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Classic Arcade Games Online
Ant writes "Midway Games and shockwave.com announced today that ten classic Midway
arcade games are now available for free on the internet. " The games released include Defender, Joust, Spy Hunter and Rampage, but as you might expect, you need Shockwave in order to play them.
Adam
Click Here
And I would rather play these via shockwave, instead of using Mame, because....? :) Still, kinda cool that they (midway) are willing to loosen their grip on the old classics just a bit... nifty demonstration of Shockwave, too.
Does Shockwave run on Linux?
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They're promising these will be playable on the Mac soon. WTF ? Shockwave runs on the Mac, does anybody know what in Shockwave isn't cross-platform ?
Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951
Dang, that brings back memories! Eat oil slick, spy guys!
This says it all....
"Mac users, we haven't forgotten about you, check back soon!"
Home, home and deranged...
The thing I like best isn't playing the games, but the idea that these things aren't just dropping off the face of the earth when their medium/platform becomes outdated. I hope this is a trend.
And nice of Midway to let it happen. Now if we can just bring the music industry into the 21st century. Three cheers for embracing new technology.
Jon Sullivan
Jon Sullivan
www.jonsullivan.com
And indeed, the same message pops up: "Sorry, you need Shockwave 8 to play this game" AAAARRRGGGHHHH
Even when I go straight to the download-menu and select I want to download Shockwave 8, it tells me I already have it!
Anybody proficient in Macromedia website-navigation (Tarzan?) care to help me out?
..when you can play more than 2000 retro arcade game with the mame emulator. This run on linux, freebsd and a lot of other platforms and the all games are emulated orginals not remakes. Head over to http://x.mame.net/ and to http://www.mame.dk/ for all the roms.
When I go to the shockwave site, using Linux and Netscape 4.72 with java and javascript turned on, I get a javascript error.
When I go there with java and javascript turned off, I get nothing. Just a blank, grey page.
Linux
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Actually, Shockwave for Linux has been out for at least several months. That doesn't matter, though, because shockwave.com's JavaScript evidently won't run at all in Netscape (4.7). woo!
I wish these companies would get a clue.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
There have been numerous repackaging for those very same games (also original edition-ified) released for the Super Nintendo, PC, and Playstation. I believe they also released a good deal of them on a ripoff "classics" arcade machine recently. They probably couldn't make any more money off of them no matter what they try now :)
Shockwave has never been released. If you mean Flash player then yes. See the this page for more info.
I got it to work, and it is exactly like I remember. On Defender, it even draws the shitty little Williams logo at the beginning.
Breif thrill, I miss the arcaded controls though.
- I like pudding.
At last, something that Shockwave can adequately handle: 10 year old game designs.
And playing it until my vision clouded from lack of moisture on my eyes.
then sitting there with my eyes closed for ten minutes, and doing it all over again. (sigh). Those were the days :)
Judge Pag, the Learned, Impartial, and Very Relaxed
Joust, Spy Hunter, and Rampage. (I sucked at Defender)
I could never get the hang of the controls on the arcade Spy Hunter, I did much better at the Nintendo version.
Joust, on the other hand, was awesome, as was Rampage with three players.
So are these games really free now? Can we finally use them on MAME without fear of retribution? ('cause it does say "exclusively on shockwave.com...)
I don't think that's very fair. Especially since their page was broken enough to give me a Javascript error instead of taking me to the Shockwave download page, and *then* they said it was "downloading", with nary a mention of those other "platforms" that people might be using, yea, even on the web.
When I did try to get it, it redirected me to "Flash 4 for Linux", which I already have. I guess Shockwave does stuff that Flash doesn't? Oh well, I at least know that their Javascript looks pretty broken on my version of netscape. Otherwise, it'd redirect me to the proper page.
Anyone know the absolute address of this one?
And who would write an emulator in that stuff anyhow? Weird...
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I got it.
