Ahhh, Joust…
I had a rip - off version of this on my computer at work (I think it was slugman, from the ‘Foxtrot’ Website. I would play it until I got bored (because I have had Joust mastered for a VERY long time), and had a high score of about 250,000. Then a co-worker got on the computer and beat my high score (up to 300,000), and proceeded to give me a hard time about it.
So I beat HIS high score - by 1,000,000 points. Shut him up right quick.
Donkey Kong was also a fave of mine, as was QIX
Ah, yes, the Ultracade. There was a cabinet at the Wal-Mart back in my hometown, last time I was there. What surprised me was the fact that Pipi & Bibi’s was on that machine. For those of you that don’t know (which, I’m sure, is most of you, Pipi & Bibi’s is an adult game.
I got pictures, but I haven’t developed the film yet.
3 - Sinistar
2 - Joust
And I can’t believe no-one has mentioned…
1 - Rolling Thunder
Rolling Thunder kicked ass. I shudder to think of how many quarters I fed into that thing. It was the first game I remember that got you addicted to the illusion of progress. What’s next? It just kept getting crazier and crazier!
Ms. Pac Man–no patterns
Donkey Kong
Defender–Six buttons And a joystick?? Can it be possible to play this?? Yes!
I am also proud that I turned over the point counter in ‘Punch Out’.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who loved that game 
My other two would be Galaga and Arkanoid.
The age of this thread is as far from today as it was from the ‘80s when it was started.
edit
My personal favorites…so many quarters…
Joust
Elevator Action
Time Pilot
Defender
Dig Dug
Cyberball
Discs of Tron
Heavy Barrel
Star Trek
I memorized all the patterns from the article in Joystik magazine, which made it a little too easy to beat.
Kudos to the artists who rendered Princess Daphne!
Don’t remind me :eek::(
River Raid
Pardon me for keeping the zombie alive…but was River Raid ever an arcade game? The only River Raid I know of was an Activision cartridge for the Atari 2600.
And this must have been “before my time” here at TSD - either that, or I’m surprised I missed this one when it first came out. Anyway, my current three (which, like most other threads of this type, will probably change in about 10 minutes, especially when I remember another game from that era) are:
Gauntlet
Crazy Climber
Qix
What’s depressing is that I composed an answer (even knowing how old the thread is) which is exactly what I wrote 14 years ago.
But I’ll start a thread on first computer games.
It’s a dumb game, but I could go near-forever on one quarter in Bank Panic. For a while, I tried making it more challenging by playing one-handed.
By the way, I still live.
Anybody remember Space Lords? Came out in 92, on the tail end of the arcade era, but what a cool game. Gladiatorial first-person multiplayer space combat, with the option of a second player acting as gunner. It was rigged so that if you got hit after your shield went down, a hammer would hit a metal plate inside the cabinet, and the whole thing would shudder.
Anyway-
Gorf
Elevator Action
Crossbow
I spent a sick amount of money on Gauntlet.
Also liked Tron (it was like three games in one) and the racing game Outrun (great music) and Star Wars.
Edit: did not notice this was a Zombie…
I think the king of those decades is Defender. If you took the time to learn how to master all of those buttons it was quite addictive. The highlight of my game playing days was reaching 100,000 on Defender.
And when I needed to play at less frantic pace my go to was Jungle Hunt. I think it was the first parallax scrolling game and it was awarded a Certificate of Merit in 1984 for Best Adventure Videogame Arkie. Simple but addictive.
Asteroids might not meet the OP criteria but I’m putting down for my third pick because it was great, damnit! 
Talk about resurrecting an old thread!!
I grew up in 80s arcades and this thread started long before I got here, so my faves would be:
Zaxxon
Donkey Kong
After Burner (in the “moving seat”)
Turbo
Tron
Galaga
All of which I’m sure were mentioned already.
I remember the original double dragon with “rock and blade” as the main characters and it was just 2 street bangers trying to get a girl back …… it was considered too violent(your beating up a girl! …) for these parts they had it on the wall near the coin booth so they could watch who was playing it ……
Burger Time
Tapper
Journey Escape