Slashdot Mirror
More Classic Games To Hit Xbox Live
Several classic Midway games are slated to arrive on the Xbox Live arcade service sometime this year. The Gamespot article mentions Defender and Paperboy among the titles on the block. From the article: "'We've been generally surprised by the response rate...the paid downloads are more than we expected,' Midway CEO David Zucker told GameSpot. 'It's not going to change our economic success overnight, but it's a nice little business on the side, and we're glad that people are happy with the product.' Midway's chief executive also expressed interest in doing similar projects with the PlayStation 3 and Revolution, should they provide that functionality."
They could use some more NEW games before they get too crazy with the classics.
...are the sales of these games more than the actual xbox360 games?
If so, what was the point of buying a 360 in the first place? Kind of a sign that gameplay > graphics. Developers take note!
These are the same titles you can get on their Treasures collection for under $20 ($12 used). http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product_id=950 453/
I don't know the status of "backwards somewhat-compatibility" of these on the Xbox360, but it sure seems the per-title cost on Live Arcade is pretty hefty given how cheap you can get authorized copies elsewhere.
{ - Generic Guy - }
There is an entire generation of people who don't know jack about classic arcade games and haven't ever played Pacman. I imagine for them it's quite exciting to see some of the classics. Just as an example, last summer at minigolf they had setup one of those multiarcade systems. Robotron was on there and I was on like level 5(hey, its a hard game), the kids watching me play were blown away by game and couldn't believe how manic it was. In short they were very impressed.
Kids could care less about classic gaming until they have a chance to see it first hand ala Xbox live or some other way. That's why these games are becoming popular and people are paying for games that can be found for free. I'm both sad and happy at the same time that these "next-gen" systems are all falling back on classic gaming to make money.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
Who the hell would buy these? They've been available for free over the Internet (via MAME, etc.) for the better part of a decade.
Same reason people buy music for iTunes.
Its a bitch to spend hours searching the internet for roms and it isn't just because the SPA, RIAA, or MPAA has shut down the sites, but it is because most of the ROM places are nothing by malware, spam, and ultra porn popup sites with no real roms on them.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
I bought all 3 Midway Arcade treasures for my PS2 recently. At 10-13 bucks a compilation, I felt I was getting a good deal. Things to keep in mind:
1. These are ports of arcade games. They have timers/dead man switches on almsot everything as arcade games were intended to get you in & out of there fast. Some of these countdown timers are thankfully disabled(a few racing games on compilation 3).
2.The controls work right. I could NEVER get the controls to work right on certain games in MAME. Mind you, if I got APB to work right, the game would still suck horribly. I have a thrustmaster 2 for my PC, which is just like a PS2 controller + 2 buttons. For some reason, the right analog stick in MAME stuffs a z-rotation in there for dual-analog stick games(like Assault). Maybe I need a driver freshen.
3. You cannot access cheat codes, unlike MAME. That's 1 point for MAME.
4. I have more controllers for my PS2 than I do my PC(all keyboards aside). If I get a multitap, it's easily 3-4 player Gauntlet on the big screen. 1 point for the consoles.
5. Yes, the endless searchin' for uncorrupted ROMs for mame to get the games to work right. Then when a new version comes out, you sometimes have to get revised roms. 1 point for consoles.
Now if players could hook up over xbox live/whatever to play co-op or competitive on arcade games, oh man would that be fun.
I hope Midway continues to release more arcade ports for the PS2. The 3rd compilation didn't have many games, and you found out just how bad Race Drivin' was with the controls & physics. The load times between races in Rush: the rock were awful. They have plenty more atari coin-op games to port over. Sure beats out the Sega compilation.