HI sphere. I suggest if you are looking for things to play you can always put old Mame on your computer, get a USB arcade stick and try stuff out. As for me I'm going to put down some of the stuff I think I want that may be obscure.
1. Bucky O'Hare- unknown to most people Konami made alot more 4P games than just TMNT. Although I'm familiar with the characters what drew me in was that the game mixes up things up from the usual side scrolling shooting/beat'em up. I'm currently building one and I hope to be done in February at the latest but the weather and my bank account may not agree.
2. Sunset Riders - second only to bucky for me is Konami's 4P side scrolling western themed shooter. It's a pretty challenging game with one hit deaths, tons of cowboys and bullets flying everywhere and a horseback level where you chase a train. It has a freeplay option but it's alot of fun to try to stay alive like Contra and nab the high score without dying.
3. Samurai Showdown(series)- before Soul Calibur SNK came out with their weapon based Fighter. IT's actually sold and pretty fun at least to me. People seem to like #2 the best but I just have more nostalgia for the first one.
4. Time Traveler(sega)- everyone knows Dragon's Lair right? Here's it's cheesy FMV cousin with a really unique cabinet that creates a holographic illusion(think
holograms). The game was created by Fred Dryar the man behind the programing of DL. To me it's not much worse than most laserdisc games that play "simon says push right, etc..."
5. Dungon's and Dragons: Shadow of Mystara - one of these days I'm gonna have to get me one of these(yes it's the sequel to Tower of Doom). Capcom made great 4P beat'em up with branching paths, lots of areas to explore and lots of hidden weapons to try to grab and keep. It's RPG elements capture alot of the D&D lore and ascetics. There's some good replay value here ^^
I can't think of too many classic era games because I was caught in the middle of the 80s and the 90s...if I think of anything else I'll post it up