If you're having problems with the site, (you have, say, Flash 4 for Linux installed, but the JavaScript is giving you trouble) try going here.
Of course, once I tried to *play* a game, it said...
"Mac users! We
haven't forgotten
about ya. All these
great games will be
ready for you soon so
hurry back."
Grr. Someone doesn't get it. Time to play some games on XMAME...
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
But still, is there anyone out there who has never dreamed the impossible dream? To have the global high score on their favorite arcade game?
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share and enjoy
The point being, Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator is available for many platforms (such as *nix - get XMAME) unlike Shockcrap, and the Shockcrap-recreations aren't true emulation like in MAME. I admit that they are very well crafted, but the feel just isn't correct and for example the sound is far from original. Actually, MAME emulates these particular games perfectly!
It would have been much more useful for them to release the ROMs to free redistribution, so that all MAME users could use them in good conscience. Now they'll just have to download the roms illegally or simply not play those games.
There are even two free games available for use with MAME. In fact, another one of them was previously owned by Midway, being Robby Roto. However its coder had quite a good contract - it said that when the sales of the game dropped below a certain level, the copyright would revert back to him. Being a good guy, he then released the game for free redistribution. The other free romset is Poly-Play, the only arcade game ever made in ex-GDR (East Germany), and thus there does not seem to exist a copyright holder for that piece of software anymore.
Other choice to get legal games for MAME is to buy the Hot Rod Joystick control panel which comes with a compilation of 14 good old Capcom arcade classics (such as 1941, Block Block, Commando, Exed Exes, Ghouls'n Ghosts, Magic Sword, Mercs, Section Z, Side Arms, Son Son, Street Fighter 2 HF, Strider, U. N. Squadron and Varth), which not recreations but actual ROM files that you can use with MAME. I'd love to see more people buy this pack - it would show the copyright holders that there actually still is a market for stuff like this.
Now this is just plain cool. Never thought I could play Defender in a browser window.
Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity!
Appreciate that Midway are still out to make money, no matter how old these games are! Not to mention that some of them are absolute classics. :)
So I suspect some sort of financial deal has gone on between shockwave.com and Midway.
As for why Midway don't just release the ROMs for MAME officially.... do you seriously think they want the average user to know about MAME?
I can just see it... In big writing on midway.com: "Download our games, and play them using MAME on your own PC! Oh, and you can get loads of other games illegally off the internet as well! Make us bankrupt please!"
most macs have a scarcity of mouse buttons
Only if you use the pack-in mouse. But even with the pack-in mouse, you get right click by holding Ctrl and left clicking.
often lack full keyboards, too.
Every Macintosh computer with a PowerPC CPU (even the iMac and G? computers) comes with a full keyboard, even though Mac OS maps F1-F4 to "undo, kill, copy, yank" instead of "help, save, open, scroll-to-point" like in DOS and doesn't (last time I checked) have keyboard access to pull-down menus.
But doesn't Mac have XSprocket (which seemed to inspire DirectX) for game controller input?
Will I retire or break 10K?
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CAIMLAS
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
This would seem to be better than MAME. With MAME, it is a challenge to get roms, and then a challenge to get WORKING roms, and then a challenge to get MAME to NOT lock up when you try out a game or two.
And don't get me started on why my Sidewinder game pad won't go up. The program gets real weird when trying to redefine the damn controls. Up is UP, okay?
The unfortunate thing about this story (espeically combined with other recent developments like the Ultracade and the Hasbro lawsuits) is that it weakens one argument used by defenders of MAME et al (among whom I'd count myself). I speak of the "well you're not doing anything with these properties, and there's no other way to play them so they're slowly disappearing" position. Clearly at least some companies do plan on marketing older games in new packages, licenced to hardware manufacturers like Ultracade and Hanaho, or in this case as a vehicle for web hits and banner views.
