Namco Museum Archives worthwhile?

[Nostalgic]

I noticed that the Namco Museum Archives volume 1 and 2 are on a deep sale this weekend ($7.49 instead of $24.99, if memory serves).  While I have no attachment to the NES versions of the games in the collection, I am intrigued by the new NES ports of Pac-Man Championship Edition and Gaplus/Galaga 3.  I really enjoyed Pac-Man CE on the 360 and Galaga 3 in arcade and other Namco Museum collections.  Are these worth the price of admission, especially discounted?

 

[digdugnate]

If you like the games, absolutely they are!  I'm the sucker that paid full price for all the sets and I think they definitely are for sale price.

 

The NES ports of Pac-Man Championship and Gaplus are great.

[Nostalgic]

Thanks for the recommendation! I picked them both up and immediately tried Pac-Man CE and Gaplus. Both are really amazing ports. Gaplus in particular just felt right, despite the landscape orientation, sounded good, moved smoothly, and was just as brick-hard as I remembered.

[boog]

I wasn't very interested in the NES arcade ports, but there are some fun Namco Famicom exclusives in these collections too like Splatterhouse and Mendel Palace.

[Tanooki]

I had the 1st one on a card for a time, but rarely used it mostly from less convenience on switch vs like my pc or phone which are largely always on (and yes I know that sounds lazy.)  I also didn't like that vol2 wasn't a card thing so I didn' twant to mix and match, and the US stuff wasn't compatible either so I couldn't pad out what I had either which sucked.

 

That price though is tempting, kind of wanting it but again...on switch.  I should see if this is on Steam too.

 

They are, $20 right now (default) but the very valid and valued Green man Gaming have both on sale for $4.50 each on steam with the keys they sell.  I've used them a few times in the past, could be a good move.

Edited February 15, 2022 by Tanooki

[Classic Pac]

I got them both when they had them on sale recently for $4.99 each they are my most played games currently

[Daj]

On 2/14/2022 at 11:39 AM, boog said:

I wasn't very interested in the NES arcade ports, but there are some fun Namco Famicom exclusives in these collections too like Splatterhouse and Mendel Palace.

Yeah, I'd rather have the arcade versions in most cases, and I wish the controls could be configured. But otherwise, it's good, and the demakes are a great touch. 

 

Heads up: Pac-Man Museum+ is coming to Switch (and other platforms) this year, if anybody didn't know.

 

Line-up:

• Pac-Man (1980)
• Super Pac-Man (1982)
• Pac & Pal (1983)
• Pac-Land (1984)
• Pac-Mania (1987)
• Pac-Attack (1993)
• Pac-In-Time (1995)
• Pac-Man Arrangement (Arcade version as seen in Namco Classic Collection Vol. 2, labelled as Arcade Ver.; 1996)
• Pac-Man Arrangement (PSP version as seen on Namco Museum Battle Collection, labelled as CS Ver.; 2005)
• Pac-Man Championship Edition (2007)
• Pac-Motos (originally included in Namco Museum Remix; 2007)
• Pac 'n Roll Remix (originally included in Namco Museum Remix; 2007)
• Pac-Man Battle Royale (2011)
• Pac-Man 256 (2015)

You know what's missing, not even gonna say it...

[Atariboy]

38 minutes ago, Daj said:

You know what's missing, not even gonna say it...

No Jr. Pac-Man?

 

[+jgkspsx]

No Baby Pac-Man?????

 

Splatterhouse Wanpaku Grafitti is the best Splatterhouse and it isn’t close.

[Tanooki]

Famicom splatterhouse is amazing, so much I've owned the cart for years.

[Nostalgic]

Nice to see the arcade Pac-Man Arrangement as part of this. I enjoyed the tweaks it made to the classic gameplay while keeping the core intact. The music was also guite good. I hope Pac-Man 256 won't rely on swipe controls, but it's good to see it included. It's a fun little diversion.

