Hmm, another Namco stick out there.

[RJ]

I'll try tonight. Trust me, I know Xevious +/- inside-out, it's in my Top 3 fave games & I've loved it since the arcade days. I have the 7800 HSC top score here, & its arcade top score screen is my DP avatar.

 

But enough self-flagellation. I heartily recommend Xevious 3D/G for Ps1. Hell, I'll take the 7800 one over this bastardization.

[RJ]

Ok the screen says

 

ROM CHECKSUM SOAK TEST MODE

 

PASS = 149 TIME = 00:02:32

 

(checksum list here)

 

 

BUILD 20 AUG 08 2008 A SKU N

HOLD A TO SKIP

BLUE = GOOD YELLOW = BAD

 

 

As of 12 min elapsed "pass" was 00675 & counting & all checksums blue/good.

 

 

& found/chked subsequent tests, incl. the Ms Pac-man sounds. Wish the game was on there!

Edited August 27, 2010 by RJ

[RJ]

Ummm, scratch that 7800 HSC record. Seems xZanU destroyed my record around New Years 2009.

[onmode-ky]

I got really curious about this Xevious issue and picked up one of these Retro Arcade units while I was out shopping today. I do already have one, but as it's out of state, I needed a temporary replacement to check this out for myself.

 

The verdict: I've replicated RJ's symptoms, so yes, this is a universally screwed-up version of Xevious and not a one-off. RJ nailed all of the problems. The ground vehicles are missing; stationary ground targets appear in the water; the floating plates are missing; and, high-level enemies appear way too early in the game. I also death-skipped over any possible appearance of the Andor Genesis, so still unknown whether that's present or missing. The symptoms seem to indicate that the enemy memory map has been screwed up; for instance, the ground targets appearing in the water are arranged in the positioning of ground targets from an earlier Area (where their positions there were correct). I think that in the process of putting all the games into this system, Hotgen must have accidentally corrupted this part of the existing TV Games Xevious port code. It was fine in earlier TV Games models.

 

With this model being out since late 2008, it seems a little odd that no one has noticed this for so long . . . until you consider that with the stick being 4-way, no one would really want to play Xevious on this unit in the first place. Certainly, I've never bothered with it until now. If you want a proper TV Games rendition of Xevious, find one of the Ms. Pac-Man (Namco 2) models, originally from 2004. Those have the enemies in the right places, along with an 8-way stick.

 

Anyway, I'll need to return this test unit to the store. I'll probably also e-mail Jakks Pacific to let them know about this issue.

 

onmode-ky

 

P.S. On my Ms. Pac-Man TV Game, my Xevious high score is 79,130. In Namco Museum Essentials, my high score at standard settings is 129,000+ (customized controls made it easier to bomb while shooting). Not sure if I made it past the second Andor Genesis in either. Certainly before the part where multiple black ball guys (Brag Zakato) warp in and spew out arcs of bullets. On this screwed-up Xevious, I maxed out at around 52,000 while frantically trying to fight off the enemies that should have come later in the game.

 

P.P.S. Ever seen a guy play through all 16 Areas without firing a single shot?

(part 1 of 2; part 2 is linked from the page). I actually tried this pacifist method while playing the screwed-up Xevious in an attempt to stave off the arrival of the higher-level enemies. It worked for a little bit. As for the incredible player in the video, he only died once in his run, victim of a Brag Zakato burst at Area 14.

[RJ]

I'll probably also e-mail Jakks Pacific to let them know about this issue.

 

Yes, I'm VERY interested in what they have to say about this.

[Animan]

Another fun one was the Konami DTV with Rush 'N' Attack, Frogger, Time Pilot, Scramble, Gyruss, Yie-Ar Kung Fu.

 

But there were some DISMAL failures like the Activision DTV and the alltime worst design known to man... the PlayPal Play Sonic DTV, OMG how awful!

 

That Sonic one looks like something that would end up on the wall of a TGI Fridays.

[RJ]

onmode-ky, did you ever email Jakks/get a response?

[onmode-ky]

I did e-mail Jakks Pacific; they never responded. As expected, really. It's a mass-produced product considered to be a cheap electronic toy. If it's not a child safety issue, a large toy company isn't going to consider fixing the problem. Would have been nice to at least get a "Hmm, that's interesting" response, though.

 

onmode-ky

[onmode-ky]

I did e-mail Jakks Pacific; they never responded. As expected, really. It's a mass-produced product considered to be a cheap electronic toy. If it's not a child safety issue, a large toy company isn't going to consider fixing the problem. Would have been nice to at least get a "Hmm, that's interesting" response, though.

 

onmode-ky

Here's a brief update: Jakks Pacific never responded, but many months later, I sent that e-mail to the development studio who programmed this collection for them. One of the programmers wrote back and basically said, "Sorry, we'll look into it," and expressed interest in fixing it if Jakks ever makes a new Namco TV Game with Xevious in it.

 

Also, a few months ago, I talked to the guy who programmed Xevious for the Jakks TV Games platform (back in 2003/2004, so not related to this recent model's new problem) and thanked him for making this port so faithful to the arcade original. It was programmed for the Sunplus u'nSP architecture in C via line-by-line conversion of reverse-engineered source.

 

onmode-ky

[RJ]

Neat. The issue still kinda pisses me off but as some of you may know my wife got me a full-size coin-op Xevious for my early Sept birthday last year.

 

Take THAT, Jakks Pacific.