Homebreviews - part 33
So it's time to go back to the arcade! Or perhaps "hack to the arcade", since these reviews are all about AtariAge's "Arcade" hacks. As with previous hacks the question is: Is a hack worth paying for if you already own the original game?
This entry also contains my 100th Homebreview! It's hard to believe, but I've gotten almost as many games from AtariAge as commercial releases that I'd bought back-in-the-day. And there are even more new games on the way. But first...
Pac-Man Arcade
4/5
Pac-Man Arcade is an extensive hack of Ms. Pac-Man that turns it into a pretty-good approximation of the arcade version of Pac-Man. The improvements over Atari's own Pac-Man are dramatic, since Ms. Pac-Man featured less flickering, better sound, better graphics, and mazes that were more in line with the arcade game, and these changes follow through to Pac-Man Arcade.
The game plays just as well as Ms. Pac-Man with very precise controls, and well-balanced gameplay. The bonus items have been altered to match Pac-Man's arcade bonuses, and the maze has been changed to resemble the arcade game as well, although it's not quite an exact match. There's a title screen and demo mode, but none of the in-game intermissions. One minor gameplay gripe - the fastest monster in this hack is the wrong color (light blue, instead of red).
If you're looking for a better Pac-Man on the 2600, Pac-Man Arcade is far and away superior to Atari's version, and is the closest you'll get to the arcade game, at least until someone programs a new version from scratch.
Space Invaders Arcade
3/5
Space Invaders Arcade hacks the graphics of Atari's Space Invaders to better mimic the original arcade game's graphics. Both the sprites and colors have been changed and look pretty good, although the bottom two rows of invaders look slightly off, and the flying saucer is still more of a blob than a saucer. All of the original game variations are present, including the double-shot cheat. The sounds have also been altered some, although the 2600 really isn't capable of reproducing the arcade sounds very well.
If you're looking for a version of Space Invaders that looks more like its arcade counterpart, this will work well enough, but I wish there were more to it. There's a different, more extensive hack that turns Space Invaders into Space Invaders Deluxe, complete with title screen, intermissions, different invaders, and other nice touches. It would be great to be able to get a cartridge that included both Space Invaders Deluxe and Space Invaders Arcade. As it is, for those of us who wish Atari had replicated the arcade graphics better in the first place, this is a pretty good alternative.
Galaxian Arcade
3/5
Galaxian Arcade takes Atari's Galaxian and gives it several graphics tweaks to make it look more like the arcade original. First, the yellow borders have been removed, which have always been an odd-looking distraction; then the sprites have been altered to more closely resemble the arcade game's. What's particularly impressive is that through a clever use of animation, the sprites bob up and down slightly, similar to the arcade version, which is something Atari's version never did.
The graphics' improvements look very good, although a couple of things have been overlooked - some of the dive-bombing sprites don't match the new designs, and when the top two rows of aliens dive-bomb, their colors are wrong (the yellow aliens turn white, and the red aliens turn yellow). The player's ship could probably match the arcade version better, but it has been improved some.
Galaxian Arcade is a solid effort at making a more arcade-like Galaxian on the 2600. While not perfect, just the removal of the yellow border by itself may be a compelling enough reason to pick this up.
Next time: Three non-games. Can't you just taste the excitement?
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