Current arcade games

Not all arcade games have a vertical screen. There are some models that allow you to play on a horizontal screen while sitting down. These machines come with stools that are placed at each end of the machine. These models are designed to make everyone in your family happy. Most arcade game machines come fully assembled. There isn't much setup involved other than selecting a location for your unit and plugging it in. However, some consoles do require minor assembly.

If you're trying to keep things affordable and just want an arcade game to play at home, this might be your best option. These models are typically the classic machines that you remember playing at the mall, such as Pac Man, Galaga, or Street Fighter.

Additionally, there are modern versions that allow you to play several different games in one unit as well. Expensive: If you want a fully immersive machine that you sit on or in when playing, those are available as well. These high-end models are best for commercial arcades, but if you're a die-hard arcade gamer and have the budget, you can get one of these for your home. Never apply liquids directly to your arcade game machine.

To clean it, simply moisten a lint-free towel or cloth and wipe down the outside of the machine. Playing arcade games is fun, and it gives you that warm feeling of nostalgia, but did you know it offers far more than that?

Here are some benefits of playing arcade games. No, not at all. While each machine varies in the amount of power it consumes, a hair dryer consumes far more power than an arcade game machine.

There are three factors that determine the cost of running an electrical appliance: wattage, hours used, and the cost of your electricity. If your arcade game machine consumes more than watts, you play longer than an hour every day, or your rate for electricity is higher, the overall cost will be higher.

If your arcade game machine consumes less than watts, you play less than an hour every day or you don't play every day , or your rate for electricity is lower, the overall cost will be lower. It depends on the type of machine you have and the amount of use it gets. If you own an arcade game machine with several moving parts pinball machine or claw machine, for example , maintenance will be a little more involved. BestReviews spends thousands of hours researching, analyzing, and testing products to recommend the best picks for most consumers.

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Bottom Line. Best of the Best. Quarter Arcades. Check Price. Best for Small Spaces Bottom Line. Best Bang for the Buck. Trusted Brand Bottom Line. Galaga is a fixed shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco. In North America, it was released by Midway Games. Controlling a starship, the player is tasked with destroying the Galaga forces in each stage while avoiding enemies and projectiles. Gauntlet Legends is an arcade game released in by Atari Games.

Its unusual features for an arcade game included passwords and characters that could be saved, enabling players to play over the course of a long period. The Ghostbusters pinball experience highlights the humor of the film as the player progresses through the game. Gorf is an arcade game released in by Midway Mfg. It is a multiple-mission fixed shooter with five distinct modes of play, essentially making it five games in one.

The game makes heavy use of synthesized speech, powered by the Votrax speech chip. One of the first games to allow the player to buy additional lives before starting the game, Gorf allows the player to insert extra coins to buy up to seven starting lives.

The House of the Dead 2 is a first-person light gun shooter arcade game with a horror theme and the second game in The House of the Dead series of video games. The Dreamcast version became a Sega All Stars title. The Iron Maiden pinball machines aim to reflect the same excitement, energy, and experience of a live Iron Maiden concert. Players, as Eddie, will embark on a quest to defeat the Beast and his minions across the Legacy of the Beast mobile game and comic book world.

Iron Maiden pinball entertains with an amazing array of modern and classic features, making it suitable for all skill levels. Joust is an arcade game developed by Williams Electronics and released in It popularized the concept of two-player cooperative gameplay by being more successful at it than its predecessors.

The player uses a button and joystick to control a knight riding a flying ostrich. The objective is to progress through levels by defeating waves of enemy knights riding buzzards. Like the blockbuster movie, the Jurassic Park pinball experience generates heart pounding excitement as the player progresses through the game.

As the game starts, the player is transported to Isla Nublar, an amusement park where escaped dinosaurs are running amok! All dinosaurs, however, are not created equal as players will battle Raptors and the mighty T.

The game immerses players in the fun world of battling dinosaurs in an action-packed adventure filled with twists and turns.

Killer Instinct 2 is a fighting video game developed by Rare and manufactured by Midway for arcades in as a sequel to Killer Instinct As with the first game, Killer Instinct 2 relies on an automatic combo subsystem in its matches. The matches, as with Killer Instinct, revolve around a three strength system Quick, Medium and Fierce.

However, normal moves have lost a lot of their priority and range, as well as gaining extra recovery time. Throws have been added into the game to deal with blocking characters as opposed to the top attack in Killer Instinct. It is based on The Lord of the Rings, which was first released in It is a platform game in which the player must guide a marble through six courses, populated with obstacles and enemies, within a time limit.

The player controls the marble by using a trackball. In designing the game, Cerny drew inspiration from miniature golf, racing games, and artwork by M. He aimed to create a game that offered a distinct experience with a unique control system. Throughout development, he was frequently impeded by limitations in technology and had to forgo several design ideas.

Upon its release to arcades, Marble Madness was commercially successful and profitable. The game was ported to numerous platforms and inspired the development of other games. A sequel was developed and planned for release in , but canceled when location testing showed the game could not succeed in competition with other titles. Medieval Madness is a Williams pinball machine released in June Designed by Brian Eddy and programmed by Lyman Sheats, it had a production run of 4, units.

