In the late 1980s and early 1990s when I was a young teen growing up in far North Austin, it was a popular custom for many boys in the neighborhood to assemble at the local Stop-N-Go after school on a regular basis for some Grand Champion level tournaments in Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat. The collective insistence of our mothers and fathers to get out of the house, get some exercise, and refrain from playing NES or Sega on the television only led us to seek out more video games at the convenience store down the road. Much allowance and lunch money was spent as well as hours that should have been devoted to homework among the 8 or 9 regular boys in attendance, often challenging each other to 'Best of 5' matches. I myself played Dhalsim and SubZero, and not very well, so I rarely ever made it to the 5th match. The store workers frequently kicked us out for the day only to have us return when they weren't working the counter anymore if not the next day.
There is something about that which has been lost in the present day. While people can today download the latest games on Steam or PSN or in the app store on your smartphone, you can't just find arcade games in stores and restaurants like you used to be able to. And so the fun of a spontaneous 8 or 10 person multiplayer video game tournament has been confined to places like bars, pool halls, Pinballz or Dave&Busters.
But in truth it was that ubiquity of arcade video games, how you could find them in any old 7-11 or Laundromat, which is what killed the original arcades of the early 1980s before the Great Crash of 1983 when home video game consoles started to catch up to what you saw in the arcade.
I was born in the mid 1970s so I missed out on Pong. I was kindergarten age when the Golden Age of Arcade Games took place in the early 1980s. There used to be a place called Skateworld on Anderson Mill Road that was primarily for roller skating but had a respectable arcade in its own right. It was there that I honed my skills on the original Tron, Pac Man, Galaga, Pole Position, Defender, and so many others. In the 1980s I remember visiting all the same mall arcades as others in my age group. There was Aladdin's Castle in Barton Creek Mall, The Gold Mine in Highland, and another Gold Mine in Northcross which was eventually renamed Tilt. Westgate Mall also had an arcade but being a north austin kid I never went there until later in the mid 1990s. There were also places like Malibu Grand Prix and Showbiz Pizza and Chuck-E-Cheeze, all of which had fairly large arcades for kids which were the secondary attraction.
If you're of a certain age you will remember Einsteins and LeFun on the Drag. They were there for a few decades going back way before the Slacker era. Lesser known is that the UT Student Union basement used to have an arcade that was comparable to either or both of those places. Back in the pre-9/11 days it was much easier to sneak in if you even vaguely looked like you could be a UT student.
But there was another place I was too young to have experienced called Smitty's up further north on 183 at Lake Creek in the early 1980s. I never got to go there but I always heard about it from older kids at the time. It was supposed to have been two stories of wall to wall games with a small snack bar. I guess at the time it served a mostly older teen crowd from Westwood High School and for that reason younger kids my age weren't having birthday parties there. It wasn't around very long, just a few years during the Golden Age of Arcades.
It is with almost-forgotten early arcades like that in mind that I wanted to share with y'all some examples of places from The Golden Age of the Video Arcade in Austin using some old Statesman articles I've found. Maybe someone of a certain age on here will remember them. I was curious what they were like, having missed out by being slightly too young to have experienced most of them first hand. I also wanted to see the original reaction to them in the press. I had a feeling there was some pushback from school/parent/civic groups on these facilities showing up in neighborhood strip malls or next to schools, and I was right to suspect. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First let's list off some places of interest. Be sure to speak up if you remember going to any of these, even if it was just for some other kid's birthday party. Unfortunately some of the only mentions about a place are reports of a crime being committed there, such as our first few examples.
Forgotten Arcade #1
Fun House/Play Time Arcade - 2820 Guadalupe
June 15, 1975

ARCADE ENTHUSIASM
A gang fight involving 20 30 people erupted early Saturday morning in front of an arcade on Guadalupe Street. The owner of the Fun House Arcade at 282J Guadalupe told police pool cues, lug wrenches, fists and a shotgun were displayed during the flurry. Police are unsure what started the fisticuffs, but one witness at the scene said it pitted Chicanos against Anglos. During the fight the owner of the arcade said a green car stopped at the side of the arcade and witnesses reported the barrel of a shotgun sticking out. The crowd wisely scattered and only a 23-year-old man was left lying on the ground. He told police he doesn't know what happened.

March 3, 1976

ARCADE ROBBED
A former employee of Play Time Arcade, 2820 Guadalupe, was charged Tuesday in connection with the Tuesday afternoon robbery of his former business. Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of Ronnie Magee, 22, of 1009 Aggie Lane, Apt. 306. Arcade attendant Sam Garner said he had played pool with the suspect an hour before the robbery. He told police the man had been fired from the business two weeks earlier. Police said a man walked in the arcade about 2:45 p m. with a blue steel pistol and took $180. Magee is charged with first degree aggravated robbery. Bond was set on the charge at $15,000.

First it was called Fun House and then renamed Play Time a year later. I'm not sure what kind of arcade games beyond Pong and maybe Asteroids they could have had at this place. The peak of the Pinball craze was supposed to be around 1979, so they might have had a few pinball machines as well. A quick search of youtube will show you a few examples of 1976 video games like Death Race. The location is next to Ken's Donuts where PokeBowl is today where the old Baskin Robbins location was for many years.
Forgotten Arcade #2
Green Goth - 1121 Springdale Road
May 15, 1984

A 23-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to a January 1983 murder in East Austin and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Jim Crowell Jr. of Austin admitted shooting 17-year-old Anthony Rodriguez in the chest with a shotgun after the two argued outside the Green Goth, a games arcade at 1121 Springdale Road, on Jan. 23, 1983. Crowell had argued with Rodriguez and a friend of Rodriguez at the arcade, police said. Crowell then went to his house, got a shotgun and returned to the arcade, witnesses said. When the two friends left the arcade, Rodriguez was shot Several weeks ago Crowell had reached a plea bargain with prosecutors for an eight-year prison term, but District Judge Bob Perkins would not accept the sentence, saying it was shorter than sentences in similar cases. After further plea bargaining, Crowell accepted the 15-year prison sentence.

I can't find anything else on Green Goth except reports about this incident with a murder there. There is at least one other report from 1983 around the time of Crowell's arrest that also refer to it as an arcade but reports the manager said the argument started over a game of pool. It's possible this place might have been more known for pool.
Forgotten Arcades #3 & #4
Games, Etc. - 1302 S. First St
Muther's Arcade - 2532 Guadalupe St
August 23, 1983

