Midway Arcade Treasures
| Midway Arcade Treasures | |
|---|---|
  Top: Original cover art. Bottom: Re-release cover art, designed to match that of the later volumes in the series. | |
| Developer(s) | Digital Eclipse, Backbone Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | Midway, ZOO Digital Publishing |
| Platform(s) | PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Compilation |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Distribution | DVD, Nintendo optical disc |
Midway Arcade Treasures is a video game compilation of 24 arcade games developed by Digital Eclipse and released by Midway for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows.
Midway followed up the Arcade Treasures with successive compilations featuring different games: Midway Arcade Treasures 2, Midway Arcade Treasures 3, the portable Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play and the Windows-exclusive Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition.
After Midway's bankruptcy, Warner Bros. owns the rights and released another arcade compilation called Midway Arcade Origins for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 which includes 29 select games from MAT 1 and 2 plus Super Off Road from 3. It also contains Vindicators Part II which replaced the original Vindicators from Midway Arcade Treasures.
This game was later rereleased as Midway Arcade Treasures 1, the title and packaging being changed slightly to match the second and third games in the series. Despite this, the games themselves remain the same.
A similar collection of Midway arcade games was also released exclusively in Japan by Success under the title Game Center USA: Midway Arcade Treasures, which compiled 32 select games from MAT 1 and 2 and was released for the PlayStation 2 on September 21, 2006.[1]
Features
The compilation plays similarly on all three consoles; however, the Xbox version has the extra ability to upload scores to an online scoreboard. The special features on each version of the game are the same. These include game histories, developer interviews and other documents. This compilation is a combination of the games included in Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits, Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits, and Arcade Party Pak for the original PlayStation and PC and each contain exactly the same extras from those collections. Additionally, there are eleven more games included that are not found in those collections.
In the UK, distribution of the compilation was handled by ZOO Digital Publishing (later rebranded Zushi Games).
This game is currently not Xbox 360 compatible.
Games
The collection consists of the following 24 arcade games:
| Title | Released |
|---|---|
| 720° | 1986 |
| Blaster | 1983 |
| Bubbles | 1983 |
| Defender | 1980 |
| Defender II (a.k.a. StarGate) | 1981 |
| Gauntlet | 1985 |
| Joust | 1982 |
| Joust 2: Survival of the Fittest | 1986 |
| Klax | 1989 |
| Marble Madness | 1984 |
| Paperboy | 1984 |
| Rampage | 1986 |
| Rampart | 1990 |
| RoadBlasters | 1987 |
| Robotron: 2084 | 1982 |
| Root Beer Tapper | 1984 |
| Satan's Hollow | 1982 |
| Sinistar | 1982 |
| Smash TV | 1990 |
| SPLAT! | 1982 |
| Spy Hunter | 1983 |
| Super Sprint | 1986 |
| Toobin' | 1988 |
| Vindicators | 1988 |
Reception
Midway Arcade Treasures received mixed, but generally positive reviews with a 75.31% for the GameCube version, 73.86% for the PlayStation 2 version, and 75.02% for the Xbox version. Criticisms are the poor menu layout, slowdown in Smash TV, for the documentaries and interviews having video quality that is grainy and unrestored, as well as the documentaries and interviews being rehashed from previous Midway collections.
Remake
In 2012, a remake of the collection was released: an application called Midway Arcade. Available for iOS, it is the first of the saga published by Warner Bros., due to Midway's bankruptcy.
See also
- Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits
- Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits
- Arcade Party Pak
- Midway Arcade Origins
References
- ↑ "The Game Center of USA: Midway Arcade Treasures". Play-Asia.com. Retrieved 10 September 2013.