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DU: The Atari Collection 2
#377438 - 07/04/18 06:48 PM
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![](http://smitdogg.mameworld.info/du/dunewslink.png)
MetalGod sent us a dump of "Midway Presents Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 2", a Windows CD-ROM from the 1990s. Apparently this version of Roadblasters is coveted because it has perfect gameplay with any PC steering wheel type, whether it's 270 degrees type or whatever else.
![](http://smitdogg.mameworld.info/du/jul4-2018/1.jpg)
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gregf |
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Re: DU: The Atari Collection 2
[Re: Smitdogg]
#377440 - 07/04/18 09:01 PM
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>"Midway Presents Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 2", a Windows CD-ROM from the 1990s.
*fun/fluff gregf mode length memories post*
Brings back memories since I also bought this as well back then. There should be existing folder directories on CD that show what files are in each folder. One of the folders displays various audio .wav files that play the sounds, including music medleys, when playing a game.
Being a hardcore fan of Marble Madness back in mid 1980s, I remember all the music pieces of Marble Madness and the one that always stood out that I knew was missing from the disc is a medley that is played when a Marble Madness player is almost about to reach the goal line on level 4. Hammers appear on the sides to knock the marble off track and that is when the musical medley is played. Rarely did I reach level 5 when playing Marble Madness at various arcades back in mid 1980s. It frustrated the hell out of me.
When playing the Windows CD version and music medley was missing on the disc, I knew something wasn't correct. So I searched online back in either 1998 or 1999 just a year or two before discovering non-commercial emulation in spring 2000. iirc 1998 or 1999 is when Aaron was able to figure out how the slapstic hardware worked and the System 1 and System 2 games were emulated in MAME back then which was a major breakthrough then.
I remember trying MAME's emulation variation of Marble Madness back in 2000 and Aaron had it correct just as I remember with music medley being played on level 4. Another example of where low level emulation can do things properly whereas Digital Eclipse's somewhat HLE (high level emulation) might miss things.
It just goes to show ports might not capture all the fine tune details compared to the real arcade game.
To add to this, I recall visiting Digital Eclipse's web site and they had a list that showed Atari games they were not going to support and gave various explanations such as 'don't have the rights to such and such game'.....which to me was a cop out excuse when Digital Eclipse could have simply stated Atari black and white games suck and our company doesn't want to market sucky-ass black and white 1970s era Atari games. It would be a punch to the gut especially to folks in my generation, but at least it would be the truth compared to saying some corporate lawyer weaselwords excuse of "we don't have rights to such and such game".
*extremely 'gregf-unfunny feeble comedy attempt' sarcasm portion of the post*
We all know if Digital Eclipse were owned by the 'sob-in-office' and they had twitter accounts back then in 1990s, the tweets would be something like....
![](//www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tomato.gif)
supposed tweets if things were different back then:
"We don't support 1970s era Atari games because they are for losers. Digital Eclipse only supports winning games that are for the winners."
"Canyon Bomber and Fire Truck and Super Bug are for losers. Don't be a loser."
"Don't forget to come and stay at one of my hotel properties when you are on the road....that is if you are not a loser. My properties are only for winners."
"I had more popular votes than that lady. Oh wait a second...that has to be saved for another 20 years into the future before my tweet is allowed to say that."
*futile attempts to delete last tweet*
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Foxhack |
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Re: DU: The Atari Collection 2
[Re: gregf]
#377444 - 07/04/18 11:36 PM
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> >"Midway Presents Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 2", a Windows CD-ROM > from the 1990s. > > *fun/fluff gregf mode length memories post* > > Brings back memories since I also bought this as well back then. There should be > existing folder directories on CD that show what files are in each folder. One of the > folders displays various audio .wav files that play the sounds, including music > medleys, when playing a game. > > Being a hardcore fan of Marble Madness back in mid 1980s, I remember all the music > pieces of Marble Madness and the one that always stood out that I knew was missing > from the disc is a medley that is played when a Marble Madness player is almost about > to reach the goal line on level 4. Hammers appear on the sides to knock the marble > off track and that is when the musical medley is played. Rarely did I reach level 5 > when playing Marble Madness at various arcades back in mid 1980s. It frustrated the > hell out of me. > > When playing the Windows CD version and music medley was missing on the disc, I knew > something wasn't correct. So I searched online back in either 1998 or 1999 just a > year or two before discovering non-commercial emulation in spring 2000. iirc 1998 or > 1999 is when Aaron was able to figure out how the slapstic hardware worked and the > System 1 and System 2 games were emulated in MAME back then which was a major > breakthrough then. > > I remember trying MAME's emulation variation of Marble Madness back in 2000 and > Aaron had it correct just as I remember with music medley being played on level 4. > Another example of where low level emulation can do things properly whereas