More Classic Games To Hit Xbox Live 89
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."
New ones. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:New ones. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:New ones. (Score:2)
From what I hear, the classics and mini games ARE the best part of XBOX 360. So I think its great they are making more. To some people, a system that integrates nicely into their home entertainment system and
Re:New ones. (Score:1, Troll)
-Eric
Re:New ones. (Score:2)
-Eric
Re:New ones. (Score:2)
Scheduled in the next 4 weeks:
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
College Hoops 2K6
Burnout Revenge
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
The Outfit
Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII
Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires
Rumble Roses XX
Top Spin 2
Far Cry: Instincts Predator
I wonder... (Score:2, Interesting)
If so, what was the point of buying a 360 in the first place? Kind of a sign that gameplay > graphics. Developers take note!
Re:I wonder... (Score:1)
Re:I wonder... (Score:1)
Paperboy... (Score:1)
Re:Paperboy... (Score:2)
Re:Paperboy... (Score:2)
Re:Paperboy... (Score:2)
Re:Paperboy... (Score:1)
Re:Paperboy... (Score:2)
Re:Paperboy... (Score:2)
Re:Paperboy... (Score:1)
Re:Paperboy... (Score:1)
Bad Choices Controller Wise (Score:1)
Re:Bad Choices Controller Wise (Score:1)
I guess 720 will be next.
The Xbox or the game?
(Sorry, couldn't resist)
Re:Bad Choices Controller Wise (Score:2)
Re:Bad Choices Controller Wise (Score:2)
Re:Bad Choices Controller Wise (Score:1)
MOD PARENT INFORMATIVE (Score:2)
Re:MOD PARENT INFORMATIVE (Score:1)
Besides, the best part about XBLA? If you don't think a game's worth $5, then you don't have to spend the points to get it.
I bought Robotron, Gauntlet, and Joust - but not Smash TV yet. I probably won't do Defender or Root Beer Tapper, perhaps Paperboy, and very likely MK3U and Cyberball - since those two are multiplayer, which is where the fun lies. Of course, SF2 might well be ruling XBLA by that point.
Re:Bad Choices Controller Wise (Score:2)
Re:Bad Choices Controller Wise (Score:2)
Re:Bad Choices Controller Wise (Score:2)
2. The xbox 360 controller does have shoulder buttons.
Re:Bad Choices Controller Wise (Score:2)
I haven't even seen the Xbox 360 controller, except at range in Sears and Gamestop, but I believe you. Won't help me on my Xbox though. :)
Re:Bad Choices Controller Wise (Score:2)
Almost bought a few, because my old big "duke" Xbox controllers are wearing out and I can't stand the placement of black and white on the "S" controller, but I picked up a 360 on a whim and the Xbox hasn't been turned on since, except to watch Xvid movies (XBMC = happiness)
Re:Bad Choices Controller Wise (Score:1)
Re:Bad Choices Controller Wise (Score:2)
They certainly looked sharper than anything that could be done on the 2600, though. I guess it was a matter of resolution.
Re:Bad Choices Controller Wise (Score:1)
And all 720s control was an analog stick, bent out to a 45 degree angle, right? That's not all that far off from modern controllers... albeit much smaller in scale.
Re:Bad Choices Controller Wise (Score:1)
Seriously, I guess you've never tried playing them. So far all the arcade classics in XLA work great with the controller.
Re:Bad Choices Controller Wise (Score:1)
"The response is more than they expected" (Score:2)
It's nice... (Score:1)
Re:It's nice... (Score:2)
NesterDC (NES emulator) is my favorite Dreamcast game; it was one of the main reasons I bought the thing in the first place. It would be nice to play Dr. Mario over a network though... one of the two games in which I was ever dominant (the other being Mario Tennis on N64); generally I suck at video games. Ah nostalgia.
Re:It's nice... (Score:2)
It was only four years.
No good games? No problem. (Score:2)
But... could be me but... how is this different from using a C64 Emu (or an Amiga emu for those of you who really want the stunning graphics) to play those games? I mean, aside of having to register somewhere and send money some direction?
