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JAKKS Licenses Midway Classics For TV Game

Posted by simoniker on from the marble-madness-and-paperboy-oh-my dept.

Thanks to Yahoo for reprinting a press release revealing JAKKS Pacific has signed a deal with Midway to produce a standalone 'TV game' based on classic Midway titles. We've recently covered other newly announced titles in the JAKKS TV Games series, including Namco, Activision, and Atari models, and this title "...will feature top-selling Midway games, including Mortal Kombat, Spy Hunter, Rampage, Joust, Defender I & II, Robotron:2084, Marble Madness, Smash TV, Super Sprint and Paperboy", although it's unclear how exactly faithful the conversions will be.

20 comments

  1. Where is Tempest? by scumbucket · · Score: 1

    I would really like a good Tempest clone. Too bad it's not in this compilation.

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    CMDRTACO CHECK YOUR EMAIL!
  2. What's the controller? by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You've got games in there that use 2-way, 4-way, and 8-way sticks, a couple using two simultaneously, steering wheels, a trackball, and even handlebars, plus lots of buttons.

    Are all these going to be in one controller, or will there be compromises made?

    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
    1. Re:What's the controller? by mopslik · · Score: 5, Funny

      Are all these going to be in one controller, or will there be compromises made?

      For simplicity, the controller will be a single button. Commands can be executed using a series of taps, similar to morse code. For example, to make your Rampage character leap onto a building and punch the roof, use the following:

      tap-tap tap tap-tap-tap tap tap tap-tap-tap

      Oddly enough, this is not that different from playing Mortal Kombat to begin with.

  3. I'm looking forward to this., but... by JackBuckley · · Score: 1

    This rocks! I have the Atari 2600 JAKKS compilation and it's a lot of fun and brings back a lot of memories (yes, I am an *old* gamer). One of may favorite things about it is introducing my kids to Adventure, which is one of my all time favorite games. This new Midway product has some serious classics as well (Robotron, Smash TV...) that I spent serious cash on in the arcade, but they're not as small-children friendly (pretty damned violent, actually). Add to this the issue about support for multiple joysticks (anyone remember the Atari 5200 Robotron cart that came with a plastic thing that clamped the joysticks together?), and this one might not be as successful. I suppose I'll still buy it anyway, though...

  4. If they're as crappy as the others... by Jerf · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If they're as crappy as the others, I'm totally uninterested.

    An emulator lives and dies, at least as far as I am concerned, by its accuracy with regard to three things: Video, audio, and emulation speed. While my experience with the Atari and Intellivision consoles was admittedly brief, I can verify that both of them completely fail the audio and speed criteria. The Intellivision was way too fast, and the Atari sound emulation about made me cry, and neither of them did well in the other department.

    (I don't recall any video glitches but I couldn't bear to play long enough, nor do I perfectly recall the graphics originally.)

    I'll concede the Intellivision was never going to match the original experience with a new controller; for this my thumbs are grateful; you think Nintendo thumb is bad, try Intellivision-disc-thumb! But the degree to which the emulation is too fast is truly amazing; they didn't even try .

    Do not hold your breath for this release; they do not respect these games at all.

    1. Re:If they're as crappy as the others... by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 4, Informative

      Uh. You need to play longer.

      I have the Atari stick in my house, and I agree the emulation isn't perfect, but the sound and speed of it are pretty exact to the Atari's. (And yes, I also have an Atari 2600 sitting right next to it. I can put the same game in both and compare.)

      The problem is that some of the programs were edited before they were inserted into the emulator. The most mutilated is Adventure, which suffered numerous color changes (one of the dragons is a different color from the original), and the famous 'first easter-egg ever' is completely wrong. (The 'invisible' pixel is quite visible on the screen, and the message has been changed to the word 'text'... as if they forgot to type it in!)

      Then again, I can cart this over to a friends house and play in no time at all. The original Atari, *if* they even have an antenna connector, is a pain in the butt to haul around. And it won't plug into my TV without a quality-reducing adaptor because of the antenna connector issue.

