Customer Reviews

Midway Arcade Treasures

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My youth has returned!

Many of the games I had to stand in line at the arcade to play and then was slaughtered by in 60 seconds flat are contained on this 20+ game compilation of old arcade hits (and misses): Robotorn 2084, Rampage, Joust (1 & 2), Defender (1 & 2), Smash TV...just great stuff abounds. Of course, there are some clunkers, but hey: it was the 80s.

The translations here are frighteningly faithful: the graphics, sound and general play of the controls is dead-on (except for maybe "Marble Madness", but if you have a ball controller instead of buttons and joysticks, you're back in action). There was some element of culture shock once I got started playing these on the PS2 (it boggles the mind how few buttons you need to play any of these games as opposed to the thumb-wracking madness of today's offerings), and the game overall feels like a big cheat code since you don't have to stop playing just because you ran out of quarters. Just hit the start button and you're back where you were, fighting the big bosses...indefinitely.

A classic made up of classics. And at the price, you really can't go wrong, period.

What many people don't take into consideration is that this anthology blows the other anthologies and compilations away. The sheer number of games (20), the number of good games (at least half of them were favorites), and the level of faithfulness these ports are to the original games (very good as well), makes this collection absolutely incredible. Games like Vindicators, Road Blasters, Rampage, and Gauntlet look exactly like they did in the arcades. The sounds were straight out of the games. Additionally, the difficulty level was able to be changed, just like an owner can in the arcades. Finally, one feature that really helped was that most of the games allowed you to continue, some of them indefinitely, so for some of those games that you chugged a lot of quarters in, not just because you wanted to play those games, but because you wanted to FINISH those games, you now can!

The only imperfection to this gameset is that it doesn't allow you to use a steering wheel. Man, being able to use one for Road Blasters and Spy Hunter would have been excellent.

All this leads to Midway Arcade Classics II, which comes out in late fall of 2004, which sounds just as good as this one! Same low price, too!

Midway's first Arcade Treasures collection features 24 of Midway's most well known old school games. The most well known games in this collection that you'll find are Spy Hunter, Gauntlet, Defender 1 & 2, Joust 1 & 2, Paperboy, Rampage, Robotron, Smash TV, Sinistar, 720, and Klax; but thanks to the control scheme of the PS2, a number of games get lost in translation. Take Spy Hunter for example. Using both analog sticks, most of the shoulder buttons, and a few of the face buttons, the game is almost unplayable. 720 and Road Blasters nearly suffer the same fate, and other games like Root Beer Tapper, Satan's Hollow, Rampart, and Super Sprint just aren't much fun to play. However, despite all the negatives, there are a few real gems here that are still great to play. The bad control scheme that I mentioned earlier is nearly perfect for Smash TV and Robotron, while Paperboy, Rampage, Marble Madness, Klax, Sinistar, and the Joust and Defender games are still great to this day. There's some bonuses here, including histories of the games and interviews with the developers (the history of Smash TV in particular is good and fun to watch) which are nice to have, and if you remember any of these games fondly this is a nice collection to have, but there are better retro game sets out there as well.

Wow, this DVD/CD came as a surprise to me. I happened to read a preview of it in a game magazine recently and HAD TO GET IT. I'd been thinking of picking up one of the Playstation One "Midway Arcade Classic" CD's (which cost an arm and a leg) for Robotron, Sinistar, and a few others.

Instead, for $20, I get all the ones I wanted....and THEN SOME.

I haven't played all the games yet, just a few: Robotron, Sinistar, Paperboy, Marble Madness, Gauntlet, Defender, Defender II (aka Stargate for those old arcade geeks), Joust, Spy Hunter, Root Beer Tapper , Smash TV and Super Sprint.

Games like Gauntlet, Robotron, that have relatively simply up/down/left/right movement controls translated well to this CD/DVD and you can play easily with the PS2 controller. However, games like Paperboy, Marble Madness and Super Sprint proved slightly difficult to control with the PS2 controller. Not the programmers fault but those games that had specialized controls (trackball for Marble Madness, the bike handles for Paper Boy, steering wheel for Super Sprint) and they tried their best to translate the controls over. But I found (esp Super Sprint) them a little awarkward.

