.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE Midway Arcade Classics
.AUTHOR James Booth
.SUMMARY Do you remember the arcade classics Midway Arcade Classics contains Defender II, Joust, Root Beer Tapper, Sinistar, and Spy Hunter? They’re back! Read our review to find out if they’re all you remember.
.FEATURE
Midway Arcade Classics from Handmark (see http://www.handmark.com) is a trip back in time to the video arcades of the 1980s. Available as a download from Handmark or on SD card, Midway Arcade Classics contains Defender II, Joust, Root Beer Tapper, Sinistar, and Spy Hunter.
.H1 Defender II
In Defender II, shown in Figure A, you must, of course, defend the planet from alien invaders.
.FIGPAIR A Defend the planet from hordes of attacking aliens.
Your ship is equipped with auto-fire lasers, smart bombs, hyper-space jump, and invisio cloaking technology, just like in the original arcade game.
[Just for the record, your esteemed Editor-in-Chief lost vast, VAST quantities of quarters, standing in front of an original Defender game console, in a Store 24 on Boyton Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. In fact, back in 1980, you could most likely find him at 3am either in front of the Defender game or at the local Denny’s. Sadly, 24 years later, not much has changed. — DG]
.H1 Joust
In Joust, shown in Figure B, you play a knight riding a flying ostrich, jousting the enemy for glory.
.FIGPAIR B Knock your opponents off their mounts to advance.
Your goal is to flap your bird higher than an enemy and hit him from above to knock him out, then scoop up the egg he drops. After defeating all the enemies on the screen, you progress to the next wave.
.BREAK_EMAIL There are four more games reviewed. Tap your mouse here for the rest and a detailed review of each.
.H1 Root Beer Tapper
Root Beer Tapper, shown in Figure C, has you as the bartender, in a variety of establishments, doling out root beer to the thirsty patrons in order to clear out the bar and move on to the next level.
.FIGPAIR C Serve up those thirsty patrons.
The action can get kind of hectic as you toss drinks and catch glasses and tips, all while trying to keep the parched customers from tossing you out for not serving them fast enough.
.H1 Sinistar
I must confess, I’ve never really cared for Sinistar, shown in Figure D, even in the arcade.
.FIGPAIR D Without Sinibombs, Sinistar will gobble you up.
You have to maneuver your ship around the sector, shooting asteroids to release crystals. Then you catch the crystals to make Sinibombs before the enemy workers collect enough to make Sinistar. Once he’s released, Sinistar will seek you out and gobble you up. Your only hope is having enough Sinibombs to destroy him, so you’ll want to collect those crystals.
.H1 Spy Hunter
Spy Hunter, shown in Figure E, was my all-time favorite video game of the 80s and Handmark has done a great job of capturing the look and feel of the original arcade game.
.FIGPAIR E Mow down the enemy with the machine guns in your super spy car.
It has everything: the machine guns, oil slicks, smoke screens, and missiles. The equipment upgrade truck is there, as are the enemy cars with spiked wheels, the bulletproof cars, boats, helicopters, civilian traffic, and multiple environments. In fact, the only thing missing is the theme from Peter Gunn. The premise is simple, shoot, or otherwise run off the road, all the enemy vehicles you encounter while avoiding civilian traffic and getting your equipment upgrades.
.H1 Is it really worth your quarters?
Handmark has done a great job of capturing the look and feel of these 80s arcade games. They all looked just as I remember them from my youth — though smaller. I must confess, I really didn’t care for Defender II, Joust, or Sinistar. In all fairness though, I didn’t like them in the arcade either. They just aren’t my type of game and I had issues with their control interfaces.
All of the games have configurable controls and all support the 5-way Navigator. I had trouble, though, with Defender, Joust, and Sinistar. I think their playability would benefit from a joystick gameface. I just found it difficult to control the movement and firing at the same time using the buttons and Navigator.
Joust in particular was hard, as it requires you to rapidly and repeatedly press a button to flap your mount’s wings for lift. I foresee this causing a problem with the hardware on your handheld by damaging the buttons from over use.
I’d have to give Midway Arcade Classics from Handmark a 3 out of 5. Although all of the games looked and played like the originals, I had problems with the controls on three of them that I think could be solved with a joystick gameface. But I think the flapping requirement in Joust will eventually cause hardware problems.
I didn’t really see anything wrong with Root Beer Tapper or Spy Hunter and I truly enjoyed playing those two.
.RATING 3
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
Product availability
For more information on Midway Arcade Classics, visit http://www.handmark.com/products/detail.php?id=92.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO James Booth is a self-taught PC and Palm device user that dabbles in graphics and photography. He can be reached at lizardworks@mchsi.com.
