Latest Haul: Midway Arcade Treasures

Alright, I have a confession to make.  Maybe the “Wii Virtual Console” category gave it away already, but I do own and play systems that are more modern than the Saturn.  [*gasp*]  The retro gaming kick that I’ve been on is something that started several months ago — probably around when I got a Neo-Geo CDZ.  Then it really kicked into high gear when I finally bought myself the Turbo Duo that I had been wanting for years.  But while most of my gaming time is now devoted to older games, I do occasionally bust out the PS2, Xbox, and Wii.  (Though I haven’t taken the plunge yet on Xbox 360 or PS3 due to price, reliability, and lack of interesting games.)

So while I was waiting for the tires to be changed on my car today, I decided to browse around the nearby GameStop in search of good, cheap game deals.  Normally, I hate GameStop, but I am a fan of their $9.99 and under bin.  Today, it had a couple of interesting finds that appealed to my retro gaming senses: Midway Arcade Treasures 1 and 2 for the Xbox.

I’m probably going to have to write a whole separate post about how it’s just not as appealing to play classic games on modern system vs. the original hardware, but for now, I decided to set aside the hate and pick these collections up.  At $8 apiece, that’s 44 games for $16!  That’s quite a deal.  But the real kicker is that these are arcade ports.  A lot of the games included in the collections may have been ported to home consoles in the past, but it was usually with some level of sacrifice.  After all, when arcades were actually popular, they were usually a technological step ahead of the home systems.

So, while Marble Madness for the NES may be a fantastic game, it doesn’t live up to the original arcade version.  Likewise for the NES port of Spy Hunter.  And frankly, the SNES and Genesis ports of Mortal Kombat II and 3 just don’t cut it.  Or Robotron 2084, Smash TV, and Total Carnage without dual joysticks?  No thanks!  Even though the Arcade Treasures collections aren’t perfect (there’s a slightly filtered look to most of the games), they’re as close as you can get to the original arcade versions without an expensive MAME cabinet.  So, these collections get the thumbs-up from me.

Just one question… We get Mortal Kombat II and 3 in the second collection, but where’s the original Mortal Kombat?  My sweat-infused SNES version needs to be replaced!

Check after the break for the complete game list in each collection.

Midway Arcade Treasures:

• 720º
• Blaster
• Bubbles
• Defender
• Defender II
• Gauntlet
• Joust
• Joust 2
• KLAX
• Marble Madness
• Paperboy
• Rampage
• Rampart
• RoadBlasters
• Robotron 2084
• Root Beer Tapper
• Satan’s Hollow
• Sinistar
• Smash TV
• SPLAT!
• Spy Hunter
• Super Sprint
• Toobin’
• Vindicators

Midway Arcade Treasures 2:

• APB
• Arch Rivals
• Championship Sprint
• Cyberball 2072
• Gauntlet II
• Hard Drivin’
• Kozmik Krooz’r
• Mortal Kombat II
• Mortal Kombat 3
• NARC
• Pit Fighter
• Primal Rage
• Rampage World Tour
• Spy Hunter II
• Timber
• Total Carnage
• Wacko
• Wizard of Wor
• Xenophobe
• Xybots