But don't let that stop you. The games are basically the originals and are addictive and should prove to be a nice change of pace from today's games.

Highly Recommended!!

Midway has assembled 24 arcade games of yesteryear in this compilation. I don't believe anyone else did this, so here are the 24 games, alphabetically:

Blaster
Bubbles
Defender I and II
Gauntlet (up to 4 players)
Joust I and II
Klax
Marble Madness
Paperboy
Rampage (up to 3 players)
Rampart (up to 3 players)
Roadblasters
Robotron 2084
Root Beer Tapper
Satan's Hollow
720
Sinistar
Smash TV
Splat
Spy Hunter
Super Sprint (up to 3 players)
Toobin'
Vindicators

This disc will definitely take you back in time. I remember playing Klax, Toobin', Marble Madness, Roadblasters, Joust, Defender, Robotron 2084 and Paperboy in the arcades, back in the 80s. I've played Root Beer Tapper, Smash TV, Splat and Bubbles on my PS1 from a Midway disc I bought for that system. A lot of the other games are fun as well, and as indicated, a few allow for more than two players.

The one bad thing is the controllers, which are a hinderance with a few of the games. Spy Hunter and Roadblasters aren't the same without a steering wheel, and with Marble Madness, you have to hold the controller at an angle, otherwise your timing will be off. Otherwise, this is one of the best "old school" discs to come out for the PS2. I rank it up there with the Atari and Activision anthologies. Midway has also released an Arcade Treasures 2 that I also reviewed. This one is better. Slightly more games, most of which were popular at the arcades back in the day.

Somewhere between 15 and 20 years ago, I loved these games in the arcade! Spy Hunter was always my favorite game and the main reason I bought this disc. The cool thing is all the games are 100% exactly like they were in the arcade. Same graphics and same bad sound effects! The bad thing is, some of the games are hard to play with the controls set the way they are which can make things frustrating! It's still a pretty good investment, though, if for no other reason than to show your kids what video games were like "back in my day!"

This game is awesome! WELL, WELL, WELL worth the $19.95! I spend more time playing the games on this disk than I do all my other games combined!

One thing though...If you're a 720 fan, you might be upset to know that the game controls are exactly BACKWARDS from the original arcade version. Takes some time to re-learn.

Other than that, EXCELLENT Game!

I never thought I would consider myself an old schooler, but with this compilation I discovered that I definately am, and I'm lovin' it. If you are into games that were simple yet entertaining, as they were seemingly eons ago, then this disc is for you. The only thing is there are a couple, if not more, games on this disc that weren't very popular back in the 80's (unless I was too young to know otherwise). To me that's just a waste. I really want to know who do I complain to in order to get other original old school games on PS2 like Rastan, Time Soldiers and Phoenix? (many of you 30+ gamers out there know what I'm talking about) I mean, Smash TV made it to PS2.. FINALLY! So why not? Anyway, BUY THIS NOW and enjoy your youth again. For real...

Most reviewers mention the more popular games, but I found two games that I had never heard of in the 80s that have fantastic gameplay. Rampart is a build-a-castle, blow-up-a-castle game that is very intense fun for two or three players. Klax is a fun puzzle game that can be played alone or with a competitor (side by side, but playing individually). These games alone make this bundle an awesome buy. It is fun to revisit the other classics, but these two keep me coming back for more.

Midway Arcade Treasures surely does contain some classic 80s gaming...SMASH TV alone is worth the price (great for parties and even better now that it doesn't eat quarters like a fiend)! You'll have fun exploring some of the other offerings as well - Roadblasters, Sinistar etc. Sadly two of my favorite games of yor: Paperboy and Robotron 2084 have absolutely rotten control-translation. The game menu for the disk is also very clunky and tough to navigate...but if you can overlook the shortcomings, you'll have hours of great retro-gaming fun at your fingertips (for less than you spent at the local bowling alley arcades when you were a squirt). :)