Losing the magic touch - Video Arcades have trouble winning the money game
It was going to be so easy for Lawrence Villegas, a video game junkie who thought he could make a fast buck by opening up an arcade where kids could plunk down an endless supply of quarters to play Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Asteroids. Villegas got together with a few friends, purchased about 30 video games and opened Games, Etc. at 1302 S. First St in 1980. .,--.... For a while, things, went great Kids waited in line to spend their money to drive race cars, slay dragons and save the universe.
AT THE BEGINNING of 1982, however, the bottom fell out, and Villegas' revenues fell from $400 a week to $25. Today, Games, Etc. is vacant Villegas, 30, who is now working for his parents at Tony's Tortilla Factory, hasn't decided what he'll do with the building. "I was hooked on Asteroids, and I opened the business to get other people hooked, too," Villegas said. "But people started getting bored, and it wasn't worth keeping the place open. In the end, I sold some machines for so little it made me sick."
VILLEGAS ISNT the only video game operator to experience hard times, video game manufacturers and distributors 'It used to be fairly common to get $300 a week from a machine. Now we rarely get more than $100 .
Pac-Man's a lost cause. Six months ago, you could resell a Pac-Man machine for $1,600. Now, you're lucky to get $950 if you can find a buyer." Ronnie Roark says. In the past year, business has dropped 25 percent to 65 percent throughout the country, they say. Most predict business will get even worse before the market stabilizes. Video game manufacturers and operators say there are several reasons for the sharp and rapid decline: Many video games can now be played at home on television, so there's no reason to go to an arcade. The novelty of video games has worn off. It has been more than a decade since the first ones hit the market The decline can be traced directly to oversaturation or the market arcade owners say. The number of games in Austin has quadrupled since 1981, and it's not uncommon to see them in coin-operated laundries, convenience stores and restaurants.
WITH SO MANY games to choose from, local operators say, Austinites be came bored. Arcades still take in thousands of dollars each week, but managers and owners say most of the money is going to a select group of newer games, while dozens of others sit idle.
"After awhile, they all seem the same," said Dan Moyed, 22, as he relaxed at Muther's Arcade at 2532 Guadalupe St "You get to know what the game is going to do before it does. You can play without even thinking about it" Arcade owners say that that, in a nutshell, is why the market is stagnating.
IN THE PAST 18 months, Ronnie Roark, owner of the Back Room at 2015 E. Riverside Drive, said his video business has dropped 65 to 75 percent Roark, . who supplied about 160 video games to several Austin bars and arcades, said the instant success of the games is what led to their demise. "The technology is not keeping up with people's demand for change," said Roark, who bought his first video game in 1972. "The average game is popular for two or three months. We're sending back games that are less than five months old."
Roark said the market began dropping in March 1982 and has been declining steadily ever since. "The drop started before University of Texas students left for the summer in 1982," Roark said. "We expected a 25 percent drop in business, and we got that, and more. It's never really picked up since then. - "It used to be fairly common to get $300 a week from a machine. Now we rarely get more than $100. 1 was shocked when I looked over my books and saw how much things had dropped."
TO COMBAT THE slump, Roark said, he and some arcade owners last year cut the price of playing. Even that didn't help, he said. Old favorites, such as Pac-Man, which once took in hundreds of dollars each week, he said, now make less than $3 each. "Pac-Man's a lost cause," he said. "Six months ago, you could resell a Pac-Man machine for $1,600. Now, you're lucky to get $950 if you can find a buyer." Hardest hit by the slump are the owners of the machines, who pay $3,500 to $5,000 for new products and split the proceeds with the businesses that house them.
SALEM JOSEPH, owner of Austin Amusement and Vending Co., said his business is off 40 percent in the past year. Worse yet, some of his customers began returning their machines, and he's having a hard time putting them back in service. "Two years ago, a machine would generate enough money to pay for itself in six months,' said Joseph, who supplies about 250 games to arcades. "Now that same machine takes 18 months to pay for itself." As a result, Joseph said, he'll buy fewer than 15 new machines this year, down from the 30 to 50 he used to buy. And about 50 machines are sitting idle in his warehouse.
"I get calls every day from people who want to sell me their machines," Joseph said. "But I can't buy them. The manufacturers won't buy them from me." ARCADE OWNERS and game manufacturers hope the advent of laser disc video games will buoy the market Don Osborne, vice president of marketing for Atari, one of the largest manufacturers of video games, said he expects laser disc games to bring a 25 percent increase in revenues next year. The new games are programmed to give players choices that may affect the outcome of the game, Os borne said. "Like the record and movie industries, the video game industry is dependent on products that stimulate the imagination," Osborne said "One of the reasons we're in a valley is that we weren't coming up with those kinds of products."
THE FIRST of the laser dis games, Dragonslayer and Star Wan hit the market about two months ago. Noel Kerns, assistant manager of The Gold Mine Arcade in Northcross Mall, says the new games are responsible for a $l,000-a-week increase in revenues. Still, Kerns said, the Gold Mine' total sales are down 20 percent iron last summer. However, he remain optimistic about the future of the video game industry. "Where else can you come out of the rain and drive a Formula One race car or save the universe?" hi asked.
Others aren't so optimistic. Roark predicted the slump will force half of all operators out of business and will last two more years. "Right now, we've got a great sup ply and almost no demand," Roark said. "That's going to have to change before things get- significantly better."

Well there is a lot to take from that long article, among other things, that the author confused "Dragonslayer" with "Dragon's Lair". I lol'd.
Anyone who has been to Emo's East, formerly known as The Back Room, knows they have arcade games and pool, but it's mostly closed when there isn't a show. That shouldn't count as an arcade, even though the former owner Ronnie Roark was apparently one of the top suppliers of cabinet games to the area during the Golden Era. Any pool hall probably had a few arcade games at the time, too, but that's not the same as being an arcade.
We also learn from the same article of two forgotten arcades: Muthers at 2522 Guadalupe where today there is a Mediterranean food restaurant, and another called Games, Etc. at 1302 S.First that today is the site of an El Mercado restaurant. But the article is mostly about showing us how bad the effects were from the crash at the end of the Golden Era. It was very hard for the early arcades to survive with increasing competition from home game consoles and personal computers, and the proliferation of the games into stores and restaurants.
Forgotten Arcades #5 #6 & #7
Computer Madness - 2414 S. Lamar Blvd.
Electronic Encounters - 1701 W Ben White Blvd (Southwood Mall)
The Outer Limits Amusements Center - 1409 W. Oltorf
March 4, 1982

'Quartermania' stalks South Austin
School officials, parents worried about effects of video games
A fear Is haunting the video game business. "We call it 'quartermania.' That's fear of running out of quarters," said Steve Stackable, co-owner of Computer Madness, a video game and foosball arcade at 2414 S. Lamar Blvd. The "quartermania" fear extends to South Austin households and schools, as well. There it's a fear of students running out of lunch money and classes to play the games. Local school officials and Austin police are monitoring the craze. They're concerned that computer hotspots could become undesirable "hangouts" for students, or that truancy could increase because students (high-school age and younger) will skip school to defend their galaxies against The Tempest.
So far police fears have not been substantiated. Department spokesmen say that although more than half the burglaries in the city are committed by juveniles during the daytime, they know of no connection between the break-ins and kids trying to feed their video habit But school and parental worries about misspent time and money continue. The public outcry in September 1980 against proposals to put electronic game arcades near two South Austin schools helped persuade city officials to reject the applications. One proposed location was near Barton Hills Elementary School. The other was South Ridge Plaza at William Cannon Drive and South First Street across from Bedlchek Junior High School.
Bedichek principal B.G. Henry said he spoke against the arcade because "of the potential attraction it had for our kids. I personally feel kids are so drawn to these things, that It might encourage them to leave the school building and play hookey. Those things have so much compulsion, kids are drawn to them like a magnet Kids can get addicted to them and throw away money, maybe their lunch money. I'm not against the video games. They may be beneficial with eye-hand coordination or even with mathematics, but when you mix the video games during school hours and near school buildings, you might be asking for problems you don't need."
A contingent from nearby Pleasant Hill Elementary School joined Bedichek in the fight back in 1980, although principal Kay Beyer said she received her first formal call about the games last Week from a mother complaining that her child was spending lunch money on them. Beyer added that no truancy problems have been related to video game-playing at a nearby 7-11 store. Allen Poehl, amusement game coordinator for Austin's 7-11 stores, said company policy rules out any game-playing by school-age youth during school hours. Fulmore Junior High principal Bill Armentrout said he is working closely with operators of a nearby 7-1 1 store to make sure their policy is enforced.
The convenience store itself, and not necessarily the video games, is a drawing card for older students and drop-outs, Armentrout said. Porter Junior High principal Marjorie Ball said that while video games aren't a big cause of truancy, "the money (spent on the games) is a big factor." Ball said she has made arrangements with nearby businesses to call the school it students are playing the games during school hours. "My concern is that kids are basically unsupervised, especially at the 24-hour grocery stores. That's a late hour for kids to be out. I would like to see them (games) unplugged at 10 p.m.," adds Joslin Elementary principal Wayne Rider.
Several proprietors of video game hot-spots say they sympathize with the concerns of parents and school officials. No one under 18 is admitted without a parent to Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre at 4211 S. Lamar. That rule, says night manager David Dunagan, "keeps it from being a high school hangout. This is a family place." Jerry Zollar, owner of J.J. Subs in West Wood Shopping Center on Bee Cave Road, rewards the A's on the report cards of Eanes school district students with free video games. "It's kind of a community thing we do in a different way. I've heard from both teachers and parents . . . they thought this was a good idea," said Zollar.
Electronic Encounters in Southwood Mall last year was renovated into a brightly lit arcade. "We're trying to get away from the dark, barroom-type place. We want this to be a place for family entertainment We won't let kids stay here during school hours without a written note from their parents, and we're pretty strict about that," said manager Kelly Roberts. Joyce Houston, who manages The Outer Limits amusements center at 1409 W. Oltorf St. along with her husband, said, "I wouldn't let my children go into some of the arcades I've visited. I'm a concerned parent, too. We wanted a place where the whole family could come and enjoy themselves."

