So are these old games worth your time? For nostalgia buffs, the answer's a definite yes, though you will miss the feel of the arcade controller. And Pole Position, a simple auto racing sim, and Dig Dug, a nearly indescribable, underground, demon quest, were both released in 1982. The allure of a little pizza face gobbling ghosts appealed to all ages and both sexes. Pac-Man hit the arcades in 1980 and became the most popular arcade game ever. Not a detail seems to have been forgotten, not even the built-in, but known-only-to-insiders playing tricks.įor those who don't know, Galaxian came out in 1979 and is a back-and-forth scrolling space shooter. Microsoft could have beefed up the sound and graphics but remained faithful to original, albeit weak, eight-bit audio and 16 colors. Its programmers worked closely with Namco, the games' designer and still one of the top arcade game makers in the world. Microsoft has done an excellent job re-engineering these games to run in Windows. Today, you can experience that golden age of arcades at home.
The allure of the arcade was overwhelming. My Apple II+ versions of Galaxian and Pac-Man paled in comparison to the "real" things. And those titles invariably included the four games in Microsoft's Return of Arcade: Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Pole Position, and Galaxian.īack then, computers simply could not compete with arcade machines' dedicated audio and video processors. Lines of eager gamers snaked out from popular titles. Parents urged boycotts and feared for a lost generation. Back then arcade aficionados piled quarters on popular machines to "hold" their station. This was the apex of the video arcade's golden age. Of course, that may be a pre-embryonic hark for many gamers, but bear with me. A feature called "quick help" provides brief operating instructions for new players at the beginning of a game, and as an added bonus, a brief history of each game is available in the help menu. Game options such as number of players, controls, lives, speed and difficulty are fully customizable, and high scores are automatically saved. Each game is playable in a sizable window or in full-screen mode. Four early arcade hits make a PC comeback in Microsoft Return of Arcade, a compilation of Pac-Man, Pole Position, Galaxian and Dig Dug.
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