Stone aged gamer here looking for suggestions/recommendations for "Retro" or older, simple arcade style games that would work on a home built arcade cabinet with a joystick and a few buttons.
Anyone have some ideas?
The terms "retro" and "arcade" are very broad; they can range from a single-screen game like in 1980s to a Danmaku from the 2000s.
Platform?, Beat 'em up?, shoot' em up?, run and gun? fighting?
Without much more detail, I could recommend the games of "locomalito." He's an independent developer who usually makes arcade-style games. The bad thing is that you won't find him on Itch, but here's the link to his page. His games are usually free, but he has a couple of paid ones on Steam.
You also don't clarify if your machine uses a CRT and if you're limited to a certain resolution.
I have a '90s-inspired arcade shoot em up. It's designed for an vertical 800x600 monitor, but it runs on any modern computer. It's paid, but if you contact me privately, I can send you an Itch key if you're interested.
Game's I would recommend:
If you can find it and don't care for a movie tie-in- Someone attempted and made a spot-on rendition of the Last Starfighter, movie about a kid playing an arcade game, beats the final level in it only to discover it was sent out to look for pilots to fly starships.
http://www.roguesynapse.com/games/last_starfighter.php
This guy also has some good arcade titles to work with.
Other's to somewhat consider-
Combo Postage:
https://kirklindsay.itch.io/combo-postage
Paamedicats:
https://theresnosuchthing.itch.io/paramedicats
GunHouse:
https://necrosoftgames.itch.io/gunhouse
SpookWare:
https://papercookies.itch.io/spookware-fullversion
CrashWave!:
https://flyover-games.itch.io/wavecrash
Electro-Mechnician by Rad Codex
Electro-Mechinician sounds like a good fit.