Namco Museum 64

For other uses of Namco Museum, see Namco Museum (disambiguation).

Namco Museum 64
Original box art.
Developer	Namco, Mass Media
Publisher	Namco Hometek
Series	Namco Museum series
Game system(s)	Nintendo 64, Dreamcast (Namco Museum)
Genres	Compilation
Release date(s)	Nintendo 64: US: November 29, 1999 Dreamcast: US: June 25, 2000
Number of players	1-2 players
Input methods	Standard controller, VMU (Dreamcast, PACit)

Namco Museum 64 is a is a compilation of Namco arcade games, developed by Mass Media and released in 1999 by Namco Hometek for the Nintendo 64. It is the first of the Mass Media-developed Namco Museum releases, which were primarily designed for the U.S. market.

This compilation would later be released on the Sega Dreamcast as just Namco Museum, which itself would serve as basis for an additional Game Boy Advance version.

Overview

Unlike the original PlayStation Namco Museum installments, Namco Museum 64 features no museum content whatsoever; instantly booting to a list of six selectable games. The featured games include:

• Pac-Man (1980)
• Ms. Pac-Man (1982)
• Galaxian (1979)
• Galaga (1981)
• Dig Dug (1982)
• Pole Position (1982)

The games themselves are ported directly from the source code of the variants used on Namco Museum Vol. 1 and Vol. 3; as such, the included versions of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man (alongside the other games) feature minor differences compared to the arcade originals. Oddly, Namco Museum 64 adds several further anomalies to the game ports; for instance, Pac-Man's background siren sound does not increase in pitch like the original game, and many of Galaga's music cues are set to play in the wrong areas of the game. The copyright notices are removed from each game, though Namco logos are kept.

The Namco Museum 64 cartridge does not contain built-in save memory, requiring a Controller Pak to save game data (e.g. high scores).

Namco Museum (Dreamcast)

Namco Museum (Dreamcast) box art.

Namco Museum for the Sega Dreamcast was released in 2000, and is largely identical to the Namco Museum 64 version in content; both titles are commonly considered the same game.

While featuring an identical game selection to Namco Museum 64 (including Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man), there are several notable differences between the Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast releases:

• An additional minigame titled PACit can be played through the Dreamcast's Visual Memory Unit (VMU). It is accessed by saving Namco Museum data to the VMU through the game's options menu. The PACit game is otherwise exclusive to this compilation.
• The title screen and game selection menu are redesigned. The copyright screens load in with a different transition effect.
• The graphics appear in slightly higher quality visually compared to the Nintendo 64 release.
• The music cues in Galaga are fixed, now playing in the correct order; the Pac-Man siren remains incorrect.

Trivia

• The box art design template for Namco Museum 64 was concurrently (?) used for later reissues of Namco Museum Vol. 1 and 3 in North America (including the "Greatest Hits" versions).
• Namco Museum 64 was an available game in certain revisions of the LodgeNet Hotel System (also called the Nintendo Gateway System), among other Nintendo 64 titles. The ROM is modified to read "Available Now in Stores Everywhere!" on the title screen.