Midway Arcade Origins

[cimerians]

That is disappointing about Tapper and yes I don't get it either. I haven't played it yet.

 

The only twin stick I played was Smash TV and I didn't have any issues at all with the controls. I'll try Robotron next.....

[Atariboy]

Hopefully the issue with Root Beer Tapper is PS3 specific (That's the version I was watching be played) and won't happen for those of us that have bought or plan to buy the 360 version.

 

Hard to tell. but I swear that a sound or two in Gauntlet sounded different. In particular, the sound effect when you walked into a enemy sounded significantly different to me from what I remember. Are there character specific sound effects that I may of just never heard before? Not a big Gauntlet fan so there very well may be a character I never played as before.

 

I suppose it may of just been the low sound volume of the game sounds and the talking heads drowning them out or a consequence of something like their recording equipment that made me think it sounded different.

Edited November 10, 2012 by Atariboy

[cimerians]

Hopefully the issue with Root Beer Tapper is PS3 specific (That's the version I was watching be played) and won't happen for those of us that have bought or plan to buy the 360 version.

 

Hard to tell. but I swear that a sound or two in Gauntlet sounded different. In particular, the sound effect when you walked into a enemy sounded significantly different to me from what I remember. Are there character specific sound effects that I may of just never heard before? Not a big Gauntlet fan so there very well may be a character I never played as before.

 

I suppose it may of just been the low sound volume of the game sounds and the talking heads drowning them out or a consequence of something like their recording equipment that made me think it sounded different.

 

You may be right. I played Tapper and then Cyberball and Cyberball didn't sound right either. I mean it sounded fine but like you it seemed like something was off or different. They also rigged it so you don't have to insert coins to keep playing which is kind of nice actually.I'm tempted to bring out the laptop and fire up MAME for some comparisons......

 

(Haven't tried Gauntlet yet. I'm kind of taking my time with each one.)

Edited November 10, 2012 by cimerians

[Atariboy]

Atari Games may of did a bit of work to the audio when they did the Tournament Edition of Cyberball 2072 along with the other changes and additions that they made to it (Similar to Vindicators Part II compared to Vindicators). I think what has been released in the past was just plain Cyberball 2072. So sounding a bit different here may not necessarily mean their emulation effort is off. I imagine MAME reproduces the audio pretty well so that would be a good way to go about checking the accuracy of it.

 

Another thing I just thought of with what I noticed with Gauntlet in that YouTube video I skimmed was that it might've not even been Gauntlet. I may of been watching footage of Gauntlet II and it has been years since I've fired that up on a compilation (And I doubt I've logged 10 minutes total into the couple of emulated versions I own of it). So that may explain what I thought I was hearing.

 

I think you really needed several friends, limited quarters, and to be 13 years old again and be in a arcade to actually get into the two Gauntlet games. They don't make the transition home very well in the fun department so I've never spent much time with them on things like Midway Arcade Treasures. And if you're playing solo, they're just about devoid of any sort of fun.

Edited November 10, 2012 by Atariboy

[Gabriel]

I was planning on buying the PS3 version. I'm only really concerned about the following games:

 

Defender

Defender II

Joust

Joust 2

Pit-Fighter

Robotron 2084

Satan’s Hollow

Smash TV

Total Carnage

Vindicators Part II

Wizard of Wor

Xybots

 

Any emulation isses on those? Pit Fighter was sped up to be unplayable in the older compilation. I seem to recall Smash TV or Total Carnage having some sort of issue as well. Personally, I never noticed any problem with Wizard of Wor on the older compilation, but I was never that big a fan of the arcade game and played it very little.

[ComputerSpaceFan]

Can anyone who bought it confirm if Sinistar's controls feel like a 49-in-1 joystick or do they still feel like an 8-way joystick as most ports so far do?

[cimerians]

Hopefully some others can chime in as I didn't have time this weekend to game much.

 

I'll try and fire it up tonight with the laptop and MAME.