Let's face it, in THOSE games, the graphics isn't really the selling point. M.U.L.E. anyone? Did it have graphics to splatter you across the wall? Nope. Did it ha
Re:No good games? No problem. (Score:1)
Re:No good games? No problem. (Score:2)
Gameplay.
The game managed to keep you playing for weeks, months, some for years. Not because you needed to unlock that very last piece of eye candy.
No, you kept playing because there was nothing else and you didn't know better gameplay yet. Most old games had very rough gameplay with many critical flaws (problematic saving, instant death that cannot be avoided by means other than trial and error, hitboxes that were in no relation to the graphical represent
Re:No good games? No problem. (Score:2)
I've played all of these old games. I've been playing games for over 30 years.
The games coming out now are BETTER than they were 10 years ago...20 years ago...
It is only nostalgia that keeps people thinking those old games were better.
Re:No good games? No problem. (Score:2)
While that's certainly the case for a lot of games, it's not always so cut and dried. There are still plenty of games from the 80's that have excellent gameplay by today's standards. The Mario Bros. titles, for instance, have sold millions of copies on the GBA, and they're still leagues above the average Game Boy title in terms of gameplay. (And as a personal anecdote, I never really played much of the origin
Not *all* the games were better/worse (Score:2)
The parent is right : there were lot of old games that are much better than the *average* crap today.
Just as you are right : there were a lot of crappy games back then.
The difference is only about which games you're thinking
When thinking with nostalgia, people usually only think about the good parts. They do remember those games that they realy loved and play continously for hours.
They silently forgot all the crapastic stuff that you describe and that they ei
Re:Not *all* the games were better/worse (Score:1)
Defender. Best. Game. Ever. (Score:1)
Who the hell would buy these? (Score:2)
Re:Who the hell would buy these? (Score:1)
Re:Who the hell would buy these? (Score:2)
It does make me stop and consider whether these games deserve copyright... Games from the 1980s would be at or nearing a 14 or 28 year copyright term expiration. Is the purpose of copyright to divert every possible penny to the author of a creative work? If not, then copyright should expire at some point. Someday, those who feel nostalgia for 1980s video games will die or be too arthritic to play. Should the copyright outlive them? Is it worth it to us as a society to protect these copyrights? It seems
Re:Who the hell would buy these? (Score:3, Interesting)
Kids could care less about classic gam
Re:Who the hell would buy these? (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Who the hell actually buys these (Score:1)
The same people who pay 99 cents to have jokes text messaged to them, not groking that that means shelling out $365 bucks a year plus tax.
plus
The same people who pay $20 for a burger, when you can buy one at Dick's in Seattle for 99 cents.
Re:Who the hell actually buys these (Score:1)
You know, this isn't a bad analogy.
Sure, you can download ROMs for free on the internet and play them on an emulator. But it takes work to find them, you have to be very careful not to get your browser hijacked from all the cram on most websites, and what you're doing isn't exactly legal. When I bought Robotron on XBLA for $5, it was easy to get a hold of it, it plays on my TV which is much bigger and has bett
Re:Who the hell actually buys these (Score:2)
So, you're the guy paying $100 for a Mariner's ticket while I get a $10 ticket from the UW HUB with equally good sight lines
That said, I think having classic games is cool, I just don't think one should pay exhorbitant rates to play them.
Re:Who the hell actually buys these (Score:1)
And remember, the classic games on the 360 aren't just emulated simple ports - all of them so far have had mutliplayer over Xbox Live, leaderboards, and achievements. You do get more with each one for your $5 than the simple versi
Re:Who the hell actually buys these (Score:1)
No argument there. I personally prefer watching soccer or baseball in person, mostly due to Ichiro. Hockey's fine, used to be on a team in school, used to watch games, nothing wrong with NHL, since it's back on the ice. More fun
Re:Who the hell actually buys these (Score:2)
I played many of these games hundreds of times as a kid dumping tens of dollars worth of quarters in to them (I'm sure the Pac-Man machine at my local bowling lanes has swallowed close to $200 of my quarters in the past 15 years). Assuming a $0.25 arcade, after 20 plays these downloads have paid for themselves. For the ones I played on a console, the value is even better, because I paid more to rent these back in those days than I do to buy them and compete online with my friends now
Re:Who the hell actually buys these (Score:2)
Re:Who the hell actually buys these (Score:1)
Re:Who the hell would buy these? (Score:1)
Re:Who the hell would buy these? (Score:2)
Download & install MAME
Find, download & install ROM (and we all know how fun those ROM sites are, particularly for those unfamiliar with them)
Play game (hopefully it works!) on PC at desk
Hope you don't get sued for copyright infringement (unlikely, but you never know these days)
-or-
Pay $5
Sit on couch & play game
I'm going for the second option, you do as you please.