Well you can see which way the tone of all these articles is going. There were some crimes committed at some arcades but all of them tended to have a negative reputation for various reasons. Parents and teachers were very skeptical of the arcades being in the neighborhoods to the point of petitioning the City Government to restrict them. Three arcades are mentioned besides Chuck-E-Cheese. Electronic Encounters in Southwood Mall, The Outer Limits amusements center at 1409 W. Oltorf, and Computer Madness, a "video game and foosball arcade" at 2414 S. Lamar Blvd.
Forgotten Arcade #8
Smitty's Galaxy of Games - Lake Creek Parkway
February 25, 1982

Arcades fighting negative image
Video games have swept across America, and Williamson and Travis counties have not been immune. In a two-part series, Neighbor examines the effects the coin-operated machines have had on suburban and small-town life.
Cities have outlawed them, religious leaders have denounced them and distraught mothers have lost countless children to their voracious appetites. And still they march on, stronger and more numerous than before. A new disease? Maybe. A wave of invading aliens from outer space? On occasion. A new type of addiction? Certainly. The culprit? Video games. Although the electronic game explosion has been mushrooming throughout the nation's urban areas for the past few years, its rippling effects have just recently been felt in the suburban fringes of North Austin and Williamson County.
In the past year, at least seven arcades armed with dozens of neon quarter-snatchers have sprung up to lure teens with thundering noises and thousands of flashing seek-and-destroy commands. Critics say arcades are dens of iniquity where children fall prey to the evils of gambling. But arcade owners say something entirely different. "Everybody fights them (arcades), they think they are a haven for drug addicts. It's just not true," said Larry Grant of Austin, who opened Eagle's Nest Fun and Games on North Austin Avenue in Georgetown last September. "These kids are great" Grant said the gameroom "gives teenagers a place to come. Some only play the games and some only talk.
In Georgetown, if you're from the high school, this is it." He said he's had very few disturbances, and asks "undesirables" to leave. "We've had a couple of rowdies. That's why I don't have any pool tables they tend to attract that type of crowd," Grant said.
Providing a place for teens to congregate was also the reason behind Ron and Carol Smith's decision to open Smitty's Galaxy of Games on Lake Creek Parkway at the entrance to Anderson Mill. "We have three teenage sons, and as soon as the oldest could drive, it became immediately apparent that there was no place to go around here," said Ron, an IBM employee who lives in Spicewood at Balcones. "This prompted us to want to open something." The business, which opened in August, has been a huge success with both parents and youngsters. "Hundreds of parents have come to check out our establishment before allowing their children to come, and what they see is a clean, safe environment managed by adults and parents," Ron said. "We've developed an outstanding rapport with the community." Video arcades "have a reputation that we have to fight," said Carol.
Kathy McCoy of Georgetown, who last October opened Krazy Korner on Willis Street in Leander, agrees. "We've got a real good group of kids," she said. "There's no violence, no nothing. Parents can always find their kids at Krazy Korner."
While all the arcade owners contacted reported that business is healthy, if not necessarily lucrative, it's not as easy for video entrepreneurs to turn a profit as one might imagine. A sizeable investment is required. Ron Smith paid between $2,800 and $5,000 for each of the 30 electronic diversions at his gameroom.
Grant said his average video game grosses about $50 a week, and his "absolute worst" game, Armor Attack, only $20 a week. The top machines (Defender and Pac-Man) can suck in an easy $125 a week. That's a lot of quarters, 500 to be exact but the Eagle's Nest and Krazy Korner pass half of them on to Neelley Vending Company of Austin which rents them their machines. "At 25 cents a shot, it takes an awful lot of people to pay the bills," said Tom Hatfield, district manager for Neelley.
He added that an owner's personality and the arcade's location can make or break the venture. The game parlor must be run "by an understanding person, someone with patience," Hatfield said. "They cannot be too demanding on the kids, yet they can't let them run all over them." And they must be located in a spot "with lots of foot traffic," such as a shopping center or near a good restaurant, he said. "And being close to a school really helps." "Video games are going to be here permanently, but we're going to see some operations not going because of the competition," which includes machines in virtually every convenience store and supermarket, Hatfield said.

This article talks about three arcades. One in Georgetown called Eagles Nest, another in Leander called Krazy Korner, and a third called Smitty's Galaxy of Games on Lake Creek Parkway "on the fringes of North Austin". This is the one I remember the older kids talking about when I was a little kid. There was once a movie theater across the street from the Westwood High School football stadium and behind that was Smitty's. Today I think the building was bulldozed long ago and the space is part of the expanded onramp to 183 today. Eventually another unrelated arcade was built next to the theater that became Alamo Lakeline. It was another site of some unrecorded epic Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat tournaments in the 90s.
But the article written before the end of the Golden Era tell us much about the pushback I was talking about earlier. Early arcades were seen as "dirty" places in some circles, and the owners of the arcades in Williamson County had to stress how "clean" their establishments were. This other article from a couple of weeks later tells of how area school officials weren't worried about video games and tells us more arcades in Round Rock and Cedar Park. Apparently the end of the golden age lasted a bit longer than usual in this area.
At some point in the next few years the bubble burst, and places like Smitty's were gone by the late 80s. But the distributors quoted earlier were right that arcade games weren't going completely away. In the mid 1980s LeFun opened up next in the Scientology building at 2200 Guadalupe on the drag. Down a few doors past what used be a coffee shop and a CVS was Einsteins Arcade. Both of those survived into the 21st century. I remember the last time I was at Einsteins I got my ass beat in Tekken by a kid half my age. heheh
That's all for today. There were no Bonus Pics in the UT archive of arcades (other than the classical architectural definition). I wanted to pass on some Bonus newspaper articles (remember to click and zoom in with the buttons on the right to read) about Austin arcades anyway but first a small story.
I mentioned earlier the secret of the UT Student Union. I have no idea what it looks like now but in the 90s there was a sizable arcade in with the bowling alley in the basement. Back in 1994 when I used to sneak in, they featured this bizarre early attempt at virtual reality games. I found an old Michael Barnes Statesman article about it dated February 11, 1994. Some highlights:

Hundreds of students and curiosity-seekers lined up at the University of Texas Union to play three to five minutes of Dactyl Nightmare, Flying Aces or V-Tol, three-dimensional games from Kramer Entertainment. Nasty weather delayed the unloading of four huge trunks containing the machines, which resemble low pulpits. Still, players waited intently for a chance to shoot down a fighter jet, operate a tilt-wing Harrier or tangle with a pterodactyl. Today, tickets will go on sale in the Texas Union lobby at 11:30 a.m. for playing slots between noon and 6 p.m.
Players, fitted with full helmets, throttles and power packs, stood on shiny gray and yellow platforms surrounded by a circular guard rail. Seen behind the helmet's goggles were computer simulated landscapes, not unlike the most sophisticated video games, with controls and enemies viewed in deep space. "You're on a platform waiting to fight a human figure," said Jeff Vaughn, 19, of Dactyl Nightmare. "A pterodactyl swoops down and tries to pick you up. You have to fight it off. You are in the space and can see your own body and all around you. But if you try to walk, you have to use that joy stick to get around."
"I let the pterodactyl carry me away so I could look down and scan the board," said Tom Bowen of the same game. "That was the way I found out where the other player was." "Yeah, it's cool just to stand there and not do anything," Vaughn said. The mostly young, mostly male crowd included the usual gaming fanatics, looking haggard and tense behind glasses and beards. A smattering of women and children also pressed forward in a line that snaked past the lobby and into the Union's retail shops.
"I don't know why more women don't play. Maybe because the games are so violent," said Jennifer Webb, 24, a psychology major whose poor eyesight kept her from becoming a fighter pilot in real life. "If the Air Force won't take me, virtual reality will." "They use stereo optics moving at something like 60 frames a second," said computer science major Alex Aquila, 19. "The images are still pretty blocky. But once you play it, you'll want to play it again and again." With such demand for virtual reality, some gamesters wondered why an Austin video arcade has not invested in at least one machine.

The gameplay looked like this.
Bonus Article #1 - "Video fans play for own reasons" (Malibu Grand Prix) - March 11, 1982
Bonus Article #2 - "Pac-Man Cartridge Piques Interest" - April 13, 1982
Bonus Article #3 - "Video Games Fail Consumer" - January 29, 1984
Bonus Article #4 - "Nintendoholics/Modems Unite" - January 25, 1989
Bonus Article #5 and pt 2 "Two girls missing for a night found at arcade" (truly dedicated young gamers) - August 7, 2003

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When checking the list of Whamoo’s software providers you can only feel relieved as this brand new online casino only has games from the world’s top casino games developers. Especially for a newly opened online casino it is important to show to the public that you are talking serious – and you can only do that by adding the most popular games from the top software providers to your game library.
It’s not only about fun. Sure, these top software developers are known for making some of the most fantastic video slots, stellar table games. They have the most exhilarating and professional live casino tables to which you can connect in just a few clicks. But it’s more than just playing fun, graphics and game design.
By only having games from the top software companies, you are giving your players a clear message that you are only satisfied with the best quality games. Perhaps the most important aspect is game reliability, honesty and fairness. All games from the top software companies are fully tested and accredited by regulatory bodies. These gaming authorities check whether games indeed turn out completely random results and give gamblers a honest shot at winning. This is perhaps even more important than just a fantastically designed game, as in the end what matters most is reliability and honesty inside a casino.

