Favorite game you never played until MAME?

[ElKootcho]

With the thousands of games available using MAME, what's your favorite that you had never even heard of until you discovered it on MAME?

Mine - Mighty Pang and Super Pang

I don't think I ever saw those in an arcade growing up but I'm addicted.

[Well Fed Games]

Mine - Mighty Pang and Super Pang

Those actually got a PS1 release, oddly enough, and are quite fun (the only reason I knew about them before MAME).

For me, there are so many... Jungler and Juno First come to mind (both long forgotten, never ported Konami games), and lately I have been playing Atari's old Super Bug.

[harveybirdman]

Sengoku 3
Donpachi
Guwange
Daioh

Tons more!

[shponglefan]

Pachinko Sexy Reaction

[wp34]

DoDanPachi
In The Hunt
Cameltry
Great 1,000 Mile Rally (and derivatives)

[dgame]

Magical Drop 3 (Neo Geo)

Never saw one in the wild. Now one of my all time favorites.

[yotsuya]

Battle Balls

[JoeB]

Money puzzle exchanger

[kahlid74]

Vendetta.  A friend introduced me to this as I somehow never played this in arcades.  It's a good fun game.

[emphatic]

Battle Garegga
Armed Police Batrider

I now own both on PCB.

[pinballjim]

Vendetta.  A friend introduced me to this as I somehow never played this in arcades.  It's a good fun game.

The big innovation on that one being you could kick people while they were on the ground.  Consequently, there was a line to play it in the arcade.  Check out the leather queen enemies on the world rom version sometime.

Big soft spot in my heart for those fight and go right games but they're not much fun after one playthrough.

Puzz Loop 1 & 2 were games I never saw in the wild and we played the crap out of them on MAME. 

[Le Chuck]

I'm Sorry

It's always on my favorite list and when I introduce folks to MAME I always bring that gem out so I can say, "take a look at this crazy ass game from japan"

[TGov]

Juno First is awesome.  I had never heard of it until trying it recently in MAME.  Jumping Jack is another one.  I don't remember ever seeing it in an arcade, but it was the late 80's before I was frequenting arcades so it was probably out by then.

[vanrose72]

Willow
Donkey Kong 3
Tons of GOTD from MameZach

[harveybirdman]

---daisies--- I can feel my games list growing already

[popsicle]

You said game(s) plural, right?  I don't remember ever seeing any of these in the wild.

VERTICAL ORIENTATION:

Tail to Nose - simple overhead formula 1 racer.  Only needs two buttons and 2 directions.
Astro Blaster - sadly, I never saw this until mame, which is shameful!
Astro Fighter - not as good, but mesmerizing.
Pinball Action - I play this a lot. 
Lunar Rescue - addicting

HORIZONTAL:

Tank Force - 2 player overhead tanks
Hat Trick - 2 player overhead hockey
UO Poko - puzzle game
King of Dragons - a 'run to the right' beat em up that I frequently play through all the way with my son.  Easy and satisfying.
Quiz and Dragons - fun but terribly dated trivia game with fantasy theme.  Fun at parties with 30 somethings.  Brush up on your prog rock.
Space Zap - 4 way goodness, reminds me of Cosmik Ark for 2600

[compute]

Favorite?  Let me get the list . . .

The Outfoxies
Black Widow
Kick / Kickman
Strike Force


Tons of great shooters I can't think off off-hand.  I love just about any of the later Japanese bullet-hell shooters.

[BoLt]

The big one for me was the Metal Slug series.

[Cynicaster]

Good topic.  Funny thing about it for me is, aside from some high profile classics (Pac-Man, Missile Command, Asteroids, Frogger, etc.), all of my favorite go-to games these days are ones I discovered in the last few years in MAME.  My biggest first-hand arcade experiences were in the mid-late 80's to early 90's--book-ended roughly by Kung-Fu Master on one end and MK2 on the other.  For whatever reason, I never have any desire to play the games that were my favorites back then, which is funny, because if somebody would have told me in 1991 that I would one day be able to play WWF Superstars on a cabinet in my basement, I would have had a nerdgasm.

So, for me the "post-MAME favorites" are too many to mention, but DoDonPachi and Black Widow immediately come to mind.  Aside from those, I recently posted an article on such a thing, focusing on games that might appeal to non-gamers: http://cynicaster.blogspot.ca/ 



 

 

[eds1275]

I only play games I own the original roms for...

no seriously until MAME I had never head of The OutFoxies. What a great game. Salary Man Champ [and all like it - bishi bashi anything] have a big place in my heart as well even though I've been rocking bishi bashi in the arcades since before I knew of mame.

[flashiv]

Bank Panic
DooDanPanchi
Penguin Brothers
In the Hunt
Heavy Smash
Skydiver
Ninja Baseball Man
to name a few I can think of

I keep seeing everyone raving about Juno First, guess I'll have to finally break down and try it.

