The first arcade game I ever saw or played was Death Race 2000. It wasn’t fancy or all that fun, and the theme might be questioned slightly more these days. Since it was first, can’t call it worst.
Among the classic arcade games I remember a game called Satan’s Hollow that just seemed like a dingy Space Invaders or Galaxian ripoff. I put a few quarters in it, but I never liked it very much.
There were also games like Kangaroo and Pengo that just didn’t appeal to me.
I loved Satan’s Hollow. IIRC there were something like 1000 levels. Naturally, I never beat the game.
1000 levels? How was that possible? Even Pac-Man didn’t have 255 unique levels, it just repeated the hardest one over and over.
It was an endless game, like every other game from the era (and everything released by Bally Midway). It got really hard really fast and the “bridge” mechanic really put a crimp on the players’ ability to avoid getting blasted, which is probably why this isn’t remembered too fondly. Still, in hindsight I find it interesting that a 1981 arcade game could have the word “Satan” in the title and have actual devils with zero outcry (as opposed to the NES era, when a damn cross was taboo for some companies).
Sinistar is a great concept, but it’s damned near impossible to play.
Years ago, I watched a Sinistar tournament at GDC. The winner was… the guy who programmed the game. Seemed kind of unfair to me.
I used to love sinistar! I need to try it again and see how I feel now.
Beware, I live.
I hunger.
I liked Journey Escape as well. It was one of the better games in my Atari collection, and had a fixed time limit.
But what I find fascinating as an adult are the graphics. I can’t recall any other game that chose to go entirely symbolic with their NPCs. Nothing looks at all like what they’re supposed to be, which are various types of humans. Not only the big boss but the other helpers look like aliens. And the fans look like fences, flashing space ships, fences, and unicycles with feet.
As a kid, I didn’t have the manual or even know who Journey was, so I always thought it was a space game. You had the dark background with optional sparkles which could be stars. You had the alien looking things. And I thought the Scarab van looked like a sort of spaceship. I never would have guessed it was supposed to be a band leaving a gig, avoiding fans and photographers.
Heck, even today I tend to think of it as space-related, folding the band part into it. It’s one guy leaving a concert on an alien planet, flying up in his personal jet-powered space suit to his space ship, while avoiding running into others. His helpers actually are aliens.
As for the main topic of this thread: I don’t really think I played enough arcade games to find one that was all that bad. I would just throw a quarter into the ones in the lobby of stores/restaurants. The only time I had access to a bunch would be at the arcades, but the only ones I ever went to were the ones where you could exchange tickets for prizes, and the games that gave tickets weren’t the ones that were actual arcade games.