Ok now that I have my MAME and have been having a blast, me and my buddy were trying to figure out some other old school games that were fun to play head to head.

Mario Bros was one that we played and Joust was really fun but we couldn't think of any others that had direct head to head play rather then switching between men and going by score alone.  

He doesn't play any fighting type games like MK or KI or SF so those are out as it would just be a slaughter.  

So any thoughts?

Beat-em-ups are always fun... Double Dragon, Final Fight, Bad Dudes.. that sort of thing.  Same with Metal Slug

Bust a Move
Buster Brothers
Dr. Mario / Tetris
Demolition Derby
Armor Attack
Rip Off (?)
Omega Race (?)
Space Duel

Try some of those.

NBA Jam
Escape From The Planet Of The Robot Monsters

Balloon Fight comes to mind, kind of like joust but a bit easier to control.
There's also Rampage.

Bubble Bobble
Rampage

Mania Challenge
Karate Champ (the 2-player version)
Smash TV

I'm looking more for games where it's kill or be killed kinda thing rather then co-op.

In joust we play death, kill each other more then worrying about score same with mario bros.

Rampage fits the bill, as I know you can beat up on each other.

I've never tried Balloon Fight I'll have to give that a go.

NBA Jam and Bust a Move are too "modern" he is too old   anything past the 80's type games and he doesn't like them

Double Dragon, Final Fight, Bad Dudes are more co-op types i'm looking mroe for games were we kick each other asses   

Could you go head to head in Yie-ar Kung Fu?

Nevermind, you can't. How lame is that?!

Technically, 99% of all arcade games are competitive, but TRULY head-to-head? These come to mind:

Wizard of Wor (THE best)
Warrior (classic, not many have played this...)
Hit The Ice (funny as hell)
SpaceWar (the granddaddy of em all)

all the VS Nintendo games are fun

Then there are always the more "cooperative" type like the Beat-em-ups mentioned above, and driving games as well.

Oh, totally forgot the sports games. What about Blades of Steel?!

Oh, and Arch Rivals!

It's funy, reading this list, I come to realize what a picky f**k my buddy is   

I'd play any of the games mentioned but anything too modern or sports and he doesn't like it.  I'm going to give the ones Sparky mentioned a try, we tried space war, but he didn't like how you had to rotate with the joystick, he prefered to do it with buttons, I'll just have to change the mappings for that game.