Sub-Zero

What video games did you beat at an arcade?

Adam Tyner

My list begins and ends with Pit Fighter, alas.

Groucho

Some friends and I played all the way through Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons Arcade.

mattysemo247

Mortal Kombat 1 & 2 with no continues!

fumanstan

None, I don't think I ever had enough quarters I think the closest might have been Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, where I believe my friends and I were at the last boss, but didn't have time to keep playing and finish before having to leave.

Deadman31

I can’t remember the game but I beat it only because somebody had a put in a ton of quarters and just left it there.

Goldberg74

Geddlo

My friend and I beat one if those gun games, it might've been Time Crisis 2 but I think it was a different one.

also finished the star wars arcade game that had the booth you sit in

The Cow

I was pretty good at several of the early ones, but I think the only game I ever beat was Double Dragon.

story

Good idea for a thread.

Gosh, I'd have to really think. I can remember teaming up with friends to beat a lot of those 4-player games. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Turtles in Time, The Simpsons, and X-Men. I remember beating X-Men in both 4-player and 6-player mode.

Other than that, a lot of the game I played were pretty endless, like Gauntlet and Ms. Pac-Man and Rampage, the last of which I assume technically had an ending and if it was as bad as the NES ending - which I indeed did "earn" 2 or 3 times - then I'm glad I didn't waste my quarters on trying to get there!

Edit: I remember, I was also really good at that Star Wars game where you sat in the cockpit and did scenes from all three movies. The arcade was right next to the movie theater in the mall, so I'd go early, play the game, see a show. Could get as close to perfect as you can get by the end of a couple years of that every few weekends!

james2025a

Ones I can remember are:

Street Fighter 2 with multiple characters
Out zone (could do this on a single credit)
Shadow Warriors
Strider
Donkey Kong And
RoboCop 1 and 2
Star Wars / Empire Strikes Back (but you had to be shit to not be able to complete these)
Final Fight
Ninja Warriors
Ghouls and Ghosts
Kung Fu Master
Commando
Operation Wolf/Thunderbolt

Probably a few more, but lost memories. I used to spend a lot of times in arcades as a kid.
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Obi-Wanma

Ninja Turtles/X-Men/Simpsons/etc like many of you. Used to play those all the time with my brothers and friends, and pumped a lot of quarters into them. Also WWF Wrestlefest and WWF Superstars

And Double Dragon, they had one at a corner store that I could walk to from my house when I was a kid, as a result, my friends and I spent a lot of time there.

majorjoe23

In the late 90s we had several nickel arcades in town, and I beat a lot of then current shooters, like the House of the Dead games and Area 51.

sydonesia

Sorta cheating, but my gf and I went to Main Event a couple years ago during one of their "All You Can Play" days and we went through the entire Deadstorm Pirates game. Took 45 minutes to an hour, and I'm pretty sure we would have dropped 50 bucks or more if we had been paying for each reload.

joeblow69

Only arcade game I ever beat was Black Tiger:

TheBigDave

Back in the 80's I got to the final scene of Dragon's Lair a couple times. But the Dragon always got me.

Spiderbite

I can't imagine how much practice and money that took.

I just couldn't bear to pay 50 cents to play for 20 seconds (sometimes quicker) and get killed in that game when I could play Mrs. Pac-Man or Galaga or a quarter and play for 5 or 10 minutes or whatever. I just watched people play that game with both jealousy and relief.

LorenzoL

None for me. The farthest I went was probably Turtles and X-Men but never completed it. I remember I played the heck of the WWF game, I think it was Main Event but never could go far.

mallratcal

Time Crisis. I could beat that with just one continue.
And a Die Hard game.

Sub-Zero

Thanks for all of the replies.

Like some of you I was also never able to beat a video game at the arcades, mostly because I am primarily a home console gamer, and could never quite get used to using the controls on an arcade machine.

tanman

I remember blowing all my money on Xmen arcade and beating it with some random people. And then being amazed I had spent $5 on an arcade machine. Felt like a whole lot of money back then.

Rob V

On my MAME home arcade I beat TMNT... but nothing growing up. Always ran out of money

Paff

Galaga, because we cheated. There were two aliens on the left side of the formation that if you left them alone for 20 minutes, nothing would fire at you for the rest of the game. The only danger was kamikaze attacks. After round 255 it goes to round 0 and crashes.

Noonan

Holy Shit, I haven't thought about PF in ages. So many good memories.

For me it's mostly (if not all) fighting games. MK1/2/3; Tekken 1/2, PF as mentioned above. Oh and I can't forget Moonwalker!

shizawn

If we're including games where you get through the end and they just start over:

Star Wars (that vector graphics one; my all-time favorite stand-up arcade game)
Yie Ar Kung-Fu