Cyrus? You don’t mean Gyruss? That game ruled, and I ruled that game - the only coin-op I was ever really good at. And, of course, it had Bach’s Toccata And Fugue as the soundtrack. Diddle-ee! Diddle-iddle-ee-deee! Diddle-ee! Dee dee dee deee! {Dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum…}
Galaga
I loved I, Robot, but I know I was in the minority. The game was tough to find, but the shimmery, holographic polyhedrons were cool.
Oh we’ve got a duplicate thread going on. I’ll report it.
Elevator Action was probably post-1985, right?
Oh wait, I see that link is an IMDB for Video Games. Elevator Action is 1983. That is my choice.
Spy Hunter is also a good choice (1983).
Dragon’s Lair was revolutionary (1983).
Meeko, you seem to have started two identical threads. I’ve therefore merged them, hence the double opener.
Burger Time
Tempest
Space Invaders.
Galaxians.
Defender.
John
Two games from that era that pushed the technology forward are ZAXXON and SUBROC 3D.
My favourite game from that period is BATTLEZONE.
Centipede. Especially good after listening to The Wall a few times.
Before that it was Space Invaders.
I had completely forgotten about Tron until I saw this thread.
As I recall it was a lot more fun if one’s mind were somewhat altered in ways that cannot and will not be discussed. Now that I’m old, though, I just play The Sims 2 
I’d have to nominate Crazy Climber as deserving of special mention. However, for the best game – it’d have to be Marble Madness. Challenging, entertaining, and unique in its aesthetics and gameplay. Man, did I spend a lot of money on it and it never got old.
“Beware! I live!” still scares the crap out of me.
While it wasn’t necessarily the best, I was always partial to The Wizard of Wor.
As you’d play, the Wizard would taunt you. When he finally appeared, he was an old geezer in a cloak who shot lightning bolts out of his fingertips.
You’re thinking of Sinistar. Once I figured out how to kill Sinistar, I loved that game.
Star Wars. The original one with vector graphics. That was a great game, and one of the only two I could get my name on the best scores list, the other being Centipede. It’s too bad the C64 version of it sucked.