RNG

The games which can be played at Whamoo Casino all have a piece of code called a Random Number Generator (RNG). With a random number generator, the outcome of every game is completely random and independent from previous results. It means that every card being dealt on the table, all dice which are thrown during a game, and every ball spinning around in the roulette wheel is never predetermined. Let’s put it this way: if you throw a single dice with the numbers 1 to 6 on it, you have indeed an exact 1 out of 6 chance that it will land on your predicted number.
A random number generator is absolutely crucial when it comes to delivering fair game results and giving gamblers a honest chance at winning. By having games from the top software providers, Whamoo makes sure that you can trust the fairness of every casino game you play. The good thing is that not only are the game results subject to occasional audits by regulatory authorities, but that these software providers also pro-actively test their own games to ensure they fulfil the highest industry standards. They hire independent testing agencies such as eCOGRA to check their games, both in virtual simulations and real-time results.
Let’s take a look at the software providers whose games have already been added to the Whamoo game library. As these are some of the best known software developers in the world, chances are that you have heard about some of these names before!
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NETENT GAMES

Also known by its full name of Net Entertainment, NetEnt is one of the largest casino game developers in the world. NetEnt is a Swedish company which was founded in 1996, which makes it one of the oldest companies in the relatively young world of online casino gaming. It is so big, that the company is even listed on the local NASDAQ stock exchange in Stockholm, Sweden!
NetEnt is best known for its vast video slot portfolio, of which many games are also playable at Whamoo. Having NetEnt games in your casino game library is almost a must for every online casino, as besides Whamoo some 300 or so more online casinos have NetEnt games available, which tells you something about the popularity of this company. Just like Whamoo itself, NetEnt has a full gambling licence in the EU member state of Malta, which means that all games are subject to regulatory oversight and can be trusted for their fairness. NetEnt also works closely together with independent testing labs to ensure that their games meet the highest standards.
Some popular NetEnt games which you can play at Whamoo are Jack and the Beanstalk, BerryBurst, Twin Spin, The Vikings, Wings of Riches, Aloha!, Fruit Shop, Jacks or Better, Gonzo’s Quest, Dazzle Me, Wild Bazaar and of course the eternal favourite of Starburst.

PRAGMATIC PLAY GAMES

Pragmatic Play is another major company in the online gaming world. The casino games of Pragmatic Play are always popular with the players, so it is no surprise that Whamoo has chosen to add quite a few Pragmatic Play games to its online collection. Pragmatic Play focuses mostly on online video slots, although they also make some exciting live casino games which are hosted in their own studios.
Being only founded in 2015, Pragmatic Play is a relative newcomer within the game developing industry. Yet in those few years time, the company already managed to reach to top heights with Pragmatic Play being considered to rank among the top game providers. Quality and safety are of immense importance for Pragmatic Play. Therefore, all games are documented and tested by independent auditors and testing labs such as QUINEL, BMM and Gaming Labs.
Popular Pragmatic Play games which can be played at Whamoo are John Hunter and the Aztec Treasure, Great Rhino Megaways, Leprechaun Song, Lucky Dragons, Mustang Gold, The Champions, Vegas Nights, Aztec Gems, Buffalo King, Starz Megaways, Triple Jokers, Magic Crystals, Sugar Rush, Beowulf and many more exciting video slots.
Of course, many baccarat, blackjack and roulette variants are available in Whamoo’s Live Casino which is powered by Pragmatic Play software. You are connected by high resolution video feed to professional dealers and croupiers in one of the Pragmatic Play casino studios where you can experience the thrills of a real life casino behind your computer or mobile phone. It’s almost like you are standing in Vegas!

STAKELOGIC GAMES

Stakelogic is another popular software developer which has added its games to the Whamoo game library. As one of the best-known developers in the software industry, it is always a good sign that Stakelogic games are available to play given that this company has made some exciting video slots.
Using HTML5, Stakelogic games are of course fully mobile compatible, which means you can play them on your smartphone as well. The company has also made some exciting new 3D slots which are not only gorgeous to look at but also wild fun to play. As an off-shoot company from gaming giants Novomatic, Stakelogic certainly is a reputable software developer which can be trusted when it comes to fairness and reliability.
Popular Stakelogic games are Epic Slam, Wild Stallion, Magic Wheel, Super Wild Arcade, Fruit Spinner, Lucky Gems Deluxe, Hot Fruits, Grand Slam Deluxe, Runner Runner, Turbo 4 Player Jackpot, Dragons and Magic, Big 5 Jungle Jackpot, Mariachi and The Big Cash Game.
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High limit gaming options

Whamoo is an online casino which is not only suitable for gamblers on a tight budget, but also for the true high rollers. You can place bets as low as a few cents, or as high as several thousands of euros or dollars at this online casino. Depending on your game of choice, whether its a jackpot video slot or classic table game, there are countless of options to bet big for maximum excitement and chances of winning top prizes. Further down in this Whamoo review, we will discuss some of the high limit games which are available.
Highrollers should also note that Whamoo comes with its own VIP programme in which you can quickly work yourself to the top category if you bet big. You can get instant access to your own dedicated casino manager and will get invites to high stakes tournaments. There are special weekly cashback bonuses as well for the true high roller gamblers at Whamoo. We will discuss the VIP program more in depth a bit further down this Whamoo review.
For now, let’s take a look at all the high roller games which are available at Whamoo Online Casino!

Endless rows of jackpot video slots

If you are a real lover of video slots you will be glad to hear that Whamoo has several hundreds of online video slots available. Although some of these slots are more suitable for beginning players or those on a tight budget, there are plenty of slots available where you can bet up to 100 euro/dollar per spin. This makes for some exhilarating and thrilling slot game action which will please any high stakes gambler out there!
Of course, Whamoo also has its share of jackpot slots where you have a shot at winning the progressive jackpot which can run well above a million euro or dollar! These premium slots, such as those using the famous Megaways system, offer countless of opportunities to place maximum bets at your video slot of choice.
Check the Whamoo game library whether or not your favourite slot is available as well, or try one of the many exciting new game additions! It is easy to browse through the Whamoo website. You can sort slots by software provider, or use the search function to check for your beloved title.

Join for some high stakes blackjack action

Blackjack has always been one of the most popular games among high rollers and the reasons why are quite clear. You can often bet high amounts of money on a single play and you can as a player slightly influence the outcome of a game as you need to decide whether you want to stand or hit another card.
At Whamoo, there is plenty of high stakes blackjack action. There are both normal blackjack games such as American Blackjack and multihand Blackjack, as well as blackjack tables in the live casino. In the live casino, which is powered by Pragmatic Play software, you can play several blackjack variants. Bets of up to several hundreds of euros or dollars, or even higher for the real VIPs, are possible.
Beat the hand of the dealer and hit that score of 21. Maybe it will be your lucky day playing blackjack at Whamoo Online Casino!

Grab a seat at the roulette table

There is plenty of roulette action at Whamoo as well. You can choose between virtual roulette versions, or opt for a seat at a roulette table in the live casino, where you are connected to a real-time croupier by video feed. Especially in the live casino high bets of up to a thousand dollar or more are possible, making roulette a big favourite among the real high stake gamblers.
Of course, Whamoo Casino has all of the the standard roulette versions of American Roulette, French Roulette and European Roulette. Most of these games are developed by software giants NetEnt.
In the live casino, there is also Roulette Macao Live, where you will be connected to a gaming environment which makes you feel like you are playing in the famous casinos of this Chinese gambling mecca. Live Speed Roulette, Live Roulette Auto and Roulette Azure are popular Pragmatic Play live casino versions of roulette which are available to Whamoo players.
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Whamoo's unique bonus package

One area in which Whamoo stands out as online casino is its great bonus package. Of course, there is a great welcome bonus for newly registered users. But the fun doesn’t stop there! At Whamoo casino, it is bonus day almost every single day of the week. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays the casino has recurring bonus offers if you reload you bankroll on one of those days. This makes Whamoo not only an attractive casino at the moment you sign up, but also at all those moments when you come back to play again.
300 free spins or a €200 deposit bonus

The Whamoo welcome bonus

We start of discussing the Whamoo welcome bonus which is called the “Welcombo” bonus by the casino. On a picture the Welcombo might not look too appealing as its packed in a carton takeaway box you might get at a certain fast food restaurant, but trust us on this: its contents are truly fantastic.
The Welcombo box contains a combination of goodies you get with your very first deposit at Whamoo. And what is best of all? You can decide what combo you want to receive! If you sign up at Whamoo for a free online casino account, you can determine your own bonus by adjusting the slide until you have found a combination which matches your idea of a perfect bonus.
This is a great option as it allows people to choose the bonus which best suits them. You can choose between free spins and a deposit bonus – or a combination of both. If you are an avid video slot gamer and do not care much about table games, you may want to slide all the way to the maximum free spins bonus. In that case, you will receive 300 free spins, but your deposit bonus will be 0%. The free spins in the Welcombo package are valid on the popular Amatic Industries slot Book of Fortune.
On the other hand, if you only care about table games and are not really interested in free spins and playing video slots, you want to adjust the slide to the maximum deposit bonus. This is a 100% deposit bonus of up to 200 euro. This means that if you deposit 200 euro of your own money to your newly created online casino account, Whamoo will top this up by another 200 euro from the house! If you select the full 100% deposit bonus, you will however not receive any free spins at all.
Of course, you can also opt for a mix between free spins and a deposit bonus. If you leave the slider in the middle, you will get 150 free spins and a 50% deposit bonus, for example. You can tweak this in any direction you want, for example to a 70% deposit bonus and 90 free spins. The higher your deposit bonus, the less free spins you receive. Want more free spins? Then your deposit bonus will decrease.

