What was your favourite year for arcade machines.

[Body pop]

Maybe /probably been done before
But sure what else are we doing

What was the best or your favourite year of arcade machines

I’m gonna say 1986 for me ,
Why ?
Outrun ,enduro racer ,720 ,wec Le Mans ,bubble bobble, arkanoid ,jackal .kick n run ,salamander .just the variety

Though 85 was quite amazing with space harrier ,nemesis .tough decisions

The 85 games would have still been In the arcades in 86 ,but that doesn’t count 😀
No cheating

 

[TheDaddy]

1986 !! I wonder why ? Lol. Memories of arcades and rhyl.

Dave.

 

[Bods]

It's hard to argue with 1986 to be honest just because of OutRun alone

1987 was pretty good though, Continental Circus, Double Dragon, Ninja Warriors, Operation Wolf, After Burner, Super Hang-on, Street Fighter

 

[Bods]

1986 !! I wonder why ? Lol. Memories of arcades and rhyl.

Dave.

I wonder why too Boy

 

[TheDaddy]

It's hard to argue with 1986 to be honest just because of OutRun alone

1987 was pretty good though, Continental Circus, Double Dragon, Ninja Warriors, Operation Wolf, After Burner, Super Hang-on, Street Fighter

Another reason for 1986 , I mean the sounds of them machines alone created the best atmospheres ever in my honest opinion. Anyone walking past an arcade had to go in to see what all them noises are ! Take me back now , I would sell my soul ! When i have my machines going I always have outrun , Double dragon going as the attract music is iconic. Wonderboy was shit attract if I am honest !

I remember stood confused as hell wondering how and why a machine was talking it was the iconic ' Operation wolf '

Dave.

Rated thread meant to be 5 ! Slipped ! ffs.

 

[Body pop]

Yeah from wonderboy to deluxe outrun .sega ruled the world
Shinobi In 87 would also give it a shout,ninja warriors was super cool

Attract music of hang on ruled though and the space harrier guy getting hurt in 85 .

Waiting on the golden era guys ,they won’t be long 😀

 

[Flyback2021]

Those 80s years are hard to beat but 1992 has a special place in my heart for Street fighter 2 (champ and turbo) NBA JAM and Golden Axe -Revenge of Death Adder.
Was also a teenager then so a bit more independent and upwardly mobile round the arcades so strong memories.

 

[Body pop]

Those 80s years are hard to beat but 1992 has a special place in my heart for Street fighter 2 (champ and turbo) NBA JAM and Golden Axe -Revenge of Death Adder.
Was also a teenager then so a bit more independent and upwardly mobile round the arcades so strong memories.

I love hearing this ,some people say street fighter 2 killed the arcade scene
Not me ,I think we,all from a certain age ,temporarily started raving 🤣
Though at that point I remember buying a snes and dropping another small fortune on mortal kombat .
The all night rave I went to was full of arcade machines ,I never ever played one of them

 

[Flyback2021]

I love hearing this ,some people say street fighter 2 killed the arcade scene
Not me ,I think we,all from a certain age ,temporarily started raving 🤣
Though at that point I remember buying a snes and dropping another small fortune on mortal kombat .
The all night rave I went to was full of arcade machines ,I never ever played one of them

It would have been a great time to be raving ! I didn’t start that til 1998 at Cream but that had an equally massive effect on my life and interests as did arcades.

 

[69er]

While maybe not an outstanding year in itself but 1990 saw the launch of the stand-away life size interactive laser disc Wild West shoot out challenge of MAD DOG McCREE.

Many big arcades had it in the doorway and it was common in motorway services and bowling alleys…. The attract gun fire rang out as you walked past and if you stood to play a Wild West wench asked if “ howdy are you new in town , my daddy is the sheriff “. Tho some arcades in Rhyl also had the Addams family Electric chair torture seat which invariably rang out the Addams theme tune morning to night also!

Both good money takers but short life expectancy and neither very collectible? However someone probably managed to save one or two?

Then just a short time after in 1992 Addams family pinball stood prominently proud in those same pull you inside locations of arcade entrances (if you could drag the kids in past the multitude of plush toy crane grabbers common to all arcade fronts over the period)

 

[mysticmonk]

Can't pick a year, loads of favourites from all over the place. Killer instinct, rastan, golden axe, house of the dead, shinobi, ridge racer, lucky and wild, robocop, san francisco rush, monster maulers, cadillacs and dinosaurs...no bloody pattern at all.

Suppose the best thing was going into bigger arcades that held onto old stuff, so everything was always there in those few places new and old.

Strretfighter 2 was fairly massive though, felt like arcades were just getting massive then. So I'll say 1992/1994 for the sake of it

Edit: as 69er says above, remember that electric chair addams family thing well! Didn't smoke come out of it too?

 

[John Bennett]

I'll take 1991 as it was in the middle of the golden years for me (I'm not quite as old as some of you lot :-D) .
Every Sunday down the 'Spanish City' in Whitley Bay with my brother and friends. So much cool stuff there and something new almost every week.

I love hearing this ,some people say street fighter 2 killed the arcade scene

I always thought it was fairly clear that home computers catching up with arcade stuff was what pretty-much killed-off arcade machines. They went from being maybe 5+ years ahead to almost on-par by the time of the Dreamcast/PS2.

 

[mysticmonk]

Yeah it was the gap closing between arcade and home computers/consoles that nuked it in the end

That ad was optimistic (1994), but it was a sign! I'd say 98 or 99 it was looking ropey

 

[vids]

Anything 80-82 for me was a young fella back then 😆

 

[pubjoe]

Arcades were slumping before SF2. It helped revitalise arcades but in doing so it also gave all other genres a bit of a kick in the balls. Some cool games got cancelled.

Not sure on my favourite year but I loved arcade life in general in the late 80s and 90s. Awesome time to hang out and get up to no good. Kids today have missed out.

My personal favourite time for actually playing a variety of classics was probably around '86-'89 when I was 7-10 and blown away by the games down the arcades. I was obsessed. '91 was a huge year for SF2 alone.

But to choose a single year of quality games it'd have to be later. Rapid Incredible releases were condensed into the mid-late 90's when alongside some huge Sega and Namco games Capcom and SNK were at peak competition and their games were works of art. Many of that era I didn't appreciate until years later as by 13 I was mostly on the fruities. On breaks from those I'd play pool and just a few favourite arcade games.

But anyway, take 1994...

Point Blank
Time Crisis
Virtua Cop
Daytona USA
Sega Rally Championship
Super Street Fighter II Turbo
Alien vs. Predator
Darkstalkers
XMen COTA
King of Fighters
Virtua Fighter 2
Tekken
Mortal Kombat II
Killer Instinct
NBA Jam
Gokujou Parodius
Raiden DX
Puzzle Bobble

Time could have stopped there and I'd be returning to the arcade for those for years (except Killer Instinct 😃).

 

[pubjoe]

A bit off topic but a friend messaged this the other day.

 

[Rogerio]

1989. Not because of the arcade games released that year, but because of my frequent presence in arcades, me at 15 years old...

 

[thegreathopper]

A bit off topic but a friend messaged this the other day.

View attachment 54387

Nice collection, I got to see all of those bands around that time too.

 

[ZeroSum]

1994/1995

 

[PAC-MAN]

The best years to be in British Arcades for me was probably 82/83. So you had Dragon's Lair that literally came from nowhere which caused a major fuss, but you also had the overflow of the real classics from the late 70's and 80's still lurking like Asteroids, Defender, Missile Command, Galaxian and all the other big guns.

I found the whole Street fighter era a total anti climax after experiencing the early days.