Midway Arcade Collection Discussion

[Flack]

(I know there is already a topic about it being released, this one is for discussion of the actual games.)

So, who has it, and what do you think?

To be perfectly honest, I think the PS2 version kind of sucks.

720 plays pretty well, but within the first minute I drove halfway through a car and then got stuck mid-sprite. The music is not 100% accurate (the guitar sound during play is way off).

Championship Sprint, Roadblasters, and Paperboy have the oddest controls I have ever seen on a game. All three of them require you to steer with the left analog stick, and control the throttle with the right analog stick. It's as awkward as it sounds. Imagine this -- on Paperboy, the left stick moves you left and right, the right stick moves you forward and backward, and paper throws are R1. Sound on Paperboy is slightly off, sound on Roadblasters is slightly off ... couldn't play Sprint long enough to tell.

Joust and some of the other older games played pretty well, but I don't think they have that middle Atari age of games down quite yet. Except Toobin', it seemed pretty loyal, and I never played it that much in the arcade so I probably wouldn't spot any minor problems with it.

Anyone else think the control on this thing are bizarre and the sound is a little off?

[Flack]

I just read IGN's review, and the reviewer there says at least twice in the review that the games are "dead on".

No, they aren't.

Has anyone played Spy Hunter on this thing yet? They squished the entire screen to make it fit the screen, even though the original was a vertical monitor. Spy Hunter's formerly sleek sports car now looks like a VW Beetle.

And on Spy Hunter, what was simple in the arcade now takes a rocket scientist. Who would have figured that Spy Hunter would use both analog sticks (one for gas, one to steer) plus all 4 l1/l2/r1/r2 buttons for weapons?

[Britboy]

Oh you've got to be frickin' kidding me. I already have this game on the way from Amazon, but i already hate it. I DETEST games that use the right analog stick as the gas control, it's so stupid. Isn't there any way to change the controller options? Please say yes.


Another question; does it save your high scores? That was my biggest complaint with Activision Anthology, how could they not put in high score menus? It's the main reason why i lost interest in it.

[Retsudo]

Well I guess Im going to be next to put my 2 cents into this since Im the one who started the other thread about this game.

First of all, I cant compare most of these games because this is the first time I played a lot of them. I do have some opinion about the games I played before:

Defender2(Stargate)- The game has some problems with the sounds, and sometimes your ship gets stuck on the top of the screen. The version in "Williams Arcades Greatest Hits" was wayyy better.

Defender- sound problems, controls a little off at times.

Joust- Seems to be ok

Bubbles- Seems to be ok

Sinistar- Still no 49 direction like the arcade. Only 8. Why? Has analog support.
Sound is too low.

Robotron- Can use both anolog sticks. Seems to play ok IMO.

The rest, Like i said before, this is the first time playing them. So I cant compare. But Im sure most of the rest of them need the original controls from the arcade to play them right.

From a scale from 1-10, I would give this game a 5. IMHO.

And yes, it saves your highscores.

[Half Japanese]

Well, I was kind of looking forward to getting this, but it appears that Midway plopped a big ol' steamer into a dvd case and called it a compilation, so I'm scratching this off the list.

In other news, I actually PREFER using the right analog stick for acceleration/braking in racing games, but not when the original aracade controls didn't require it to be that way (nor does it make any frigg'n sense). Thanks midway, I'll just be playing your games on emulator.

[RJ]

Someone PLEASE tell me Vindicators & Toobin are decent...

[Flack]

Toobin' is damn near 100%. The background music is off and not nearly as loud as it was in the arcade, but ... that's nitpicking, and something I could certainly live with.

Maybe it's just a matter of getting used to it since I've never played another racing game where the right analog stick is used for gas. Aren't the PS2 buttons analog as well? What was so wrong with just holding down X for gas? Championship Sprint and Paperboy in particular would be SO much better if that were the case.

(Running upstairs to see if I can change the controller settings in Championship Sprint)

Here are the choices in Sprint:
Steering: Left Analog, Right Analog, or D-Pad.
Gas: Left Analog, Right Analog, or D-Pad. (D-Pad!?!??!!!?!?!)
Start: Any button.

Also, you can't change the controls in game. You have to exit the game, changes the controls (for that particular game) in the menu, and then relaunch the game.

High scores and controller configs are saved.

[Balloon Fight]

Im going to wait for it to be $15 used.
As long as Defender, Joust, and Robotron are 95% identical i am a happy camper. Same with toobin' which i have only played once.
I dont know how someone would make a game without having a save function for high scores.

[Retro Pro]

Im going to wait for it to be $15 used.
You can get it for $15 *new* if you use the $5 off coupon that comes with the Best Buy gamer's gift card (see the forums on dvdtalk.com or cheapassgamer.com for more details) or you could get 10% off and free shipping at ebgames.com w/ the code AFF10. No need to wait for a shoddy used copy IMO (the regular price is only $20 BTW, in case you didn't know).

I haven't gotten the game in the mail yet, so I can't comment until then (I went w/ the ebgames.com deal).

[Neil Koch]

I think the disc is good, but I have a few complaints:

Disc menus are pretty ugly
Behind the scenes stuff is from older discs and they did nothing to improve the video quality
Sound levels are not constant between games -- some are very quiet
Clunky controls on some games, particularly Spy Hunter
Framerate problem on Smash TV

Overall I think it is a good avlue for $20 but it definitely could have used a little spit and polish.