Welcombo bonus terms and conditions

Only one bonus is allowed per household and/or per player account. Do note that Whamoo’s bonuses remain valid until seven days after the required deposit has been made. Once this period ends, the bonus is automatically flagged as expired by the system and can no longer be released. The expired bonus funds are then automatically removed from the player’s account.
Of course, there is a wagering requirement which must be met in order to withdraw your bonus money and any winnings which may derive from it. Real money balance is used prior to bonus balance. The bonus balance will only be used when there is no real money available in your account. Only real money funds and released bonus funds can contribute towards the wagering requirement of the bonus. The wagering requirement for the Welcombo deposit bonus and free spins is thirty times (30x) the deposit + bonus.
Do note that players that deposit money using Paysafecard, Skrill or Neteller are not eligible for the Welcombo. To assure fair gaming and prevent fraud, Whamoo has placed a maximum cap on bonus money wagers, which are limited to a maximum per round/bet of €5 or its equivalent in other currencies. You should also be aware that certain games cannot be played using bonus money. There is a full overview of these games on the Whamoo bonus page.
Bets placed in certain games might not contribute fully to the wagering requirements.

• Bets placed on video slots count for 100%
• Bets placed on scratch cards count for 100%
• Bets placed on blackjack count for 10%
• Bets placed on video poker count for 10%
• Bets placed on poker count for 10%
• Bets placed on roulette, baccarat, sic-bo and craps do not count
• Bets placed on live casino games do not count

Recurring bonuses at Whamoo

The bonus fun does not stop at the welcome bonus when you play at Whamoo! You can count on a constant stream of promotional campaigns and bonus offers. The casino has recurring promo offers every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If you deposit some extra money to your online casino bankroll on one of those days, you are eligible for a bonus. It therefore pays off to wait for these days before you decide to reload your online funds.
On Monday it is Pick ‘n’ Play day to start off the week with some good vibes. On this day, the casino basically tops up your deposited money You can:

• Turn your €20 into €25 with the code 100024;
• turn your €50 into €65 with the code 100025, and/or
• turn your €100 into €135 with the code 100026.

It is even possible to combine these bonuses if you want to deposit a larger sum! Alternatively, you can use the bonus codes of WHPICK5, WHPICK15 and WHPICK35 by putting these into the promo code field on the cashier page every Monday.

Whoa Wednesday

Wednesday is for many a difficult day in the week, it being right in the middle of another long week of work. To spice up things, Whamoo has come with an unusual bonus which it calls “Whoa Wednesday”.
Every Wednesday you get to uncover your secret gift – for free, no strings attached. The casino will add this gift to your next deposit. This can be a bonus, a set of free spins, or even both. You’ll get all the details once you’ve pulled off the cover and logged into your account. You will receive the bonus details and promotional code, which you can use in the promo field at the payment page to receive your hard-earned Wednesday bonus.

Freeday bonus

Friday is the favourite day of the week for many people – and the reason why is quite obvious. It marks the end of another working week and the start of some well-deserved weekend R&R! For many people this involves paying a visit to a land-based or online casino to get their kicks at their favourite game, whether it is a card game, roulette or video slot.
Whamoo knows that many people cannot wait for the days off work to start and therefore has come up with a special Friday bonus to welcome in the weekend! This bonus day is called ‘Freeday’ by Whamoo. The casino basically hands you a bunch of free spins if you are a regular customer. For every weekday from the previous week (Friday through Thursday) that you’ve deposited 30 euro or more, you get 10 free spins. For every weekend day you even get 20 Free Spins! That means up to 90 Free Spins are yours to play with. That’s a great start to a weekend full of partying and fun!

Wagering requirements

Do note that wagering requirements do apply to all daily promo offers. These are more or less the same as we outlined above in the description of the welcome package, but do take a look at the bonus terms and conditions page on the Whamoo website to know precisely what you can expect! As always, it is important to read the small print in order not to face any surprises later on.
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A fully mobile compatible casino

As a brand new online casino, Whamoo knows that already a majority of gamblers nowadays play on their mobile phones rather than on computers. Because of this, the Whamoo casino is fully compatible with mobile devices and tablets. If you load the Whamoo website on your smartphone, it looks just as good as on your laptop of computer. It’s equally accessible and orderly too! The mobile website is a breeze to browse through and you can easily access all the important pages such as the game library and payment page.
The same counts for the actual games themselves. Whamoo only works with software providers which are known to offer full mobile gaming support. These games are made in code such as HTML5, which means that the games can simply be played in your (mobile) internet browser. There is no download or special app required to play these games. Whether you are playing on your computer, tablet or smartphone, you simply surf to Whamoo.com and select your favourite game from the library. This game will then open in your internet browser – and you can play instantly. It does not matter whether your phone runs on Android or is an iPhone, nor does it matter whether you have Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari or any other internet browser. Whamoo will function just fine!
This is absolutely great as you can now play at Whamoo wherever you are, whenever you want. Want to put down some wagers on the roulette table while you are sitting in public transport on your way to work? That’s easily doable! Just take out your smartphone on the train or bus, and surf to Whamoo.com to play at your favourite roulette table. Are you sitting on your couch at home and want to play a few hands of blackjack before going to sleep? Just take out your laptop, tablet or phone and within seconds you can have some of the most exhilarating blackjack fun on your screen.

The Whamoo Live Casino

Whamoo’s live casino is powered by Pragmatic Play and NetEnt software – which are two of the biggest, most reputable software providers in the world. This is great news for the players, as you can access high quality tables in just a few clicks.
In the live casino, you are connected with a live video feed to a real-time casino table in one of the casino studios of these software providers. You can play games like baccarat, blackjack and roulette like you are standing in a real land-based casino in Vegas or Monaco! Thanks to the high definition video stream, you have a great overview of all the action which unfolds on and around the table.
All table games are led by experienced, professional croupiers and dealers who are not only well-trained, but entertaining as well. By all means, feel free to open your microphone or the chat window to have a talk with them, or even with other players from around the world. This is what makes the live casino such a great invention. Even though you might be sitting at home in front of your laptop or computer, it does almost feel like you are standing in a casino for real!
Especially for high rollers the live casino is a worthwhile addition as table limits are often much higher than in regular games. Of course, if you are on a tight budget there will definitely be live casino tables where low minimum bets are allowed too – no worries there. But it is the experienced, high stakes gambler who probably feels most at home in the live casino.
There are multiple baccarat, blackjack and roulette variants which you can play. For roulette, there is American Roulette, European Roulette, French Roulette, Speed Roulette, Live Roulette Auto and Roulette Macao Live. If you prefer the casino classic of blackjack, you will find plenty of different tables all with slightly different betting limits. Baccarat is perhaps the game with the highest betting limit. Besides the regular version, there are also Speed Baccarat tables. A fourth casino game which can be played live at the Whamoo Live Casino is Sic Bo. Just browse through the list of live casino games, or use the search function to find your favourite table!
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LAST UPDATE: January 7, 2021
Hello, I made this list last year of husbando gacha games and people seemed to like it so I'm updating it since a couple of the games on there shut down but I'm structuring this one more like a tier list for fun. I'll be basing it on the games' waifu:husbando ratio, quality and viability of the husbandos, and the game's overall quality and my own personal taste and enjoyment so this is not an objective tier list. I will also be adding a mini review and some notes. There are ones I have definitely played more than others so expect more text on the ones that I have played. It's all based on my opinion so don't take the rankings too seriously. Also I'm writing this as a "gaymer" in America so keep that in mind too.
I will not be putting in games like Brave Frontier or AFK Arena or Mario Kart Tour because their art style is too pixel-y or not "husbando-y" enough. The "Featured Husbandos" will be my personal favorites and/or the main ones they give you for free. If an anime has multiple gacha games, I'll probably only be putting the one I'm most familiar with on the list. Also there are some I haven't played(mainly the Marvel and anime ones because I'd rather watch the anime or I'm not interested in it), but I have at least tried most of them. Note that there's a ton of gacha games out there that I probably missed, but I think I got the most prominent and important ones.
EDIT: Forgot to mention, I ripped some of the descriptions from the sub's Gacha Game List so thank you to whoever compiled it. It's very helpful and how I discovered some of these games! (EDIT 2: Never mind. I think they stopped updating it, but the Gacha Gamer website is a good resource)

