I need the community's assistance to help me figure out if a memory I have is of a real game or if it's a figment or confabulation!

I have a vague memory of an arcade game that I saw in the 90s, when I was a young child, while on vacation. I only saw this machine once, and don't know the name of the game. As I remember it, it was a side-scroller in the vein of Altered Beast in which you play as a guy with a wide-brim hat (kind of like Chakan, Forever Man), and maybe a duster coat, like vampire hunter style? Probably killing monsters and zombies or whatnot, although I don't remember.

Ok, so I'm entirely open to the possibility that I dreamed this up, and confabulated it from various other elements in my imagination; if nobody in the community knows the game, I'll know that I did, coz this is a pretty knowledgeable group. Thanks!!

This isn't much to go on... Do you remember if the gameplay was more akin to something like Castlevania, or perhaps closer to beat 'em ups like Streets of Rage? Was the visual design realistic or more stylised? Was the setting gothic, western, sci-fi?

Edit: As a wild guess, could it be Magician Lord?

Wasn't Moonwalker was It? I'm sure you'd have remembered the Michael Jackson connection though if it was.

It probably wouldn’t be that because the arcade version of Moonwalker was forced perspective isometric 3D, rather than the sidescrolling 2D MD version.

Oh yeah! I don't think I ever saw that in the arcade (I actually had to do a quick Google to check it had even been an arcade game, should have spotted that!)

You could try the Retro Gamer magazines forum, BlueWeaselBreath, or even write in to the mag, they're usually quite good at finding old games too.

Thanks, all! If, again, this is a real game, it was closer to an Altered Beast style beat 'em up. I remember the color palette being more muted than Magician Lord but it was kind of like this and that was a super good guess given the paucity of information you had to work with!

Oh, snap, you know what, I've been watching the gameplay of Magician Lord and now I think that may in fact have been it! Perhaps my imperfect brain changed the memory of a cape to a duster coat. Unless somebody comes along with some other suggestion that gives me a "BAM that's it!" moment, I'm going to say this is the one. Thanks, KSubzero1000!

Glad to hear my google-fu could be of service.

ratsoalbion wrote: ↑October 14th, 2017, 5:47 pm It probably wouldn’t be that because the arcade version of Moonwalker was forced perspective isometric 3D, rather than the sidescrolling 2D MD version.

Hope this is on the list Leon, loved that game in the arcades

No Michael Jackson games on the list (unless you count Space Channel 5 and Sonic 3)!
Will add all three versions of Moonwalker (but not the MJ Experience).

I bought that Moonwalker PCB about two weeks ago from the US, and literally just arrived yesterday in the post. It's strange that Moonwalker was also on other peoples minds... eerie...

I'll definitely be playing sporadically through the week before giving some feedback. I think that machine was in the local bowling alley growing up, and it kinda stood out. It's weird what memories of very specific arcade games stick with you, even if sometimes the details can be hazy.