 

[Daj]

4 hours ago, Nostalgic said:

Nice to see the arcade Pac-Man Arrangement as part of this. I enjoyed the tweaks it made to the classic gameplay while keeping the core intact. The music was also guite good. I hope Pac-Man 256 won't rely on swipe controls, but it's good to see it included. It's a fun little diversion.

 

I'm impressed with the lineup, it has a lot of neglected odds and ends in it that I wouldn't have expected to see. Notwithstanding the shameful and glaring omission of... Jr. Pac-Man and Baby Pac-Man.

[hepcat]

On 2/15/2022 at 6:22 PM, Daj said:

Yeah, I'd rather have the arcade versions in most cases, and I wish the controls could be configured. But otherwise, it's good, and the demakes are a great touch. 

 

Heads up: Pac-Man Museum+ is coming to Switch (and other platforms) this year, if anybody didn't know.

 

Line-up:

On the fence about Pac-man Museum+ with the $29.99 asking price (it's out May 27). I understand Pac-man Plus not being in there, that's pretty obscure, but why can't Namco and Midway agree to put Ms. Pac-man and Jr. Pac in a collection like this? Do they really hate money that much?

[Atariboy]

Midway is long gone with the vast majority of their assets owned by Warner Bros. Interactive. Even before Midway's bankruptcy and implosion, they hadn't had a stake in this for many years.

 

Ms. Pac-Man was born as a speed-up kit developed by a group of college kids, intended for arcade operators that were seeing Ms. Pac-Man revenue starting to slow and wanted to refresh the game. Midway bought the rights from these kids that had formed a company called General Computer Corporation (GCC) and then hired them to alter it to what we now know as Ms. Pac-Man, with input from Namco.

 

When it became a huge hit, Namco sued Midway and as part of the settlement they gained Midway's rights to Ms. Pac-Man (And judging by Pac-Man Plus being included in some Jakks Pacific plug and plays, Namco also gained ownership of that as part of this settlement along with presumably Jr. Pac-Man). GCC though as part of the agreement with Midway was due a royalty payment whenever a Ms. Pac-Man game was sold and that deal remained active after Midway's rights were transferred to Namco.

 

Namco apparently was close to buying out that perpetual royalty agreement a few years ago when AtGames struck up a better deal with the successors to GCC to acquire their rights. Now it's left Ms. Pac-Man, already rarely seen in rereleases over the past 15 years due to the GCC royalties involved (Which Namco had conveniently forgot about years ago back when Ms. Pac-Man was regularly being rereleased), largely in limbo with at least one lawsuit filed by Namco over the deal.

 

Last time around with the original Pac-Man Museum collection on 360 and PS3, Ms. Pac-Man was relegated to paid DLC due to the GCC royalty payment. This time around it looks like this classic won't even appear as DLC.

Edited May 16, 2022 by Atariboy

[Atariboy]

22 hours ago, Atariboy said:

Ms. Pac-Man was born as a speed-up kit developed by a group of college kids, intended for arcade operators that were seeing Ms. Pac-Man revenue starting to slow and wanted to refresh the game. 

That should obviously read that Ms. Pac-Man was born out of the observation that Pac-Man's popularity was slowing for arcade operators and that there was unmet demand to revitalize these machines by remixing the Pac-Man experience to keep it fresh.

Edited May 17, 2022 by Atariboy

[hepcat]

Thanks for your post Atariboy; I did not know that Midway had gone bankrupt.

 

I did some searching after reading your post and found this article which makes AtGames sound like a pretty sleazy operation. It's much clearer to me now why Ms. Pac-man isn't going to be in this collection. Sad but understandable.

 

https://www.polygon.com/2019/9/25/20884111/bandai-namco-atgames-lawsuit-ms-pac-man-pac-man-flashback-blast-copyright-infringement

[digdugnate]

That's a bummer that the rights are like they are when it affects the player the most.  Personally, I like Ms. Pac-Man's gameplay more than Pac-Man. ?

 

I have Ms. Pac-Man on XBox but it would've been super cool to have it with the Pac-Man Museum stuff.

[Daj]

On 5/16/2022 at 11:29 PM, hepcat said:

Thanks for your post Atariboy; I did not know that Midway had gone bankrupt.

