Namco Museum
Namco Museum refers to the series of compilations released by Namco for various 32-bit and above consoles, containing releases of their games from the 1980s. The titles have been met with mixed reaction from the gaming press, but their apparent success has led to the series continuing for almost a decade.
The series began on the Sony PlayStation with the tentatively named Namco Museum Volume 1, indicating Namco's intent to make further instalments of the series. Indeed, the series ran until Volume 5 on the PlayStation 1, covering various games from the late 1980s, before moving onto the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, Sega Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Nintendo Gamecube and Microsoft Xbox.
Namco Museum Volume 1
| Namco Museum Volume 1 | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Namco |
| Publisher(s) | Namco |
| Platform(s) | Playstation |
| Release | July 31, 1996 |
| Genre(s) | Compilation |
| Mode(s) | Single Player, Multiplayer |
This was the first in the long series for the PlayStation and contained Pac-Man (1980), Rally-X (1980), New Rally-X (1981), Galaga (1981), Pole Position (1982), Bosconian (1981) and Toy Pop (1986). Toy Pop was relatively unknown.
All of the games were faithful to the arcade originals - Galaga allowed for an alternative screenmode to compensate for the lack of vertical monitor, whereby the scoreboard was located on the left of the screen, or rotated the image 90 degrees if the user possessed a vertical monitor or was willing to risk placing the television/monitor on its side. Pac-Man allowed the same. Nonetheless, all of the games in this and other collections were "recreated" using the original source code. The games in "Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection" were emulated using the original game ROMs.
While the control systems of six of the games were well preserved, Pole Position suffered in transition. At the time, the PlayStation's analog controller was not available and analog control was only possible by Namco's unpopular neGcon joypad.
The package also featured a "museum" mode where the player could walk through a virtual museum containing various curiosities surrounding the games including images of the mainboards, marketing material and conceptual artwork (all from the Japanese releases; neither this nor the others contain any American materials). For this reason, the games themselves are based on the Japanese releases, although for the U.S. the games retain their U.S. changes (i.e., Pac-Man is still "Pac-Man", as opposed to "Puckman"; the ghosts still have their U.S. names, etc).
Microsoft had already produced a similar product in 1996 under the title "Microsoft Return of the Arcade" for Windows 95 which was practically identical in contents and concept[1], also containing versions of Pacman, Pole Position, Galaga and Dig Dug, albeit recreated as opposed to emulated.
Namco Museum Volume 2
| Namco Museum Volume 2 | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Namco |
| Publisher(s) | Namco |
| Platform(s) | Playstation |
| Release | September 30, 1996 |
| Genre(s) | Compilation |
| Mode(s) | Single Player, Multiplayer |
The second installment of the PlayStation series featured Mappy (1983), Xevious (1982), Galaga sequel Gaplus (1984), Grobda (1984) (a Xevious "spinoff"), Dragon Buster (1984) and Super Pac-Man (1982) (Cutie Q (1979) in the Japanese version). It enjoyed similar success to the original, and contained a similar "museum" mode. The Japanese version also features Bomb Bee (1979) as a hidden game.
Namco Museum Volume 3
| Namco Museum Volume 3 | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Namco |
| Publisher(s) | Namco |
| Platform(s) | Playstation |
| Release | January 31, 1997 |
| Genre(s) | Compilation |
| Mode(s) | Single Player, Multiplayer |
The third PlayStation volume contained Galaxian (1979), Dig Dug (1982), Pac-Man sequel Ms. Pac-Man (1981), Pole Position II (1983), The Tower of Druaga (1984) and Phozon (1983). The first four were well-known in the U.S., but the latter two were relatively unknown. It contained the now-customary museum mode. This was the first in the series to receive general criticism from the gaming press, with serious questions being raised about the inclusion of the rather intensely difficult Tower of Druaga, even though copies of the compilation enclosed a separate hint book for the game inside the case.