Re:Who the hell would buy these? (Score:2)
When I can get games like OutRun, Ms Pac-Man, TMNT, The Simpsons, Final Fight, Aliens, Chase HQ, R-Type etc on Live I'll consider the money vs MAME issue.
Simpsons multi-player on Live would be really neat. With MAME I map all the characters to the same controls and play all 4 characters with the same set of keys, but
Re:Who the hell would buy these? (Score:2)
In an effort to *encourage* this sort of thing, I've bought every single classic games collection out there for my Xbox 1. (The best is the Sonic Mega Collection-- spent weeks playing those!) I'm still waiting for a company to release the best titles from the Commodore 64, but given how many C-64 game makers there were, and how many have gone out of business, that's not very likely.
Still, you'd think EA, who was a major maker of C-64 games and still around, w
Here's an idea... (Score:2)
Already available on disc - cheap (Score:3, Insightful)
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/ [gamestop.com]
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.
TRANSLATION: We have no Killer Games (Score:1)
a. an admission that there are no Killer Games that make anyone rush out to buy the xBox 360, and thus a stop-gap until someone can be convinced to do one;
b. an admission that the competing next-gen platforms (PS3,NR) were wise to promote the use of older platform version games, and that this revival of older games for those platforms, but not for xBox360 for the most part, is really hurting MSFT on the revenue side (note: I
Re:TRANSLATION: We have no Killer Games (Score:2)
a. an admission that there are no Killer Games that make anyone rush out to buy the xBox 360, and thus a stop-gap until someone can be convinced to do one;
How do you tally that with the fact that 360's are sold out pretty much everywhere? PGR3 is the best racing game ever (IMHO) and I bought mine just for that. Killer app in my opinion, but some people prefer others, and that's fine.
b. an admission that the competing next-gen platforms (PS3,NR) were wise to promote the use of older platform version games, a
Re:TRANSLATION: We have no Killer Games (Score:1)
I tally that with the planned undershipment of xBox360's, as was detailed in the Wall Street Journal, which was used to create a crowd feel, and has worked quite nicely in maximizing profit per unit.
Me, I don't like racing games, except maybe Mario Kart. Did too much real racing.
Re:TRANSLATION: We have no Killer Games (Score:2)
You do that for a few weeks to create buzz. You don't keep doing it for months. There's no doubt MS had launch supply problems - they say is was a ram problem. They're losing money on sales right now - you better believe they're making those things as fast as they can. The system isn't in the (non-gaming) press
Midway classics vs. Mame (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:Midway classics vs. Mame (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Midway classics vs. Mame (Score:2)
You sure can! Gauntlet on live is great fun!
Re:Midway classics vs. Mame (Score:2)
Re:Midway classics vs. Mame (Score:2)
It still does bug me though when games like Pac-Man get revised like that, since I'm sure there haven't been any new versions of the arcade machine for years and while the number of people with the capability to dump the ROMs is small compared to consoles, it's still a popular enough game that you'd think it would have been verified hundreds of times over.
I'd like to see
Re:Midway classics vs. Mame (Score:2)
Why I am pissed. (Score:1)
Re:Why I am pissed. (Score:1)
Re:Why I am pissed. (Score:1)
Re:Why I am pissed. (Score:2)
Maybe they think we're all tech geeks who only care about hardware, and don't actually want any games to play on our nice shiny useless boxes?
Seems to me they are probably pushing new games, none of which are out or will be before the other consoles ship, in some desperate attempt to catch the edge of the wave. I think they should realize you shouldn't aim for the crest unless you're boogy-boa
Re:Why I am pissed. (Score:2)
I'll gladly admit that the 360 lacked a huge launch lineup, but PGR3 wa