Back when the world was filled with arcades, you could walk into one and find dozens, if not hundreds, of amazing games. There were always mainstays like Mortal Kombat, Pac-Man, Street Fighter II, and others, but not every arcade stocked the same titles. Sometimes, you had to travel far and wide to find a particular game because your local arcades didn’t have it. This was due to a variety of reasons, though cost was paramount, as some ridiculously expensive machines were hard to find. There were also several produced in extremely low numbers, making them rare. These ten games were among the rarest that people struggled to find, and they’re arranged in no particular order.
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1) Polybius
The first game on this list is one that I personally don’t believe existed: Polybius. The game cabinet was rumored to have appeared in arcades in the Portland, Oregon, area in 1981 before mysteriously disappearing. It was said that playing the game caused a psychoactive reaction in players, leading to seizures and other physical issues, necessitating its removal. The legend involves covert government operatives, and two games with the same name were released in the 21st century. The reason an urban legend is on here is that people truly did seek them out all over the country, to no avail, making it the most sought-after game that was never found … if it ever existed.
2) Blaster (Cockpit Version)
Often, a rare arcade cabinet is a different configuration than the one most people know, and Blaster’s cockpit version is such a machine. Blaster is a sequel to Robotron: 2084, and its immersive, sit-down, deluxe cockpit cabinet was incredibly hard to find due to its ridiculously low production run. It was far more common to find the stand-up cabinet than the cockpit. Williams Electronics made only three cockpit cabinets, and the whereabouts of only two are known. Sightings have popped up online over the years for the third’s location, but these have all been unconfirmed.
3) Cosmic Chasm
Cosmic Chasm is a 1983 vector-based game that started on the Vectrex home system. It’s the first home console game ported to an arcade cabinet — it’s usually the other way around. Cinematronics produced the game, but filed Chapter II around the same time, reducing the total number of cabinets produced. They weren’t common in arcades, but people enjoyed playing the machines when they were found, as they were in color, whereas the Vectrex was monochrome and required an overlay. Production numbers aren’t well known, as the range across various archives suggests between 50 and around 400 at most. This is based on the known serial numbers of existing machines.
4) Aztarrac
Centuri released Aztarrac in 1983, a color vector, multidirectional shooter game. What’s most notable about the game is the arcade cabinet’s design, as it featured a circular lens over the screen to create more dynamic visuals. Aztarrac wasn’t a commercial success, as it arrived toward the tail end of vector-based games — Galaga had been out for two years, and is a far better shooter from the 1980s. Due to its poor commercial sales, it’s likely that fewer than 400 machines were produced, making it tough to find throughout the ‘80s. It’s even harder to locate now, as few machines are known to still exist.
5) Tapper
Tapper isn’t an uncommon game; between 3,300 and 4,000 were produced, including cocktail machines and upright cabinets. That’s the version best known as Root Beer Tapper, but the original game was made under license from Anheuser-Busch. It featured Budweiser beer logos and markings and was sold primarily to bars and pool halls. Those were much harder to find, as Bally Midway quickly shifted production towards the kid-friendly version almost immediately after Tapper proved successful in bars. I discovered Tapper in a bowling alley’s adjacent pool hall, and wasn’t allowed inside since I was under 21, but I snuck in and played it every chance I got!
6) G-LOC: Air Battle & Wing War
This entry isn’t so much about the game as it is the equipment it appeared on: the Sega R360 motion simulator arcade cabinet. Only two games were ever produced for the R360: G-LOC: Air Battle and Wing War, which are both combat flight simulators released in 1990 and 1994, respectively. The R360 was the real treat to find, as Sega shipped at most 200 units because they were exceptionally expensive. Most arcades couldn’t afford them, so finding one was more of a surprise than anything else. What made the R360 so amazing was its immersion, as it could spin 360 degrees in any direction, even allowing upside-down barrel rolls.
7) Time Traveler & Holosseum
Another couple of games that were almost impossible to find were Time Traveler and Holosseum. The unique cabinet featured its two games as LaserDisc interactive movies. Time Traveler arrived in 1991 and was designed by Rick Dyer, the same person who designed Dragon’s Lair. Holosseum came the following year, and neither game was particularly good. Still, the cabinet was the focus, as it produced what appeared to be 3D holographic imagery on a flat black glass. I found one with Time Traveler in the early ‘90s, and could only afford to play it once, but it was worth it. Sega made only 500 to 600 cabinets, so they were difficult to find.
8) Ninja Baseball Bat Man
One of the best beat-’em-ups of the 1990s was one that few got a chance to play: Ninja Baseball Bat Man. The game arrived in 1993 and features up to four playable characters. The plot involves recovering stolen artifacts from the Baseball Hall of Fame, with tons of baseball references spread throughout. The game was a huge hit in Japan, but it stumbled in the North American market. Irem sold 1,042 cabinets, of which only 43 sold across the Pacific in North America. This made it incredibly hard to find, but the players who did stumble across the cabinet likely enjoyed it. Ninja Baseball Bat Man has been rediscovered via emulation and has gained widespread popularity among retro enthusiasts.
9) Pac-Man VR
While Pac-Man was likely the most ubiquitous arcade game throughout much of the 1980s and ‘90s, one version that was nearly impossible to find was Pac-Man VR. The game was released in 1996 by Virtuality, which used its immersive VR rig. It appeared on two of the systems, but the cost of those machines was too much for most arcades, so finding them wasn’t easy. The game is Pac-Man from a first-person perspective, with no changes to the original game’s design. Visually, it’s incredibly different, but it’s really just the same game with a multiplayer feature. It cost $5 for five minutes of gameplay, so even if you found it, playing the game was iffy for many players.
10) Quake
Believe it or not, id Software’s Quake was released for arcades, and it was really hard to find because it was so expensive and not many were made. The game was Quake – Arcade Tournament Edition, an adaptation of the OG specifically made for arcades. Up to two players could dive into Quake on the machine, which was produced in incredibly low numbers. Various online sources indicate that only 20 prototypes were made before the project was canceled following the company’s acquisition. Some made it out into the wild, and they weren’t easy to find, as the low production number indicates.
Did you ever find any of these classic cabinets in the wild? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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Image Courtesy of Netflix -
Courtesy of Netflix
