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no music in most of the games

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 17 / 19
Date: February 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This software product lacks background music in most of the games (MK1, MK2, MK3, etc). It also installs a resident driver on your PC for copy protection purposes. This software protection driver adds unecessary resources to your PC, and adds absolutely no beneift to you, or your machine. Because of the music issues alone, you do not get an accurate representation of the arcade games it tries to emulate. I absolutely recommend that you stay away from this product.

Midway fails to deliver games, succeeds in spyware.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 17
Date: February 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

What a bunch of crap! No music in the games??!? And don't get me started on that copy protection spyware crap they installed on my machine. It messed up my internet connection settings and drained my resources. Didn't you guys learn from Sony et al that customers (or "consumers" if you want to treat us like cattle) don't stand for this crap?

Arcade Treasures Deluxe's Soul Burns Brightly - despite few tarnishes

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 14
Date: February 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Review Edit #4 (March 4, 2008)!

(A final addendum for edit #4: Midway has put up a few extra images on their website for download. You sadly can't read the MK1 comic book, but you get extra pictures for Wizard of War and Primal Rage. Officially, no new patches or extra content are forthcoming, only technical support on the existing product).

Third version of this review notes: Midway has released a second patch for MATDE, which now allows you to fight "Smoke" the secret character in Mortal Kombat II, by holding down and pressing Start when Dan "Toasty" Forden appears to deliver his signature line after an uppercut on the "Portal" stage. Previously this was impossible to do because pressing Start would only bring up the "pause" screen. This same patch also makes it possible to do the "Random Select" trick when picking your character in MK2, by holding up and pressing start when you are highlighting Lui Kang (player 1) or Reptile (player 2). Sadly, the patch does not yet fix any other bugs discovered in MATDE, such as random select not working in MK3 (for the same reasons it didn't work in MK2 before), or the wrong sound effect playing when you block Kitana's fan attack in MK2, or the glitchy shadows in MK2, or the background hum in San Fransisco Rush: the Rock, etc. Midway is making progress...

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Previous review:

The first revision of this review was on March 1st for this product which I previously gave 1 star on account of a terrible bug that was present in the shipped version. Before applying the recently released 80 megabyte patch (came out yesterday), the first disc of games had NO MUSIC. Now that this problem is fixed, I can evaluate the product much more fairly, and it truly is excellent overall, despite a few minor flaws.

What problems remain, specifically?

1) The shadows in MKII are somewhat glitchy, frequently flickering or disappearing altogether. Sounds minor, but it's annoying, since we know this game is emulated perfectly (or almost perfectly) elsewhere. Midway should have made sure this version was up to snuff! They suggested I update my video card drivers (I have an ATI All-in-Wonder 9600). I tried this, but to no avail. Others customers have reported the same problem.

2) In three games (Primal Rage, Mortal Kombat and Wizard of Wor) there are more than 3 images in the "Bonus" gallery section. The menu won't let you view any images beyond image #3. At first I thought these extra images needed to be "unlocked" but after racking up 47 wins and over 50 million points in MK (on normal difficulty), and even beating the game on another occasion, nothing has changed. This has to be a bug, and was not addressed in the patch!
EDIT (April 5, 2006): Midway now claims on their support page that these "extra images" were never intended to be included and it is simply a glitch. There is no new content to be found or unlocked.

3) NEW BUG DISCOVERED: In Mortal Kombat 2, when you are hit by Kitana (or Jade)'s "fan attack" you hear a certain sound effect play. When you BLOCK the attack you hear the same sound effect. This is incorrect, as the arcade version did not play the same sound effect in both cases.

4) NEW BUG DISCOVERED: The "Random Select" feature, while fixed in the latest patch for MK2, does NOT work for Mortal Kombat 3. Holding up and Start on the default characters is supposed to let you "random select" but you can't due to the way the pause function is mapped to the Start function.

5) During San Fransisco Rush: The Rock: Alcatraz Edition (on the MAT3 portion of this set), a strange droning "hum" sound can be heard in the background. I am not familiar with the arcade version of this game, but I've been told by fans of it that this is not normal, and rather distracting when they play it in MATDE.

I realize this set was delayed nearly 3 months, but it seems that it could have used another week or two's worth of work to get these other elements in where they belonged.

Another complaint about the set is the Starforce protection scheme. While not quite as overtly annoying as Namco Museum's taking you out of the game to load up the protection program, staring at a plain "LOADING" screen for almost a minute (on a 2 ghz, 256 mb sdram, 128 mb video card machine) is incredibly boring. Sure, I had to wait longer in line sometimes to play these games, but isn't that the point of the home market, to eliminate the lines? The Starforce thing is negotiable, but if not for the FIVE main problems above, I would have given the set a 5 star rating. Hopefully for the poor folks who can't download the huge patches over dialup, future versions will include the patch or else it will be made available as a magazine packin or disc you could order for free (or shipping charges only).

