0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Arcade's Greatest Hits: Midway Collection 2

Arcade's Greatest Hits: Midway Collection 2 is the second arcade collection developed by Digital Eclipse Software for the Playstation. The collection which includes Joust 2: Survival of the Fittest, Blaster, Splat, Moon Patrol, Root Beer Tapper, Spy Hunter and BurgerTime and was released on the 30^th of November 1997 and four months later in March of 1998 in Europe.

Like the previous arcade collections developed by Digital Eclipse Software the North American release was published by Midway Games, while the European released was handled by GT Interactive, the game also received a windows released in 1997 as well. The collection also contains a trivia quiz upon winning this quiz an FMV interviews with the game designs as well as a gallery of pictures.

Stating off with Joust 2 Survival Of The Fittest from 1986 is the follow up to the 1982 released Joust, the game has the player take control of a knight with a lance who rides a flying ostrich like creature and do battle against an evil knight which is controlled by the computer, this evil knight rides a buzzard like creature.

Like the previous Joust the game allows two player to play at the same time with the aim of the game to flap your ostrich steeds wings using the attack button and either left or right and hit the enemy knight and mount you must strike them from above to destroy the rider and mount.

Upon the defeat of an enemy they will drop and egg, the player must collect these eggs before they hatch, if they fail to do so and they hatch a new knight will be released which will be tough than the previous one the player defeated. The player can also transform into a Pegasus for increased offensive power but at the cost of manoeuvrability.

Blaster up next from 1983 this Eugene Javis and Larry DeMar creation was originally published by Williams and is a 3D shooter set in outer space. The aim of the game is to shoot enemies and avoid the various obstacles in a total of twenty levels, each of the levels has different goals for the player to achieve. One such goal is rescuing marooned astronauts, doing so will reward the player with 1000 points with this total increasing by 200 for each subsequent rescues.

At the time of the Arcade versions release back in the early 80s graphically this game was pretty advanced using large sprits to give the player the feeling of the asteroids and attackers approaching the players ship. The game is partly a sequel to Robotron 2084, with the games introductory text implying that the events of Blaster takes place after the events of the 1982 game.

The third game in this collection is Splat a maze puzzle game where the player must guide a spider safely through a maze, eating the patches of grass dotted throughout the maze to gain points. One of the major tests for a player is the constantly moving screen from up, down, left or right.

Each level has a different pattern to the walls, these must be avoided at all costs as coming into contact with them will result in the player losing a life this is made harder by the previously mentioned moving screen. The game has a total of seven levels with each increasing the difficulty level.

For the fourth game in this collection we head to the moon and Moon Patrol a side scrolling shooter, taking on the role of a Luna City police office assigned to sector nine home to some of the toughest thugs in the galaxy. The officer must negotiate the perils of the moon while patrolling sector nine, The players moon buggy is constantly moving right with the player able to slow down and speed up as well as jump and shoot, well as being able to jump and shoot simultaneously.

During the course of the players progression in the game they will pass a total of 25 checkpoints with each lettered A to Z these points act as respawn points with each stage consisting of a total of 5 checkpoints, within the entire course, when the player reaches the end of a stage under the required time they receive a large points bonus.

There are many hazards on the moon from small and large rocks which can be shot and destroyed by the moon buggy’s weapons, they can also be jumped over. Also on the moon are tanks which are stationary and fire missiles at the player, these can be destroyed by using you buggy’s weapons. The player is also hunted by rocket cars these appear from behind the player and try to ram them.

The moon is not the lifeless place they would have you believe it is with carnivorous plants inhabiting the Luna surface, they pop out of pits hoping to snare any unsuspecting moon buggy drivers. Also stalking the moon are aliens, yes little green men in their UFO’s try to destroy the player by bombarding the surface, this bombardment creates pits on the moons surface.

Next we head to the bar and Root Beer Tapper, also known just as Tapper is action game where the player plays as a barman and has to serve beer to demanding customers. The game has four bars with the very top most bar the smallest gradually increasing in length to the fourth bar.

Periodically customers will appear at the opposite end of the bar to the player and ask for a drink, the player must full a mug at one of the four available taps, once the player releases the tap the mug automatically slides towards the waiting patron who catches the mug that is slid towards them, unless they already have a drink or are distracted then the mug will slide off the bar and cause a loss of life for the player.

The customers gradually edge closer up the bar as more time passes without a drink they are pushed back slightly once they have been served, once the customer has finished their drink they resume their push further up the bar.

Periodically customers will leave tips which the player can collect, these tips are used towards entertainment such as dancing girls in the wild west themed bar and cheerleaders in the sports bar. The entertainment acts as a distraction, distracting some of the customers and stopping their advance up the bar.

In order to complete a level the player must clear every customer from the bar once complete the bartender will pour themselves a drink, before tossing the mug into the air with varying results. As the game progresses customers will appear more frequently and move up the bar much faster, they are also pushed back less when receiving a drink, the maximum per bar is four customers at a time. Once the player has completed the 13 levels in the game the player starts from the beginning again, this time the difficulty is increased as well as having some other variations.

The penultimate game in the collection is a top down vehicular combat game which was released for arcades in 1983, with the game drawing inspiration from James Bond, and at one time was to carry the James Bond name.