S+ Tier - mostly or all husbandos

Name	Orientation	Notes	Featured Husbandos
Tokyo Afterschool Summoners (aka Housamo)	▭	Mostly single player RPG. You can borrow your friend's units, but that's about as far as the social aspect goes. There's no actual guilds even though they have them in the story. The cast is mostly skimpy bara men with some bara furries thrown in there. The men are very big and a couple of them are plus size. It's nice to see body diversity. There are some women but it's like 90% men. It's not fully translated but it's still playable. You might need to go to the wiki later for skill translations though. The story is pretty good which is unexpected. Combat is fun and turn based. It says it's an LGBT game, but I don't know of any trans characters in it. Also no login feature so your save data is deleted if you uninstall the app and don't transfer it to another device.	Horkeu Kamui, Ryota
Uta no Prince-sama (UtaPri for short)	▭	Rhythm otome game. Story isn't that great. There's only about 10-ish boys so most of the units are just them in different costumes. Basically Bandori but with all dudes instead. (EDIT: Actually, the real all-male version of Bandori is called Argonavis. More info in the Misc. section)	Shinomiya Natsuki
Bungo Stray Dogs: TotL	▯	Pinball style game that's based off the anime. It's mostly twinks.	Kunikida Doppo
Obey Me! Shall we date?	▭	More of an otome than a gacha game. There's battles but they're dance battles lol. The twist is that all the boys are demons that represent the 7 deadly sins.	Lucifer
A3!	▭	Another "more of an otome" game. Visual novel too. It's about running an acting company. Like UtaPri there's only about 20 boys so you pull for them in different costumes. The plays they put on are pretty interesting since there's only actors and no actresses. For example, instead of Romeo and Juliet they had Romeo and Julius lol	Sakuya
Mr Love: Queen's Choice	▯	Again, a "more of an otome" type of game. This one is also more of a visual novel as well. There's 4 guys to romance, but you can pull cards of women characters that help during "battles". I put battles in quotes because they're the same type of "battles" that Love Nikki has where they're basically just stat checks. I wasn't sure whether or not to put these three games because they're more otome/visual novel type games, but here they are.	Victor
Ayakashi: Romance Reborn	▭	Supernatural otome game with gameplay similar to A3! (Thanks u/arcanine04)	Ginnojo
Captain Tsubasa: Dream Team	▭	Real Time soccer game based off the manga. Not really a fan of soccer or sports anime/manga but it seems to be all guys. All the guys look too similar and the art is kinda ugly imo but that's just me. I'd rather play Venus Eleven even if they only have waifus. However, it is made by KLAB who also made Bleach Brave Souls, Love Live, and UtaPri which are all good games so this one is probably good too.	Genzo
Saint Seiya Awakening	▭	Turn-based and based on the anime. There's another Saint Seiya gacha but it's ugly and I don't want to touch it lol	Andromeda Shun
One Piece Treasure Cruise	▯	Anime. Turn-based. Pretty old. The art style isn't very husbando-y but the cast is mostly male and it's worth putting on here just for Zoro.	Zoro, Sanji, Shanks, Ace, Smoker, Usopp
Dragon Ball Legends	▯	Real Time. I grew up watching Dragon Ball, but I've actually never really been that attracted to any of the characters. It is one of the OG bara animes though and it's got English voice acting.	Trunks, Vegeta, Piccolo. Krillin
Bleach Brave Souls	▭	Old Hack n Slash. Very generous from what I remember. Most of these shounen anime gachas don't really have husbando-y art styles but there are some good looking male characters.	Sado, Ichigo, Isshin
GYEE	▭	A gay-themed RPG. I'm gay and all for representation, but it seems weirdly specific to base a game around queerness. I'm starved for husbandos, so I'm not complaining lol. The game is a pretty standard gacha, but I'm putting it in S+ purely for the quantity of husbandos, just like a lot of the other ones in this tier.	The MC, Priapus, Gaar

S Tier - This is also where I put most of the popular gachas with good waifu:husbando ratios

Name	Orientation	Notes	Featured Husbandos
Fate Grand Order (FGO)	▭	Pretty even husbando/waifu split. STILL no autobattle or Facebook link/login function for global. That being said, the story is pretty good and you can pretty much use whoever you want and they give you husbandos for free from the story. There's a couple you'll get eventually from the friendship point summon. However the gacha husbandos are always hotter and have better art. (I retract this statement. u/Strawberuka has provided evidence to the contrary lol There's actually a couple more good 3 star husbandos than I thought) They do give out tickets like once a year that let you choose a servant. That's how I got Gilgamesh.	Hijikata(my only 5 star sadly lol), Hans Christian Andersan(discount Merlin boy), Asterios, Ozymanidas, Gilgamesh, Cú Chulainn(not the ugly caster version tho), Emiya, Tawara Touta, David, Iskandar, Astolfo, Arjuna
Granblue Fantasy (GBF)	▯	Browser game. Another even waifu/husbando split. Pretty big in Japan. It even got its own anime and fighting console game which is interesting because usually the anime or the console games come before the mobile game. It's just that popular. Notoriously grindy. I played for a couple of months but got burnt out. You can whale for a good grid to avoid the grind but it's expensive. Lots of husbandos though. The diversity is second only to Housamo. They have a race of bara men called Draphs, and a race of short people called Harvins, and a race of furries called Erunes, so there's bound to be someone you like lol. They sell surprise tickets sometimes so you can buy whoever you want. Even the lowest rarity characters can be used for pendant farming. If you don't pull a meta husbando, the male main character is a meta husbando himself so you can always use him. Plus he's the best and most versatile character. A lot of your power comes from your grid, so the game lets you be a lot more flexible with your party members. SSR characters will pretty much always be better, but there are a couple of good SR's. I don't think team comp really matters till endgame and you will be leeching raids a lot in the beginning, so just use who you want until things start getting difficult. Also the angels and the dragon knights are gay and you can't change my mind.	Gran(the MC), Rackam, Noa, Lancelot and Vane, Barawa, Cain, Jamil, Aglovale, Drang, Lobelia uh actually maybe not, Eustace, Tsubasa, Belial :(
Epic 7	▭	Similar to Summoner's War but newer, shinier and more anime. Pretty even waifu/husbando split but I've heard they've been releasing more waifus lately. The MC Ras is a husbando. He's not very good and needs the gear to shine, but you can use him. However, it's probably better to invest in someone else unless you really like him. They give you like 30 free rerolls so you can try to get someone you like or a good healer. I kinda got overwhelmed by the RNG gear grind so I quit.	Vildred, Tywin, Basar
The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross	▯	Turn-based. Based on the anime. Pretty grindy like GBF but not as much. You could grind all day if you wanted to since stamina potions are abundant. They give you Meliodas the baby MC for free as well as shirtless Ban with a beard. He even cooks for you! Netmarble made it so I'd be wary. It also seems to be FG3000's new favorite game lol	Ban(short for husbando. jk lol), Hendrickson
Onmyoji	▭ (Also available on Steam)	Turn-based Japanese art style game. I quit because I didn't pull any SSR husbandos or an SSR in general(even though you don't need any SSR's), but the MC Seimei, while not a unit, is a husbando himself and you also get Hiromasa from the story. Some of the units are monsters and are very ugly lol. Like, I thought Kamikui was a pretty femboy but he has a scary mouth in the back of his hair.	Shuten Doji, Kamikui, Ootengu, Inugami,
Sdorica	▭	Story-driven puzzle RPG with a pretty storybook-like art style. Everyone is viable. There's guilds and stuff, but I only paid attention to events and the main story and got by just fine. Also if I remembered correctly, there's a love triangle between 3 of the husbandos lol	Pang(free tiger daddy you get at the beginning), Ned, Nigel, Charle, Morris
King's Raid	▭	Old but gold. Real time. Gacha is only for weapons so you can just straight up buy whoever you want with gems which you can get for free. They even have summer skins ;)	Nyx, Kaulah, Baudoin
Dissida Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia (DFFOO)	▭	Chibi and turn-based. Based off the console Final Fantasy game by Square Enix. Gacha is for weapons.	Warrior of Light
Another Eden	▭	Turn-based. Very story-driven. Made by some of the same people who created Chrono Trigger. It's single player only, but still needs wifi.	Aldo
Dragalia Lost	▯	Hack n Slash. Everyone is viable for the most part but characters that have the same weapon type play identical to each other pretty much. Cygames developed it and Nintendo published it so the quality is high of course. It's mostly twinks and bishounen but there is surprisingly a lot of boys with the occasional bara in there. There's only like 3 darker skin characters but that's every gacha game unfortunately.	Ranzal, Joe(he's canonically gay!), Victor, Rex, Curran, Heinwald, Hawk, Jakob, Gauld(thanks u/mastanmastan)
Fire Emblem Heroes(FEH)	▯	Strategy. Another good game published by Nintendo. You can build whoever you want. Most of the units are from the popular and modern Fire Emblem games like Awakening and Fates and they added some of the new Three Houses characters, so if your favorite is from an older game, you're kinda out of luck.	Ike, Alfonse, Xander, Claude
Pokemon Masters	▯	Real Time. More Nintendo (I'd put in the Mario Kart gacha but it's Mario lol). It's Pokemon so I'm biased. It focuses a bit more on the human characters like the gym leaders and Elite 4 which is interesting. They even characterized the main series' playable characters like Red and Silver. No Ash Ketchum though. There's co-op but no PvP or guilds.	Lt. Surge, Crasher Wake, Marshal, Guzma, Brycen, the swimmer NPCs, Red, Blue
Genshin Impact	▭ (Also available on console and Windows)	Huge open world gacha similar to Zelda Breath of the Wild. However, the gacha isn't really a big part of it because everyone is viable for the most part. It feels more like an open world adventure console game than a gacha.	The MC, Kaeya