I played Space Zap as a kid all the time back in the day.  We had one in a bowling alley and I think I actually own it now.  I can trace it back to a roller rink and the roller rink guy says he bought it from a local bowling alley.  Only 2 bowling alleys in my hometown.

[xefned]

I played Space Zap as a kid all the time back in the day.  We had one in a bowling alley and I think I actually own it now.  I can trace it back to a roller rink and the roller rink guy says he bought it from a local bowling alley.  Only 2 bowling alleys in my hometown.

Nice!  What are the odds the other bowling alley even owned a Space Zap. Small. I think it's safe to say that's the exact machine you played as a young'un. Talk about preserving the past.   

[sho]

Robotron - All the buzz, all these years and I never had tried it (To the point that I am starting to regret the choice for a  theme on my cab  ) I'd say 95% of the cab playtime has been on Robotron.
What kind of modern joystick would be best suited for Robotron?

[Thenasty]

All Video Pinball (never seen one in arcades except Baby Pacman).

Another discovered brain tester games that I never seen/heard before Mame are:

Boxy Boy (Lots of thinking and trying).
Chicken Shift (You think it's a simple game, but it will SCREW your MIND)

[iserian]

Willow


------
Love the idea of this thread, as my goal for Mame is to discover games I never played, or games that I did not play enough.  I manged A Putt Putt Golf and Games back in the day and remember when the Willow PCB's came in.  I fired up the game after our tech built it out and knew I wanted to spend time playing through this title.  Never got the chance, and too busy building cocktail's now... times never change 

[ron310]

Elevator Action 2
Outfoxies

[boardjunkie]

Sea Fighter Poseidon, Block Block, Radarscope, Pang 3, Cosmo Gang, Kitten Kaboodle, Rug Rats, Halleys Comet 87, several others I can't recall right now. I make it a point to check out stuff I don't know of just about every time I run my cab. You never know what you'll find if you have a full set of roms....

[Generic Eric]

Juno First
Mr Driller  (Its a foreign release and emulation is not complete, but its fun.)
Truxton
Mille Miglia 2: Great 1000 miles Rally
Money Idol Exchanger
There are others.

[CoryBee]

Me and my brother play Hat Trick religiously

A ton of shmups are on my list

One I played recently that was hard to put down is Batrider!

[Minwah]

Snake Pit

[ron310]

Me and my brother play Hat Trick religiously

A ton of shmups are on my list

One I played recently that was hard to put down is Batrider!

Hat Trick is the reason i built my cab!

[sharpfork]

Like others in the thread, I had no idea Tate shmups from the 90s and early 2000s out of Japan where such a blast!
DoDonPachi
Guwange
Esp galluda
Esprade
Ketsui

Exploring the genre forced hardware upgrades I never expected to make for games like
Mushihimesa
espgalluda
Raiden IV

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[yotsuya]

Is it wrong of me that I get bored with shmups after a couple of credits? Maybe I'm just not that good at them.

[HaRuMaN]

Is it wrong of me that I get bored with shmups after a couple of credits? Maybe I'm just not that good at them.

Yes.  You suck.

[yotsuya]

Is it wrong of me that I get bored with shmups after a couple of credits? Maybe I'm just not that good at them.

Yes.  You suck.

I know. But after a while, there's no sense of danger, especially if you can keep coining up. They're fun at first, but I dunno...

[emphatic]

Is it wrong of me that I get bored with shmups after a couple of credits? Maybe I'm just not that good at them.

Yes.  You suck.

I know. But after a while, there's no sense of danger, especially if you can keep coining up. They're fun at first, but I dunno...

Go for the 1 credit all clear. Problem solved.

[pinballjim]

Ah yes, the old "if you think it's boring or easy then you're not playing it right" trope.  Sometimes games just suck.

[nipsmg]

This thread again... It's ok I love responding to this:

- Shuuz
- The Punisher
- Timber
- The Glob
- Windjammers

[dmarcum99]

These were games I keep playing on my mame cab while never playing them in the arcades...

Ninja Baseball Batman
DoDonPachi
Bubble Bobble (bought pcb)
Mr. DO (bought pcb)
Marvel vs. Capcom (bought pcb)
Simpsons Bowling (bought pcb)

[Cynicaster]

Ah yes, the old "if you think it's boring or easy then you're not playing it right" trope.  Sometimes games just suck.

I see what you're saying, but it's hard to argue that a bottomless pit of "credits" doesn't have the potential to neuter the experience of a game. 

I'm completely on board with the single credit approach, especially for shooters.  It's even better if you throw in some friendly competition.  Seeing how many points you can squeeze out of that single credit and going toe to toe with others really takes the fun factor to the next level, at least for me.  Games need stakes.  When you can just mash the coin-up button all day no matter how much you suck, there are no stakes.