Shannon's Blog - Awecades - The Pak's part 1

RSS Bot · August 25, 2006

Ok. So as I'm bored passing time waiting for this thing I figured I'd go over the game Pak's available for it.

The first one is the "Midway Arcade Treasures Pak 1". Here is a list of games it includes.

(Atari System 1-2 games)

720, Gauntlet, Klax, Marble Madness, Paperboy, Rampart, Roadblasters, Super Sprint, Toobin'

(Williams)

Blaster, Bubbles, Defender, Defender II (ake Stargate), Joust, Joust 2, Robotron 2084, Sinistar, Splat!,

Smash TV, Vindicators

(Bally/Midway)

Rampage, Root Beer Tapper, Satan's Hollow, Spy Hunter

Some of you should recognize these titles as they are the ones included with the Midway Arcade Treasures 1. Which was released for all the modern console systems and apparently the PC as well. This is an oddball assortment. As you can see the Atari games are all system 1/2 games. All 8-bit pokey based and vector games are part of the Atari pak which is owned by Atari. Another interesting thing to note is that Atari sure liked to use the trackball. Were there any other company that use the trackball in the arcade? Check it out. Marble Madness, Rampart used a trackball. Other games (part of the atari pack) include Centipede, Millipede, Missile Command and Crystal Castles.

A few comments about the games.. Atari

Gauntlet - 4 player arcade classic. Problem is the awecade is setup for two. No biggie. Just something to note. Believe it or not Gauntlet was originally a 2 player game.

Klax - One of those addicting games by Atari that I somehow missed back in my heyday. Apparently the game was written pretty quickly. Not bad for something hastily thrown together.

Toobin' - This is one I missed as well. Apparently the game makes interesting use of the buttons.

Williams - Well all of the classics appear to be here. Including a couple later titles (Smash TV, and Vindicators)

Defender - This one has always kicked my ass. I wonder if they have it set-up with the classic button configuration for un co-ordinated wimps like me. Most likely a candidate for control re-configuration.

Bubbles, Blaster, Joust 2 - Apparently some pretty rare games. I certainly do not remember seeing them in the 'Cades'. I once had a dream I owned these machines.

Splat! - Just as rare as above mentioned, but I had to say that it has some similarities to Food Fight.

Robotron 2084 - You have not experienced Robotron until you've played with double stick action! Bring it on!

Bally/Midway - notably missing... Two Tigers, and the Tron games. Other titles are in Pak 2.

Root Beer Tapper - What? No Budweiser endorsement? Sorry no drink or ashtray holders. :lol: The original arcade actually had a pour spout that you would pull down to fill up, and then up to serve. (or was that up and then down?). I don't think any emulator has ever facilitated this control scheme. What!! The MAME team overlooked accuracy for useability?

Spy Hunter - Sorry.. No steering control for this one. I never cared much for this game. Give me Two Tigers instead.

Please note that my "Pak" blog entries are not a formal review. Just more like a summary of what the pak's include and some trivia and comments from my end. I'm just passing time until I receive the unit.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...;showentry=1895