It's not really a new idea - I bought the Digital Eclipse 68k-emulated versions of three Williams game years ago - but there does seem to be a new trend toward it. The funny thing is, of course, that the renewed market for these probably wouldn't exist if the MAME project and all those ROM sites hadn't helped bring it back, and they'll now make use of all that free work and publicity to reassert exlusive control.
It's really just another of the problems with proprietary software and copyrights that last too damn long. Should these companies be able to retain exclusive control over this code for so long? Especially when in many cases they had nothing to do with the original work, and just bought the "rights"? And even if you buy the argument that they still deserve to exercise the commercial rights to Joust right now, what about in 2050?
-- Life is short. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. ~ Robert Doisneau
I noticed this too, so I decided that I would send them a polite email. If you have problems you might consider that too:
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To : webmaster@shockwave.com
Cc :
Attchmnt:
Subject : Javascript error
----- Message Text -----
Dear Sirs,
Your web site "http://www.shockwave.com" appears to be broken. When I visit that URL, I get automatically redirected to a "http://v2.shockwave.com/bin/v2/entry.jsp" URL, only to get a "Javascript Error". The page remains blank.
I use the latest release of one of the major web browsers (Netscape 4.72 with the Macromedia Flash 4 plugin installed), so my choice of browser should normally not be a problem. Anyway, I was unable to find information on your site regarding the minimum software requirements to visit your site, as I could not access the web site in the first place.
I hope this error will be taken care of, and I look forward on being able to visit the shockwave.com web site. Thanks in advance!
Best Regards,
[your name]
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Who knows, maybe it helps.
GNU/Linux. The Freshmaker.
Maybe Midway picked up the rights to these at some point, but Defender, Joust, Robotron 2084, "Defender II" (which was actually called Stargate in the arcade, but changed later), Sinistar, Bubbles, and Satan's Hollow are all Williams games. Out of the games listed, only Spy Hunter, Rampage, and Tapper are Midway games.
Note that Williams still exists. They haven't made video arcade games for a while, but they started as a pinball machine maker, and are still producing new pinball machines. Their web page is here
Actually, The Windoze & Menu Keys are easily remappable with the Windoze PowerToys package.
Well, not *Easily* - you can only remap them to other meta keys, really. But it is a rather sick ploy on M$'s part - In retaliation, I think that the Happy Hacker Keyboards should replace one of their metakeys' icon's with a little Ewing Penguin.
(/me prays to the Karma Faeries)
Kagenin
"All warfare is based on deception."
Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
ShockWave (and Director) can be traced back to Bally/Midway, where Marc Canter, Marc Pierce (now a VP at Atari Games), and myself worked in the arcade industry in the early 1980s. We all were laid-off after the "great crash" and started our own company to develop this.
Since it was created by game designers as a way of making game/multimedia design accessible, it is not surprising that it is easy to code games in it. It just took 15 years for the computational bandwidth of computers to rise to level needed to have an interpreter evaluate game logic and do sprite animation as well as dedicated hardware did in the early 1980s.
I am a MAME fan. Many "normals" find it difficult to set up, and find it hard to locate games to play beyond the few that are legal to trade or easy to buy.
Quick downloads, arcade-perfect realism, extensive options to modify controls and screen positioning: I'd rather play this on shockwave.com then in MAME. Also, the biggest factor: I can play it wherever I want, as long as I have an internet connection. No need to download some emulator (which often crashes), and with Shockwave on Linux, there is loads of great content on the web I can peruse. I'm off to shockwave.com.
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
Having roms for MAME is illegal unless you own the original.
I do have a rather large collection of MAME roms but I still think it's nice of midway to let people play them legally for free
What would have been really cool is if MAME released the roms.
Another nice place for roms is www.arcadeathome.com
The site at Midway claims that the shockwave play is emulation from the original ROMs. So if they're distributing the ROMs, can't you just peel them out of shockwave somehow, and shouldn't that be legal? (ok, so they say "exclusively", but....)
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
The Mac version of the aforemensioned acrade machine emulator...
It works great!
