Fifteen years after the arcade debut of Asteroids comes Microsoft Arcade, a Windows collection of five of Atari's best-known arcade titles. Though these classic games have been translated by others over the years, Microsoft Arcade has done the best job of remaining true to the originals.
The feature attraction in the five-game bundle is Asteroids. It looks and plays like the real thing: white lines simulate the vector graphics of the original to a T, and the firing accuracy of that damned, small flying saucer remains on-target!
Missile Command is another clone right from the arcade. It's the first licensed rendition of the nuclear holocaust game to feature three antiballistic missile bases, just like the coin-op. The game play picks up speed awfully fast on a 486 or a Pentium, but things can be slowed down in any of the games by customizing options.
Battlezone and Tempest, likewise, look identical to their arcade counterparts. Battlezone, we quickly discover, was actually one of Atari's dullest games. Blowing up enemy tanks repeatedly didn't make it appealing in arcade halls, being immersed in the game by looking through a periscope-like viewer did. Battlezone was virtual reality for a quarter, way before somebody invented the term and started charging people six bucks to play this type of videogame. Tempest's malady is that any version of this game simply won't play well without the spinning knob used on the coin-op to whirl the yellow, crab-like shooter around the geometric play fields.
The real mutt of the litter is Centipede. Though this version depicts the mushroom-riddled play screen in its original, vertical aspect ratio, the graphics are tiny and really require a 21-inch-or-larger monitor.
Sure, it's more fun to play these games on the original coin-ops, but good luck finding 'em. If you insist on strict realism, go ahead and buy Microsoft Arcade - and send me a quarter each time you use it.
Microsoft Arcade for Windows: US$39.95. Microsoft: (800) 426 9400, +1 (206) 637 9308.
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