Midway Arcade Treasures

aka: MAT1, Midway Arcade Treasures 1
Moby ID: 11228

PlayStation 2 version

Brings a lot of memories back

The Good
20 years ago Williams, Bally Midway and Atari produced some of the greatest games of all time. Now these glorious classics are available on your PS2! There will be some great games you won't remember ('Blaster' and 'Splat!' in particular), mainly because they either weren't very popular or were never released. Others however will remember most of these games (Smash TV, anyone?), and they haven't aged that much at all.

In order to really capture the original spirit of these games, Digital Eclipse used their own arcade emulation technology (simply called Digital Eclipse Emulation Technology) to 'emulate' the original coin-op machines. This means that the game will play exactly like it did in the arcade, right down to the 'Insert Coin' message! In order to make it more accessible through a games console, some parts of the original game's code has been altered. The games will play the same, but Digital Eclipse have done something to each game so that you do not need to insert a 'virtual' coin to start each game. All you need to do is to press the 'emulated' start button (which is of course the START button on the PS2 controller)!

The controls for each game are configurable through Arcade Treasure's options screens for each game. Games that used an analogue input (such as RoadBlasters, which had a steering wheel for control) and 720 (which had a joystick based on a circular rotation to do the 720 move) are best played with the analogue sticks, whilst others (such as Toobin') are best played with the Direction Buttons. It's your choice on how you play the games, but that is what I recommend in terms of control.

The bonus extras are also worth a look at. The creators are very enthusiastic about these games in the interviews, and there are also trivia on the games, original documents and histories. All these and the games make up for one great package.

The Bad
As these games have been emulated rather than re-created there are one or two emulation bugs within these games, especially with the later releases (e.g. Toobin'). The music in some games suddenly stop for no reason. Not only does Smash TV have this problem, but it also has a problem where at some point the screen will flicker when played on a normal TV. There are also serious problems with the frame rate in all games, slightly ruining the memories of retro gamers who have played these games. Another problem happens with games that had the option to 'buy in' (e.g. inserting money to continue your game). Coins are repeatedly being inserted, meaning that you'll get infinite continues on many games. This takes out a lot of the game's longevity, and certainly makes it a lot easier for many gamers.

Whilst the extras are very good, nearly all the games will only have content for two or three of the categories. The picture and sound quality of the interview clips aren't at DVD quality, despite the compilation being on a DVD. They are also in 'clips' rather than in one lot for each game, meaning that to view the whole interview you'll need to press the X button whenever the clip finishes. If there was a 'play all' function this would be a great thing to use if you wish to view it all.

The Bottom Line
Don't let the bad parts of this compilation put you off. If you love retro games, you should put this on your list of purchases! Thanks for the memories Midway!

by pottyboy (68) on September 15, 2004

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