Rare games that you remember playing at least once in the 80s

[homerwannabee]

I thought it would be interesting to take a trip down memory lane and just list some of the rare games that you remember playing in the 80s.  Also, if you remember the place that would be cool as well.
I'll start.
Arm Wrestling at the Pac Arcade in Pasadena
Noah's Ark at Disneyland's Arcade
Spiders at a Boy's Club in Southern California
Rip Off at a Ski Resort

[TheSunshineFund]

Cliff Hanger Laser Disc and Journey - Gadgets, Seaview Square Mall, Ocean Township, NJ (I have tokens still from here)
Alpine Ski - Acme Supermarket, Ocean Township, NJ
Hunchback and Street Fighter 1 with original pneumatic buttons - Berardi's Pizza, Neptune City, NJ
 

[johnmcallister]

Hunchback and Street Fighter 1 with original pneumatic buttons - Berardi's Pizza, Neptune City, NJ

Those weren't buttons they were pads that were slightly bigger than your fist.  You didn't want to miss those as you would be hitting solid wood, good thing those didn't take off and become a fad. 

Predator by Williams, played at Arnold's on the Ave, Seattle WA
http://www.retrokade.com/cabs/predators.htm

[ww]

I take it that pizza place isn't there anymore, I looked for pictures.

By rare, I'm going by games I only remember seeing at one place, between here & Kansas City & elsewhere.

Fantasy (US version, naturally), at a Kwik Shop in Topeka, Kansas.
Wild Western, at a Putt Putt location in Topeka, Kansas.  I also remember simultaneously enjoying strawberry Crush sodas from a vending machine there.

[Snowflake]

this is a fun thing, i would sometimes see an obscure game (or perhaps even a common one that due to a string of unlikely events was rare to me) think of it as one off only existing there and never really taking the time to through of course other copies exist until years later i see it on mame or at another arcade

i'm gonna kinda break your rule george and even include 90s games as well as less rare ones that i just never knew about

*Tron i saw in a campground in '91 for the first time. i remember there were 4 machiens but forgot the others
*Time Killers i saw at a different campground as their only arcade machine in the pool (billiards not swim) room, i mainly played pool but tried the game a few times. never saw it again until the gallopin ghost and still think of that campground when i hear about it.
*Street fighter 1 at a rest stop, though it was already street fighter 2 days so it was much after the fact still cool to see the original
*pretty sure this is another member from cross country trip of '91, video game withdrawal, my father actually brought us to a hotel (usually we were in campgrounds) to play in the arcade.didnt need a room, i guess they were perfectly happy to just take our quarters and let us use the arcade. as a 14 year old i thought it was cool as you hit people in this sword beat 'em up game they'd lose amor, what made that exciting of course is there were some girls in game , lame, but to they knew they're young teenage targer audiecne. dont remember the name of the game i'm sure some people here could figure it out though
* some game i saw walking into a grocery store for just a few minutes, also '91, member so weak but i think it was roc n rope based on what i know now
* blazing lasers, also '91 in a grocery stores, is "hallway" the reight word? the double doors between the store and outside where carriages usually are
*altered beast (know i'm stretching for rare, but this wasnt everywhere) in a grocery store, also '91
*discs of tron, full envirnomental, bowling alley had an arcade, birthday party, dont know the year, but it was for sure new, so easy to figure out i remember it was 2quarters and dying right away. just barely tall enough to see the screen. definiltley left a memory and never saw it again until salters arcade.

[timhett]

The most interesting and rare game that I played in the while when I was a kid was I,Robot (less than 1,000 made) at Kroger's on 23rd Street in Lawrence, KS.  They also had Kangaroo but not sure if that qualifies as rare.  They always had a great lineup at the front of the store and constantly changed.

[GDL]

I'm being a rebel and posting in the topic despite the "topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days." warning.  Look at me go.

A bowling alley where I grew up had a great arcade and had a few rare games that I played :

Quantum - I suck at trak ball games but I played and kind of liked it
Cockpit Sinistar - I sucked at Sinistar (and still do) but the cabinet was cool
They also had a Star Wars cockpit at one point and non-working Lunar Lander and Stunt Cycle games.  Strangely I never saw a Star Wars upright BITD.  I only saw cockpits.

I recall seeing a Time Traveller or two but never playing.

Warp & Warp - on a band trip to the capital city I happened upon an arcade while looking for food... I probably only got to play it once and just remember the title more than anything... except I thought it just said "Warp Warp" for some reason


The local mall had a nice arcade where I used to hang out sometimes :

There was a game called Nunchakun, a kind of karate game similar to Karate Champ I guess... I thought it was fun... after some levels it would show a picture of a Japanese girl and if my memory is still decent, she became indecent (aka there was nudity) I played in MAME to try to confirm this but the game is kind of bugged, at least in the version I was playing, and I was never able to confirm it.

The rarest game I played at the mall arcade was Star Rider, the Williams laser disc racing game.  I thought it was fun.  I don't recall it being there too awful long so it probably had the same reliability problems that I've read about since then.


I grew up in close to the middle of nowhere (you still had to go a little ways to get to the middle), so a lot of games like a Star Trek Captain's Chair and Zoo Keeper I don't know how rare they really were.