Namco Museum 50th Anniversary is a compilation of Namco games, developed by Digital Eclipse and released in 2005 by Namco Hometek on multiple platforms. The compilation was released in commemoration of Namco's 50th anniversary as a company (being formed in 1955), as well as Pac-Man's 25th anniversary.
A PlayStation 2-exclusive variant of the game was later released in Japan as Namco Museum Arcade HITS! (ナムコミュージアムアーケードHITS! Namuko Myūjiamu Ākēdo HITS!), with minor alterations compared to the 50th Anniversary version.
Namco Museum 50th Anniversary's main menu features a rotating wheel of arcade machines; clicking on a machine will load into the respective game. The compilation features 16 games total (despite the packaging's claim of "14 games", though two of them are unlockable); all of the included games are emulated ports of Namco arcade titles. The ports themselves are very accurate to the arcade originals in performance, save for having slight issues in their sound emulation (in particular, most of the games have their audio play in a slightly higher pitch).
Game Boy Advance version[]
The Game Boy Advance release of the game only features five titles total (Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Rally-X, and Dig Dug). Notably, this version appears to still use proper emulation; though due to the Game Boy Advance hardware's limitations, it features scaled-down graphics and further off-pitch sound.
Each game displays in a stretched horizontal view by default, with scaled-down graphics. In most titles (save for Rally-X), the screen layout can be changed by pressing the Select button; including a vertical resolution mode with roughly full-size sprites, with the console needing to be flipped on its side. Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man also have a scrolling horizontal view, similar to Pac-Man Collection and the original Game Boy Advance version of Namco Museum.
Games[]
The console and PC versions of Namco Museum 50th Anniversary include the following titles:
Pac-Mania and Galaga '88 are unlockable games. To unlock them, the player must score 15,000 or more points in Pac-Man, and 20,000 or more points in Ms. Pac-Man, for Pac-Mania; and score 40,000 or more points in Galaga for Galaga '88. Both games are unlocked by default in the Japanese Arcade HITS! release.
The Game Boy Advance release of Namco Museum 50th Anniversary only features five games: Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Rally-X, and Dig Dug.
Music[]
The main menu of the compilation cycles through five licensed songs from the 1980s:
"Come On Eileen" by Dexys Midnight Runners
"Working for the Weekend" by Loverboy
"She Drives Me Crazy" by Fine Young Cannibals
"Talking in Your Sleep" by The Romantics
"Joystick" by Dazz Band
The Game Boy Advance version only features one generic background track; as does the Japanese Arcade HITS! version.
Trivia[]
The home console versions were originally planned to feature Super Pac-Man, but it was not included in the final release.[2] Additionally, the Game Boy Advance version was originally planned to feature Bosconian instead of Rally-X.[3]
When shown at E3 2005, Namco Museum 50th Anniversary used recreations of the original North American artwork for every arcade machine, as well as mimicking their cabinet shapes. In the final release, however, each machine is greatly simplified in design; removing most artwork of the characters, and using the same shape for every machine.[4] The reasoning for this alteration is unknown, though it may be (partially) connected to the Pac-Man artwork style guides.
Some early footage of the Game Boy Advance version's menu appears to be in an "in between" state of being changed to the simplified machine designs; with Pac-Man and Dig Dug still retaining aspects of their more accurate original designs.[5]
Prerelease video footage of the Game Boy Advance version shows a slightly different horizontal view for the games; featuring the full-size sprites instead of the graphics being scaled down.[6]
Unlike a majority of Namco Museum compilations, each game retains its original copyright byline. The sole exception to this is Ms. Pac-Man, which features no legal notation (presumably as the compilation could not credit Bally Midway).
Pac-Man's legal notice is taken from the Japanese Puckman ROM, though the in-game character names are from the English version.
The Japanese Arcade HITS! release appears to blank out all of the original copyright notices (though Namco logos are kept).
The included versions of Pole Position I and II are based on the U.S. Atari versions, but remove any billboards referencing Atari or other company brands (while retaining the Dig Dug sign and any generic designs).
The PAL PlayStation 2 version reportedly features two unused music tracks: a copy of "High School Confidential" by Rough Trade, and a copy of the music from "The Bear Basics" in Pac-Man World 2 (the latter being labeled as a test file).[7] Presuming that "High School Confidential" was intended to be used in the game's menu, it was likely removed due to its explicitly sexual themes and lyrics.
For unknown reasons, all North American copies of the PlayStation 2 version appear to be "Greatest Hits"-branded editions; a term that normally indicates a reissued, budget-priced game that sold over 500,000 copies. Considering that the game appears to have been produced this way since launch, it is unclear why it was issued in the Greatest Hits range, however; images with the original black label exist online, but it is unknown if it was ever released.
The North American PC version of the game uses StarForce DRM, resulting in the game being incompatible with operating systems from Windows Vista or higher.
The Pac-Man's Arcade Party multicade machine is noted as being very similar to Namco Museum 50th Anniversary; having a nearly-identical game list and game performance. The machine itself runs on Namco System 246 architecture, which is derived from the hardware of the PlayStation 2; possibly indicating the games were ported over from 50th Anniversary's PS2 release.
Prior to the release of the Namco Museum Archives series in 2020, this was the only Namco Museum title to be released on home computers.
