Recommended games for 3 or more simultaneous local players

[demon]

Which games for any system would you recommend, that allow for more than 2 local players simultaneously? I
don't think there are that many

Among coin-ops, I remember only old top-view racing games such as Sprint 4, Sprint 8, Ivan Stewart's Off Road and (maybe) Badlands. Did Golden Axe support 3 players?

On the Amiga there is Dynablaster, which is amazing but unfortunately in multiplayer mode it's always the same level, and it's a battle against each other. Dynablaster supported a 4-joysticks adapter to play as 5 players (the fifth one used the keyboard), but I don't remember any other game that did.

Was there any console back in the day which offered a similar adapter?

There are games for 3-4 players in modern consoles and PC but they are beyond retro.

[demon]

Just to be clearer, by "local" players I mean all of them playing at the same machine, so WLAN games don't count

[The Laird]

Gauntlet 2 and Leatherneck on the Atari ST support 4 players via and adapter.

Rampage on most computers is 3 player.

[Antiriad2097]

Warlords on Atari VCS or arcade is up to 4 players. With all 4, it gets very competitive. Great, great game, though it may not appear so until you play it. Since the paddle controllers come wired 2 to a plug, its even a default option with no multitap needed.

Micro Machines (varying systems and versions of the game) has up to 4 players.

Arcade Gauntlet, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons are 4 player.

[demon]

Warlords on Atari VCS or arcade is up to 4 players. With all 4, it gets very competitive. Great, great game, though it may not appear so until you play it. Since the paddle controllers come wired 2 to a plug, its even a default option with no multitap needed.

I have heard about Warlords but we have no VCS, is it playable in an emulator with 4 joystick?

[Shinobi]

Demon, Golden Axe the Revenge of Death Adder allows for 4 players. All 4 players can do team moves on enemies.

Capcom Arcade Classics on PS4 Switch etc had Knights of the Round 3 player, Battle Circuit I think has 4 players. The mech game certainly is 4 players.

Snes and PC Engine both had multitaps.

Midways Asylum is 3 players but it’s the worst game ever made.

[Antiriad2097]

Warlords on Atari VCS or arcade is up to 4 players. With all 4, it gets very competitive. Great, great game, though it may not appear so until you play it. Since the paddle controllers come wired 2 to a plug, its even a default option with no multitap needed.

I have heard about Warlords but we have no VCS, is it playable in an emulator with 4 joystick?

If you're emulating I'd recommend the arcade version.

Is it playable with sticks? Sort of. You can get it to work, but it is designed for a rotary control. You just won't get the speed and precision with a stick limited to nudging left or right instead of just turning to where you want to be.

This does make me wonder if there are any remakes around that will use an analogue stick to 'point' where you want to go, mapping the stick position to player position.

[icemann]

A few that spring to mind:

Sticking to games with co-op options.

* Command and Conquer / Red Alert - All of them
* Doom 1 & 2
* Heretic and Hexen
* Homeworld 2
* Starcraft

[Antiriad2097]

A few that spring to mind:

Sticking to games with co-op options.

* Command and Conquer / Red Alert - All of them
* Doom 1 & 2
* Heretic and Hexen
* Homeworld 2
* Starcraft

Local play on one system, not networked, for 3 or more players?

[JamesC]

It depends on how far back you want to go.
Gamecube era there are loads of 4 player racing games and also the likes of Super Monkey Ball and Zelda: Four Swords.
N64 had obvious ones like Turok and Goldeneye.
More generally, racing games tend to be a good bet (things like Super Off Road tend to support 4 players over the various versions) and also tennis games very often support 4 players.
Then you've got things like Guantlet and Smash TV. In the arcade there was Quartet but I'm not sure any home versions supported 4 players.

[FatTrucker]

Super Bomberman or any in the series. Still probably the most fun you can have as a group on one screen.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade is pretty good with 3 or 4 players too.

[Matt_B]

Jack Chartlon's Match Fishing on the Spectrum probably isn't most people's idea of fun but it supported 8 simultaneous players on one machine back in an era when 2 was the usual limit.

Just getting eight people sitting within reach of the keyboard is something of a game in itself.

For a more serious suggestion, there's always Mario Kart 64 or indeed any of the subsequent games in that series.

[icemann]

Local play on one system, not networked, for 3 or more players?

My bad there. Did not see his second post.

I just read "Local" and was thinking good LAN co-op games.

[SJ_Sathanas]

Super Bomberman or any in the series. Still probably the most fun you can have as a group on one screen.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade is pretty good with 3 or 4 players too.

Yes Bomberman is absolutely essential.

[Antiriad2097]

Local play on one system, not networked, for 3 or more players?

My bad there. Did not see his second post.

I just read "Local" and was thinking good LAN co-op games.

Tbh, I'm really surprised there isn't a 4 player Doom classic mod that will let 4 players deathmatch on one screen. I had a quick google off the back of your post and couldn't find anything more than 2 players.