 

Can anyone who bought it confirm if Sinistar's controls feel like a 49-in-1 joystick or do they still feel like an 8-way joystick as most ports so far do?

 

I really hate that. Thats the only reason I never play Sinistar on compilations.

[+DamonicFury]

Can anyone who bought it confirm if Sinistar's controls feel like a 49-in-1 joystick or do they still feel like an 8-way joystick as most ports so far do?

 

There definitely is gradations in the diagonals. So they got that right. :-)

 

I picked this up largely to support the whole concept of arcade compilations, which I vastly prefer to console digital downloads. (Although, I would be very happy with legal digital downloads of ROMs you can use in an emulator, such as the sadly defunct StarROMS used to do.) Seems there hasn't been many compilations lately, so those of us who enjoy them should probably encourage this kind of thing!

 

But I gotta say, modern console controls just aren't the same as good old arcade buttons and sticks. I played a bunch of these games last night, and I couldn't come close to my usual performance on my MAME cab. (It's possible that they cranked up the default difficulty on some of these games as well... I especially suspect that's the case on Robotron, where I was doing far, far more poorly than usual!)

[GrizzLee]

But I gotta say, modern console controls just aren't the same as good old arcade buttons and sticks. I played a bunch of these games last night, and I couldn't come close to my usual performance on my MAME cab. (It's possible that they cranked up the default difficulty on some of these games as well... I especially suspect that's the case on Robotron, where I was doing far, far more poorly than usual!)

 

I noticed this as well. Especially noticed in Robotron and Defender... I'm not sure what they did,

[negative1]

first off, i think it's a great collection. about $30 for 31 games, or almost $1

per game.

 

2nd i have an xbox 360, and i think the leaderboards are great.

good for competition.

 

most of the achievements are pretty easy, but there's a few

tough ones in there.

 

i'm using a custom arcade stick, and also have an x-arcade stick.

 

i guess if you had a fighting stick, you wouldn't have as many control issues.

 

that, and the fact you can remap most of the controls make it feels like the arcade.

 

 

also, the analog stick for sinistar works pretty well compared to the arcade version.

 

 

later

-1

Edited November 16, 2012 by negative1

[Cobra Kai]

Just got this over the weekend. To me it's worth it for the high-def graphics update, and having Xenophobe.

[Atariboy]

To my surprise tonight, I killed Sinistar on my first time out. I don't think I've ever managed to do that on my first credit.

 

I got this collection for Christmas and have now spent some time with it over the past few days. After having played around 1/3 of the games, overall I'm quite pleased and have noticed very few problems or things I think should've been done better. But I'm saddened to report that Wizard of Wor is more screwed up than ever despite initially looking like they had cured the issue that ruined it the last time out when you first fire it up.

 

On the Xbox 360 version after several minutes of play, the game becomes inflicted with significant slowdown that makes the Midway Arcade Treasures 2 attempt look wonderful in comparison (Where the game ran about twice as fast as it was supposed to). The first time it happened seemingly simultaneous with the achievement popping for the game. So I fired it up again hoping it wouldn't happen now that the achievement was earned only for it to start right about the same spot on my second game. Hopefully Midway Arcade Treasures Extended Play on the PSP handles Wizard of Wor better than these two console efforts do since I also received that as a Christmas gift.

 

Also, I haven't had Root Beer Tapper's background music disappear yet which is a known problem on the PS3 version. So that's hopefully a good sign although I've only played it twice and didn't get out of the second bar on either game so it's potentially still a problem. Edit - I never collected a tip which I believe is supposed to be what kills it on the PS3 version so I'm probably premature in saying the problem isn't present here.

 

Have any PS3 owners spent time with Wizard of Wor yet? If it seems better emulated there, I wouldn't mind picking up a PS3 copy sometime down the line when this collection can be had for $5 or $10.

