Well I liked beat em p the most but those one on one fighting games were never really my thing. I preferred what one could call street brawling teaming up with 1 or more friends playing cooperatively beating up the bad guys as you progress through the landscape with end bosses and a final bad guy. Double Dragon was I think the first in this genre which I played the most even though Golden Axe would ultimately become my favorite and on three would probably be Final Fight. the Simpsons and the TMN Turtles also had some fun beat em up versions which could be played by up to 4.

Actually before Street Fighter and later on Mortal Kombat there were already some 1 on 1 fighters which I actually enjoyed, I guess because they were a lot simpler. Yie Aer Kung fu was the very first a game I almost beat. Further there was Ring King/King of Boxer and wrestling game Mat Mania. And not to forget Kung Fu Master I think the first fighting game playing as a platform (on 1 line). The game however is impossible to play without a joystick (does that still exist?)

I could enjoy the occasional racing and shooters and some lightgun games (Operation Wolf) but there aren't that many titles that stick out there. For racing I always loved Super Off Road Racing. Sports games well the soccer games could be fun when facing a human opponent, against a computer player was usually a painful experience.

Other fun games I can think of: Wonder Boy, Mission Elevator, Bubble Bobble.

Still on a console those 1 on 1 fighters facing of a friend can be fun defintely when you both suck at it and find out the special moves by chance
Used to have Mortal Kombat Iv (I think) and Tekken 3 on PS 1. But I preferred playing the Resident Evil game.

Final Fight was great. That was the game I played more than anything before Street Fighter II came along. I remember playing The Simpsons, Turtles II and IV, X-Men, Double Dragon, and Streets of Rage, although, not sure that one was in the arcades. That was a Sega Genesis game. I also remember a Superman game like that being pretty fun. I know I'm forgetting quite a few.

Streets of Rage yeah I love that series too, there were 3 games I believe. It felt a lot like Final Fight and it played like an arcade. Another fun co-op on the Sega genesis/mega drive was Zombies Ate my neighbors

yeah back in the early 80's. I remember in my town population ~3,000 in 1979/80 there were 3 or 4 arcades. Total about 35 machines and every single one of them except one was 'space invaders'. I'm not making this up, It was massive, though I didnt really hang out in them until donkey kong, gyruss, stargate came out

Space Invaders was before my time but I have read it was insane how many companies cloned that game. It was similar to the Pong craze in the early seventies where every electronics company had its variant of the game. Even though I think Pac-man actually became the first to actually start a franchise and of course not long after that Donkey Kong and Mario bros.

Not sure if many were clones or not, yes I remember pong, in the mid 70s ppl would bring it back from HK or singapore to NZ the games that you would plug into the TV and play with paddles, yes pac man was big, but no where as big as Space Invaders that literally was the game that started video games as we know them today, until then it was a super small Niche, I wish I could find photo's of that time you wouldnt believe it rows and rows of arcade machines playing the one game 'space invaders'

Wouldn't say I lived in arcades, but I did enjoy them. There was Putt Putt Golf for me too, along with the arcades of the local roller skating rink and mall. I was exposed to them more in the mid and late '90s and since I sucked at tournament fighters, I tended to gravitate towards light gun games. The House of the Dead and CarnEvil both instantly come to mind. On the rare occasion I'd come across one, I also liked pinball games. Medieval Madness was and still is my favorite of those.

What I think sucks more about arcades dying out than video stores is that we don't need video stores to watch movies. I miss the experience of browsing a video store, but I still have access to the same movies. Can't say the same about arcade games. A lot of games never made it to home consoles and the ones that did were for older systems, often featuring changes from the arcade version. I miss arcades more than video stores.

I get why video stores died but it is kind of surprising everyone so easily let go of arcades. I would have thought people's love for the environment and desire to compete against strangers would have stuck around a little longer. I guess you can still do that online but you know what I mean.

Duuuude, that X-Men game that was 2 arcade machines in one!

Fuckin' A. And it was almost too much happiness to handle...

Seriously! I can die a happy man the day I own one of them motherfuckers.

Back in my youthful days Space Invaders, Asteroids, Missle Command and Pac-Man were the popular ones. I loved Dragons Lair and Bomberman a little after. Before the last arcade round me closed there was a racing game which 4 people were connected and competed against each other which was epic for gambling reasons. Nowadays up here all you can find is an occasional PGA golf or pinball machine in the odd dive bar.

I never got to hang out in arcades because I lived clear out in the boonies. I played them when I could. I remember playing Double Dragon at the bowling alley and Rygar at Kroger's.

I played the hell out of Street's of Rage 2 on my Sega and got damn good at it, kicking Mr. X's ass every time on the Hard setting. That game is so fun!. Now I have all 3 built into that little micro Sega machine.
That kangaroo kicks my ass in 3.

Marion's Pizza which is not in my town, but the town over, has a Simpson's pinball machine that is really fun.

You should get Final Fight as well, it's very similar to Streets of Rage I guess FF was the inspiration for SOR. I always loved those street brawling games a lot too whether it was on the streets a medieval or fantasy setting and even more playing cooperatively with a mate.

I miss how malls used to have arcades

Bars, cafés, restaurants etc had them too here.

God, I miss arcades! If I ever win the lottery I will open one up. I miss the 80's so damn much! One game I remember in particular was the almost impossible Dragon's Lair game. It was so damn cool looking! No one had seen a game like that at the time, and the fact that Don Bluth animated it was a huge plus.

Never played it but I guess that was one of the first attempts of interactive videogames, like an animation where you could decide to a certain extent what was going to happen. It was released on Laserdisc, don't know of anyone who ever had a laserdisc player though.

Talking of Don Bluth well I really like his Secret of Nimh!

I mentioned it above, loved that game! Endless quarters wasted away trying to get all the patterns down. Gauntlet was another one me and friends spent a lot on since 4 players could play simultaneously.

Gauntlet was awesome! My favorite of all time and still is to this day is Galaga. I played that endlessly. I still have it on different devices to play today.