Favorite Not so well known arcade game

[mrserv0n]

Hey well out of so many games to choose from, and many really bad arcade games. Besides the obvious pacman- mortal kombat - double dragon, etc. What are some of your not so well known favorite games?

[NoOne=NBA=]

Quantum and Cameltry are the first two I thought of.

[Donkey_Kong]

Ooooh...We just did something like this. I was overactive in the thread myself.

I will contribute once to this one with the link.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=61713.0


 

[mrserv0n]

Thx for the reference link that is exactly what I was looking for some new material that thread will be enough. thanks again

[Donkey_Kong]

Thx for the reference link that is exactly what I was looking for some new material that thread will be enough. thanks again

Mr Serv,

The link I gave you, well it is excellent and it turned out to even be therapeutic for myself believe it or not. Now let's face it this is one of them topics that will probably never get *tired* around a place like this and quite frankly will never be completely resolved.

Sooooo...please, by all means...DO NOT sever discussion because I simply posted that link. PLEASE, please continue. I will think of it as a quick refresher course.

I can't think of any games at the moment though...sorry   ANYONE ELSE?? Help please!!

[mrserv0n]

Well I can tell you my 2 favorites of the MAME collection besides the obvious are Nintendo Arm Wrestling, and Yie-Ar Kung Fu. That arm wrestling game I never even seen an arcade or heard of it, I cannot believe it was never ported to nintendo the game is just like punch out and its amazing. Yie-Ar kung fu is one of my all time favorites from the arcade and has a great fighting system considering its age and awesome enemies, each with there own unique way to kill them.

[ChadTower]

I have always loved Super Baseball Double Play Home Run Derby by Cinematronics.  One of the first games to record player stats locally, I used to play the crap out of it whenever I was visiting relatives in MA.  That springloaded joy controller is awesome.  I really wish I could find one of those now.

[RayB]

People always tell me they never heard of Juno First, so... I guess Juno First!

[shardian]

Bosconian - The wife loves it too - it is the ONLY game she has ever beat me in high scoring.

Anteater -  Extremely addictive.

[thennomeking]

1000 Mile Rally 1&2
005
Buck Rodgers
Arabian

[ark_ader]

Legendary Hero Tonma
Donkey Kong 3
Dig Dug 2
Super Don Quixote

Never Saw any of these in the arcades except for the first and last one. 
Both a rarity in its own class.

[needlesmcgirk]

GigaWing, Dinosaurs and Cadillacs

[Grasshopper]

People always tell me they never heard of Juno First, so... I guess Juno First!

That's also one of my favourites. I really dig the Defender vibe.

[(+_+)]

Without a doubt Robotron 2084. I also love Mutant Storm which is a modern day version of Robotron.

[ahofle]

Juno First is a GREAT game.
Some other good lesser known games:

Wizwarz (spinner + joystick)
Lost Tomb
Puzz Loop
Cameltry
Hat Trick
Flicky
Grobda
Chicken Shift
Road Fighter
Quantum
Aztarac  (analog stick plus spinner I believe)
Rescue Raider
Shuffleshot
Shuuz
Timber

[skippy]

rug rats is a fun addictive game

[TOK]

Without a doubt Robotron 2084. I also love Mutant Storm which is a modern day version of Robotron.

If you've never heard of Robotron, I suggest also trying out other lost gems like Asteroids, Pac Man and Space Invaders! 

Rescue by Stern, Zing Zing Zip and Mars Matrix: Hyper Solid Shooting are two uncommon games that made it to my favorites folder. I'd never played the latter two until finding them in MAME.

[Chris]

Lasso can be a bit maddening and addictive; I'll fire that up when I want to tread off the beaten path for a while.

[Hockeyboy]

Bubble Bobble
Time Pilot
Scramble
Paperboy

Never was spectacular at any of those games, just loved 'em a lot!

[TOK]

Bubble Bobble
Time Pilot
Scramble
Paperboy

Never was spectacular at any of those games, just loved 'em a lot!

Perhaps the arcade scene was a little more lively by me, or maybe it's just because I'm old 
First someone mentioned Robotron, now these four, all which I'd consider pretty commonly known Golden Age games. Time Pilot was about the only one which was only in one of the four local arcades.

[clockwork]

Bubble Bobble

I just checked out the Bubble Bobble games today. They're quite fun. Another one I used to find fairly entertaining that probably wasn't too popular is Bubbles.