 

I did some searching after reading your post and found this article which makes AtGames sound like a pretty sleazy operation. It's much clearer to me now why Ms. Pac-man isn't going to be in this collection. Sad but understandable.

 

https://www.polygon.com/2019/9/25/20884111/bandai-namco-atgames-lawsuit-ms-pac-man-pac-man-flashback-blast-copyright-infringement

AtGames left their reputation out for the buzzards ages ago. They're out for a cheap buck and it looks like this time they didn't even get that.

[negative1]

On 5/15/2022 at 7:58 PM, hepcat said:

On the fence about Pac-man Museum+ with the $29.99 asking price (it's out May 27). I understand Pac-man Plus not being in there, that's pretty obscure, but why can't Namco and Midway agree to put Ms. Pac-man and Jr. Pac in a collection like this? Do they really hate money that much?

 

not sure where you got the price from.

 

got it for $20, and all versions are priced that way, even the physical ones.

 

they will never put jr pac-man on there - to many legal issues.

ms pac man could be added later on for an extra fee, because the demand is there.

 

later

-1

[Hydro Thunder]

I am still waiting for an "official" Crazy Otto minicab.  I just freaking LOVE the game that became MsPacMan (for marketing reasons).  The funny little feet just kill me.  Oh well, just have to settle for the INCREDIBLE PacManPlus made 7800 version with my EdLaddin Super Twin, life is rough

 

Another long lost game I really wish they would revisit...and feel free to boo if you want but...

PacMan World Rally for GameCube was actually a REALLY good Kart Racer.  I know I know...but seriously.  Much random fun as a Namco fan, great graphics, Katamari dude, Galaga ship as a weapon, just a really cool game.  That would've been awesome on this collection.

 

And agree with the post above clamoring for Jr Pac Man.  It's a real gem, seriously.  I got to spend a bit of time with a restored arcade version at CiderCade in Austin last year, had way more fun than I expected.  

[DoTheMath]

On 5/16/2022 at 2:58 AM, hepcat said:

On the fence about Pac-man Museum+ with the $29.99 asking price (it's out May 27). I understand Pac-man Plus not being in there, that's pretty obscure, but why can't Namco and Midway agree to put Ms. Pac-man and Jr. Pac in a collection like this? Do they really hate money that much?

I just bought it on PS4 and the input lag in the games is awful, especially in Pac-Mania. I've seen similar complaints for Xbox and Switch. This is disappointing.

[negative1]

4 hours ago, DoTheMath said:

I just bought it on PS4 and the input lag in the games is awful, especially in Pac-Mania. I've seen similar complaints for Xbox and Switch. This is disappointing.

have it on the xbox one with 0 issues.

 

maxed out pac-man with 1million, and have completed 36/41 achievements.

just finishing off pac-in-time and pac and roll remix.

 

have yet to see any lag on this or the pc versions.

 

later

-1

[DavidD]

It's $19.99 digitally on the Switch.

 

The only game I've had issues with is Pac-Man Arrangement (arcade version).  The first few times I played in handheld mode, the controls felt weird.  When I played on the TV last night, I didn't notice any problems.

 

I'm not sure whether there is a problem and I got used to it, or Arrangement just feels different than I remember.

[negative1]

just finished all the achievements for pac man museum plus.

 

pac n roll remix was tough after world 4, and pac n time had a hard level 10,

but after a week with each of them. was able to pass both, and enjoyed the

level design and difficulty.

 

never experienced any lag, or issues either.

 

this might be the last retro compilation for the xbox one.

 

the rest might only come out for the s and x series in the future.

 

later

-1

[Atariboy]

I doubt that will happen anytime soon. There's still plenty of power even in the pre-slim Xbox One and Playstation 4 to full realize classic compilations like this without compromising anything. And thanks to the excellent backwards compatibility that both their next-gen successors offer, these versions are automatically perfectly playable on the latest hardware.

 

As long as millions of gamers still play on last gen hardware, there's no reason to stop developing projects with modest technical demands like Pac-Man Museum + for these.