There were sooo many favorites...All the Donkey Kongs were great and what was that football game called...it was the one where you had the X's versus the O's and you had a roller ball on the right with come buttons on the left.  You played it on a flat table top standing up.  I still remember my hand being sore after all the rolling. ;D

The Original "Star Wars" arcade game made by Atari, where u got to sit inside of it.
The graphics were all linear, but u got to re-enact the pit scene in the Death Star....
and it had sound effects of Obi Wan Kanobi speaking in the background.
"The Force will be with you...........Always"

Tempest :)

I am the preeminent Atari arcade historian. Check out these sites for more information about the history of Atari coinop and it's brilliant game designer/programmers:

http://www.atarikee.com
http://www.orubin.com
http://www.atarigames.com

Brian

There were sooo many favorites...All the Donkey Kongs were great and what was that football game called...it was the one where you had the X's versus the O's and you had a roller ball on the right with come buttons on the left.  You played it on a flat table top standing up.  I still remember my hand being sore after all the rolling. ;D


Atari Football. There was also a four player version of it. Great game, and worth some bucks these days if you have one :)

Brian

Pac-Man

Double Dragon - The greatest Arcade game ever :)

Moon Patrol
Donkey Kong
Asteroids
Space Invaders
Pole Position
Missile Command
Tank
Frogger
Joust
Jungle King
Dig Dug

  In my opinion, video games went downhill when they all started becoming martial-arts themes....uggh  boring!

Ah yes, Tempest. Then Defender.

Moon Patrol
Space Invaders
Star Wars
Yar's Revenge

Sky Shark

There have been many games try to duplicate it however none have come close !! 8)

tempest
elevator action
paperboy

I used to play the latter two for hours everyday afterschool . . . no wonder I am so broke!!!

Joust is really good too.

Still Cobra Command...

Kryllith

I liked Pitfall and Qbert.

My favorites were:
Pole Position
720 Degrees
The Dragon's Lair

My two all-time faves are Joust and Crystal Castles, with Galaxia and Pac-Man close behind.

In fact, when I took my son to the local batting cages the other day, I spied a Ms. Pac-Man coin-op in their arcade.  I ended up getting high score (107783)!

Hmmm, so many to choose from.

Reactor
Karate Champ
Joust
I, Robot
Firefox
Cloak And Dagger
Thayer's Quest

TETRIS!!!!!!!!!!!  :)

I'm pretty good at it and it's an excellent game for concentration!

Star Wars
Pole Position
Pac Man

I grew up after Arcade's golden age (I think they peaked in the early 90s) but I vaguely remember playing the usual classics like Space Invaders, Asteroids, even Donkey Kong. Space Invaders is still my fave.

UP, UP, DOWN, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, B, A, SELECT(FOR 2 PLAYERS) START!!
REAL SPORT'S BOXING
MIKE TYSON'S PUNCH OUT!! DID ANYONE GET BEAT BY KING HIPPO?
SPACE INVADERS
THAT'S WHEN GAMES HAD ONE BUTTON AND A STICK!!

Firefox


Firefox was an underrated gem.  Atari, 1982, laserdisc-based.  If you could play Star Wars, you could play Firefox.  Found one, still working, in a beachfront arcade (probably only got used 2-3 months out of the year, which is probably why it was still working in the mid-80s when I found it) and amazed the hell out of everyone there by completing it.

Early 80s:  Tempest.  Defender.  Robotron 2084.  Star Wars.  Firefox.

Late 80s:  Sega's "Afterburner" (1987).  Imagine Atari's "Star Wars" immersiveness, but as a raster-graphics F-14 simulator in a nearly-fully-enclosed 2-degree-of-freedom moving cockpit.  Liked the soundtrack so much I hooked up a portable tape recorder and a patch cord to the headphone jack and made my own mix tape of the soundtrack by playing with the test mode after hours :)

There can be only one:


TRON


end of line

Pac man, of course.

Defender...of course!

collapse and mah jongg

Its gotta be Defender and Tempest