[arcadefever]

shadow dancer 

[CheffoJeffo]

Perhaps the arcade scene was a little more lively by me, or maybe it's just because I'm old 
First someone mentioned Robotron, now these four, all which I'd consider pretty commonly known Golden Age games. Time Pilot was about the only one which was only in one of the four local arcades.

No kidding ... some very well known games being mentionned.

* CheffoJeffo  grumbles about the damned kids

Cheers

[Jdurg]

I liked Haunted Castle.  Mostly because it was like an arcade version of Castlevania and I remember walking around in an arcade and hearing that music and being attracted to the cab.

[Tailgunner]

Tac/Scan

[shardian]

Perhaps the arcade scene was a little more lively by me, or maybe it's just because I'm old 
First someone mentioned Robotron, now these four, all which I'd consider pretty commonly known Golden Age games. Time Pilot was about the only one which was only in one of the four local arcades.

No kidding ... some very well known games being mentionned.

* CheffoJeffo  grumbles about the damned kids

Cheers

Sorry Chef, but to us youngsters, anything classic other than Pacman is pretty unknown to us. Our arcades were full of Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and NeoGeo. We only played Pacman because it happened to be at Pizza Hut, and there was nothing else to play.

However, if I had a choice I would much rather have grown up in the arcades you did.

It will be even worse for the next generation - they will have fond memories of crappy redemption games (can you believe they got rid of skeeball at the local Chucky Cheese's??? ) and $2 a pop bloated gimmick games. I feel REALLY sorry for them.

[CheffoJeffo]

Sorry Chef, but to us youngsters, anything classic other than Pacman is pretty unknown to us. Our arcades were full of Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and NeoGeo. We only played Pacman because it happened to be at Pizza Hut, and there was nothing else to play.

I guess maybe I am too old and need to be put out to pasture.

Nice run while it lasted.

Cheers

[Chris]

You did miss out, I think.  We were right there at the beginning.  We were amazed by Space Invaders; we'd play Pong for hours at home.  Sure they're nothing compared to Super 3D Blood-soaked Slugfest IV, but no other kids in history had seen the things we were seeing!  And since the standard arcade cabinet shape and controls hadn't developed yet, we got a lot of really unique cabs.  Starship 1 is a great example: play it in MAME and you'll laugh at how basic it was.  But play it in an arcade, with the original cabinet and controls, and it's an experience.  Tail Gunner, Battlezone, Lunar Lander, Sea Wolf, Sprint, Death Race (I loved that one!)... the cabs and controls made these games far more than the sum of their parts to an 8-year old kid who hasn't been jaded by all the 3D computer wizardry of modern movies and games.  All that was lost with JAMMA and Neo-Geo making all the cabinets interchangeable...

[Unholyknight]

Smash TV and Total Carnage.

I've found lately that a LOT of people have no idea what these games are, and I played these for hours when I was younger.

[MaMeNnO]

I haven't seen "In the Hunt" alot. Very cool and nice looking game. Spent alot of dutch "guldens" on that game.

[Minwah]

Snake Pit is awesome!

[Dudeman]

Venture
Solomon's Key

I'm not sure how popular these are, but I hardly ever saw them in the arcades. If I did, I had to dump a lot of money on them.

[ChadTower]

Satan's Hollow.  Fantastic artwork and probably the coolest looking stick ever (better than Tron).

[Tailgunner]

You did miss out, I think.  We were right there at the beginning.  We were amazed by Space Invaders; we'd play Pong for hours at home.  Sure they're nothing compared to Super 3D Blood-soaked Slugfest IV, but no other kids in history had seen the things we were seeing!  And since the standard arcade cabinet shape and controls hadn't developed yet, we got a lot of really unique cabs.  Starship 1 is a great example: play it in MAME and you'll laugh at how basic it was.  But play it in an arcade, with the original cabinet and controls, and it's an experience.  Tail Gunner, Battlezone, Lunar Lander, Sea Wolf, Sprint, Death Race (I loved that one!)... the cabs and controls made these games far more than the sum of their parts to an 8-year old kid who hasn't been jaded by all the 3D computer wizardry of modern movies and games.  All that was lost with JAMMA and Neo-Geo making all the cabinets interchangeable...

Agree 100%. I can vividly remember the first time I saw PONG, though to be honest the first video game that actually made a dent into my pinball fund was Breakout.