It is often regarded by many to be the greatest pinball machine of all time. Both editions of the game include LED lighting on the playfield and a new color display. Monster Bash is a pinball machine produced by Williams. Monster Bash is the highly anticipated third game in the Chicago Gaming Companies series of remakes of the greatest Bally and Williams pinball machines.

Monster Bash Remake was recreated to exceed the high standards of the original game. Pac-Man is a maze arcade game developed by General Computer Corporation and published by Midway. It is the sequel to Pac-Man , and the first entry in the series to not be made by Namco. Controlling the titular character, the player is tasked with eating all of the pellets in an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts.

Narc is a run and gun arcade game designed by Eugene Jarvis for Williams Electronics and programmed by George Petro. It was one of the first ultra-violent video games and a frequent target of parental criticism of the video game industry. It was the first game in the newly restarted Williams Electronics coin-op division, after being acquired by Midway. Paperboy is an arcade game developed and published by Atari Games.

It was released in North America in April The game lasts for seven in-game days, Monday through Sunday. Controlling the paperboy with the handlebar controls, the player attempts to deliver newspapers to subscribers. Each day begins by showing an overview of the street indicating subscribers and non-subscribers. The player scores points for each paper delivered successfully, and more points if they throw it into the mailbox, as well as breakage points by damaging the houses of non-subscribers.

A perfect delivery results in all the points being worth double for that day. At the end of each stage is a training course with various obstacles to throw papers at and to jump over, and the player scores a bonus for finishing the course. Crashing on the course ends the round, but does not cost the player a life. When a player fails to deliver a paper to a house, the resident will cancel their subscription, and the house turns dark.

Doing a perfect delivery can gain back subscribers previously lost. In Japan, Game Machine listed Paperboy on their November 1, issue as being the fifth most-successful upright arcade unit of the year.

Pole Position is an arcade racing video game that was released by Namco in and licensed to Atari, Inc. It was the most successful racing game of the classic era, spawning ports, sequels, and a Saturday morning cartoon, although the cartoon had nothing in common with the game.

The game established the conventions of the racing game genre and its success inspired numerous imitators. It is a 2D action game with puzzle elements that uses isometric graphics to create a pseudo-3D effect.

Players use a joystick to control the character. The game was conceived by Warren Davis and Jeff Lee. Lee designed the title character and original concept, which was further developed and implemented by Davis. It has been ported to numerous platforms. Therefore, the rights have been owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment since its parent, Sony, acquired Columbia in Rampage is a arcade game by Bally Midway. Players take control of a trio of gigantic monsters trying to survive against onslaughts of military forces.

Each round is completed when a particular city is completely reduced to rubble. Warner Bros. Rampage was inspired by the monster film King Kong, the kaiju film Godzilla, and the platform game Donkey Kong.

In turn, Rampage inspired a film adaptation of the same name. It was a horrible movie. RoadBlasters is a combat racing arcade game released by Atari Games in In RoadBlasters, the player must navigate an armed sports car through 50 different rally races, getting to the finish line before running out of fuel. The game is set in the year in a fictional world where robots have turned against humans in a cybernetic revolt.

The aim is to defeat endless waves of robots, rescue surviving humans, and earn as many points as possible. A two-joystick control scheme was implemented to provide the player with more precise controls, and enemies with different behaviors were added to make the game challenging.

Jarvis and DeMar designed the game to instill panic in players by presenting them with conflicting goals and having on-screen projectiles coming from multiple directions.

Robotron: was critically and commercially successful. Though not the first game with a twin joystick control scheme, Robotron: is cited as the game that popularized it. Robotron: has been ported to numerous platforms, inspired the development of other games, and was followed by sequels.

At first glance, features like character classes, weapon upgrades, and branching paths might sound more at home in RPGs rather than arcade cabinets, but that was not always the case. Many games originating in arcades helped shape the RPG genre fans know today.

While arcades themselves might be somewhat relics, they helped usher in a new genre of gaming. Considered by many to be the grandfather of the dungeon-crawling genre, the original Gauntlet brought the action and adventure of things like Dungeons and Dragons out of the DM screens and right onto the arcade ones.

Players chose their heroes, then set off into the dungeons in search of loot and glory. There are dozens of titles that take inspiration from this arcade classic, most notably the iconic Diablo franchise , but it's never a bad idea to get back to basics.

Whether journeying solo or with a full party, it's one game that maintains its RPG influence across the board. Taking a handful of elements from titles like Renegade, River City Ransom might lack swords and sorcery, but its food and items mechanic for raising stats is definitely an RPG flavor seen before.

It's the combination of action and strategic grinding that grants it the rank of RPG. While it might seem a bit simplistic compared to certain games that followed, it helped make the genre pack a little more punch.

An honorable mention, but one that goes hand in hand with River City Ransom, this cult-favorite beat-em-up has more than a few Easter eggs and references from the realms of retro-gaming, arcade RPGs included.

Players rely on powerups and collectibles to help develop Scott, Ramona, and the rest of their bit companions. It's got the familiar side-scrolling style, but with a self-aware gamer flare that mixes genres beautifully.

Along with stat-boosting items, the game features a variety of weapons that would be at home in any number of arcade-adventure titles. Sega's Golden Axe wanted to mix the hard-hitting action with the fantasy of Conan the Barbarian.

The result was this beat-em-up brawler with dwarves, warriors, mystics, and screen-clearing spells that made the title a stand-out entry in the arcade genre.