This was the Olde Days. They didn’t have enough memory for all the words they wanted. I’m pretty sure it says “Would you challenge E Black Knight again”. That extra TH was oo much.
I have 3 EMs in my basement (King of Diamonds, Sky-Line, and Flip-A-Card) from the 1960s, they are much louder in a home than in a public venue, which I didn’t realize until I first played them. Great fun and really mechanically clever, at least from the perspective of a non-engineer.
Golden Axe.
Well, perhaps you’ve seen my work? Used to go by AAA. 
I used to be really good at Donkey Kong (in the arcade). I wasn’t the best but I almost always had my initials on the high score list.
I had a friend who was aces at Pac-Man (arcade). I forget what key level he could get to but it was crazy.
I play halfway to forever on Egg-Venture (The Game Room, 1987). On my last trip to Las Vegas, I went something like 38 levels on two credits. For a little while I was actually curious as to whether it was really endless but I never had the patience to find out.
I ruled Sharpshooter (P&P Marketing, 1998). I reached the point where I could get through the entire thing on one credit every time. A lot of players really struggled with it, I don’t know why.
I was one of the better Golden Axe (Sega, 1989) and Spider Man The Video Game (Sega, 1991), players, though definitely not “crush everyone” territory. Fatal Fury (SNK, 1991) was another good one.
And that’s it. At least 95% of the games you mentioned ate me for breakfast as a kid. Please do not get me started on Karate Champ or Track and Field.
Gyrate - Was Heavy Barrel that obscure that you needed to describe it? It was super-popular here and I played it to death. (Middling; about level 3 on one credit if things were going my way.)
I think most gamers of a certain age are pretty familiar with it.
I played it back in the day, it was pretty fun.
Solid State have volume control, but sometimes arrive set at “arcade level.”
For the EMs, if they have the “speaker areas,” the places with the drilled holes for the sound to exit, tape some cotton balls over them.
Asteroids: yes would lurk and kill the little saucer tho could survive shooting the rocks if need be. Once I got the entire top of the screen full of extra ships. A MAME ROM I got of it recently had been hacked by somebody-the little bastard gained dozens of IQ points and would shoot you as soon as it came on as well as shooting you across the screen AND by leading you.
Battlezone: a college buddy & I would play tag team style (kept us mentally fresh), and often got over a million points (periscope machine). Some here may recall a glitch where you could get such a score by pure accident; people would note one of our authentic big scores and accuse us of merely benefiting from the glitch.
Kicked butt on Defender too; loved turning the score over and getting dozens of extra ships.
Berserk too; best was 24,000, best on MAME 40,000 (got to that score with 2 extra lives, lost the next 3 mazes). Was shocked to learn many years later that if you went in a circle (exit E\N\W\S after each one) you would play the same 4 levels over and over and if they were easy you would never die. Consider that cheating.
I forgot I was pretty good at Berserk too.
I was not super good but I did get pretty good at it.
For some reason Battlezone always kicked my ass. I loved it but was never very good at it.
Same with Defender. Loved that game but I really, really sucked at that one (I’d always get focused on killing a ship kidnapping a person without killing the person and then saving the person…to the exclusion of all else and I suffered for it…but I did it anyway).
Plus, it’s very easy to remove the bells from an EM machine. Just unscrew the nuts holding the bells in place, set the bells aside, and there you go. The free game clacker is a little more difficult, but not impossible–a couple of cotton balls and some tape ought to do it.
But that’s the best sound in the world!
My own claim to fame was on “The Machine - bride of Pinbot” Loved it.
The billion-point shot is one of the great arcade moments. It was installed in my local pub and one evening I started playing at 8 and was still playing the same game when last orders were called just after 11. Several pints consumed, multiple toilet visits, high score smashed, billion-point shots and free games/balls galore.
I also once completed R-Type without losing a life.
On the flip side I was terrible at Qbert, PacMan and Defender.
I only saw it in one arcade. I didn’t realize it was that popular.
The firing direction knob was certainly a great way to get carpal tunnel syndrome.
So true regarding the clacker! And thank you for your cotton ball suggestion, I will look for the holes.
Also, thanks Spoons for the bell suggestion, although with all due respect I would not remove them, it’s such an integral component of the experience of playing the game, the sound needs to be there, just a tad softer!
You just did. I am (still) the Undisputed Master of this game. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to own one.
As a side note, I had for a while the Pinball Arcade game on my Fire tablet, which had basically all the tables on that list down to and including Genie (and including Black Knight and Bride of Pinbot). It was enormous fun…and then the tablet crashed, and in the meantime Bally/Williams lost their licenses and all their tables got pulled from the game so I couldn’t recover the version I’d had. Pity.
I will note that while I was just as good at Funhouse as I had been on a real table, I was also precisely just as shit at the ST:TNG electronic version as I had been on the real one.
I got pretty good at FunHouse when a college classmate set up his on free play in the student lounge. Until the arcade company the student union contracted with objected. Bye, Rudy.
I’m darn good at Ms. Pac-Man. I was a guest on a aircraft carrier that had one on board, and there was a tournament near the end of the week’s cruise. I practiced every chance I got to polish up my tactics and muscle memory. I was the penultimate contestant and blew everyone out, scoring just over 100,000 points (my best score on the trip).
… and then a helicopter pilot who apparently spent all his free time playing just Ms. Pac-Man blasted past 300,000. I still got a prize, but I still want to buy a cabinet just to match that.
No problem. I had to remove the bells and muffle the clacker on my machine (Gottlieb’s “Out of Sight”) when I lived in an apartment. When I bought a house, there were no neighbours to complain, so they went back in.
the data east star wars pinball game … oh and segas star wars pinball too… there’s a new SW pinball game out but to me it’s too small … that or the place i played it at cheaped out and bought the compact home version…
I remeber when the best arcades were at disneyland knotts and the local fair … cause theyed have such a neat collection of old and new stuff…
this sucked … i always wanted to go there