Newsgroups: rec.games.video.classic
Subject: MS Return of Arcade: Mini-Review
From: Mark Androvich <MAndrovic@aol.com>
Date: 4 Apr 96 09:06:52 -0800

After hearing rumors that Return of Arcade was being re-worked after the 
success of William's emulated Arcade Classics, I wondered if this would 
be the case.  Sadly, it is not.  The Return of Arcade games are not 
emulated.

Return of Arcade features Pac-Man, Galaxian, Dig-Dug and Pole Position.  
It is for WIN95 ONLY, and comes on 3 disks for $29.99.

The game histories, my favorite part of the original MS Arcade, are very 
sketchy.  Instead of quotes from the actual programmers or designers, 
there are brief "press releases" from Namco which all seem about the 
same-- "We knew we had a hit when people lined up outside the arcade to 
play it."  No other information, such as the production sketches 
and videos featured on William's Arcade Classics, is included.

The games themselves are good translations, featuring the original music. 
Unfortunately, they cannot be played in full-screen size (as in MS 
Arcade) only small windows.  

Dig-Dug is probably the best of the bunch, followed by Pac-Man.  Galaxian 
has a lot of movement which slows the game down (firing, your ship 
moving, aliens flying, aliens moving side to side, etc).  Pole Position 
is so unresponsive that it is almost unplayable.  It just doesn't capture 
the feeling of movement that the arcade game had, and the controls are 
very sluggish.

If Namco's Museum Vol. 1, featuring Galaga, Pac-Man, Rally-X and Pole 
Position among others-- ever makes it to the PC, you might want to hold 
out for it since those games are emulated.  Or, better yet, buy a 
PlayStation and get William's Arcade Classics and Namco's Museaum Vol. 1 
and 2 (with Mappy and Xevious).

Classic gamers might enjoy MS Return of Arcade in order to play versions 
of Dig-Dug and Pac-Man on their PC's at home (or work?).  But most of us 
already own better home versions (5200, 7800, Atari 8-bit) of all these 
games.  If they had only included Mappy or Xevious, there would have been 
a better reason to buy it...

Mark Androvich