Edited January 6, 2013 by Atariboy

[cimerians]

Have any PS3 owners spent time with Wizard of Wor yet? If it seems better emulated there, I wouldn't mind picking up a PS3 copy sometime down the line when this collection can be had for $5 or $10.

 

No slowdowns that I noticed on the PS3 version although its still a little bit faster than normal. I fired up MAME seconds after I finished playing on the PS3 and noticed it.

 

Does everything slow down? Monsters and character?

 

By the way after playing the arcade version of this game I think the Atari 2600 and home computers (C64) did a better job of it!

[Atariboy]

I played it again after making that post last night and doubled my score and had no slowdown. Must've been some quirk that a system reboot took care of for me.

 

Everything slowed down and it wasn't a consistent slowdown and actual frames clearly weren't there.

 

Also collected several tips in Tapper and never had the background music die out on me. So maybe 360 owner's got lucky with a hard copy of Tapper that operates perfect (Something that was never the case with any earlier compilation release of it... there were always a few minor audio issues until the now delisted XBLA release came about a few years ago).

[Atariboy]

Robotron 2084 sure sounds like it's missing something when you first insert a quarter to start your game. Anyone else noticed that?

[Cobra Kai]

Anyone have any top scores on the 360 leaderboards? I have the current #1's on Championship Sprint, Super Sprint and Super Off-Road.

[Atariboy]

What's up with Tournament Cyberball 2072? In free-play mode, you see both screens side by side mimicking the two screen setup of the arcade game. But in score-attack mode, it's just a single screen. Why the difference? I'm assuming it's because multiplayer isn't allowed in score-attack mode?

 

Also the leaderboard seems bugged for it. There's hardly anyone ranked there which raises some suspicion in itself when you see hundreds of names on every other leaderboard. Then I scored 13 points to 0 in a game the other night which would place me well up on the few that are ranked but it didn't upload.

 

Also noticed a tad bit of slowdown on the 3rd bar in Root Beer Tapper for another problem. Never had that happen on a real machine before.

 

I'm loving Wizard of Wor and Satan's Hollow on here. Their emulation seems much better this time around than on the last gen collections (Although I have no experience with the original arcade cabinets to vouch for how accurate they are). And the slow-down I saw in Wizard of Wor apparently is linked to the achievement unlocking and hasn't happened since that night (It's also happening for other's so there's something not quite right there).

Edited January 14, 2013 by Atariboy

[cimerians]

Satans Hollow is a lot of fun. Cyberball wasnt bad and I played me some Arch Rivals last night.

[Atariboy]

Arch Rivals was surprisingly fun. I thought the achievement was going to be a pain since I don't much care for sports games. But I quickly earned it and stuck around and finished the game. And I've since gone back and done another full game.

 

That's one benefit of achievements. I'm honestly not sure I ever even fired it up on Midway Arcade Treasures 2. It was a sports game and a old one at that so it was easily ignored.

 

I've never seen a Vindicators cabinet. Does anyone know how the arcade version of Vindicators and its sequel rotated the gun turret? I just see the tank controls and the two buttons. Did the grips on the tank controls rotate to turn the turret?

 

Also, does anyone know why you're not allowed in Wizard of Wor to select the left hand blue side? Was that dedicated for Player #2 only instead of how more modern arcade releases handle it where you can select any position (Such as most, if not all of the other multiplayer games on this collection)?

 

Anyone have any top scores on the 360 leaderboards? I have the current #1's on Championship Sprint, Super Sprint and Super Off-Road.

 

Your scores are blowing away mine.

 

I thought a top 10 was possible in Satan's Hollow. But some excellent scores are appearing that I have no prayer of ever matching. I've almost broke 30k and I think #1 was past half a million tonight.

Edited January 14, 2013 by Atariboy

[onlysublime]

What's up with Tournament Cyberball 2072? In free-play mode, you see both screens side by side mimicking the two screen setup of the arcade game. But in score-attack mode, it's just a single screen. Why the difference? I'm assuming it's because multiplayer isn't allowed in score-attack mode?