/A
nerds? "kickin' it in the Bahamas"? umm..sorry, but there's just no way that's possible. nerds are nerds after all.
Ah. That would explain why I couldn't get it to work. :)
I thought I'd try it, just out of curiousity, although my experience with Shockwave is that no matter how many times you install the damn stuff, it still tries to reinstall most of the time you try to use it. Either that or they're releasing incompatible upgrades every week.
In any event it doesn't work for me far more often than it does (just like Real, another product I wish would just die).
Shockwave is becoming worse and worse functionality-wise while it becomes more and more popular. I'm trying to convince the company I work for to stay away from it no matter how cute it looks. However, the marketing side is in love with it and the Web experts think it's cool.
What's even funnier is that the site says it doesn't support my browser (IE 5.5 beta) and I couldn't even view their Web pages. Now Microsoft screws with the standards with impunity, but IE 5.5 has always worked fine for me 99.5% of the time.
I made a prediction about two years ago that with the plethora of kludgy technology of dubious value and crappy implementations that the Web would get a lot worse before it ever got better. I was being cynical at the time. I wish I hadn't been right.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
I assume you have the numbers to back up your claim that most /. readers are Windows users...right?
:^)
I'm a windows user...about once a month, I boot it up to make sure nothing's gone wrong, run ScanDisk, then reboot.
Stating on Slashdot that I like cheese since 1997.
how much money do you think they make off of defender nowadays?
Stating on Slashdot that I like cheese since 1997.
Take a look at this.
0 0/11:35:39.shtml,
:^P
:^)
JavaScript Error:
http://www.ga-source.com/all/news/bits/04+05+20
line 147:
unterminated string literal.
document.writeln("
^
JavaScript Error: http://v2.shockwave.com/bin/v2/entry.jsp, line
43:
swVersion is not defined.
JavaScript Error: http://v2.shockwave.com/bin/v2/entry.jsp, line
29:
syntax error.
^
JavaScript Error: http://v2.shockwave.com/bin/v2/entry.jsp, line
43:
swVersion is not defined.
JavaScript Error: http://v2.shockwave.com/bin/v2/entry.jsp, line
29:
syntax error.
^
JavaScript Error: http://v2.shockwave.com/bin/v2/entry.jsp, line
43:
swVersion is not defined.
Is it my imagination, or are they trying to use JavaScript to create an HTML document with JavaScript, and forgot to terminate a string?
Thought that was a mistake only amateurs such as myself made.
Stating on Slashdot that I like cheese since 1997.
Ahh...those were the days. Now, all I need is a nifty browser.
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Sig Return: 204 No Content
ok, so everyone's saying "but there's MAME, why this?", and i half agree. but they are well within their rights doing it this way, and it is infact a good thing!
firstly, it's not the original game rewritten for shockwave, it's a shockwave written "emulator" playing the original rom image (or perhaps slightly adapted rom image), so you are getting close to the real thing, just like MAME.
secondly, this puts them back in control of the distribution of their own games, which IS THEIR RIGHT. and leads them to be able to perhaps sell them in this manner in the future, if demand is high enough, which IS THEIR RIGHT.
and thirdly, shockwave isn't evil because it doesn't run fully on linux. macromedia are perhaps evil because their support isn't 100%, but that's life on the fringe (and we are still fringe, kids).
this is not the sig you're looking for, move along..
I don't feel well about playing games illegaly on MAME but..
I rest my case
ps. interested people should really check out http://www.retrogames.com, you'll be amazed how much can be emulated these days
Not exactly. See, the original Tapper that you remember was actually "supplanted" a few years later by "Root Beer Tapper", which was basically exactly the same game, exept with root beer instead of Bud. I don't know why, I guess having kids play a game with Budweiser ads probably pissed people off. And it's pretty funny to see some of the differences (e.g. "This one's for you!" in the bonus round). But this was not done just now by the Shockwave people. You can get both versions for MAME, and I have had them both for years now.