A Tier - decent games with a healthy amount of husbando

Name	Orientation	Notes	Featured Husbandos
Food Fantasy	▭	Chibi RTS and restaurant management hybrid game featuring characters based off of food aka husbentos and waifoods! Both the restaurant management and the combat parts of the gameplay are pretty shallow unfortunately. The restaurant management part is more enjoyable though IMO. It has a shard system which usually entails pulling duplicates sadly, so even if you do pull an elusive UR, you'll need to pull multiples of them to max them out. It caters too much to whales for my liking. However there are good f2p units whose shards you can farm. You'll be using Milk, Black Tea, and Tom Yum which you get for free at the beginning for the first 90% of the game. Not everyone is viable for combat, but everyone is useful for helping around the restaurant because you need a lot of food souls to run the restaurant. Plus you can put your favorite food soul on the home screen so you can see them frequently and they say cute things. All of the husbandos are bishounen.	Tom Yum, Bamboo Rice, Sandwich, Steak, Tempura
Grand Chase	▭	Hack N Slash based off an old MMORPG with the same name that got shut down. You pretty much need SR heroes so there's very little variety in team composition. Fortunately they give them out for free in login rewards. There's also a gacha for pets.	Lass, Ronan, Grandiel
Langrisser	▭ (Also has a PC Client)	Based off of the old console games with the same name. Similar strategy gameplay to Fire Emblem Heroes but it's in landscape mode. Some of the husbandos are older. Hooray for age diversity and daddies!	Grenier, Leon, Gizarof
Brave Nine (used to be called Brown Dust)	▭	Unique strategy game. It's kinda hard to describe the gameplay and you sorta have to see it for yourself, but basically there's a grid and you put your units on there, set the order, then watch them attack automatically. It seems to be pretty hit or miss for most people. Lots of waifus and husbandos. Even the upgrade units are waifu slime girls. Also the MC has the hentai protagonist hairdo lol	Carlson, Martius, Acha
DanMachi - MEMORIA FREESE	▭	Very similar gameplay to Another Eden but it actually has multiplayer features. Based off the anime "Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon?"	Bell
Blustone II	▯	Interesting game I don't see being talked about a lot. The combat is kinda like a clicker game but you have to time when to swap out your units.	The MC, Hermes, Bear
Elchronicle	▭	Hack n Slash. Everyone is viable because the gacha is for gear. Not very popular though.	Jaegal Woon and Dean
Crash Fever	▯	Puzzle RPG. It's got some good lore but I never really got that into it. It is also not talked about a lot but the discord is pretty active. Tons of characters, but you can barely see them cause they're surrounded by too many flashy things in their art.	New World Disorder Columbus (Every unit has a super long name like this lol)
Soccer Spirits	▭	Old and powercrept turn-based game based off of the sport. It's a Com2Us game and they don't exactly have the best reputation. I'm surprised it's not dead yet.	Sam
Heir of Light	▭	Real Time and Dark Fantasy. Another game similar to Summoner's War and they even have a collab with them.	Heide, John Wick
Final Fantasy Brave Exvius(FFBE)	▯	Another FF game. It's turn-based. Might be a little too pixelated, but it's got some good husbandos.	Sieghard, Ariana Grande
The Alchemist Code	▭	Turn-Based Strategy with similar gameplay to Fire Emblem Heroes. Made by Gumi which is another company that has a reputation for being greedy	Logi
King of Fighters ALLSTAR	▭	Based off the fighting video game series. A Netmarble game.	Terry Bogard
MARVEL gachas	They're all ▭	I like MARVEL and superheroes as much as the next guy, but I just don't have any interest in playing a MARVEL mobile game. Plus, they're western gachas and western gachas usually aren't as good. There are three of them if you're interested	Wolverine, Cyclops, Black Panther, Spiderman
Exos Heroes	▭	Turn-based. Nice art. Fully voiced with an English voices option.	MC, Rudley
Romancing Saga Re;univerSe	▯	Turn-based. Based on the old console RPG series. Very grindy, but f2p friendly.	Noel
Idola Phantasy Star Saga	▭	Unique turn-based combat where you switch between your two teams of eight.	Reiner, Killion
Tales of Crestoria	▭	Turn-based gacha from the "Tales of" series	Veigue, Luke

B Tier - few husbandos and/or the game is inadequate(imo) in too many other aspects

Name	Orientation	Notes	Featured Husbandos
Arknights(AK or Ark for short)	▭	Chibi Tower defense gacha. Made by the same people who made Girls Frontline so the quality is high and it's f2p friendly. It's mostly female characters but there are a couple of males. It's got a lot of furries/characters with animal attributes. Also this is important if you care about the story: the infection in the story does NOT cause people to become furries. The infection and the furries are two separate things! I just downloaded it but I saw that one of the villains is a cute boy so that's cool. There's 12 slots in a party so you're bound to fit at least one husbando in there haha	Castle, Ansel(a lovely femboy), Matterhorn, SilverAsh, Spot, Ace :(
Lord of Dice	▯	I don't remember much of it other than: art good, game bad.	Roger
Fist of the North Star	▭	Based off an old manga with the same name. The cast is mostly muscular men, but they're uh not very conventionally attractive. It also has a questionably high number of servers.	Kenshiro
Sword Art Online gachas	N/A	There's like 3 SAO gachas. I never tried them because I didn't like the anime. There's some husbandos from what I've seen	Kirito I guess?
Soul Ark	▭	It's been rebooted like 4 different times. Still kinda sucks. It used to have an overworld like an MMORPG for some reason. Its old translation was horrendous but they fixed it up a bit and it's playable now. Too little, too late though. But I do like the art and it's very generous. 30 free rerolls at the beginning.	Nezha
Astral Chronicles	▭	Chibi Hack n Slash. Mostly waifus. Someone called it a poor man's Another Eden, but their only similarities is their overworlds and the fact that they're both gachas imo. Another Eden is turn-based, not a hack n slash. The skills are so flashy that it becomes an inconvenience, but combat is fun. I like drawing symbols to attack. The male MC is a husbando and is in every battle if you can't pull a gacha one.	Ryuni Meikami, Ryudo
Harbringers	▭	VIP system. P2W and shard system but it has 30 free tutorial rerolls. Has a cool comic book art style similar to Persona and idle gameplay similar to AFK Arena.	Zhao Yun
Dragon Blaze	▭	Real Time. Old but still alive somehow.	Christopher Avery
Chain Strike	▯	Turn-based Com2Us game that's sorta like chess	Lucian
Seven Knights	▭	Pretty old turn-based game. I'm surprised it's not dead. It's got some nice husbandos though. Made by Netmarble	Karma
Knights Chronicle	▯	Sorta chibi. Turn-Based. Everyone dropped it as soon as costumegate happened where they released p2w costumes, but I don't think it's that bad. It has a good number of husbandos. Also made by Netmarble. I don't really like them if you couldn't tell. Idk why they decided to put the word "Knights" in multiple games but none of them are that good lol.	Theo, Amon, Ian, Hercus, Ashley
Crossing Void	▭	Anime crossover game featuring characters from tons of animes such as Durarara, Sword Art Online, and The Devil is a Part-Timer. Kinda died down after the devs did some shady things.	Shizuo
Mobile Legends: Adventure	▭	Idle RPG based on characters from the mobile MOBA. Went under fire for its lack of polish and for adding P2W costumes like Knights Chronicle did	Zilong, Clint, Alucard
Iron Saga	▯	Mecha game with 20% male pilots you can get for free over time. Gacha is for the giant mecha they pilot. (paraphrased from u/gloveonthefloor) Save data is stored through Twitter, oddly enough.	Becas
Last Cloudia	▯	Real Time. Very grindy with bad rates. There's some controversy surrounding it because of things like the paid step up banner. Plus the name of the company behind it looks questionable(AIDIS). Not a lot of characters, but most of the ones they do have, including the husbandos, are viable. (Thanks u/z0kuuu)	Kyle, Zekus, Robin, Prince Gorm, Shin
Hero Cantare	▭	Korean webtoon crossover gacha	Muzaka
Aurora Legend	▯	Idle RPG	Lancelot
Grand Alliance	▭	Action RPG. Gacha is for heroes and skills. Another game with good character art, but uses chibi models for combat.	Leon
FFBE: War of the Visions (WoTV)	▭	Very P2W Strategy game. Another gacha based off the Final Fantasy series.	Rain
Goddess of Genesis S	▭	Turn-based. Has some husbandos, despite the name. Currently in closed beta testing, but will be officially released soon. Has the same team that worked on Langrissier.	Apollo
Hero Ball Z	▭	Idle game. Another gacha with nice character art, but most of the gameplay is chibi combat :/	Kai, Dr. X
Lord of Heroes	▭	Turn-Based equipment gacha where characters have different elemntal versions and some are hidden behind a pay wall. It blocks emulation, so you have to play it on your phone. Story was interesting though.	Fram, Aslan, Walher

