I was watching some random YouTube video that was listing arcade games for some reason (I honestly don’t even remember what the video was) and they mentioned a game called Cyber-Lip. I’d never heard of it before but it looked cyberpunk to me so I had to dig deeper. Apparently it’s a Neo-Geo arcade game made by SNK in 1990. It’s basically a mix between Contra and Metal Slug, except Metal Slug came out in 1996 (also made by SNK). So I guess this game must’ve been SNK trying out the Metal Slug formula.

Anyway, I have no idea what “Cyber-Lip” means, and I’m not entirely sure this game is cyberpunk beyond the first level. Except the main character is definitely a 90’s cyberpunk:

But this game got me thinking… what other cyberpunk arcade games are there? As obsessed as I am with cyberpunk, I can only think of a couple titles that are close. There’s the Tron and Discs of Tron games, although those are mostly cyberpunk-by-proxy due to their relation to the movie. But what else is there? The Aerosmith rail-shooter Revolution X?? There’s a shoot-em-up called Last Resort whose first level looks cyberpunk to me but I don’t think the rest of the game is. And that’s all I can come up with! That’s crazy to me.

Cyberpunk was in its peak of popularity while arcade games were still popular and yet I’m not aware of any other cyberpunk arcade games. I’m obviously thinking more of the “retro” arcade games here but even if I include modern arcade games, nothing comes to mind.

So help me out, what arcade games can you remember that even might be cyberpunk?

  • JacobCoffinWrites@slrpnk.netEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    The Alien v Predator arcade games are surprisingly cyberpunk in the level art at least. It seemed to pull a lot of aesthetics from the Aliens series.

    I’m not certain of the timeline but my impression was that cyberpunk was mostly limited to books during the arcade era. Like, they made tons of scif arcade games but they were generally inspired by the earlier stuff cyberpunk was also riffing on/rebutting.

    It is funny that both genres were big at the same time but I wonder how much crosstalk there was between the two groups. Cyberpunk authors were definitely inspired by arcades, arcade culture, and the games themselves but I’m not sure if they’d hit the level of cultural suffusion necessary to reach the inside of the game companies before the industry started to shrink.

  • calliope@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    2·
    4 days ago

    I have never heard of Cyber Lip, the art looks very cool!

    The Terminator 2: Judgment Day rail shooter might also fit.

    Incredibly, I was trying to think of others and the one that came to mind was the Aerosmith game Revolution X. Then I came back here and you also mentioned it! I can’t even remember why it was cyberpunk, but it did come to mind.

    I don’t know if this exactly fits, but Smash T.V. is a dystopian future TV show.

    • Hammerjack@lemmy.zipOPMEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      That’s right, Smash TV! Good call, I always think of it as a SNES game but it did start out in arcades first.

      • calliope@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        3·
        4 days ago

        As an aside, I think the title “Cyber-Lip” might be a translation issue.

        According to Wikipedia, the Hepburn pronunciation of the original title is “Saibā-Rippu,” and Cyber-Rip makes a bit more sense than Cyber-Lip.