[cmoses]

There have been a lot of valid points made in this post and I wanted to put in my 2 cents.  I am in the process of updating my cabinet and had been thinking of finding a similar list to put on my MAME cabinet once it has been updated.  I originally put about 100 games on my machine thinking that was a good number to have and would have most of top requests.  This was mostly true, but every once in a while someone would ask about a game that wasn't on the list.  So when I started the update I wanted to find a good list to use.  I saw your post  and thought someone beat me to it.  Of course in reading it, everyone has an opinion and really no definitive answer.

So this is what I plan to do.  I use HyperSpin for my front end so I was updating to the newest version and checking out their Themes section when it dawned on me to use their themes as a list.  They have around 800 themes that have been created for individual games.  I figured if someone would go to the trouble of creating a theme then there must be some interest in the game.  This also narrows the roms required from nearly 8000 to 800.  It also makes the download aroun 4 GB's instead of 24GB.  I will have all those roms on my machine in a ALL GAMES list, this will not be the default list but will be available.  I will continue to have the default list around 100, a good selection of games but not overwhelming.  I will probably do some swapping on and off of the DEFAULT list as I see some games getting more play or less play. 

Let me know what you think of this idea.  I haven't incorporated it yet but am working on it. 

[ranma]

So this is what I plan to do.  I use HyperSpin for my front end so I was updating to the newest version and checking out their Themes section when it dawned on me to use their themes as a list.  They have around 800 themes that have been created for individual games.  I figured if someone would go to the trouble of creating a theme then there must be some interest in the game.  This also narrows the roms required from nearly 8000 to 800.  It also makes the download aroun 4 GB's instead of 24GB.  I will have all those roms on my machine in a ALL GAMES list, this will not be the default list but will be available.  I will continue to have the default list around 100, a good selection of games but not overwhelming.  I will probably do some swapping on and off of the DEFAULT list as I see some games getting more play or less play. 

Let me know what you think of this idea.  I haven't incorporated it yet but am working on it. 

That's an interesting idea and it's more or less what I'm doing right now, taking information from various lists, so I'm interested in it. Nonetheless, I didn't find that theme list, could you provide the location to it? (or just the theme list would be ok, I don't need the actual themes)

About having a larger list of games hidden... it's actually what I'm doing right now but my main concern is that that full list of games are not really configured to work properly, and that's what I don't like about large lists. I hate it when someone comes to the machine and want to play a game but find out that the game is not configured right and controls don't respond, or the game doesn't load right because it needs a special procedure for the first load, or whatever.

My goal is to have a closed games list that I can check work, controls are configured right, etc. If someone asks for something I don't have, I'll take note and add it later. I want to minimize those cases, but I think that's the way to go for me. BTW, I'm aiming at something around 250 games or so...

[MikeDeuce]

I use HyperSpin for my front end so I was updating to the newest version and checking out their Themes section when it dawned on me to use their themes as a list.  They have around 800 themes that have been created for individual games.  I figured if someone would go to the trouble of creating a theme then there must be some interest in the game.

I did the same exact thing and I'm very happy with the "themes only" decision in the Hyperspin config. Much easier to whittle down a list from that point down.

[bkenobi]

There have been a lot of valid points made in this post and I wanted to put in my 2 cents.  I am in the process of updating my cabinet and had been thinking of finding a similar list to put on my MAME cabinet once it has been updated.  I originally put about 100 games on my machine thinking that was a good number to have and would have most of top requests.  This was mostly true, but every once in a while someone would ask about a game that wasn't on the list.  So when I started the update I wanted to find a good list to use.  I saw your post  and thought someone beat me to it.  Of course in reading it, everyone has an opinion and really no definitive answer.

So this is what I plan to do.  I use HyperSpin for my front end so I was updating to the newest version and checking out their Themes section when it dawned on me to use their themes as a list.  They have around 800 themes that have been created for individual games.  I figured if someone would go to the trouble of creating a theme then there must be some interest in the game.  This also narrows the roms required from nearly 8000 to 800.  It also makes the download aroun 4 GB's instead of 24GB.  I will have all those roms on my machine in a ALL GAMES list, this will not be the default list but will be available.  I will continue to have the default list around 100, a good selection of games but not overwhelming.  I will probably do some swapping on and off of the DEFAULT list as I see some games getting more play or less play. 