The lack of support for Windows 9x/ME may be a problem for some users who still have these discontinued Microsoft OS's, but it's not an issue for me. I just notice that most other "emulated retrogame collections" still support them.

The instructions are very sparse, though one realizes that many of these games were released on console or PC in the past and each of those games had a full length manual in its own right. Perhaps they just assume you'll go visit Gamefaqs for the move lists and secret codes? At least a little more instruction ought to have been included (unless I missed a txt doc or something on the four cd-roms this set comes on). Essentially each game gets a very brief introduction and we have some control stuff, but far from complete. This might also be a way to promote the selling of "strategy guides" from companies like Prima that substitute for manuals for some titles these days...

There is bonus material in the form of image galleries (retro ads and fliers) which are great fun, and some videos for certain games giving behind the scenes details or promotional fluff. Some of the history is tongue in cheek (did the original Mortal Kombat really have a "strong background story and well rounded characters"? This is probably meant to assume players all read the comic book (via the special time limited offer advertised in the first game), because in-game, the characters aren't really anymore developed than any other fighting game contemporary to this one (though they would become more developed later in the series). "Well Rounded" might also be interpreted as the fact that MK's characters all have the same basic moves, and different special moves, unlike a game like Street Fighter II in which they are much more different from one another.

The menus are simple enough for anyone to navigate. Interestingly, this is not actually one complete set, but more like two sets together in one box. Midway Arcade Treasures 2 is apparently the same as the console versions but with the addition of MK1 to the lineup. Midway Arcade Treasures 3 is a seperate installation on the last two discs and has its own menu, etc.

Some people were upset that no "DVD-ROM" version of this set was released, or that there was no integrated version with all the games. Certainly it would have been nice not to have to swap discs in order to play a racing title and then an action title or vice versa.

The interactive menus and bonus materials are a far cry from a set like Taito Legends, but it is definitely a huge step up from the virtually bare-bones Midway Arcade Treasures (part 1). Hopefully future sets continue to improve.

Note: I am grateful to Midway for releasing TWO patches to fix the most glaring of the bugs in the released version, the lack of music on half the games (MAT2: discs 1 & 2) and the missing MK2 secret features due to the Start/Pause function. I will update this review further if any other fixes are released to address the other issues.

Arcade Classics for the PC

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The seller was super quick at getting this out & delivered. Good shopping experience, except for the two emails I received asking for a review - when for whatever reason, even AMAZON.com had assumed I'd moved on with my life.

The games themselves are fun & almost exactly like the arcade and perfectly well behaved in 1 player mode.

However, regarding two-player mode, if you want to play any of these games without an issue where two of the same gamepad interfere with each other & make play impossible.

Possible Work Arounds:
1.) I would suggest you get yourself a console and play it there (if available) instead of a PC - because I'm positive you wont have this problem. :)
2.) Just use two-three different kinds of gamepad.
3.) At least consider installing seperate drivers for each gamepad - just in case, matching & co-related seriel numbers between the drivers & pads themselves, might 'unconfuse' the PC. (Though this seems a logical course of action, I dont know if that works, I couldn't test it.)
4.) Definitely check for patches from the publisher, regarding the two-player issue, although I dont recall there being ... ANY ... patches for the set, at all. (We tried that, and as stated - there aren't any)

Finally!!! MK1 along with MAT2 and 3!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: November 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

first of all, yes there is no background music on this comp, but my only guess is maybe they are trying to make it look like your in the an actual arcade joint (a place where there are arcades and I added two words which don't go together very often.), in which you can hear other arcade game sounds from other machines and maybe they didn't add music to these games because of that, and quite frankly, those arcade places can get noisy so maybe you can't always hear sound effects. One great thing is that they added MK1 to this collection (finally). It was supposed to be with Midway Arcade Treasures 2, but got removed so it can be on the collector's edition of MK Deception on PS2 and Xbox. not a smart move as that created an angry fanbase. I bought this for 10 bucks, and I mainly got it for The MK games. One thing I should add is that you should have a USB controller pad for this as a keyboard can be difficult to control. also make sure that the controller has a D-pad that can go 8 ways but on the controller itself shows the 4 way direction. for instance, playing this on my Logitech Dual Action Controller (a great controller for PC gamers alike but not for this specific game.), it's D pad has 8 ways so it's hard to perform a fatality when you might accidently jump instead of hitting that specific direction. the games play perfectly on my computer and it has only small requirements (like 1.4 GHz speed and a video card and all of that computer junk). don't let non existant background music make you ignore this game. it's recommended for any old school arcade player out there.