Last summer I went with my sister's family to Cedar Point, and honestly had more fun playing vintages games in their arcade than riding the rides. Playing Sea Wolf on a real cab was something I've missed for more than 30 years, they had one and playing it that way again was a special treat.

Since you mentioned Starship 1, I'll give a nod to it's cousin, Sky Raider. It's playable in MAME but doing so pales in comparison to playing it on an an original cab.

[grantspain]

i have been very lucky to work in the video game industry since 1985 so i have seen alot of great games,here are some of my favourite "not so well known" games.
rygar
karnov
cavalon(when i was a kid)
spellunker

[clockwork]

Rygar is one of my all time favorites. I guess I didn't consider that a not so well known game since all my friends new of it. Guess we were just lucky.

Another that I'm not sure fits this category but that I loved:

Gladiator

[danny_galaga]

exerion
asterix
juno first
bank panic
battle chopper
hopper robo
city connection
bells and whistles
pooyan
darwin 4078 (coming from a city named darwin, how could i pass it up!)

looks like there are a few votes for juno first. it is a real gem (",)

[Bones]

RYGAR!

[ChadTower]

Rygar was one of the great NES games, that's for sure.  No save points, though, took like 3 hours to beat.

[tommyinajar]

Black Widow
Elevator Action
Tutankham ( one hard --I'm attempting to get by the auto-censor and should be beaten after I re-read the rules-- game )
Time Pilot

I'd say Astro Fighter and Death Race....but I'd be dating myself 


P.S. I'd also mention to all the 'youngsters' it cracks me up when my buddies kids come over. They can memorize all the buttons on a PS2 game and wiz right through it, but can't get past the second level on "Donkey Kong" 

[clockwork]

The Legend of Kage

I'm not sure if this is the same one I'm thinking of. The one I played was on Nintendo, but this one looks quite familiar. I played this game with my brother long ago (one of the few we ever played together), and we beat it same night we rented it. I had forgotten its name and have been hoping to find it again.

[Shoegazer]

Ok, if you haven't heard of these games before, you definitely need to try them out:

Libble Rabble is quite bizarre (harvesting mushrooms?) and really needs two joysticks to play (ala Robotron).  The thing I like about it other than being incredibly unique, is that it appears to use a different side of the brain than any other game I know, since it forces you to coordinate both of your hands to lasso the wandering mushrooms.  Just a really neat game.

Toy Pop is another great Namco game that uses the same video/sound hardware as Libble Rabble, a lot of fun with some nice surprises and hidden things, and great with 2 players.

Jackal is a bit more well known, but one of my all-time favorite arcade games that I used to play a LOT when I was younger, so I had to mention it.    Plus it's another stellar 2p simultaneous game. 

Have fun...

Shoegazer

http://nonmame.retrogames.com

[Crowquill]

Forgotten Worlds (8-way joy and push-down spinner)

Super Space Invaders 91 (Majestic-12) - SI w/ cool power ups and cattle mutilation bonus rounds.

Pyros (Wardner) - Toaplan platformer. Think Ghosts N Goblins with RPG-ish items and shops.

Dark Seal - Isometric dungeon-crawler. Kind of like a primitive Gauntlet Legends.

Gladiator - Side scrolling / Fighting (circa 1986)

Game Paradise - a shooter that mocks the entire arcade and amusement industry. One of the bosses is a deluxe moving Outrun cab. Another part takes place in a crane machine. Seems to run slower in newer versions of MAME.

[javeryh]

I always recommend Lady Killer even though it's not kid friendly.  The gameplay is unique and highly addictive.

[Xam]

I like Joe and Mac returns. Kinda like Bubble Bobble...but more fun in my opinion.

Xam

[Texasmame]

Cliff Hanger
Solar Quest
Armor Attack
Tag-Team Wrestling (Volvo!)

[Xam]

Cliff Hanger
Solar Quest
Armor Attack
Tag-Team Wrestling (Volvo!)

Tag Team...I used to love that game! I got pretty good at it too! Played it on MAME and the kids looked at me like "Are you serious Dad?!" 

They much prefer watching me play Mat Mania.

Xam

[johnperkins21]

This is awesome! This list helped me find the two games I would have thought to put on the list:

The Legend of Kage
Yie Ar Kung-Fu

Could not remember the names of those games, but I loved them. Most of the other games I really enjoyed were indeed classics as I rarely got the chance to go to the arcade being dirt poor, and by the time I did it was filled with Street Fighter II and such. I'd also add BattleToads to the list, but it's pretty well known.

