Namco, Konami, Taito collections

I gave a go to a few compilations I already had in my library.

Contrary to what I remembered Namco's Museum Archives are not arcade games but rather the NES/Famicom versions. Thus, they're good versions because the original conversions were good versions but not the arcade classics. There's a great demake of Pac-Man Championship Edition on Vol 1. (Vol 2 has a new variation of Gaplus as an 8 bit game, which is more generic).

As they're NES/Famicom games it's a strictly two button affair on all. There are some QoL via emulation like save states but presentation is otherwise a little bare. 

In the end my favourites were Dragon Spirit and Druaga in vol 1 and Mendel Palace and Rolling Thunder (very Lupin) for vol. 2. Apart from that I had never realised how disgusting Dig Dug was!

I then tried Konami's Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection. This one is almost all shooters, and includes Japanese and overseas versions. Apart from great blown out high resolution art of Gradius on the splash page presentation is bare and disappointing. Even worse the emulations themselves seem problematic. I have never played Gradius on an arcade machine but there was some serious slowdown and it was not the Treasure-style slowdown for effect when there's a huge explosion. Graphics do not look crips and it made me check if these were also console conversions and not the arcade originals. The QoL improvements are also pretty bare. It was hard to have fun with it.

 

 

The company that handles these conversions are M2, which are very highly regarded. So I became suspicious, although these have by now a few years. Finally, I turned over to Darius Cozmic Collection. Thankfully they vindicated their reputation. This is an expensive collection (~40$) that only has three base games (Darius I, II and Gaiden) but with some variations (3 variations of I and 3 more of II). Darius is, of course, notable for its three-screen cabinet. And.... it's amazing. This isn't a game that has fantastic gameplay and the bosses themselves are quite disappointing. But the game is a visual statement piece that looks unlike any other thing out there with very appealing visual effects. Gameplaywise Gaiden is the best, but these are relatively simple games. The QoL improvements are also quite deep so, unlike the other two, there is a lot of things you can adjust to make it look, sound and feel as pleasant as you want.