Word of Warning: No XBL on Namco 50th

[al138]

That's right, it appears that they dropped XBL support for Namco 50th. I just picked up my copy today, and while I was generally pleased with the quality, I was very disappointed that any Xevious or Dragon Spirit scores will remain unposted. I still think its worth $20, but they could have done SO much more!!!

[dave4shmups]

That's right, it appears that they dropped XBL support for Namco 50th. I just picked up my copy today, and while I was generally pleased with the quality, I was very disappointed that any Xevious or Dragon Spirit scores will remain unposted. I still think its worth $20, but they could have done SO much more!!!

Yeah, like given us Solvalou! Are there any unlockable games in this collection?

[al138]

That's right, it appears that they dropped XBL support for Namco 50th. I just picked up my copy today, and while I was generally pleased with the quality, I was very disappointed that any Xevious or Dragon Spirit scores will remain unposted. I still think its worth $20, but they could have done SO much more!!!

Yeah, like given us Solvalou! Are there any unlockable games in this collection?

Only Galaga 88 and Pac-Mania. And to be honest, the score limits to unlock each are so low you can do it inside of one half an hour! I was a bit disappointed by that, too.

[BrianC]

That's right, it appears that they dropped XBL support for Namco 50th. I just picked up my copy today, and while I was generally pleased with the quality, I was very disappointed that any Xevious or Dragon Spirit scores will remain unposted. I still think its worth $20, but they could have done SO much more!!!

Yeah, like given us Solvalou! Are there any unlockable games in this collection?

Only Galaga 88 and Pac-Mania. And to be honest, the score limits to unlock each are so low you can do it inside of one half an hour! I was a bit disappointed by that, too.

Galaga '88 is one heck of an unlockable, though. Edit: misread the first post. No tate is a disappointment, but I'll probably pick it up anyway. How is the yoko mode for the games?

[highlandcattle]

And what kind of tunes are all added?

[Thunder Force]

Namco giving us an official port of Galaga '88 as part of this pack is great shmup news, especially as it wasn't widely advertised as being in this collection.

[dave4shmups]

Namco giving us an official port of Galaga '88 as part of this pack is great shmup news, especially as it wasn't widely advertised as being in this collection.

Pssh you can get Galaga '88 on the TG-16, the PC Engine, or the Game Gear. I still agree with the IGN reviewer of this collection when he said:

"If Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary is how Namco commemorates company milestones, I don't want to show up to any of its parties."

Right on the money, IMO.

[gameoverDude]

BOO. I'd get it for Galaga '88, but unfortunately that's about it. Come on Namco- put some games out that you haven't yet ported, like Nebulasray. Quit this Street Fighter II Champion Edition crap.

[BrianC]

Well, the port of Ms. Pac-Man in the last console Namco Museum and the aspect ratios of some of the games were a bit disappointing, so I really don't mind the games getting other versions, especially since this one have the be getting better ports/emulation. I'm still wondering about how the yoko mode looks for this compliation, though...

[al138]

Well, the port of Ms. Pac-Man in the last console Namco Museum and the aspect ratios of some of the games were a bit disappointing, so I really don't mind the games getting other versions, especially since this one have the be getting better ports/emulation. I'm still wondering about how the yoko mode looks for this compliation, though...

If by "yoko" you mean on a TV of standard orientation, I think it's just fine. If you have a 16:9 TV, the games are a little distorted, even if you have your XBox set up for widescreen. The emulation is no better or worse than the last Namco Museum offering. Really the only selling point to this collection is the emulation of games never before on a compilation (in the US), such as Rolling Thunder, Dragon Spirit, Xevious, and Sky Kid.

I'm waiting patiently for Capcom's and Tecmo's compilation, as well as the next Midway Treasures. This is a banner month for classic gaming in the US--too bad it looks as if we will not get the Taito collections.

[al138]

And what kind of tunes are all added?

Here is a playlist:

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/nam ... 29942.html

Too bad we only get five songs! Make no mistake, I like the addition, but this doesn't touch the masterful integration that Activision achieved with its Anthology release.

[MichiyoNoShiroIV]

and the 5 songs we get suck.

is it really so hard to take EVERY PS1 disc up the polycount and resolution on the interface and give us all the games on those plus maybe Tekken 1?

Namco is getting as Lazy as Capcom.(but Capcom's Compliation will rule us all)

[al138]

and the 5 songs we get suck.

is it really so hard to take EVERY PS1 disc up the polycount and resolution on the interface and give us all the games on those plus maybe Tekken 1?

Namco is getting as Lazy as Capcom.(but Capcom's Compliation will rule us all)

But Namco has given us Tekken 1. It's on Tekken 5, along with Tekken 2 & 3. Well worth the money!

[MichiyoNoShiroIV]

and the 5 songs we get suck.

is it really so hard to take EVERY PS1 disc up the polycount and resolution on the interface and give us all the games on those plus maybe Tekken 1?

Namco is getting as Lazy as Capcom.(but Capcom's Compliation will rule us all)

But Namco has given us Tekken 1. It's on Tekken 5, along with Tekken 2 & 3. Well worth the money!

SOme of us don't have a PS2.

I have Bleem tekken 3 one of the things I blame the death of my dreamcast on.

Other companies have made duplicate reissues, even namco.

