Namco Museum 50th Anniversary

by Namco

Product Features

• 14 of the most treasured Namco original games in arcade history
• Explore a virtual arcade and dominate favorite games
• Games include Pac-Man, Galaga, Galaxian, Sky Kid, and more
• Relive the arcade years and rock out to a cool 80's soundtrack
• Retro-cool menu interface; no quarters required; for 1 player

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000AAQZPE
• Media: CD-ROM
• Average Customer Review: 1.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,058 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC

From the Manufacturer

It's party time! Namco is celebrating 50 years of bringing you the greatest games on the planet by releasing the biggest and best compilation of time-honored, all-star arcade classics. Namco Museum 50th Anniversary features 14 of the most treasured Namco original games in arcade history wrapped up in a retro-cool menu interface that allows you to explore a virtual arcade and dominate your favorite games. Relive your arcade years and rock out to a cool 80's soundtrack that takes you back to glory days of arcade gaming and this time...leave your quarters at home.

14 classic arcade games include:

• Pac-Man
• Ms. Pac-Man
• Galaga
• Galaxian
• Dig Dug
• Pole Position
• Pole Position II
• Rolling Thunder
• Rally X
• Bosconian
• Dragon Spirit
• Sky Kid
• Xevious
• Mappy

Product Description

Namco's Museum 50th Anniversary Museum compiles some of the classic Namco arcade games that defined gaming in the 1980s. Go back in time and play classics like Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig Dug, and Pole Position. The new retro menu Interface allows players to explore a virtual arcade hall where each of the game's classics will be standing in its original arcade form. The only difference is, this time you don't need a pocket full of quarters! Pole Position - The milestone in racing games Pole Position II - Sequel to the original, 4 real racetracks - Fuji, Test, Suzuka, and Seaside Rolling Thunder - Become secret agent Albatross and rescue Lelia Blitz from the evil Geldra Bosconian - Survive against an army of space stations, while avoiding asteroids and other obstacles Rally X - Players drive around a maze while avoiding chasing cars, laying smoke screens, and collecting flags Dragon Spirit - Control a powerful dragon through the air, harness spells, drop bombs and breath fire at enemies Sky Kid - Control a bi-plane and avoid enemy planes using evasive loops, while dropping bombs & shooting down other planes Xevious - Use a heavily armed fighter plane to destroy enemies and targets, in the air and on the ground Mappy - Control Mappy the police mouse, as he dodges chasing cats to collect valuable items

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Starforce is bad, October 19, 2006

By 

Michael Miller (Boston) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Collection (CD-ROM)

It's too bad this game uses Starforce copy protection. I don't want to copy the game or do anything illeagal, but I can't use any CD burning software with this installed. Also if you remove it, starforce does not come off your PC. If you google "starforce removal tool" you can download an exe to remove starforce from your PC. You also have to take a few other steps, you will find instructions there. There is currently a boycott on games using starforce, and for good reason. I do not recommend buying this game.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great games, poor user interface, December 28, 2005

By 

John Gregory - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Collection (CD-ROM)

I received this for Christmas and wasn't able to get it to work for two days. My computer's hardware well exceeded the system requirements for the software. After digging around I discovered I needed to update the drivers for my video card. The software uses DirectX 9.0c so you'll want to make sure your video drivers are up to date. The game cd uses copy protection which means you have to insert it every time you want to play the game. It doesn't just check the disk when you start the program. It checks it every time it loads one of the individual games. So unless you're able to make a copy of the disk with the copy protection intact I suggest you keep the disk in a safe place where it won't get damaged. Also the autorun program on the cd is poorly designed. Most game cd's Ive seen will load the installation program if the game isn't already installed and then after that will load the game screen when the cd is inserted. This cd wants to load the installation program every time you insert the cd, even after the program is already installed. I have to remember to hold to the SHIFT key on my computer when I insert the cd to keep the installation program from trying to run.

Once you're actually into the program you're in an arcade room with the games in front of you on a rotating platform. There are 14 games available for play. There's also 2 additional games that are locked until you reach a certain score on some of the other games. The games themselves don't allow you to tweak them very much. About the only thing you can do is change the number of lives in each game. The controls aren't very tweakable either. You have the choice of either using a joystick or the keyboard but I would've liked to have been able to use the mouse in some of the games. Steering the car in Pole Position using the arrow keys on the keyboard is next to impossible. Using a mouse would offer greater control. Controlling the Pac-Man games is frustrating too. In the real machines and on another PC version of Pac-Man put out by another company you can move the joystick in the direction you want Pac-Man to go before you actually have to make a turn. For example if the Pac-Man figure is moving to the left and you want it to turn and go upwards at the next intersection you can move the joystick upwards before the Pac-Man figure reaches the intersection and then when it reaches the intersection it will automatically turn in the right direction. On the Namco Museum 50th Anniversary edition of Pac-Man you have to wait until you reach an intersection before making a turn. That makes it harder to try to follow a pattern. The graphics are okay but they could have been better. You have a choice of normal graphics or smooth graphics. Smooth graphics eliminates the blocky edges but it makes the picture so blurry that you'll wonder if your eyes are going bad. So I leave the smooth graphics option turned off. The scale seems to be a bit off too. I've noticed in both Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man that the dots appear to be of various sizes. I'm surprised Digital Eclipse did such a poor job with them since they did such an excellent job with the old Atari games on "Atari Anniversary Edition". Perhaps Namco didn't give them enough time to do the graphics properly.

Now about that blaring music that plays when you're at the game selection screen, if you want to get rid of it here's how. The songs are basic wma files. The files are located in the pcFE folder which is located in the Namco/Namco Museum 50th Anniversary/classic folder. Deleting the files won't work because the game will reload them when it checks the cd. You can however change the content of the files so they play nothing. First open up the sound recorder program on your computer. If you can't find it then simply go to Start, Run, and type in sndrec32 and click ok. Next click the record button on sound recorder and record a blank sound. You only need a split second of it. Also make sure you don't have any microphones attached. Click on File at the top of the window and select Save as. It doesn't matter where you save the file as long as you remember where it is. The important thing is to save it as a .wma file. I simply named mine test.wma. Next COPY the file into the pcFE folder along with all the other .wma files. Right click on the file and select Rename. Type in the name of the .wma file you wish to replace. For example, one of the files in the pcFe folder is ComeOnEileen.wma. If I no longer wish to hear that song I simply delete it and then rename my test.wma file to ComeOnEileen.wma. When the program tries to play "Come on Eileen" it's able to play it but now of course the sound is nothing but silence. To delete the other songs simply repeat the process. If you wish to save the songs rather than delete them simply move them to another folder.

You'll notice I've said nothing about the games themselves so far. Since these are all old titles you're probably already familiar with them. I remember all of these games back in their heyday so I was glad to be able to play them again. The games themselves are great. It's the software that the games come bundled with that needs work.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Games are cool, but Namco stinks!, November 10, 2005

By 

A. Larson (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Collection (CD-ROM)

Here is a quote from their customer support:

"We have noticed that if you are running the game on a burning drive ie CD-RW then the game won't run."

When I asked when a fix was anticipated, I didn't get a response.

Also, it requires the CD to run. (It uses Starforce 3 copy protection, and it has to scan the disc everytime you select a different game to run...)

And it plays some very obnoxious music while you are selecting a game or adjusting options.

The games are fine, but the "packaging" that Namco put it in is truly awful.

2115|R3EAGL3U2DKUIV;2115|RLWOZT56GI8JQ;2115|R1LNTB6JA1ES6Y;