Midway Arcade Treasures 1

Jam-Packed Arcade Action

NA release: 17th December 2003
EU release: N/A
JP release: N/A
Developer: Digital Eclipse
Publisher: Midway
NGC Magazine Score: N/A
Mods Used: None

Having a volume 1 of a collection is always a risk, but Midway were quite smart with this, as they originally released it as just “Midway Arcade Treasures” before adding the 1 on to later print runs to match later releases, which also included a new box design to create a uniform style. Probably annoying for those who got this originally, but nice to create a nice looking collection later on.

This contains 24 of Midway’s classic arcade games, which I’ll give a brief run down of. They all seemed to work really well and the bump from the N64’s resolution makes them much more visible and a lot better to play.

720°

One that I’ve never heard of, but one that gives you a fair amount of time on one credit. You start off in a skate part lobby where you can roll around and gather points. After a while, the message “Skate or Die” (the name of an unrelated skateboarding game that I have heard of) will pop up and bees will chase you, so you need to make your way to one of the four challenges.

These are a mixture of speed challenges on large downhill slopes and some more trick-based ones. The perspective can be frustrating at times, but it’s quite good fun. On my first turn, I was able to try each of the four different areas, but I didn’t do well enough to have enough points to try the next level of any of them. Fun game.

Blaster

A first person on-rails shooter, and one that’s definitely overly ambitious for its time as by far the biggest challenge of the game is deciphering the mess of pixels. The attempt at scaling and movement to create a 3D effect is certainly impressive for the technology, but it just didn’t work.

Bubbles

A rather odd game. You’re a bubble cleaning up ants in a sink, trying to get to them before sponges do. You can also collect a broom from miniature cleaning ladies to kill cockroaches. The one interesting thing is that the bubble gets bigger as you absorb more stuff, so I’m wondering if this is the start of the genre that games like Katamari Damacy are part of. A nice novelty.

Defender

One of the bigger classics, and much more playable than the N64 version due to the increased resolution. I’m still not good at the game, and I don’t like it that much.

Defender II

How do you make a sequel to a classic arcade game? Well, one way is to throw a load of new mechanics at it. This has more enemy types to get in your way, and a larger map with portals leading you to the different coloured zones. It makes the game immensely more difficult from the get-go.

Gauntlet

Later iterations of Gauntlet would become classics, where you could even continue your progress across multiple sessions. This collection makes it very clear how much of a money sink the original was, as one of the buttons just gives you more health (which was done on the actual machine by inserting a coin). It was definitely one of the more egregious ways that arcade games utilised money.

The game itself is rather dull and the money for health mechanics makes the balance way off.

Joust

Another one from the N64 collection, and a lot more playable due to trying to see the tiny little pin being held by the player. It’s still difficult to kill anything.

Joust 2: Survival of the Fittest

It’s more Joust. This time, each level is more elaborately designed and you can transform into a griffin, which can barely fly and seems to die just as easily as the ostrich.

Klax

I was looking forward to this as I’ve heard lots of good things about this puzzle games. Blocks come down the conveyer belt and you need to collect and then deposit on one of the colours match there to score. The directions that counts for scoring changes on different rounds to mix things up. The only problem is that I can’t tell the difference for some colours.

Marble Madness

Roll a marble down a complicated maze to reach the goal. The isometric view is very difficult to navigate and the viewpoint makes it even worse. It’s just difficult to tell what is a drop and what is level.

Paperboy

Another well known classic. Throw newspapers into people’s homes to score while avoiding every single thing in the town trying to kill you. You can gain more followers by smashing a newspaper through their window.

Rampage

I don’t think much of the later Rampage games and this is a single screen version with even worse controls.

Rampart

One I’ve never heard of, but an interesting early tower defense game. You pick a castle to defend, place cannons and then shoot at boats. After a short amount of time has elapsed, you can use Tetris blocks to repair your wall and place some new cannons, but if you don’t make a full loop with your wall, you lose.

RoadBlasters

A Pole Position style of game where you can shoot the other cars to bits. You also need to collect fuel as you go. A simple but fun game.

Robotron 2084

A twin stick shooter that is still a lot of fun. It gets very challenging later on.

Root Beer Tapper

Pretend that you’re kid friendly by calling the beer “root beer”. Serve alcohol to patrons and collect the glasses that return to you

Satan’s Hollow

It’s a space invaders clone with you blasting demonic themed enemies. The graphics are a bit of a mess.

Sinistar

This one is a bit clearer than the N64 version, but it’s the game in this collection with such tiny things that you really do need to be right in front of the screen.

Smash TV

A legendary game, although much better with a second person. Blast through enemies with twin stick controls as rules change in each room. Really good fun and surprisingly violent.

Splat!

Another strange one. Collect apples to throw at your opponents to knock their heads off, then hit them again while headless to finish them off

Spy Hunter

Another well known classic, drive up the screen and blast enemies, stopping by the truck for advanced weapons.

Super Sprint

A top down single screen RC game, something which was very common. The controls are extremely loose.

Toobin’

Flick the left and right sticks to paddle down the screen. This collection has no control mapping and I think that the shoulder buttons would work much better. Another one that’s better with another player.

Vindicators

The biggest challenge here is getting to grips with the very difficult tank controls. You have to constantly realign yourself to hit enemies, while even moving with no obstacles is difficult.

With the large amount of games and lots of different genres, it’s certainly a decent collection.

Fun

Midway Arcade Treasure’s “bang for your buck” comes from the sheer amount of games on the disk, and how perfect they’re represented on the console. Apart from the difference in controls, these games are essentially what gamers played in arcade when the games were released in the 80s. Don’t go expecting anything more than the games, however, as it was the emulation portion that received most of the attention; the developer didn’t put much focus in giving players anything more than the basic retrogaming experience.
Craig Harris, IGN

Remake or remaster?

It’s certainly time for a new collection.

Official Ways to get the game

The newest collection with those game that’s available is Midway Arcade Origins on Xbox.