Update 29 April 1998 -
You can visit
Digital Eclipse's homepage
for more information on Atari Collection 2 and their other games. Also,
thanks go to Dave's Classics
for providing a link to this review!
It may sound like I'm really ragging on the game... I'm a little spoiled
by the Namco Museum discs for the Playstation and was expecting better,
but I can be picky.
Right after the Midway and Digital Eclipse logo is a lame CGI intro movie. Let me repeat for emphasis - LAME! Boyd Burggrabe (that's who's credited in the manual) likely thought he made a "cool animation that ties all the games together, like on the Namco classics discs." Well, sorry, but no. But, no one is going to buy the disc just to see an intro movie, so let's move on.
At the start menu, you choose games by choosing one of the game "characters" from the intro movie. These characters are not from the arcade artwork. Paperboy looks like he's made of painted paper towel tubes and egg cartons, the Roadblasters car has no gun turret, and the "marble" is neither red nor blue but instead "nondescript swirly colors". Gauntlet is a manhole cover, and I have absolutely no idea what the Crystal Castles object is supposed to be. Only the Millipede looks like a millipede. The ugly interface takes away from the classic feel that should be present in a game like this.
Some games also support the driving controller "NeGcon". But, only a regular Playstation controller can operate the initial menu, so you will not be able to start using a NeGcon. Just a small bug - that should have been fixed.
In each game, you can choose between "arcade" and "TV safe" mode. Basically, TV mode squishes everything to fit the screen. The arcade graphics are simply shrunken, so there's no scanlines missing as far as I can tell, except in the text. The text fonts in TV mode are 6 pixels high instead of 7.
I preferred arcade mode. Instead of shrinking the graphics, part of the top and/or bottom are cut off. You can adjust the screen up and down. There's no option to rotate the image for full screen arcade mode, though it's likely because turning a TV on its side can seriously damage it.
The control setupis nice. You can control the one player games from either controller slot. Atari Collection supports the NeGcon "twist" controller (which also controls Playstation steering wheels) for Paperboy and Roadblasters; the Dual Analog Pad and Dual Analog Stick can control Crystal Castles, Paperboy, and Roadblasters. The multi-tap plays four player Gauntlet, and mouse controls Crystal Castles, Marble Madness, and Millipede. You can perform sensivity adjustments for the analog controllers.
What's nice about the setup is that you can have more than one button for each function. For instance, you could set every button on the pad to "left" if you really wanted to. There are also more control options specifically tailored to each game. Marble Madness has normal and 45 degree modes, and Paperboy and Roadblasters have options for how the player accelerates and brakes.
Each game is set to free play mode, except Roadblasters. This game makes the classic Atari "bong" inserted-quarted sound effect and starts automatically when you press 1P start. The emulated games Millipede and Crystal Castles have an operator test screen, the other games have none. Game options can be set via the pop-up menu which has volume, difficulty, starting lives, and bonus life setting. You can also choose whether to save high scores and settings on exit, or to clear high scores. That's it. No music / sfx player on the disc at all, which really sucks, especially since the music is obviously sampled and not emulated while playing the simulated games.
Paperboy uses some kind of funky interlaced video mode. It might be arcade resolution, since "arcade mode" only makes the screen brighter when compared with "TV mode". Some small graphics are hard to make out since reds and whites bleed in the game. It also flickers. The game probably looks better using a S-Video or RGB cable, but I don't have one. Anyway, video mode aside, this is the first GOOD translation of Paperboy to a home console, which is funny because almost every console had one. While the Playstation version is not being emulated, it still captures the fun of the arcade. Being able to use Namco's NeGcon controller makes it even more fun. The NeGcon, for those unfamiliar, is a controller shaped like a normal pad but split in half. If you hold one half, you can rotate the other side about 170 degrees in either direction. The Paperboy arcade used a handlebar which rotated right/left and pushed forward/backward for speed. The NeGcon is fairly close to this feel.
All the voice and music from the arcade is there, though there is a glitch causing some of the level select music to incorrectly play after the "day's review". It's pretty distracting and should really have been fixed before the CD was released.
Marble Madness is pulled off pretty well. The arcade used two trackballs, but the biggest problem on the Playstation isn't control, but sound. First off, Marble Madness was one of the first stereo arcade games. This version is NOT. The sound was also poorly recorded for use in this Playstation version. You can actually hear hiss if you listen through headphones. Also, the music to level four (arial level) fades out halfway through the level, starts again, then abruptly stops. It's really too bad, because everything else in Marble Madness is done very well. Gamepad controls use a "turbo button" or you can use a mouse if you have one.
Roadblasters also uses the NeGcon to good effect. It seems to run at about 80-85% smoothness of the arcade. I didn't play the arcade a whole lot, but there seems to be something missing from this version. The main problem is that steering and shooting doesn't feel accurate and immediate. I also tried playing on "novice" (the first level) and the music never stopped. Later on, the music from Marble Madness started playing during some of the levels! After playing Roadblasters, I can honestly say I prefer the Genesis version. Roadblasters also has a "TV-mode" which is so choppy I couldn't play it.
Roadblasters does have the graphics and sound of the arcade. It also is in stereo, unlike Marble Madness. I also appreciate that the T-Shirt offer from the arcade is still there but a message has been inserted saying that it's expired. Don't want to give people the wrong idea.
I've been playing Gauntlet in MAME, and I already have the excellent Genesis version, Gauntlet IV. Gauntlet on the Playstation disc adds sound and voice, but doesn't have a cool battle mode like Gauntlet IV. Finally, there's another sound bug in this game. No sound effect for picking up a key.
