Like the return of old friends

[yendi]

My copy of Midway Arcade Treasures 2 arrived yesterday.

It is so lovely.

I'd forgotten just how wonderful so many of these older games are.

There were plenty of great experiences, but the best one for me was the one I started with: Xybots. I can't tell you how much fun this game was when I first encountered in the arcades. I must have pumped dozens of quarters into it. Xybots was a very early 3-D style shooter, with a unique joystick that also allowed you to rotate your character (on the PS2, the shoulder buttons are used for rotation). The game allowed for two-player simultaneous play, as each player looks over the shoulder of their character, shooting at the enemy robots. Basically, imagine Berserk played with a Tomb Raider visual angle. You can pick up energy (for healing) and gun pods, and between levels, you can use the gold coins you find to buy upgrades. So damned good, and just as much fun to play now as it was back in 1987.



And then there were the other games. Cyberball 2072, featuring robotic football, is still way more fun than any iteration of Madden has been. Xenophobe (phantom_wolfboy's favorite) is just insanely fucking hard and strange (especially with just one player). Total Carnage was so clearly designed as a quarter-suck, that it's silly. Still, it's a blast to play. Gauntlet 2 and Spy Hunter 2 may not be as good as the originals, but they're still fun. And the two Mortal Kombat games, if comparatively weak compared to the Virtua Fighter/Tekken games that soon followed (with every player having a full library of unique moves, instead of three or four special ones) are still a blast.

Still haven't played the remaining games (since we also now have the original Katamari Damacy, we're overloaded with good games in the house). But I'm already in love with this disc.

Comments

[mgrasso.livejournal.com]

Holy fuck! Xybots! ::weeps for lost youth::

And Cyberball is how I met my best friend; AD&D cemented the friendship. :)

[yendi]

:-) Ah, for the days when arcades had games that encouraged social interaction.

[litch.livejournal.com]

so the thing I've been wondering is how the fuck do you have time to watch all the movies, tv shows, play the games, read the books, and interact with people you talk about and still manage to hold down a job?

do you not sleep?

[yendi]

Sleep? I've heard of it, but I'm not familiar with the concept.

Seriously, I do much of my reading on my bus ride home, and on weekends. And I tend to catch TV and movies late at night. And my interactions are as often as not over the internet.

[listeningowl.livejournal.com]

i have midway arcade treasures also. midway sent it to me. i didn't review it yet b/c i was like - eh. i skipped that whole Atari -NES generation b/c i was too old. so i don't have the proper nostaligia for those games.
tell me have you played any of the other arcade ports? what do you think of them?
: )

[yendi]

I haven't played any of the other ports yet, but I intend to play some more of them tonight. :-)

DId they send you volume 2? The most recent is #3, which is all driving games (not so much my style).

[listeningowl.livejournal.com]

yeah we got the one with the driving games one. we also have and Atari collection too. (which i can't see unless i get up)

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

Yah, those were all fun games.

I keep avoiding the emulation/re-release games, becuase now they would be time sucks.

Though, to hear just one more time, "My, that was a noble effort," from Gauntlet might be worth it.

[yendi]

Oh, it's a major timesuck. Especially since, with G2 and Total Carnage, you're not limited by how many quarters you have. :-)

[mightywombat.livejournal.com]

I got the Midway Arcade Treasures Extended Play disc for my PSP. I can't tell you how cool it is...

[yendi]

I'm jealous (well, of the PSP itself as much as the games).

How is Robotron on that? I always figured the lack of two joysticks would be an issue.

[mightywombat.livejournal.com]

I haven't tried Rbotron n it (I'm not sure it's on there, even). I got it mainly for Rampage, Joust, Spy Hunter and the Mortal Combat series.

[yendi]

Oh, it's on it. :-) I read way too many game magazines.

[mightywombat.livejournal.com]

Uh, I read the package? And the book that came in it? Robotron isn't in there.

[yendi]

Well, which are you going to believe? The package and manual, or a pre-release hype in a magazine that's probably put together by unpaid interns? :-)

That does nicely allow Midway to sidestep the "getting Robotron to work with one joystick" issue, I suppose.

Maybe I was thinking of the Midway Online Treasures.

[mightywombat.livejournal.com]

Midway has put out so many "Treasures" collections for so many different platforms it's really hard to keep up with which is which. I'm sure Robotron is out there somewhere, but I can't find it on my disc. One the PSP, though, they could have overcome the multiple joysticks problem by using the wireless networking that the PSP supports.