Driving down the road in their technologically advanced interceptor car the player must destroy as many enemy vehicles using a variety of weapons from the standard machine guns to oil slicks and missiles, while at the same time trying to avoid the enemies who are trying to destroy you or force you from the road. Things are made harder with your enemy calling upon bomb dropping helicopters as well as the enemy forces on the road.

The player must be cautious when dealing with enemies however, as there are civilians on the road as well, destroying non enemy vehicles will result in the players score halting for a short time, also going off road will result in the players score stopping. The game itself is a continuous game with no ending.

The final entry in this collection is the 1982 platformer BurgerTime, the player plays as chef Peter Pepper who must walk over the various ingredients scattered across a maze of platforms, while avoiding evil eggs, sausages and pickles that chase him around the maze.

The objective of the game is to complete a number of hamburgers this is done by Chef Pepper walking over the entire length of the ingredient, either lettuce, tomato, burger or bun. Once the chef has walked over the said item of food it drops down to the next level.

If an item of food drops down onto another item of food the latter will then drop down another level, if the food items drop down on to an enemy the enemy will be automatically squished a level is complete once the player has assembled all of the required burgers. To assist the player they have the use of a pepper shaker which can be used against enemy food. At higher levels the level design changes there is also an increase in the speed of enemy foods and the player is required to assemble more ingredients.

Like the previous arcade collection this one has a brief high when it comes to critic reviews however they quickly become average, starting with the best as usual which comes from The Video Game Critic who scored the game an 83, saying Joust 2 is interesting and a rarely seen sequel of a classic game. They praised its graphics and gameplay however were critical of the game in the fun department. Splat and Blaster two previously unreleased games proved mildly entertaining as best to the reviewer.

Moving on to the next review from Power Unlimited who rated the game at an above average 71, the Dutch publication they concluded with the following. Piece by piece games from the digital stone age, which are absolutely worth playing. Among other things, they are meant for the older gamer who wants to tear a tear out of youth sentiment or to show his younger game companion that 'in the past everything was better'.

All Game Guide were just behind Power Unlimited as were IGN with both publications rating the game at a 70/100, All Game Guide praised the nice value of a seven games in one package especially praising Root Beer Tapper as worth the price of admission.

IGN while admitting that Retro gaming is not for everyone they did conclude with But for those of us who spent all our weekends and free times in darkly lit pizza joints and arcades, collections like this are worth their weight in gold.

GameSpot had the following to say in their 66 rated review. So if you're willing to overlook the graphical shortcomings of our forefathers in favor of some good old-fashioned playability, this collection of arcade emulations will provide solid retro fun.

 It's got a great combination of exciting gameplay (Joust 2) and pure what-were-they-thinking weirdness (Root Beer Tapper). This volume features some of the more innovative game design of the '80s and doesn't suffer too much from translation problems in the interface department.

At the bottom of the review scale we find Electronic Gaming Monthly who scored this collection at an average 57/100, they did praised the collection as essential to any retro gaming fanatic, however they concluded with the following.

I would find it hard, however, to recommend this disc to anyone else. None of these games really excite me, and I doubt there are going to excite you. But it wouldn't hurt to pick this title up, as these games are hard to find.

The final two reviews come from German publications Video Games and Mega Fun who scored this collection at a 62 and 60 respectively, with Video Games critical of the games screen usage with the developers trying to keep the games true to the arcade originals, which they did praise for the retro enthusiasts and did also praise Tapper, Moon Patrol, and Joust 2.as entertaining.

Mega Fun concluded their 60 rated review with Moon Patrol has a good level design by today's standards, Root Beer Tapper is the classic "in between" game, and Burger Time offers the timeless Pac Man gameplay. Spy Hunter and Joust 2 are also a matter of taste, while the block graphics shooter Blaster and the over-hectic splat! at best, good for a laugh. Whether that's enough is up to you.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude who will pay you $5 for you copy of the game if you are looking to trade in, meanwhile if you are in the market for a copy of the game from Gamedude then you can pick one up for $12.

Moving over to Retrogames.co.uk we find that this collection is not currently stocked so we quickly move over to eStarland.com who do stock this title, they currently have one used copy of the game available, this is a complete copy and is priced at $19.50 which is around £14.63 in the UK or €21.79 in the Euro zone countries. eStarland.com also offer a trade in for the game and will offer $8.50 for your copy.

Finally on to Amazon.com where we don’t find a huge stock of the game available with the cheapest options incomplete copies of the game, one copy that comes with free shipping is priced at $14.66 however this copy says nothing about the games condition.

For a guaranteed complete copy of the game you will have to spend $16.69 for a good condition copy of the game this copy also comes with free shipping. It may be worth spending a little extra though for a very good condition copy for $18.79 one can be picked up. Used priced continue to climb from here with prices reaching $32.98.

If you are in the market for a new copy of this title, prepare to stump up a significant amount of cash, prices for a new copy of the game start at $89.99, this copy is fulfilled by Amazon so comes with the free shipping on orders over $25. Prices for new copies continue to take significant jumps in prices up to $105 then $120 finally peaking at just short of $129.

Written by

P J Gibbon