[dirt]

two words.... boxy boy

[Minwah]

P.S. I'd also mention to all the 'youngsters' it cracks me up when my buddies kids come over. They can memorize all the buttons on a PS2 game and wiz right through it, but can't get past the second level on "Donkey Kong" 

Modern gamers are ---Bad words, bad words, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when saint censors you?---! Lives are irrelevant thanks to all the continues, save points etc. 

[ChadTower]

I had some kids over once and we fired up a few MAME games... Donkey Kong, etc.  The first two comments were:

"He just got hit with a barrell, why isn't he bleeding?"
"You can't kill anyone?  What fun is that?"

[ahofle]

    

[Texasmame]

I had some kids over once and we fired up a few MAME games... Donkey Kong, etc.  The first two comments were:

"He just got hit with a barrell, why isn't he bleeding?"
"You can't kill anyone?  What fun is that?"

Yeah, my 11 year old saw me fire up Yars' Revenge on my XBox 2600 emu.  She watched it for a second, I told her it was a fly, etc.  She kinda rolled her eyes and announced to my wife in the next room, "MOM!  DAD'S ACTING OLD AGAIN!"
 

[IAmDan]

I'm a big fan of Moonwalker.  It doesn't matter how often I play it, its always hilarious.

[WaRpEd]

Night Stocker by Balley on the old Sente system
Driving and shooting in one game AWESOME!
Although it would have been cheaper to just buy the game.
Cheers

[amerish]

Omega Race

Kickman

These two games were favorites of mine at the Short Hill Mall arcade in Oakland NJ back in the early 80s.

[Xiaou2]

 Ninja Princess - Unexpected masterpiece w/ long quest, insane challange, incredible level changes later on.

 Rally Bike - Hyper fast top view motorcycle game w/ great Gfx, cool secrets, and awesome gameplay.

 Speed Coin - Quickly Guide the coins into the Goal without it falling off the platforms to the floor.

 Mad Planets - Need analog and spinner.  Frantic adrenalin rush

 Assault - BEST TANK GAME EVER!!!     (need dual trigger joys. many special moves)

 Cosmic Chasm - Excellent Vector shooter

 Loco Motion - Great fast paced action based puzzle game

 Halleys Comet - Great vertical shooter.  Very Hard.  Excellent sound FX.  Nice powerups.

 Off the Wall - (Need spinner)  Cool sideview tennis like game.
 
 Rescue - Simular to Robotron but with helicopters + an extra weapon button. Awesome parralax scrolling.

 Brute Force - Cool 3 player beat em up.  Very unique, fun, and hillariously funny.  Very interactive. Cool moves.

[Hockeyboy]

I guess I'm one of the "old farts" too since I'm 41 and can remember when Pong came out. I can remember playing Asteroids and thinking this was the coolest thing ever - so when COLORED games came out...

I just posted games that many others from my generation can't remember, so I figured I could call them 'not-so-well-known' -- of course, coming to a forum like this, there probably aren't many games that fall into this category. One guy at work said, "What did you do in this Paperboy" game anyway? Well, duhhhh.....

[Bobbler]

Midnight Wanderers from Three Wonders - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=T&game_id=10089

[Dervacumen]

I had some kids over once and we fired up a few MAME games... Donkey Kong, etc.  The first two comments were:

"He just got hit with a barrell, why isn't he bleeding?"
"You can't kill anyone?  What fun is that?"

Yeah, my 11 year old saw me fire up Yars' Revenge on my XBox 2600 emu.  She watched it for a second, I told her it was a fly, etc.  She kinda rolled her eyes and announced to my wife in the next room, "MOM!  DAD'S ACTING OLD AGAIN!"
 

That was my favorite game.  They'll never understand.
Welcome to the generation gap.  How it ever hit us is a mystery.

[ChadTower]

Sounded to me like she understood and was just busting his balls.

[kelemvor]

Chicken Shift

Sorry to bump an old thread but I just stumbled upon CHICKEN SHIFT.  Wow.  What a really interesting game.  bad graphics, bad sound, silly premise...  But very addicting. Got over 50k on my first try and I laughed after every round wondering why I was still playing.  he heh.

[wp34]

I used to love to play Strike Zone.
http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9847

I loved the way the batting worked.  Can't quite figure out how to replicate the controls in Mame though.