 

 

Can you tell more about Tournament Cyberball 2072 in the package? Is it the same as the delisted XBLA version? I think the delisted Cyberball was just Cyberball 2072 and not the Tournament edition? does it have online multiplayer? any versus or only 2 player co-op?

 

The 4-player Tournament version was my favorite arcade game of all time. My friends and I lived on that machine. After reading all the problems with the XBLA version, I'm kind of glad I didn't get it. A friend and I still occasionally play it over the Internet via MAME/Kaillera. lots of fun. Without human opponents, Cyberball is a little too easy (but still fun). I could rack up scores like 120-0 or 120-7.

[Atariboy]

Your scores make what I earned look pitiful. I was happy to beat the computer 13 to 0.

 

I didn't purchase the XBLA game. I skipped that one, Paperboy, and UMK3. So all I could compare with is the version of plain Cyberball 2072 on Midway Arcade Treasures 2.

 

What I do know is that in free-play mode where multiplayer is allowed, there are two screens present side by side which is what a Tournament version of the game would've had and which plain Cyberball 2072 didn't have. So I can with certainty that this version at least is the Tournament Edition.

 

http://www.arcade-mu...81242183292.jpg

 

I've only played single player so I can't swear what options there are in multiplayer. But since it's emulated and clearly the Tournament Edition, I'd say any options that were originally present would still be there. Also, there's no online multiplayer with this package so if that's important to you like it sounds it may be, this isn't for you. It's local multiplayer only.

 

Edit - Here's video showing the two screen output starting at 4:11.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhHMJZoNjFk

Edited January 14, 2013 by Atariboy

[onlysublime]

I'll post a MAME recording of Tournament Cyberball 2072 that might help you out. I was on 360achievements.org and a lot of people had no clue how to play the game (if anything makes you feel old, this is it). while most people were playing Street Fighter Alpha and SF III, I was living on old games like Cyberball and T-Mek.

 

from that video you posted, it seems like an earlier revision of the game which is kind of a shame. if you're going to emulate, you should emulate the newest revision.

 

well, if it's local versus, I can live with that. I can always fall back on MAME for the Internet fix. maybe I should start shopping for this collection.

[Atariboy]

Perhaps it's just the poor video quality with that upload making it seem off to you? Sadly I couldn't find a better quality video showing the free-play mode of it with both screens.

 

If it help's you determine something, here's a better quality video showing it off in score attack mode.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBsKdAjoYtE

 

Starts at 1:19:43

Edited January 14, 2013 by Atariboy

[onlysublime]

here's the video of Tournament Cyberball 2072 in MAME. I'm only showing one screen so the video isn't so huge. I used a screen capture program to record and that caused a lot of problems and made the game slow and hard to play because Cyberball football plays are very timing-dependent. You need to throw the ball on time and you need to know when to time your jets. When the recorder wasn't running, the game was playing fast. Luckily, the video didn't show many signs of slowdown because the recorder gave priority to the recording versus the game. But there were more audio glitches than normal in the recording. MAME never emulated the audio well in this game. And there were a number of other glitches in emulation that were never cleared up over the years which I assume is due to lack of popularity of the game.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UouHzCWQdCA

Edited January 14, 2013 by onlysublime

[Cobra Kai]

 

I've never seen a Vindicators cabinet. Does anyone know how the arcade version of Vindicators and its sequel rotated the gun turret? I just see the tank controls and the two buttons. Did the grips on the tank controls rotate to turn the turret?

There is a trigger on each side, as well as the thumb buttons. Thumb buttons rotated the turrets, while the triggers fired weapons. The 360 controller mimics the arcade controls rather well. I mapped the shoulder buttons to turret rotation, and triggers to respective weapons.

 

I can envision the 360 controller handling Assault almost perfectly as well, if that ever makes it to one of these compilations.

 

Overall the actual worst control translation is Rampart IMHO. Everything else seems spot on, especially the driving games.