Game Details
| Size | 114 MB |
| Region | USA |
| Genre | Compilation |
| Format | 7z / BIN |
| Year | January 1998 |
| Console | PSX |
Arcade’s Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 2 (1998) is a fantastic, pure shot of golden-age arcade nostalgia preserved on the PlayStation 1. Developed by Digital Eclipse and published by Midway Games, this compilation is highly regarded by retro enthusiasts for its commitment to accurate software emulation.
Instead of cheap, poorly programmed ports that felt wrong to play, Digital Eclipse built custom emulation engines for the PS1 hardware to ensure that these timeless late-70s and 80s coin-op cabinets behaved exactly as you remembered them in the arcade.
The Games Lineup
This second volume shifts its focus toward some of Atari’s most structurally unique, vector-graphic, and perspective-pushing releases from the 1980s. The package includes 6 seminal arcade classics:
- Gauntlet (1985): The legendary, quarter-devouring top-down hack-and-slash dungeon crawler. Choose from the Warrior, Valkyrie, Wizard, or Elf to fight endless waves of ghosts and demons. Remember: “Wizard needs food, badly!”
- Marble Madness (1984): A brilliant isometric puzzle-platformer where you use precise physics to steer a marble down a treacherous, obstacle-filled ramp before the timer expires.
- Paperboy (1985): A charmingly chaotic, isometric action game. Ride your bicycle down a hazardous suburban street, successfully tossing newspapers into subscribers’ mailboxes while vandalizing non-subscribers’ homes and dodging runaway lawnmowers.
- Millipede (1982): The frantic, high-speed sequel to Centipede. Defend your garden from an aggressive onslaught of multi-segmented bugs, spiders, earwigs, and exploding DDT mushrooms.
- Crystal Castles (1983): Take control of Bentley Bear in an isometric fantasy landscape, running through beautiful 3D-style castles to collect gems while avoiding nasty tree spirits and dancing skeletons.
- RoadBlasters (1987): A high-octane, post-apocalyptic vehicular combat racing game. Blast enemy sports cars and gunships with roof-mounted lasers while collecting vital fuel globes to keep your car running.
Back Cover Description
“THE COIN-OP CLASSICS ARE BACK WITH A VENGEANCE!”
“Dust off your skills and get ready to experience the ultimate arcade rush right in your living room! Arcade’s Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 2 brings you six of the biggest, multi-million dollar arcade smash hits of all time—perfectly emulated for the PlayStation!
Conquer the dark dungeons of Gauntlet, master the rolling physics of Marble Madness, and brave the mean suburban streets of Paperboy. Packed with custom controller configurations, detailed historical trivia galleries, and authentic arcade settings that let you toggle difficulty and extra lives, this is the definitive retro package for every true gamer.
No quarters. No lines. Just pure arcade history.“
Key Gameplay Features
- Perfect Emulation Architecture: Digital Eclipse didn’t rewrite the code; they forced the PS1 to read the original arcade ROM files. This means enemy patterns, frame rates, glitches, and audio frequencies are completely identical to the original arcade cabinets.
- The Atari Historical Matrix: A wonderful interactive multimedia gallery tucked into the menus. It features deep historical trivia, high-resolution photographs of the original cabinet artwork, design blueprints, and interviews detailing how these games were conceived.
- DualShock Analog Compatibility: Games like Marble Madness and Paperboy originally used unique physical arcade hardware (trackballs and bicycle handlebars). This compilation elegantly maps those nuanced arcade movements to the PS1’s analog sticks for smooth, precise control.
- Custom Arcade Dip-Switches: A retro purist’s dream. The options menu gives you back-end access to the original digital “dip-switches,” letting you customize how many points are required for a bonus life, shift the global AI difficulty, or give yourself infinite continues.
Short Review: A Highly Faithful Retro Time Capsule
The Good
- Flawless Arcade Accuracy: The preservation work here is exceptional. Playing Gauntlet or RoadBlasters feels remarkably crisp, responsive, and completely untainted by emulation lag.
- Superb Multiplayer Support: Gauntlet fully retains its chaotic multiplayer charm, allowing you and your friends to team up for fantastic, frantic couch co-op sessions.
- Excellent History Gallery: The inclusion of historical cabinet data and artwork gives the compilation an upscale, documentary-like feel that respects the medium’s history.
The Bad
No Game Saves for High Scores: True to the raw arcade experience, turning off the console completely wipes the local high-score leaderboards, which can be a bummer if you spent hours setting a new record.
The Digital Controller Gap: While the analog stick mapping works surprisingly well, playing Marble Madness without an authentic physical arcade trackball can still feel a bit slippery and difficult to master for high-score runs.
Screenshots