[CecilMcW00t]

The emulation is no better or worse than the last Namco Museum offering. Really the only selling point to this collection is the emulation of games never before on a compilation (in the US), such as Rolling Thunder, Dragon Spirit, Xevious, and Sky Kid.

Not to be anal but Dragon Spirit was on Namco Museum Vol. 5 and released in the US. So was Xevious, on Vol. 2 I believe and Xevious 3D+G.

[BrianC]

The emulation is no better or worse than the last Namco Museum offering. Really the only selling point to this collection is the emulation of games never before on a compilation (in the US), such as Rolling Thunder, Dragon Spirit, Xevious, and Sky Kid.

Not to be anal but Dragon Spirit was on Namco Museum Vol. 5 and released in the US. So was Xevious, on Vol. 2 I believe and Xevious 3D+G.

How can the emulation be no better or worse than the last one? The last one seemed to be ports rather than actual emulation and the full screen mode seems to be smaller than what the screens of the 50th anniversary one suggests. This new one is actual emulation. Also, I highly doubt the emulated Ms. Pac-Man in the new one is slightly choppy (it seems to be anyway) and slower like it is in the previous Namco Museum. oh well, I'll probably get it anyway for Rolling Thunder, Dragon Spirit, and Galaga '88.

Xevious is also in the second GCN Star Fox and the Ms. Pac-Man controller.

[MichiyoNoShiroIV]

anything one version has that the others don't?

Since I have a Cube and XBOX I'd like to get the best version out of the 2.

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

Does this version have a tate option?

[al138]

Well, the XBox version was supposed to have had XBL support, which would have made it the clear choice. Since it does not, all three console versions are virtually the same. I think now it comes down to controller preferences. There IS something to be said for the GC controller for simple games with a single action button (Galaga, Galaxian, Dig Dug, etc.). Had I known that the XBox version lacked XBL support, I probably would have bought it for my GameCube.

And no, it does not have TATE.

[MichiyoNoShiroIV]

Gamecube it is

[professor ganson]

Is this game out yet in the States? I haven't seen it myself.

[al138]

Yes, but you may have a hard time finding it depending where you are. Fed Ex has a large processing center down there, and as a result shipments have been delayed to a great many retailers, especially (it seems) EB/Gamestop.

[professor ganson]

Yeah, maybe there are some delivery issues. I was at Toys R Us and Target today-- neither had it.

[BrianC]

Is this game out yet in the States? I haven't seen it myself.

yes. I have seen the GCN and GBA ones at EB. I just picked up the GBA one today. While it's disappointing that it's only 5 games and no battery save, I still feel that it's worth the 20 bucks since the port quality is extremely good. The ports are better than the last Namco Museum. Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man both have good sized full screen modes. Galaga has bigger sprites than the version in the other Namco museum for GBA in both full screen modes. The previous GBA Dig Dig didn't have any full screen and this version is also a better port. Rally-X is the only game that doesn't have multiple game modes, but the port is excellent. Strangly enough, I found the "Atari 800" full screen mode on some games to look better than tate in some ways (though Dig Dug definatly looks better in tate), though both modes rock. I dubbed it "Atari 800" becuase some graphics are streched out like in the Atari 800 ports of Dig Dug and Pac-Man.

I played the first Namco Museum GCN again and I was probably hard on the port of Ms. Pac-Man. It's probably just set on the easier difficulty and the so called choppiness is just the lower resloution playing tricks on me. Still, it would be nice if it had tate like Namco museum v.3. I'm wondering why so many ports of the games in the Namco Museums have some dip switch settings left out. It's very odd how the GBA Namco Museum 50th Anniversary has the difficulty settings for Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Galaga, and so many other versions don't.

Oh yeah, another thing I noticed. It seems like the ports in the previous console Namco Museums are actually ports or emulations of the PSX Namco Museum versions of the games minus the tate. Some of those PSX Museums have an odd reversed tate, but it's still tate and preferable over their yoko modes. I heard that Namco Museum 50th Anniversary uses new emulations and not the Namco Museum versions. Do the console versions of Namco Museum 50th Anniversary have all the difficulty settings?

[yyr]

Hope this clears something up for someone.

Namcomuseum was started on the PS by Namco itself. Namco developed and released the five lettered versions.

Then, Namco involved a developer named Mass Media. Mass Media developed the versions of Namcomuseum (pre-50th) for Dreamcast, GBA, PS2, Xbox and GameCube. Pac-Man Collection for GBA was also theirs. As far as I could tell, some/many/most/all of the versions of the games within were not exact emulations. For example, many of Ms. Pac-Man's sound effects were incorrect. (Strangely, the wrong sounds were identical in every Mass Media version, including the one for GBA.) Mass Media's versions also had incomplete dip switch menus and lacked true low res or Tate mode. I can sum it up quite easily: they felt "off."

For "50th" Namco is using Digital Eclipse. DE was behind some of the very first retro releases--all the way back to when Defender, Joust and Robotron were released individually for Mac (before they were packaged together with Stargate, Bubbles and Sinistar and released as one of the first retro compilations). DE has always been super-serious about their emulation releases, usually making them pixel-perfect in every detail. It's for that reason that I will buy these new versions, despite the fact that I own Mass Media's versions already.

This is not to say that the MM versions are completely useless. The version of Pole Position on GBA was actually pretty good. They're also the only way to play the stellar Pac-Man Arrangement.