Let me know what you think of this idea.  I haven't incorporated it yet but am working on it. 

So can you post a list of themes?  I checked the HS homepage and forums, but am either inept or don't have access to a full list.  I found a completed themes list, but it hasn't been updated in almost a year and it's game names, not rom names.

[severdhed]

what i did was go through and pick out all of the games i knew i wanted in my main list, which turns out to be about 130.  this is the game list that everyone chooses from when they come over.  however i still have my "all games" list that has several thousand choices, so if someone requests a specific game that i dont have on my favorites list, i just switch to the all games list, find it, and add it to my favorites.  that way you can have a nice list of popular titles, but still have access to all of them if you need it

[javeryh]

My brother-in-law LOVES Blue Print

Your brother-in-law is right.  Blue-Print is AWESOME. 

[cmoses]

So can you post a list of themes?  I checked the HS homepage and forums, but am either inept or don't have access to a full list.  I found a completed themes list, but it hasn't been updated in almost a year and it's game names, not rom names.

There isn't really a list of themes available anywhere.  They keep a complete set of themes updated on their FTP site.  I will try to take a screen shot or two of the themes directory but that would be the closest you would get to a list.  Also they are named the same as the ROMS so it's not always easy to tell what a games actual name is. 

[bkenobi]

I'd say it's preferable that they name them the same as the rom.  When things are named with the actual game's name, it's sometimes difficult to go back to the rom name IMO.

[shfifty]

what i did was go through and pick out all of the games i knew i wanted in my main list, which turns out to be about 130.  this is the game list that everyone chooses from when they come over.  however i still have my "all games" list that has several thousand choices, so if someone requests a specific game that i dont have on my favorites list, i just switch to the all games list, find it, and add it to my favorites.  that way you can have a nice list of popular titles, but still have access to all of them if you need it

This is pretty much what i do. My 'Good' list started with about 80 games, now its up to about 120. I started with adding core games that i remember playing on real machines. Then i filled it out with sequels, variants and similar games. And then i threw in most of the classics. Recently the main new additions to my list are gems ive found through this forum (eg in the hunt), requests or randoms that i step on.
 

[cmoses]

I found a HyperSpin forum page that had a list of games.  The list is a little old, from 11/25/09, but will give you a good idea of what is there.

[nickynooch]

I found a HyperSpin forum page that had a list of games.  The list is a little old, from 11/25/09, but will give you a good idea of what is there.

Pretty decent list.  I'll probably use that for my cab.  Thanks!

[bkenobi]

That's the list I found, but it's got the name of the game rather than the rom name that a FE can use.  What's the easiest way to convert it back to a rom name?

[ranma]

Was trying to do some simple scripting for that but it's no use, since the descriptions don't match those of MAME.

[bkenobi]

Was trying to do some simple scripting for that but it's no use, since the descriptions don't match those of MAME.

...which is why it's a cool list, but virtually useless to me.   

[jimmy2x2x]

I found a HyperSpin forum page that had a list of games.  The list is a little old, from 11/25/09, but will give you a good idea of what is there.

Pretty decent list.  I'll probably use that for my cab.  Thanks!

I got up the the 'B' section which included Batsugun (doesnt work properly) and omitted Battle Garegga (multiple winner of shmups.com shoot em up of the year http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32233&hilit=annual) then I gave up.

[CheffoJeffo]

My brother-in-law LOVES Blue Print

Your brother-in-law is right.  Blue-Print is AWESOME. 

I never would have played it, but he had a story from his youth of a family trip to Florida where his brother was sick, so, while the family tended to brother, he walked over to the convenience store and played Blue Print for a week.

Some years ago, a dedicated (and gutted) BP cabinet came up at auction (I think RayB was standing beside me when it did), but I deemed it to be too far gone for proper salvage. That was a sad day.