Arcades ruled the gaming scene for decades before gaming consoles were widely available to the public. Arcades allowed players to create a culture of community and camaraderie rarely seen within present-day gaming. The gratification of beating someone or the public shame of losing ishard to recreate on a casual level today.

So, to celebrate what arcades meant for gaming, we’ve cultivated a list of arcade games that were popular and easy to find but shaped both the culture and gaming as a whole over the years. Do you remember spending time with these titles?

Dance Dance Revolution gameplay with arrows on the left, the arcade machine on the right.

9Dance Dance Revolution

A Surprising Test Of Bravery

At the peak of its popularity, it was easy to find someone who owned a dance mat and a fewDance Dance Revolutiontitles to go along with it, you know, something fun to do when friends are over. To go to the arcade,the publicof all places, and play it to your heart’s content? Well, that’s a whole different beast to tame.

If you do, and you knock the songs out of the park on Heavy Mode, you’d earn the respect of everyone watching you brave the neon beast. Though not as popular here, this andother rhythm gamesare still just as popular as before, doubly so overseas.

The Simpsons Arcade Game cabinet on the left, Lisa Simpson smacking her face on the fourth wall on the right.

8The Simpsons Arcade Game

A Good Licensed Game?

No one expectedThe Simpson’s Arcade Game to be the great beat-em-upthat it became. Yet, it became quite a phenomenon when it was released back in 1991. You have your choice to play as one of the four family members:

On their own, they were strong, but the ability to team up and perform duo moves made them an indestructible force of nature that could handle rescuing Maggie Simpson from the hands of her kidnapper, Smithers.

Green, Red, and blue aliens at the top of the screen, the Galaga cabinet on the left, and the white player ship on the bottom

7Galaga

Easy To Start, Hard To Put Down

This game has crossed into the lexicon of immortality. You can find it anywhere these days, as well as copycats who try to capture the flavor of the original but can’t exactly get there. Even the original console version of Tekken had a few levels on the loading screen that you could enjoy while waiting.

The premise of the game is simple: you, as the lone force in the game, are to take out all the aliens that show up from space in perfect formation. You’d finish five levels,thinking you’ve got the gameplay down pat, only for the speed of the aliens to speed up and outrun your shots. By level 10, you’re fighting for your life. It was a good time until you died.

Time Crisis cabinet on the left, soldiers point their weapons at you on the right

6Time Crisis

Here, You Are The Action Star

Most kids growing up (and most adults, too, let’s be real here) have wanted to become the next Rambo or Terminator, getting into close calls with enemies and driving in car chases. The next best thing was Time Crisis. Each game takes you, an Agent of Vital Situation, Swift Elimination squad, or V.S.S.E for short, and tasks you with saving the world from certain doom.

That’s not the important part here. What about the gameplay?Although there were shooters aplentyin the arcade, Time Crisis was revolutionary in implementing a foot petal to use the cover as needed. It created a level of immersion you just couldn’t get anywhere else.

Ryu in his purple suit on the left, the Marvel vs. Capcom cabinet in the middle, Venom on the right.

5Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes

It’s Gonna Take You For A Ride

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 had gained a significant following from its previous iterations, such as Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes. You were lucky if you could just walk up and play on the cabinet without having to wait in line. Not to mention how the pressure to win doubles as the line builds up behind you.

The game had the largest roster at the time, with a whopping 56 characters to choose from, and the three-on-three combat created some memorable moments of pulling off crazy combos with your favorite characters, like Spider-Man or Mega Man.This lone game was the driving force for Capcomto try and recreate the hype with its later games, but without the arcade support, it just wasn’t the same.

Sub-Zero with one arm up on the left, Goro spreading all four arms in the middle, Mortal Kombat cabinet on the right

4Mortal Kombat

Ultra Violence In 16 Bits

If you were the type of kid who couldn’t play games like Mortal Kombat either at home or a friend’s house, your last resort was to hopefully find one of these machines out in the wild. Though arcades are more or less gone from the US, with some exceptions, you’re able to still find this game in laundromats and maybe a bar or two.

Though not the first game to incorporate live-action actors into character animations, that honor goes to N.A.R.C. (1988), but it quickly popularized the look and inspired plenty of fighting games to try and capture MK’s magic.

Space Invaders cabinet in the foreground, aliens descending on the bases in the background.

3Space Invaders

The Start Of The Arcade Era

Space Invaders was a pioneer of inspiration for both future video games in general and arcades as we’ve come to know and appreciate. Instead of a movable character model, like in Galaga, you act more as a base of defense as you protect the ground and the inhabitants from the descending aliens above.

If you squint your eyes tightly, you can see some of the earliest iterations of the tower defense genre, but while some developers have stated Space Invaders as their inspiration, there’s no definitive proof of it being officially cited as such. Still, the proof is in the gameplay.

Arcade cabinet on the left, Chun-Li kicking Zangief in the face on the right.

2Street Fighter II

The Pioneer Of The Fighting Tournament Scene

For better or worse, the fighting game tournament scene wouldn’t be what it is today without Street Fighter shaking up the gaming and arcade industry. Immediately after release, groups of friends created unofficial tournaments for fun, and it was inevitable for the game to be the inspiration for its first official tournament in 1992.

The game is known for being the first game with a “combo system,” but that wasn’t by design. No, it was all birthed from a glitch where you could, with quick enough button presses, stop your opponent attacking altogether. Eventually, it became a feature in both the series and the DNA of all future fighting games going forward.

Pac-Man arcade cabinet on the left, gameplay with a circular pac-man on the bottom.

1Pac-Man

If An Arcade Exists, Pac-Man Is There

Listen, even if you weren’t interested in games back when Pac-Man was in arcades, it was still a game you were willing to try. The controls were easy to grasp. There wasn’t any violence that could turn people off. Its appeal to the masses was key to its popularity. To this day, you can still find active cabinets if you look hard enough.

That’s not even taking the competitive scene into account. Pac-Man, alongside Donkey Kong, were the frontrunners of the gaming tournament scene on an official level. People watched for hours as the top players chased each other’s high scores.