NBA Showtime was the first Midway NBA game to feature 3D graphics, in the same style as the NFL Blitz series, with which it later appeared in Midway’s SportStation cabinet. The game combines many of the arcade basketball mechanics of earlier NBA Jam games with 3D graphics that were novel for the time, along with NBC branding and announcers designed to loosely resemble an NBC game broadcast. NBA Showtime adds somewhat to the existing formula with a personal foul system which awards free throws to the opposing team. Note that it can be a bit of a pain to get the game working properly depending on which version of the game and MAME you’re using, but it’s worth the effort for some late-90s arcade basketball.

Over a decade after their original Rampage wreaked havoc all over the world, designers Brian Colin and Jeff Nauman brought their mutated scientist-monsters back to arcades. Rampage World Tour still features George, Lizzie and Ralph, along with updated graphics, new gameplay elements and new locales to reduce to rubble as they work together to destroy Scum Labs, their creators. The game was more a dose of nostalgia than an innovative new title, as its graphics and concept were far from groundbreaking, but it updates the formula nicely for those days when you just want to smash something.

Aerosmith were never shy about milking their somewhat cheesy image with flashy technology, including a Walt Disney World ride and a Guitar Hero game, but this mid-90s rail shooter from Midway was somehow both the least and most impressive of their extracurricular experiments. The game’s “Music is the weapon!” mantra and dystopian rock band-fights-censorship schtick were cringe-inducing even at the time, but the game goes all-in with its cheese, and over 25 years later it feels strangely reassuring. (Remember CDs? Remember… Aerosmith?) Though not the most imaginative or varied gun game ever made, Revolution X is a great reminder of Midway’s 90s heyday, and it has a sense of style and silliness that make it worth a few rounds fighting Mistress Helga alongside a pixelated Steven Tyler.

Smash TV reimagines the dual-stick chaos of Robotron: 2084 as a hyperviolent, tongue-in-cheek dystopian future game show reminiscent of The Running Man, with a dash of the R-rated humor of RoboCop. Though it wears its many reference on its, um, sleeveless protagonists, Smash TV adds a lot of new elements to the mix, including numerous weapon powerups, boss fights and two-player cooperative play. Designed by Robotron designer Eugene Jarvis, Smash TV is still considered a classic of "Big money! Big prizes!" and "Total Carnage!"

Smash TV requires two 8-way joysticks (the left for movement, the right for shooting) – if you happen to have a cabinet with 4 joysticks, you're in for some amazing co-op action! If not, you can make your friends watch until it's their turn.

An often (and criminally) overlooked reimagining of the Defender concept, Strike Force updates the side-scrolling gameplay of its predecessor with vastly improved graphics and surprisingly deep gameplay. As humanity's last hope against the incursion of the lizard-like Saurians, Strike Force sends one or two pilots to rescue colonists and exterminate aliens on a series of planets, upgrading their weapons and deploying helpful space marines along the way. As you work your way across the galaxy liberating planets, you'll find a wide range of weaponry and upgrades and eventually chaotic boss battles.

This overlay features numerous options, including two cabinet styles (as the game was released under both the Williams and Midway labels with very different styling) and options with and without a control panel, including new bezel designs designed by Vertical Arcade in the spirit of the original cabinet. If you haven't tried it, you're missing out!

Both a movie tie-in game and a demonstration of Midway's video capture tech, Terminator 2: Judgment Day brought the excitement of the movie to arcades as a rail shooter in 1991. The game puts you in the flesh-covered endoskeleton of a T-800, battling through a series of stages modeled after the movie, grabbing weapon powerups and shields along the way. The game starts in the future, as you battle Terminators across a devastated landscape through several levels, before transporting you through time to wreak havoc at Cyberdyne Systems alongside Edward Furlong and finally shoot Robert Patrick's T-1000 repeatedly in the face. The game's realistic graphics and challenging gameplay made it an arcade hit and paved the way for even more intense shooters to come.

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Smash TV creators Eugene Jarvis and Mark Turmell returned with this spinoff, bringing the gameplay elements of their previous hit into a 1990s political quasi-satire. Total Carnage sends its two shirtless heroes into the fictional Kookistan to defeat dictator General Achboob (we didn't say it was highbrow satire) and his mutant army, with even more over-the-top enemies and level design more akin to run-and-gun games like Ikari Warriors and Heavy Barrel. In addition to a wide range of enemies, weapon power-ups and even more ridiculous bosses (including a bizarre Hitleresque final boss), the game also features shortcuts, including both portals and the ability to type in a code to access later sections of the game. Can you make it to the Pleasure Domes (without cheating)?

Like Smash TV, Total Carnage requires two 8-way joysticks (one for running, one for gunning) and uses a single Start/Bomb button. Now go make your country proud (or ashamed, depending on your country).

Developed by Toaplan and published by Midway in the US and Taito outside the US (as Tatsujin), Truxton is a vertically scrolling sci-fi shoot-em-up that charges players with fighting an alien invasion by the alien Gidans, led by the dastardly Dogurava. Released during a period of increasing complexity in SHMUPs, Truxton is more technical than some games of the era, based around memorizing enemy placements and choosing the right weapon to counter them. Its distinctive weapon power-ups and memorable skull-shaped bomb and enemies give it a unique appeal that has made it an enduring favorite decades later.

As with Capcom's numerous refinements of its Street Fighter games, Midway released Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 to further hone the gameplay and add new characters and features, and is usually considered the high point of the series in arcades. Among its new features are several new gameplay modes (2-on-2 and an 8-player tournament mode), gameplay tuning and refinements, new stages and the return of several original Mortal Kombat characters that were omitted in the first version of MK3. It was the last 2D-based Mortal Kombat games to be released in arcades, as the reigning technology had moved on to 3D.

Get ready to wrrrrestlleeee (we’d have to pay Michael Buffer to say “rumble”) with Midway’s 1995 chair-smashing fighting game, which brought Midway’s trademark video-captured visual style to a WWF arcade game. Sort of a cross between NBA Jam’s fast-paced arcade sports action and Mortal Kombat’s competitive fighting mechanics (including the fanciful special attacks, but minus the ultraviolence), WWF WrestleMania brings pretty much everything you love and/or hate about pro wrestling into a fun and approachable package.