Namco Museum Volume 4
| Namco Museum Volume 4 | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Namco |
| Publisher(s) | Namco |
| Platform(s) | Playstation |
| Release | June 30, 1997 |
| Genre(s) | Compilation |
| Mode(s) | Single Player, Multiplayer |
Volume 4 for the PlayStation featured Pac-Land (1984), Assault (1988), Ordyne (1988), the sequel to The Tower of Druaga known as The Return of Ishtar (1986) and Genpei ToumaDen (1986). The usual museum mode was included. It was not well-received.
Namco Museum Volume 5
| Namco Museum Volume 5 | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Namco |
| Publisher(s) | Namco |
| Platform(s) | Playstation |
| Release | 1997 |
| Genre(s) | Compilation |
| Mode(s) | Single Player, Multiplayer |
Volume 5 for the PlayStation featured Pac-Mania (1987), Dragon Spirit (1987), Metro-Cross (1985), Baraduke (1985) and Valkyrie no Densetsu (1989), as well as the standard museum mode.
Namco Museum Encore
This title was the only one that was not planned in advance for the PlayStation, hence the name. It was also the only one not to contain a game featuring Pac-Man. It featured seven titles: Dragon Saber (1990), Wonder Momo (1987), Rompers (1989), Motos (1985), Sky Kid (1985), King and Balloon (1980), and Rolling Thunder (1986). This was the only title never to be released outside Japan.
Namco Museum 64/DC
Namco's foray onto the Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast featured six games. Although the Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast didn't get multiple volumes of Namco Museum like the PlayStation did, Namco picked out the most popular games (mostly those deemed to be "classics" from the Golden Age of Video Gaming) from the PlayStation versions and including them in a single compilation. The Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast versions featured Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Galaxian, Dig Dug, and Pole Position, but no museum mode as with the PlayStation versions.
Namco Museum Advance
The Game Boy Advance version featured the same games as the Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo 64 versions bar Pac-Man. Hardware limitations however meant that the accuracy of the games suffered somewhat, especially with the horizontal Game Boy Advance screen. This compilation did not save high scores, leading to some criticism.
Namco Museum (128-bit)
The PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube were host to yet another version of the series. The version on these consoles included all the games from the Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast version plus Pac-Man Arrangement, Galaga Arrangement, Dig Dug Arrangement, Pac-Attack, Pac-Mania, and Pole Position II. Pac-Attack and Pac-Mania must be unlocked by attaining a certain score in Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man.
Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection
This title refers to Namco's 50 years as a company which originally manufactured toys. It was released on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and PC and includes sixteen games: Pac-Man (1980), Ms. Pac-Man (1981), Galaga (1981), Galaxian (1979), Dig Dug (1982), Pole Position (1982), Pole Position II (1983), Rolling Thunder (1986), Rally-X (1980), Bosconian (1981), Dragon Spirit (1987), Sky Kid (1985), Xevious (1982), Mappy (1983), Pac-Mania (1987), and Galaga '88 (1987). Both Pac-Mania and Galaga '88 are locked initially and require minimum high scores in their prequel games to unlock. Because this museum was developed by Digital Eclipse rather than Mass Media, it features true arcade game emulation, retains all correct sounds, and rids the Pac-Man/Ms. Pac-Man side art. Additionally, this game features five songs from the 1980s: Come on Eileen, Working for the Weekend, She Drives Me Crazy, Talking in Your Sleep, and Joystick, which are played in the game selection menu. Like the previous collection there is no actual museum content.
There is also a scaled down version for the GameBoy Advance which includes five games: Pac-Man (1980), Ms. Pac-Man (1981), Rally-X (1980), Galaga (1981), and Dig Dug (1982).
Namco Museum Battle Collection
This title was released in Japan and the United States on the PlayStation Portable. It contains over 10 of Namco's most well known games like Pac-Man (1980) and Galaga (1981) though the U.S. version includes more games than the Japanese version. In addition, "Arrangement" variants are available for Pac-Man, Galaga, New Rally-X (1981), and Dig Dug (1982) which have updated gameplay, graphics, and can be played in a versus or cooperative mode using the PSP's Ad hoc feature. Game Sharing, a feature that had not yet been used on the PSP, was introduced in this game. This allowed others PSPs in the area to download the first few levels of some of the classic games.