Used to play a lot of the cocktail version of Super Basketball.

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9864

[Avrus]

Wardner.

I loved Wardner.

[AgentX]

Cavelon (simple but cool)
Great Swordsman (great game try it)
Tutankham (hard)
Quiz and Dragons (stupid but great if your trivia knowledge stops in 1992)

[vertygo]

I just re-discovered Empire City 1931 - a cheap mix of first person shooter, scroller, sniper game that really was originally played with a joystick. I used to aim and fire, and my friend would stand by to hit the.. defense ? button (basically a still graphic of someone in a trenchcoat would overlay the screen.. we used to laugh and assume your character just pulled some shmuck off the street to intercept the bullet)

Back when shooting innocents actually mattered in a first person shooter.. heh!

[deadpool18]

1. Legend of Kage (used to play it at the Deli near my house)
2. Black Widow
3. Pooyan
4. Alien Syndrome
5. Hat Trick (Played this at the same Deli!) **Very Underated Game
6. Cabal
7. Chase HQ (Hard as Hell though...)
8. Super Dodge Ball (Neo Geo)

I love this thread!

[Malenko]

In between plays of double dragon I used to drop ALOT of coinage into BreakThru ,where you controlled a jeep that could jump, and Silk Worm. I hated getting stuck with the jeep on that cause my friends would never help me when they had the helicopter.

Ive actually made it a point to play random games in MAME, thats how I discovered Do Don Pachi, Hot Dog Storm, and quite a few others.

[urbecrisch]

Right now I'm highly addicted to Tutankham!  Looks simple but is surprisingly difficult!  Everyone definitely has to give it a try!

[councilface]

viewpoint
sly spy
tondemo crisis
shock troopers
rampart
outfoxies - A CLASSIC!
Kick and Run - probably the greatest football game on an arcade machine
boogie wings
armed police batrider - Or any bullet hell title

[genesim]

I've been playing alot of Tac Scan.  Great vector game and wonderful with a good spinner.

[GMZombie]

well off the top of my head ones that i got on are Super basektball...lol great premise, burgertime, mini golf, blood bros, and gumshoe

[telengard]

Reactor
Black Widow
The Pit
Juno First

All rock!  (well Reactor literally rocks, hehe)

~telengard

[telengard]

Without a doubt Robotron 2084. I also love Mutant Storm which is a modern day version of Robotron.

If you've never heard of Robotron, I suggest also trying out other lost gems like Asteroids, Pac Man and Space Invaders! 

Rescue by Stern, Zing Zing Zip and Mars Matrix: Hyper Solid Shooting are two uncommon games that made it to my favorites folder. I'd never played the latter two until finding them in MAME.

Heh, that gave me a good chuckle as I was thinking the same thing.  I guess, outside of the hardcore maybe Robotron 2084 isn't that well known.  It's *always* a good suggestion though!

~telengard

[telengard]

Perhaps the arcade scene was a little more lively by me, or maybe it's just because I'm old 
First someone mentioned Robotron, now these four, all which I'd consider pretty commonly known Golden Age games. Time Pilot was about the only one which was only in one of the four local arcades.

No kidding ... some very well known games being mentionned.

* CheffoJeffo  grumbles about the damned kids

Cheers

Sorry Chef, but to us youngsters, anything classic other than Pacman is pretty unknown to us. Our arcades were full of Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and NeoGeo. We only played Pacman because it happened to be at Pizza Hut, and there was nothing else to play.

However, if I had a choice I would much rather have grown up in the arcades you did.

It will be even worse for the next generation - they will have fond memories of crappy redemption games (can you believe they got rid of skeeball at the local Chucky Cheese's??? ) and $2 a pop bloated gimmick games. I feel REALLY sorry for them.

You sir, give me hope for the younger generations!   

~telengard

[telengard]

Satan's Hollow.  Fantastic artwork and probably the coolest looking stick ever (better than Tron).

Oh man, this is one that should be on my list.  I loooove this game so much.  The red stick is awesome as is the neon tubes on the cabinet.

EDIT: Sorry about the 4 posts, I have no idea how to combine them.   

~telengard (loves talking about old favorite games)

[ifkz]

Space Lords.  It was the only arcade game I was ever any good at.  I could play for over an hour on a single quarter.  I'm sure few survive today due to being parted out... it had dual 25 inch monitors in a huge cabinet.  Too bad it still isn't playable in MAME yet...

