Arcade Classics is a Europe-exclusive compilation of Namco games, released for the Phillips CD-i in 1996. It features a unique port of Ms. Pac-Man not found elsewhere, in addition to Galaga and Galaxian.
Overview[]
Arcade Classics features three games: Ms. Pac-Man, Galaxian, and Galaga. All of the games are loosely based on preexisting home console conversions.
The conversion of Ms. Pac-Man included in the compilation is modeled after the Tengen Ms. Pac-Man ports, most closely the Sega Genesis version. The graphics are overhauled (in a similar fashion to the SNES/Genesis ports), and it includes a two-player cooperative mode; the multiplayer mode is unplayable on many CD-i consoles, as a majority of system models only have one controller port. As with the Tengen releases, the screen scrolls to display the full playfield.
In place of Tengen's original Ms. Pac-Man mazes are a custom set of maze layouts. There are five options of mazes to choose from: Arcade Levels, Battle Zones, Team Spirit, Death Traps, and Speed Mazes; the latter four modes are otherwise exclusive to this release. The game also features three difficulty options: Easy, Hard, and Manic. The default "easy" mode is noted as being rather slow compared to other Ms. Pac-Man releases; the "manic" mode is the fastest option, though the scrolling camera has trouble keeping up with the player's input at this speed.
Galaxian is based on the Famicom version, including recreations of its graphics and sound effects. Galaga appears to be based on the Game Boy version (originally included in Namco Gallery Vol. 1 and Arcade Classic 3: Galaga/Galaxian); however, the graphics and sounds are taken from the arcade version.
Trivia[]
- Arcade Classics originally had a completely different design on the front cover. Namco reportedly voiced concern over the artwork of Ms. Pac-Man, finding it "too risque"; at Namco's request, it was quickly replaced.[1]
- In the Ms. Pac-Man "Arcade Levels", the maze colors alternate between dark blue with yellow dots and red with blue dots. It is unknown why the original arcade colors are not used, though the Namco Hometek-published conversions for NES and Game Gear similarly altered the maze colors.
- Much of the development staff from Arcade Classics also worked on the CD-i version of Pac-Panic.
- Upon exiting the game, a rather long, unskippable credits sequence is played. These credits also feature an advertisement for Pac-Panic and several odd notices below the respective staff. According to artist Johnny Wood, many of these names or notices were made up; including Wood crediting "Special Thanks" to a local sandwich restaurant, and a man named "Yvette Meipies", reportedly mocking the pronunciation of "You've ate my pies" in Brummie dialect. Wood states that they "got away with it" due to the obscurity of the Philips ADS company division.[2]
- One screen in particular credits "Technical Systems Administrative duties coupled with debug facilitation and general network supervision on local systems" to a man named Kasrul Islam; accompanied with a quote reading "'There are none so bold as those who use mneumonics [sic] as their sword' - P.J Mortoni 1832". Aside from the credited work being confusing in itself, there is no record of a Kasrul Islam working on any other video game, nor is there further record/elaboration of the added quote.
- A screen following this reads "Sorry to Flavia Timiani for Paul Ried getting sloshed and producing a psychodelic [sic] burp on your carpet". This reportedly refers to an actual instance where Ried got drunk and vomited on a carpet.[2]
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