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      Comment of the year
    2. Re:If they're as crappy as the others... by Tofino · · Score: 1

      Disagree with you here. I have both, and I find the emulation to be bang-on and the speed fine. However, the Intellivision games really haven't stood the test of time. The Atari ones are pretty timeless, and still enjoyable, but I haven't picked up the Intellivision control in months.

  5. Two player? by Captain+Rotundo · · Score: 1

    Some of those games are great two player games (Mortal Kombat, SmashTV) I hope they do something that allows two player simultaneous... and I hope the keep the dual stick setup for SmashTV - I'd by that in a second.

  6. sluts! by kisrael · · Score: 0, Troll

    "...will feature top-selling Midway games, including Mortal Kombat, Spy Hunter, Rampage, Joust, Defender I & II, Robotron:2084, Marble Madness, Smash TV, Super Sprint and Paperboy",

    Except for Mortal Kombat, which I've hardly seen around, those games are the total sluts of the emulation world. They've been done on more systems than Madonna studying the Kaballah.

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    SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
    1. Re:sluts! by kisrael · · Score: 1

      It was a joke.

      Jimminy crickets, it was a valid point (that there's not a lot exciting about these particular, given how distributed and emulated they already are) in a meant to be funny wrapper.

      Mods, lighten the hell up.

      --
      SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
  7. MARBLE MADNESS!!! by XO · · Score: 1, Funny

    MARBLE FREAKING MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I don't care how crappy the controller is, it's MARBLE FREAKING MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    --
    "Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
    1. Re:MARBLE MADNESS!!! by Ratbert42 · · Score: 1

      Marble Madness is the reason I got started with MAME and the reason I bought my first trackball. Now gigs of ROMs and 4 trackballs later, I still suck at Marble Madness.

  8. I'm surprised by Midway. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Why would Midway allow something like this? They could sell these games over and over again in compilations for the next ten generations of cosole hardware, but this unit won't need to be updated when you buy that shiny new PlayStation 9.

  9. why not... by BTWR · · Score: 3, Insightful

    just get Midway Arcade Treasures for any of the current-gen consoles - $20 and you get all the games mentioned here...

    1. Re:why not... by jeblucas · · Score: 1

      Have to agree with you.
      XBOX
      PS2
      Over 20 great arcade games including: SpyHunter, Defender, Gauntlet, Joust, Paperboy, Rampage, Marble Madness, Robotron 2084, Smash TV, Joust 2, Bubbles, RoadBlasters, Stargate, Moon Patrol, Blaster, Rampart, Sinistar, Super Sprint, 720, Toobin', KLAX, SPLAT!, Satan's Hollow, Vindicators, Root Beer Tapper
      Toobin was a favorite, but Tapper was amazing. I can totally see that working well with the analog stick. Rampart was a total sleeper. I had that thing on my Atari Lynx. Where's Tournament Cyberball?

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      blarg.
    2. Re:why not... by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      I have only played tapper with an anolog stick (well a simple joystick anyway, no 8 directional multi hardness thing like the term is used now). It worked great. Granted I was young so the bar was low, but it was awfuly fun.

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  10. Tron, I want TRON! by mrshowtime · · Score: 1

    Jakks should do a TRON and Discs of Tron combo set with the original tron controller and Spinner. Now that would be badass! Heck, they could even do some esoteric games like "Major Havoc" and Tempest, since both use spinners.

    --
    "Jeremy, you need to get to an internet cafe and cut and paste some appropriate sentiments about me from the world wide
  11. I can see it now... by Gothic_Walrus · · Score: 1
    The (cheap) manufacturer discovers that there's not enough storage space to hold all of the games planned. What do we get?

    Mortal Kombat, now starring George the Gorilla.

    Go, George, beat the crap out of that Paperboy! FINISH HIM!

    --
    Goo goo g'joob.
  12. The previous ones.... by ReyTFox · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...were emulated fairly imperfectly and had features cut out from the original games(mainly the two player options though I believe difficulty modes might've also been cut).

    I wouldn't hold my breath on this one.