PLAYSTATION GAME RECOMMENDATIONS |

[#] Arcade's Greatest Hits - The Atari Collection 1 (Midway, PlayStation, 1996)

Better than Namco Museum?

Arcade's Greatest Hits - The Atari Collection 1 screenshot 1

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It's unfortunate that for a lot of people, PS1 arcade comps begin and end at Namco Museum. Great as they are, they aren't perfect, between the close-but-not-exact game recreations and each volume's scattershot selection of games both good and rightfully forgotten. We can do better--and dare I say, I have found better. Arcade's Greatest Hits - The Atari Collection 1 is an ugly name for a highly attractive compilation, stacked with properly emulated cracking classics, their settings all customizable, their menus lovingly animated and a full documentary about Atari's golden age in tow. Yeah, it's glorious.

Asteroids, Battlezone, Centipede, Missile Command, Super Breakout, and Tempest are on offer, and that's just a killer lineup. As far as I've had experience with the the cabinet originals, these are dead on. While trackball and spinner games on a digital pad might seem at first like an issue, Digital Eclipse wisely decided to support the ever-underrated PlayStation Mouse, letting you click away at missiles or ease or whiz your paddle into just the right spot, and it makes all the difference. (Battlezone's QWOP-like literal tank controls where both the D-pad and face buttons are used to move are on the opposite end of the control sensibility spectrum, but that's not the comp's fault and actually map nicely to the PlayStation controller.)

Yeah, this one became an obsession for a bit for me. Being so used to the easier 2600 versions of these games, I spent many, many games on high alert a few rounds into Tempest or Missile Command or just trying to crest 200 on a game of progressive Super Breakout. These games are no joke in difficulty, which is part of why they continue to be so addictive. The documentary is surprisingly informative too, as these former Atari game designers go through stories of meeting spouses through Asteroids, high-paying bugs in Tempest, and nightmares of nuclear armageddon working on Missile Command. The fact that this comp isn't mentioned next to the Namco Museum sets is a travesty, because it outdoes about half the series in a single package.

Recommended for... anyone who'd buy more than one Namco Museum, that's for sure.