[CheffoJeffo]

People always tell me they never heard of Juno First, so... I guess Juno First!

I hadn't until RayB's restoration and it is one of my favourites now !

 

[D4RKSL4Y3R]

I have always loved Super Baseball Double Play Home Run Derby by Cinematronics.  One of the first games to record player stats locally, I used to play the crap out of it whenever I was visiting relatives in MA.  That springloaded joy controller is awesome.  I really wish I could find one of those now.

u can get on the xbox live arcade you know for around £4

[tommyinajar]

Anyone remember Gladiator ? Maybe It was because our bowling alley was cheap only to have that one game, but I still like it. Lot harder than I remember 


http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7950

[javeryh]

Chicken Shift makes my brain hurt... but I love it.

[NIVO]

Roc N Rope was a great one, loved the music ditties in it

[tba]

Splatterhouse. i don't think it every got a wide distribution, but a possessed hockey mask and tons of alien "guts" made it it a classic to me > i can still almost hear the "thock" sound that everything made when you hit it with the baseball bat ... excuse me i am going to go boot up my cab!

[theCoder]

Ripoff - Best 2 player game of it's time.  Pretty boring by yourself, but really fun with 2. 

Starcastle - Many a quarter in my day...

Oddly enough, both came from the same small, long since defunct company Cinematronics.  I've tried, but can't track down anyone who claims to own the copyrights to these games.

[ChadTower]

u can get on the xbox live arcade you know for around £4

Didn't know that... but without the spring loaded joystick it wouldn't be the same.  Plus I don't have a 360.

[davieboynj]

nightmare in the dark
mr driller g

both may be well known, but i never see anyone mention them...  so i'll plug them again. 

[JimmyU]

Time Soldiers.

Yeah rotary joysticks.

[javeryh]

Mr. Driller doesn't run at full speed on either of my cabs...  

[Kremmit]

I never saw a Quantum back in the day, so it's a recent discovery for me.  Best trackball game ever!

Other games I never saw back when but love now:

Blueprint- what a bizarre game.  Build a machine to stop the alien that chases the girl, but stop every so often to drop a bomb in a hole.   

Anteater-  I don't know why this is fun, but it is.

Without a doubt Robotron 2084. I also love Mutant Storm which is a modern day version of Robotron.

New version of Mutant Storm is hitting Xbox 360 Oct. 31.

[TheDriver]

Rod-land, very cutesy looking till they bash the enemy sprites!!! Knew a guy that worked for the sales curve when they ported it to the amiga,which is what got me playing this.

Other's:

Alien syndrome,
aliens,
cabal,
xenophobe,
Toki,
Xybot's

Regards.

[ChadTower]

I never saw a Quantum back in the day, so it's a recent discovery for me.  Best trackball game ever!

It is definitely a great little known game... I've always been tempted to create a VectorMAME based Quantum bartop.

[lordtodd75]

hippodrome
forgotten worlds
guardian(get star)
mat mania
roc n rope
klax

edit: almost forgot kid niki radical ninja and chiller

[shardian]

Anteater-  I don't know why this is fun, but it is.

No doubt.  That game is very fun and challenging.

[javeryh]

Blueprint- what a bizarre game.  Build a machine to stop the alien that chases the girl, but stop every so often to drop a bomb in a hole.   

Blueprint is awesome.  I love how when you build the machine you launch basketballs at the eggplant/purple sausage thing chasing your girlfriend.  I had this for my Atari 5200 way back in the day but never had a chance to play it in the arecade... until now, I guess.   

[HaRuMaN]

Don't know how well known it was (or not) but one of my favorite games is Virtual On. 

[ChadTower]

That wasn't too obscure... especially the Saturn version, though the Saturn version wasn't nearly as much fun unless you got the expensive controller. 

[ahofle]

Mr. Driller doesn't run at full speed on either of my cabs... 

Try the Zinc emulator.

[nipsmg]

Wow I can't believe it but I have some nobody mentioned

Timber - I don't know why this is so addicting to me, it just is.  It's by whoever made Tapper.  It's fun.

The Glob - I never saw this in the arcade, but it's insanely fun

Super Dodge Ball (NeoGeo) -- This was already mentioned, but I think I went a week straight battling my friend on this.  Great graphics, special moves, strategy (using players who are out to nail in-game players, etc), GREAT game.