Midway Arcade Origins (360/PS3) - $19.99 - Amazon

[quote name='Monsta Mack']You can play 720 on your XBox 360?

Mind. Blown.

Has any CAG bought this? Thoughts?[/QUOTE]

Ha - no kidding. I just ordered it tonite - I'll let you know in 2 days if its any good. I played many of these growing up - so my 'review' might be skewed a bit.
 
As far as achievements/trophies go, it's fairly easy to get them all and only a few of them will give you trouble which is mainly due to awkward controls that many of the games have. The score attack type mode that you have to play to get trophies has no save states (being able to save anywhere), and I don't believe any game has save states at all if that's important for you. For newcomers I don't believe that most of the games come with instruction so that you just sort of have to figure out what to do on your own if that's an issue for you.


If you're interested in some of the games, take them as X/$20 to see if they are worth it to you in that way. I can't really recommend it honestly for the few games I remember from youth and enjoyed revisiting.

It comes with:

  • 720°
  • A.P.B.
  • Arch Rivals
  • Bubbles
  • Championship Sprint
  • Tournament Cyberball 2072
  • Defender
  • Defender 2
  • Gauntlet
  • Gauntlet 2
  • Joust
  • Joust 2
  • Marble Madness
  • Pit-Fighter
  • Rampage
  • Rampart
  • Robotron 2084
  • Root Beer Tapper
  • Satan's Hollow
  • Sinistar
  • Smash TV
  • Spy Hunter
  • Spy Hunter 2
  • Super Off Road
  • Super Sprint
  • Toobin'
  • Total Carnage
  • Vindicators Part 2
  • Wizard of War
  • Xenophobe
  • Xybots
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Honestly, this collection is ridiculously lacking ... it's the exact same set of games that was released for the PS2 and Xbox years ago. A great deal would have been all 3 of those collections on one disc for PS3 and 360 ... instead this is just a worthless rehash that will no doubt lead to a second collection with all the 'missing' games from the other 2 collections.

I would be ashamed to buy such a blatant cash-in ...

Oh look ... a better collection back in 2006 ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midway_Arcade_Treasures_Deluxe_Edition (and even this collection wasn't a full compilation of Midway Arcade Treasures 1-3 .. and lacked music in some of the games).
 
The moment I heard about this collection, I was interested. Backlog is huge right now but this is definitely on my radar. Thanks OP.
 
[quote name='Monsta Mack']
Has any CAG bought this? Thoughts?[/QUOTE]

I bought it new for retail its ok but the controls are kind of messed up on the twin stick games(Smash TV, Robotron, Total Carnage) which ruins it for me. i forsee this game at $10ish in a few months. All games run fine but some plain suck, I mostly bought it for Smash TV so I am disappointed with it.
 
[quote name='CDiablo']I bought it new for retail its ok but the controls are kind of messed up on the twin stick games(Smash TV, Robotron, Total Carnage) which ruins it for me. i forsee this game at $10ish in a few months. All games run fine but some plain suck, I mostly bought it for Smash TV so I am disappointed with it.[/QUOTE]

Which console did you get it for? I decided to get it for PS3. #hopeimadetherightchoice
 
If I didn't have Midway Arcade Treasures 1, 2 and 3, I would have gotten this. Anyone remember when TRU had Midway Arcade Treasures 2 for a penny? I remember the cashier really annoyed with me for buying the game at that price.
 
Seems like they could've loaded so much more onto this disc and done so pretty cost effectively considering they've already ported all this stuff in the past.

Wasnt Midway Arcade Treasures volume 3 a bunch of racing games? Where the hell is any of that stuff?
 
Rampart alone makes this worth it if you have friends to play with, but the omission of Klax is unforgivable.

Just buy Midway Arcade Treasures instead.
 
[quote name='etcrane']Oh look ... a better collection back in 2006 ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midway_Arcade_Treasures_Deluxe_Edition (and even this collection wasn't a full compilation of Midway Arcade Treasures 1-3 .. and lacked music in some of the games).[/QUOTE]
That collection is missing most of the classics that this one has. Sinistar, Spy Hunter, Defender, Robotron, Tapper, Smash TV, and Rampart were glaring omissions from a cursory look.

These achievements look disappointingly easy. I'll probably pick this up if it hits $10.
 
Would had purchased this just for SmashTV until I read the comments about it being a bad port. I'll rent this from Gamefly.
 
[quote name='gettinmoney662']If this wasn't a price drop, I'd probably buy it.[/QUOTE]

I'm not certain it is a price drop - I was just speculating in my OP because Amazon doesn't list any price other than 19.99. Newegg, BB, and GStop all still have it for 29.99.
 
[quote name='blinknot4']I'm not certain it is a price drop - I was just speculating in my OP because Amazon doesn't list any price other than 19.99. Newegg, BB, and GStop all still have it for 29.99.[/QUOTE]

Usually, Amazon will list the MSRP and show you how much you save if it isn't the MSRP. We'll see if the page updates.
 
Was watching this for the past couple of days/weeks when it was 29.99 telling myself I'd get it if it hit 25, definitely in for one, thanks a lot OP!
 
I enjoyed arcade games in the 90s more than anything. I wish they would release SF Rush, Killer Instinct, NFL Blitz and others from those times in arcade exact copies. Emulation isnt even there for SF Rush yet. Luckily KI runs great on MAME.
 