F Tier - (This is a joke tier. Don't play these games for the husbandos lol)

Name	Orientation	Notes	Featured "Husbandos"
Valkyrie Connect	▭ (Also available on Steam)	Real Time. Majority waifus. Still alive somehow. Still very P2W from what I heard, but it just came out on Steam which is nice. I just downloaded it and there's unlimited tutorial rerolls, but you only pull 3 at a time, at least on the Steam version.	Thor
Age of Ishtaria	▯	Old turn-based gacha. You probably wouldn't be able to tell by looking, but there are some husbandos hidden in here lol. There's even a page on male units in the wiki. It's still overwhelmingly waifu-centered though. In the beginning, they had more banners with male units, but I guess they stopped. Money talks, I guess. :(	Aristotle
Destiny Child	▯	Hardly any boys. Unless you have really good luck(or bad luck depending on who you are lol), you might not even see any of the husbandos. I got pretty lucky and pulled a nat 5 dude, but it was Thanatos sadly. (Thanatos is pretty good and I love him, but like... look at him and read his dialogue) Only about 6 guys are meta. It also has 2 femboy characters. The game is still pretty fun and generous. Hard to play in public though. I know about silhouette mode, but I like a challenge!(EDIT: started playing this game again recently and there's more husbandos than I thought. I think it belongs more in between B and F tier so maybe C or D tier?) Also, I'm not sure why it almost has the same name as that 90s girl band. It makes Googling resources on the game harder lol	Frej, Red Cross, Jupiter, Firo, Mayahuel
Girls Frontline (GFL)	▭	Literally no boys(which is to be expected), but some of the girls are androgynous and there was a skin event called "Princes Frontline" where they looked more masculine. Plus, there's also some male NPCs that show up occasionally lol. (I'm still waiting for Boys Frontline)	MP-446
Azur Lane (AL)	▭	No boys here either, but there's like 2 characters that kinda look boyish and have some boyish skins.	Cleveland, Hiryuu
Raid: Shadow Legends	▭	I mean there's some husbandos, but like, it's Raid: Shadow Legends. The game is just a meme at this point. At least they sponsor YouTubers I like.	Galek
SINoALICE	▯	Dark fairytale. Similar gameplay to Unison League where you only control one character and can just jump in and out of co-op. It seems to be like 99% waifus. I only saw 3 husbandos, and one of them was 9S from the Nier collab lol	Pinnochio, 9S, Aladdin
Guardian Tales	▭	Ok so 80% of this game is pixelated and most of the units are waifus, but I'm putting it on here because I enjoyed it so much. It's a Hack n Slash, but story mode has some exploration gameplay that reminds me of those old 2D Zelda game. The story and dialogue is really funny and the combat is fun and simple. You can use who you want in story mode, but PvP has more of a meta of course. Not really a husbando game, but very enjoyable.	The Knight, Fei, Marvin, Dolf
Illusion Connect	▭	Real Time, grid-based combat. High production value with lots of options to bond and socialize with your units. Very few husbandos. The ones on the right are unfortunately the only ones lol	Bontenmaru, Edward, the main character, Camille?

Misc. (Not in English/No American or western release/I'm not really sure if these can be called gachas)

JP/KCN Only (for now...?)

• Ensemble Stars, Idolmaster SideM, Stand My Heroes, Akasasu Sekai de Kimi to Utau, 100 Sleeping Princes, Take of Food, Mukan Shu, Journey Within Half the World - none of these are in English unfortunately
• Touken Ranbu - sword boys but only in Japanese. It's still playable apparently with some help of the wiki
• World Flipper - pinball gacha by Cygames. JP only for now. (Thanks u/finiteWitch)
• Argonavis - the actual male version of Bandori which is a rhythm waifu game! The global release is coming out sometime in the middle of this year. (Suggested by multiple comments)
• Twisted Wonderland - not in English, but it's an otome rhythm gacha starring husbandos based off of villains from Disney! Even they have one lol. It's doing pretty well in Japan, plus Disney(and Aniplex) made it so it's probably going to get a global release eventually (Thanks u/monesup and u/arcanine04) EDIT: Technically not really an otome because there’s no romance and the MC is likely also a guy because it’s at an all boys school but, like, it definitely looks and feels like one lol

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NOTE: Basically, there's a ton of untranslated and foreign otome/husbando gacha games with no western releases and better gameplay but it's too many to list. I only put a few of the ones I know because I wanted this list to focus on English gachas. See other people's comments for more
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Miscellaneous ENG Husbando Gacha Games

• Ulala: Idle Adventure - There's only one husbando and it's the MC. Gacha is for skills. It's an interesting idle game that puts extra emphasis on co-op.
• Otogi: Spirit Agents - Real Time spiritual successor to Ayakashi Ghost Guild. It's still up but they stopped updating it and only do reruns of old events. Mostly waifus.
• Gaydorado - it's marketed as a social RPG for the LGBT community, but like Tokyo Afterschool Summoners and GYEE, it's pretty much only gay men. There's 2 gachas for the 2 different gameplay modes. One is where you play dress up like in Love Nikki and the other is combat based. However you can pretty much go through the game without touching the gacha. The gacha is in the bar btw. I didn't touch the gacha that much and got by just fine.
• Yokai Kitchen - Again, the English version is only for SEA, but I'm so mad. I've been waiting for a North American server for over a year and I was excited because I heard it's basically a more polished version of Food Fantasy.
• Love Nikki - it's a dress up game where you mainly dress up girls, but you can dress up guys. Also it was published under the same company as Food Fantasy so they're kinda similar.
• Dream Boyfriend and Animal Boyfriend - another dress up game where you dress up a character, but the character is your boyfriend. They're both made by Ambition who also made Dream Girlfriend. They're not really traditional gachas and I'm not really sure if they're gachas at all really, but I had fun with them. Gacha is for customization options like in Love Nikki

Glossary

• husbando - an attractive male character that's usually in anime style. It comes from the word husband and it's actually not the Japanese word for "husband".
• waifu - the female counterpart to husbando. It's also not the Japanese word for "wife" lol
• old - "Old" for a gacha game is usually around 4+ years old. Old games aren't always bad, but I usually try not to get too invested in them because they might shut down soon unless they're super popular.
• MC - main character. It's usually the first playable character you get for free and is the protagonist of the story. Depending on the game, they can be viable. It's sort of an unwritten rule, but if a gacha game's MC is viable, the game itself is usually pretty good. If not, it's probably super pay2win.
• bara - a genre of manga usually made by gay men for gay men. It usually features romance between muscular men and it's also used as an adjective to describe them. There's a similar genre called yaoi but it's made for straight women and the guys are usually bishounen.
• bishounen - a Japanese word used to describe pretty anime boys that are usually somewhat androgynous/a little feminine, while shounen is a genre of manga targeted at boys like Naruto or My Hero Academia.
• twink - gay slang used to describe skinny young hairless gay men. It's kinda like the gay English version of bishounen but it's mainly used to describe irl gay guys. However, can also be used to describe just any skinny guy.
• trap - an anime character that looks female but is actually male. The most famous example in gachas would probably be Astolfo from FGO. EDIT: "trap" is actually a transphobic term. I did not know and did not mean it that way. Sorry. I have replaced its usage in this post with "femboy"
• furry - an anthropomorphic animal character and the fanbase surrounding them. They usually get a lot of hate because their fandom is problematic but I think some designs can be interesting
• otome - a type of game for women that usually involves the main character romancing one(or multiple) attractive anime men. They always have some sort of visual novel element or are just straight up visual novels. Basically dating simulators for straight girls.

Ending Notes

If you like gacha games with husbandos, you might also like MMORPGs w/good character customization, otome games, visual novels, and dating sims that let you romance hot dudes. Also check out MMORPG, otomegames, gaymers, and visualnovels
One more thing: I noticed that husbando gacha games like A3!, Obey Me, and Mr Love have super shallow gameplay, while waifu gacha games like AL and GFL have deeper gameplay and don't focus as much on the romance aspect. I want more husbando gacha games to have deeper gameplay!
Wow I have too much free time lol. Anyways that's all from me. Hope you guys found this list helpful and maybe even enjoyable. Let me know your thoughts and if I missed any games!

EDIT: I fixed some things, removed shut down games, and added new releases. Thanks for the gold and suggestions, everyone!