That leaves Crystal Castles and Millipede. These are both done very well. Crystal Castles has fuller sound, better than in MAME, in my opinion. These two games control very well with the standard PSX pad. There's even an option to enable a graphic showing the "1p/2p start button" light from the arcade. Crystal Castles also has a slight skipping problem in its introductory music that Roadblasters also has, but not to such an annoying level.
Finally, we get to the non-game part of the disc, the gallery. No, it doesn't have the fancy polygon world presentation like on the Namco Museum series. Not even close. Think "slide show". You can zoom in to read arcade flyers (which can be hard on a TV screen) and there's also a few tidbits of trivia. Below I list everything in the gallery. It's respectable, but a little sparse.
Part of the gallery is text from an interview with Ed Logg, the programmer of many Atari arcade games. It would've been nice to see or hear some of it. Or even, a picture of the guy? More research into the games' history would've also been nice. There's no mention of Crystal Castles starting as a 3D version of Asteroids called "Toporoids" (one of the production sketches even has "Topoids" written on the top!) There's absolutely no information about Paperboy. No information about the voices used in the games, or even the programmers' other games. There is, however watered down trivia that can be read in about three minutes.
I bought this collection like I am a big fan of these arcade games. I like as many options and extras, for example sound and music tests. Most importantly I want to play the closest to the arcade the Playstation has to offer. I notice if the graphics look funny, or if the game's control is off, or if the game's sound is screwed up. These are all problems on this CD. The collection succeeds is bringing plenty of controller options, decent translations, and fond memories of old wasted quarters. It just doesn't keep me coming back for more.
Gallery: Millipede: Logo Cabinet picture Flyer (front) Flyer (back) Flyer (front) Flyer (back) Flyer Operator's Manual (cover) Text screens: The mushroom growth stage in Millipede was coded by Mark Cerny, who suggested to Millipede creator, Ed Logg, that he incorporate "Conway's Rule of Life" into the game. Crystal Castles: Logo Cabinet picture Flyer (front) Flyer (back) Conversion kit flyer "Atari Coin Connection" cover Development sketches (graph paper) Development sketches (graph paper) Development sketch (would've been nice to be able to zoom on this one) Development sketch Development sketch Development sketch Operator's manual I assume (cover) Text screens: There are many secret warps in the game. To trigger the first warp, run to the back-most corner of the first playfield and press the jump button. Another secret warp is in the rear corner of the hidden ramp of the first castle of level 3. However, Bentley Bear must be wearing the hat when he jumps at this location. When this warp is used, he will advance to the first castle of level 5. Franz Lanzinger fought long and hard to retain Crystal Castles' unique features: a definitive ending, which was a first for Atari. Atari Inc was founded in 1972 and produced the first successful video game Pong. Among the other video games created by Atari Inc., were Millipede and Crystal Castles. In 1984, Atari Inc. split into two companies: Atari Corp. and Atari Games. Gauntlet, Marble Madness, and Paperboy were among the first games produced by Atari games. Gauntlet: Logo Cabinet picture (two player) Flyer (front) Flyer (back) Cabinet picture (four player) Flyer (front) Flyer (back) Tiger handheld game (!) Gauntlet II Cabinet picture (2p next to 4p with signs on top of each) Gauntlet II flyer (front) Gauntlet II flyer (back) Operator's Manual (cover) Text screens: Ed Logg had just finished the video disc version of Road Runner and was then asked to convert it to the System I hardware (used in Marble Madness and others). Ed had a better idea and fortunately they went for it. That idea was Gauntlet. Gauntlet was first playtested in a small arcade in San Jose. In the first week, word had spread and people were coming in from everywhere to play it. Collections were over $1000 per week. A sign had to be placed on the game limiting play. News of Gauntlet's popularity spread, and soon competitors started flying in just to see the game and take pictures. Ed Logg asked marketing to pull the game from the field test, just to prevent others from seeing it. This is the only time Ed is aware of that a game had to be pulled for being too popular. Atari marketing was not sure the idea for Gauntlet would work. After all, "how are you going to get four strangers to play together?" Atari Games' Xybots was originally done with Gauntlet characters, but it was decided that they didn't want any more Gauntlet-themed games so the characters were changed. Had they not been changed, Gauntlet would've spawned Atari's first Doom-like game in the arcade. (actually Wolf-3D-like, how quickly we forget eh? --Bobby) Gauntlet had many unique hardware innovations. Pat McCarthy, the engineer on Gauntlet, along with Ed Logg, its creator, received five patents for the work on this game. Marble Madness: Logo Cabinet picture Flyer (front) Flyer (back) Operator's Manual (cover) Operator's Manual (back) Text screens: Mark Cerny, creator of Marble Madness, was 17 when he joined Atari Games. To create the graphics of Marble Madness and the other games of the time, Atari used a development system called the Picture Processing System. It took up a small room, cost $100,000, and featured a huge tablet with a 12-button digitizing "puck". Despite the technology, it could only draw horizontal or vertical lines automatically, and so diagnal lines had to be rendered by hand. Paperboy: Logo Cabinet picture Flyer (front) Flyer (back) Operator's Manual (cover) Roadblasters: Logo Environmental cabinet picture (I want one!) Cabinet picture Flyer (front) Flyer (back) Operator's Manual (cover, nice picture) Text screens: Lyle Rains, designer of Roadblasters, at one time had hoped to include the 50's hit "Mr. Sandman" as the music for one of the levels. This surreal feature was never implemented in the final game (the background to this screen shows a game screen testing the responsiveness of the wheel and pedals, by the way) The games RoadBlasters, Gauntlet and Marble Madness were all created on the successful Atari System I coin-op game architecture.