Didn't even know about this, but looks very similar to the older midway compilations on previous gens I already have. Might get it if it ever dips to ~$10 because I'm guessing load times are faster on current gen.
 
[quote name='Monsta Mack']You can play 720 on your XBox 360?

Mind. Blown.

Has any CAG bought this? Thoughts?[/QUOTE]

720 has never been ported well to anything. The controller on the original arcade cabinet is so fundamentally important to the gameplay, that any attempts to recreate the game without it are impossible.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Typical CAG moment, saw the price, bought, then read reviews.

O' well still like the price for what you do get. Thanx OP ...
 
[quote name='h8b1llg8ts']Typical CAG moment, saw the price, bought, then read reviews.

O' well still like the price for what you do get. Thanx OP ...[/QUOTE]

Haha that was totally me 6 months ago. I'm finally getting better at restraint. I'm sure you'll like the game enough though. And if not, resell it and recoup some of your loses.
 
[quote name='burritoman']This looks like a mixup of Midway Arcade Treasures 1 and 2...gonna pass for now.[/QUOTE]

I was thinking the same thing when I saw it, it would have been better if they had HD upgrades but I'll wait for this to get cheaper.

[quote name='StryderOmega']Smash tv on XBLA seemed to work great for me, so I dunno if this would be worth it. Besides, no Killer Instict no deal lol.[/QUOTE]

Didn't this game get delisted on xbox?
 
@skiizim -- Yes, the Midway games that were on XBLA have been delisted.

The XBLA version of Smash TV did control very well, but the version of Smash TV on this compilation disc does not. Like someone else mentioned -- the dual stick games have broken controls. It's been awhile since I've played it, but from what I remember, the diagonals have a very small area on the analog stick where they become active. So it's almost like playing an 8-way joystick game with a 4-way joystick. You may luck up and hit a diagonal, but it never happens when you want it to.

I'd highly suggest just renting this game and save that $20. If you're an achievement hunter, you can get all achievements in under 2 hours if you're familiar with these games.
 
[quote name='gettinmoney662']Usually, Amazon will list the MSRP and show you how much you save if it isn't the MSRP. We'll see if the page updates.[/QUOTE]

It was $29.99 at Amazon when it was released - I see that's the amount I paid for it.
 
The twin stick games are messed up? How? Smash TV was a big one for me. However there's other great games in this collection. Xenophobe is an awesome game. How well does it play in this collection?

The lack of save states is disappointing. It does sound like they made a half hearted effort with this. :(
 
[quote name='crunchewy']The twin stick games are messed up? How?[/QUOTE]

I remember someone mentioning that you couldn't play the twin stick games with the face buttons.
 
[quote name='LordFlux']
The XBLA version of Smash TV did control very well, but the version of Smash TV on this compilation disc does not. Like someone else mentioned -- the dual stick games have broken controls.[/QUOTE]

This begs the question: Why did they not simply include the good XBLA version here? If they had I would have paid $20 just for Smash TV and Total Carnage. But with broken controls I'd rather not even try to play it at all.

BTW if you've purchased the XBLA version in the past, I believe you can still download it. But no new purchases of Midway games can be made since they were delisted.
 
[quote name='Thrinn']I remember someone mentioning that you couldn't play the twin stick games with the face buttons.[/QUOTE]
Why would someone play a twin stick game with buttons?
 
[quote name='Jaysonguy']Why would someone play a twin stick game with buttons?[/QUOTE]

Because older twin stick games such as Smash TV don't use analog controls. You can only fire in eight different directions. Since the face buttons use the cardinal directions for their layout it allows for finer control of exactly where you're shooting.
 
I picked up the PS3 version at launch; I did have some trouble with the diagonals on Robotron and Smash TV at first, but eventually you do adapt to it. For those who happen to have an X-Arcade twin-stick, it works perfectly (unsurprisingly).

I did like that they made an attempt to fix the Tournament Cyberball version on this compilation (compared to the horrid Xbox live port where you couldn't play competitively). In this version, they have a vertical split screen, which, while looking a little fuzzy, is better than nothing.

Joust and Gauntlet remain fun to play cooperatively.

I found 720 and Spy Hunter to be completely unplayable.
 
[quote name='LordFlux']@skiizim -- Yes, the Midway games that were on XBLA have been delisted.

The XBLA version of Smash TV did control very well, but the version of Smash TV on this compilation disc does not. Like someone else mentioned -- the dual stick games have broken controls. It's been awhile since I've played it, but from what I remember, the diagonals have a very small area on the analog stick where they become active. So it's almost like playing an 8-way joystick game with a 4-way joystick. You may luck up and hit a diagonal, but it never happens when you want it to.

I'd highly suggest just renting this game and save that $20. If you're an achievement hunter, you can get all achievements in under 2 hours if you're familiar with these games.[/QUOTE]

A good description of the problem with the twin stick games. Imagine between up and down on a analog you have 180 degrees of motion which are supposed to support 5 directions(up, up-left, left, down-left, down). Well 1/5(20%) percent of each of those degrees of motion should make up for those 5 directions but they dont. The diagonals arent easy to catch on the right analog(you can used the d-pad for left) and it just ruins the games. Was stoked to play Smash TV for achievements left dissapointed. All they had to do was map the right 8 way controller to the pad buttons. What a mess.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top