All Your Coin-Op Favorites are Now On Your PC!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

As a huge fan of many of the coin-op classics in this collection, I couldn't resist picking up a copy of Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe. Many of the other reviewers who have reviewed this prouduct failed to mention that the games contained in this collection are 100% coin-op authentic. That's a real shame too. It should be noted that many people like myself who loved these coin-op classics in the arcade were gravely disappointed by their console releases. This was during a time when it was a dream of arcade game fans to see these games translated into a 100% coin-op authentic console release. Not only did it not happen (through no fault of their own--consoles and PCs of the period simply weren't up to the job), but in many instances, (like Killer Instinct Gold, Cruisin' USA, and San Francisco Rush for Nintendo 64 for example) even if the game looked almost exactly like it's coin-op counterpart, there would still be significant differences which, while seemingly minor (particularly to people who never played the coin-op versions), detracted from the overall experience nonetheless. Missing content, or changed music and/or sound effects are just a couple of examples from a long list which I won't I won't even attempt to get into here. In other instances, various console releases would only vaguley resemble their coin-op brethren, and failed UTTERLY at capturing the atmosphere and spirit that made their coin-op counterparts so immensely successful. Other examples of this included Hydro Thunder, Off-Road Thunder, San Francisco Rush, and Killer Instinct which were enormously disappointing on consoles. This often translated into mediocre console sales on games that made millions in arcades.

In this collection, all these complaints have finally been addressed, and it sports a good assortment of classic Midway favorites. While I'm not positive, I strongly suspect that instead of using emulators, the coin-op software has been adapated to run on a PC. Previous reviewers citing extremely minute details being not quite right in the Mortal Kombat games for example may very well be correct, and their complaints legitimate, but allot of these details are so minescule that only a small portion of the most die hard fans with the best memories will ever notice. By and large, most of these games are coin-op authentic down the finest details. And that's what I think will matter most to the vast majority of nostalgic arcade fans. These games are as close to 100% coin-op authenticity as you will ever get short of buying one of those old arcade machines. For me, just getting coin-op authentic versions of Hydro Thunder, Mortal Kombat, Off-Road Thunder, and both San Francisco Rush games alone was more than enough to justify my 15 bucks. Copy protection scheme not withstanding, I can't see for the life of me what most game magazines, and professional reviewers think is so terrible about this collection. For me, the only reason the copy protection warrants a complaint is because it causes the game to launch slowly. And just for the record, and the sake of other reviewers who swear Star Force installs spyware, I have other games in my collection that use Star Force copy protection, and have never found spyware associated with it on my machine. The games' system specs are modest enough for it to run on most any modern computer, and it runs well seeming very stable and well behaved, with the only crashes I've ever encountered being those of my poor cars in the San Francisco Rush games. Heck, in the racing games, you even get rumblepad support, and Arcade Treasures 3 doesn't even force you to switch between using your gamepad, and keyboard/mouse at the menus. While my mention of this may seem minor for a PC version, these are both often neglected features, and when you play the game on your TV with a gamepad, the absence of a gamepad compatible menu, and in-game interface moves from mildly annoying to blood boilling within seconds given that without any way of pausing, or bringing up the in-game menu from the gamepad, it forces you to have to get up and walk across the room just to press escape every time the phone rings.

All said and done, I think previous reviewers have been too quick to jump the gun in giving this excellent collection a bad review, or were simply unaware of the patches that correct most if not all their complaints. My single regret is that after seeing sales driven down by the bombardment of negative reviews by professional reviewers, I seriously doubt we will see another chapter in the Arcade Treasures franchise containing other ultra popular Midway favorites (like San Francisco Rush, Mortal Kombat 4, Killer Instinct, Killer Instinct 2, War Gods, Area 51, Cruisin USA, Cruisin World, and Cruisin Exotica) not included in this release. My suspicion is that Midway probably intended to include these in another Arcade Treasures release, but probably anticipated poor sales after getting pounded into pudding with all the bad press on this installment. Speaking for myself, the only reason I gave it 4 star ratings instead of 5 is because some of the games in Arcade Treasures 2 are throw aways as far as I'm concerned, but that's just me--other people may love them. Another minor scuff is that Midway could also have integrated the collection on a DVD instead of simply bundling Arade Treasures 2 and 3 together on 4 CDs. This would have saved allot of disc swapping, and been a minor concession to convenience, but these are more caveats than criticisms--I've yet to see a console port that gets everything right. With the exception of a handful of dud games in Arcade Treasures 2, I'm satisfied with this purchase, and don't see myself trading or selling it anytime soon, if it all--it's a welcome addition to my collection, and sees frequent action. Overall, I wouldn't hesitate a minute to recommend this collection to any arcade fan who craves coin-op authentic versions of their old Midway favorites.

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