Midway Arcade Origins

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Leo1
Posts: 2325
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Midway Arcade Origins

Postby Leo1 » October 20th, 2012, 2:58 pm

Haven't seen this mentioned yet since it was announced several weeks ago. The Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are getting a new classic arcade compilation this Fall. It's titled Midway Arcade Origins and will launch with a MSRP of $29.99 in November. It's being published by Warner Brothers who is the IP owner of the Midway brand and most of its back catalog. It's being developed by Backbone Entertainment whose now shuttered Digital Eclipse studio handled the previous Midway collections.

The 31 games included are...

  • 720°
  • A.P.B.
  • Arch Rivals
  • Bubbles
  • Championship Sprint
  • Cyberball 2072 Tournament Edition
  • 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 (The only new addition)
  • Wizard of Wor
  • Xenophobe
  • Xybots

Missing from the Midway Arcade Treasures lineup:

  • Badlands (MAT3)
  • Blaster (MAT)
  • Hard Drivin' (MAT2)
  • Hydro Thunder (MAT3; Sold to Microsoft)
  • Klax (MAT)
  • Kozmik Krooz'r (MAT2)
  • Mortal Kombat (MAT: Extended Play)
  • Mortal Kombat II (MAT2)
  • Mortal Kombat 3 (MAT2)
  • NARC (MAT2)
  • Offroad Thunder (MAT3)
  • Paperboy (MAT)
  • Primal Rage (MAT2)
  • Race Drivin' (MAT3)
  • Rampage World Tour (MAT2)
  • Roadblasters (MAT)
  • Rush 2049 (MAT3)
  • S.T.U.N. Runner (MAT3)
  • San Francisco Rush: Alcatraz Edition (MAT3)
  • Splat (MAT)
  • Super Off-Road: Track Pack (MAT3)
  • Timber (MAT2)
  • Vindicators (MAT)
  • Wacko (MAT2)

I always pictured a HD followup to the Midway Arcade Treasures trilogy collecting everything from all three games just like Midway Arcade Treasures did with the earlier Playstation compilations while adding improvements and more games. Sadly gone are several personal favorites like Roadblasters and Timber and only a single new addition with Vindicators: Part II. 

I'll happily buy it even if it's far off from how I pictured this release in my mind over the past 5 years since the last Midway compilation was released. It's still an arcade compilation which in 2012 is something to be thankful for since they're not exactly common anymore. 


a1
Posts: 3032
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Midway Arcade Origins

Postby a1 » October 20th, 2012, 5:34 pm

This collection doesn't seem at all worth it for someone who owns the Arcade Treasures collections. Is there anything in it that wasn't in those collections?

Leo1
Posts: 2325
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Midway Arcade Origins

Postby Leo1 » October 20th, 2012, 6:54 pm

While it's not the best thing since sliced bread for those with the earlier Midway Arcade Treasures releases, it does offer some limited benefits. Particularly if one is looking to enjoy some classic arcade games on a modern HD display.

Potential benefits...
-Convenience
-Improved emulation
-HD upscaling
-Online leaderboards

And with PS2 compatibility being long gone on PS3's, the Xbox versions never having been made backwards compatible on the 360, and Wii U not including GameCube compatiblity, falling back to playing the older releases on your HD console upscaled to HD isn't an option for most.

Blueguy1
Posts: 620
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Midway Arcade Origins

Postby Blueguy1 » October 20th, 2012, 8:50 pm

While I'm glad they're giving us gold with the classic 80's games, I'm disappointed that they're not going to include the 3D games from the mid to late 90's. That era had amazing games including Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey, San Francisco Rush, Hydro Thunder, NFL Blitz, Rush 2, San Francisco Rush 2049, Gauntlet Legends, Area 51, and the Cruisn' trilogy. If all these games were on a compliaton, I would totally buy it!

How come they're not including the mid to late 90's games?

Leo1
Posts: 2325
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Midway Arcade Origins

Postby Leo1 » October 21st, 2012, 2:26 am

Beyond just the pure complexity of that which likely would force them to port individual games over rather than relying on emulation, several of those have issues. The sports games would require expensive licenses, Hydro Thunder went to Microsoft in Midway's bankruptcy, Nintendo seems to own some stake in the Cruis'n games and may even hold clear title to them now with Midway gone, Rush 2 was never even an arcade game, you'd have nothing to use for a lightgun shooter on the 360 in the case of Area 51, etc.

Midway Arcade Treasures 3 for last generation game consoles did have several of those racers.

Irenicus1
Posts: 421
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Midway Arcade Origins

Postby Irenicus1 » October 21st, 2012, 5:49 pm

I love collections & I love many of these games, yet this collection doesn't really excite me. Why? I've got most of these games already on my PS2 Midway Collections. I agree w/ Blueguy that they should've added some new games. The idea of having these in HD is appealing, but as far as long term collecting I'm really scared to invest much into my Xbox 360. The dang this is designed to fail. No Paperboy, Mortal Kombats & Road Blasters kinda hurts. All in all I'll still be happy to pick this up, it'll just be awhile since I still have to get my 360 fixed.

BTW: Excellent job on presenting this post Leo.   

Leo1
Posts: 2325
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Midway Arcade Origins

Postby Leo1 » November 3rd, 2012, 8:29 pm

Just as an update since I didn't know exactly what the release date in November was when I started this thread, the game is due to release next Tuesday.

It's going to be a Christmas present for me I guess, so I'll be looking forward to hopefully an opinion or two if any of you plan to pick it up next week since it will be a few weeks before I give it a go.

Wizard of Wor in particular would be a nice area to do a comparison check. On Midway Arcade Treasures 2, the biggest issue was the speed the game ran at which was far too fast (And obviously so, you didn't even need to be familiar with it to suspect something was awry). If it runs much slower here, it's a promising sign that they worked to improve upon what they did back in 2003-2005 with their last gen collections and didn't just simply port over that work and call it a day.

Sut1
Posts: 789
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Midway Arcade Origins

Postby Sut1 » November 4th, 2012, 10:18 am

I too am no longer enthused after seeing the line up and already owning the original Midway Treasures Trilogy. Would like to hear your opinions ( those who are purchasing it ) because to be honest I can cope with a few emulation niggles as long as they don't break the game, which are present in the original trilogy and upscaling to HD doesn't enthuse me much either.

Leo1
Posts: 2325
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Midway Arcade Origins

Postby Leo1 » November 4th, 2012, 2:20 pm

It's certainly an understandable opinion. The only game from this lineup that has significant issues that I'd describe as game breaking in the older releases was Wizard of Wor. The rest of the lineup included here besides the Vindicators sequel (Which is new to Origins) performed flawlessly or with just minor issues here and there that don't ruin the experience in the Midway Arcade Treasures lineup.

So this new release is certainly of somewhat limited utility from the standpoint of the game lineup itself.

Greisha1
Posts: 707
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Midway Arcade Origins

Postby Greisha1 » November 6th, 2012, 7:34 pm

Cyberball 2072 Tournament Edition??

Is this a different version of Cyberball than what's on the Midway Arcade Treasure series?


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