Can anyone help me identify this arcade game I vaguely recall? I remember playing it back around 1990 or so. It was a side-scrolling platform game where the player controlled a tall elf-like character (think Tolkienesque elf, not Santa-esque elf). The elf was collecting gems in a forest; you could walk on the ground or jump up in the trees. I remember liking the game because it was relatively easy—a quarter would last a lot longer in that game than the other ones in the arcade. That’s all I remember for now.
Mmmmm…geez, I practially lived in the arcade at the time, I should know this…
It sounds vaguely like either The Legend of Kage or Pyros (a.k.a. Wardner). The hero for the former was some nina with a sword and shurikens. The later had a short, squat hero who shot flames out of his hand. The stage with trees for both of them is the first.
The only gem-collecting game I know of is Crystal Castles, which isn’t a sidescroller (and probably wouldn’t have been around in 1990).
I Googled for some screenshots of these two games, and neither is the one I’m thinking of.
Is there some website out there that presents a gallery of arcade game screenshots?
Then I could probably pick out the right game. Unfortunately, most of the arcade game websites I’ve been to simply list the games by name, which you then have to click on to get a screenshot. I don’t fancy clicking on ten thousand different links when I could just visually browse a table of a hundred screenshots or so at a time.
You can try Killer List of Video Games. I worked in an arcade in the early 90s and don’t remember it.
The game that is closest to what you described on the site Edward the Head linked that I found was Dark Seal. Is that it? Can you give a bit closer range, not later than x, but no ealier than y?
Could the game be Legend of Makai? Also for Screenshots, there’s also MAWS, a collection of information of games emulated with the MAME emulator. You can search for certain types of games. If you look on the MAME website, there’s a gallery of screenshots, but that just an alphabetic list, you can’t search by game type, and I think there are some games missed out.
Yes, that’s the one! Thanks so much. 
I’m glad someone else remembers this game.