Digital > Eclipse's somewhat HLE (high level emulation) might miss things. > > It just goes to show ports might not capture all the fine tune details compared to > the real arcade game. > > > To add to this, I recall visiting Digital Eclipse's web site and they had a list > that showed Atari games they were not going to support and gave various explanations > such as 'don't have the rights to such and such game'.....which to me was a cop out > excuse when Digital Eclipse could have simply stated Atari black and white games suck > and our company doesn't want to market sucky-ass black and white 1970s era Atari > games. It would be a punch to the gut especially to folks in my generation, but at > least it would be the truth compared to saying some corporate lawyer weaselwords > excuse of "we don't have rights to such and such game". > > > *extremely 'gregf-unfunny feeble comedy attempt' sarcasm portion of the post* > > We all know if Digital Eclipse were owned by the 'sob-in-office' and they had > twitter accounts back then in 1990s, the tweets would be something like.... > > > > > supposed tweets if things were different back then: > > "We don't support 1970s era Atari games because they are for losers. Digital Eclipse > only supports winning games that are for the winners." > > "Canyon Bomber and Fire Truck and Super Bug are for losers. Don't be a loser." > > "Don't forget to come and stay at one of my hotel properties when you are on the > road....that is if you are not a loser. My properties are only for winners." > > "I had more popular votes than that lady. Oh wait a second...that has to be saved > for another 20 years into the future before my tweet is allowed to say that." > > *futile attempts to delete last tweet*
Am I the only guy who found Digital Eclipse's emulated stuff kinda... bad, back in the day? Even before MAME, they just felt shoddy and halfassed.
Nowadays they're much better, but back then...
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gregf |
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Re: DU: The Atari Collection 2
[Re: Foxhack]
#377449 - 07/05/18 12:48 AM
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>Am I the only guy who found Digital Eclipse's emulated stuff kinda... bad, back in the day? >Even before MAME, they just felt shoddy and halfassed. Nowadays they're much better, but >back then...
Their Williams classics CD was actually well done imo and was a much better quality product compared to their Atari classics and Midway classics releases. The Williams games CD had a finished completed feel with cab models being presented in some pseudo well done arcade room setting. It's too bad that same effort was not put into the Atari and Midway releases.
Digital Eclipse somewhat knew their ideal niche customer market for the Atari and Midway CDs was really limited towards the 25 to 40 age range customers and they had to rush a product out ASAP before opportunity slipped by. They probably got their moneys worth in what little time they had to get some quickly made products out the door.
Haze's specific blog entry
https://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/2018/01/15/the-alternative-to-emulation/
does a great job explaining why companies, whether be Radica or Digital Eclipse, were considered to have made decent products that casual users (not hardcore emulation fans) could enjoy replaying favorite arcade game when some of the retro arcade game product were marketed from mid 1990s to early 2005 years.
Some of the companies knew the time frame for making money from the specific customer target was very limited for games that were made from late 1970s through 1980s era.
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Re: DU: The Atari Collection 2
[Re: Foxhack]
#377451 - 07/05/18 02:55 AM
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> Am I the only guy who found Digital Eclipse's emulated stuff kinda... bad, back in > the day? Even before MAME, they just felt shoddy and halfassed. > > Nowadays they're much better, but back then...
Standards were different, the measures needed to get things to work were more extreme, emulation as a technology was a lot less mature. While the games were definitely fresher in mind for people, it was also much more difficult to find a frame of reference for what was 'correct' and even MAME was pretty bad for the first half of the project too if we're honest.
The hobbyist emulation scenes have significant raised the bar, both for itself, and for commercial offerings.
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R. Belmont |
Cuckoo for IGAvania
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Re: DU: The Atari Collection 2
[Re: Haze]
#377457 - 07/05/18 03:27 PM
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Yeah, at the time the DE stuff was being made to work on hardware MAME didn't want to touch, and MAME itself had a lot of problems with the golden-age games back then (a problem that now perpetually haunts us because people's eyes light up with dollar signs when someone waves a Raspberry Puke at them).
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By the way, Roadblasters control works much better than in MAME. But there's a big problem with these ports.... they take sooo little size on the screen.... the rest is just a black border around it. And there's no way no increase it.
This is how all games look
[ATTACHED IMAGE - CLICK FOR FULL SIZE]
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Re: DU: The Atari Collection 2
[Re: MetalGod]
#377462 - 07/05/18 07:55 PM
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> By the way, Roadblasters control works much better than in MAME. But there's a big > problem with these ports.... they take sooo little size on the screen.... the rest is > just a black border around it. And there's no way no increase it. > > This is how all games look
I guess they just picked the biggest screen size supported by your video driver in which things would fit.
stretching and aspect ratio correction are expensive (for older hardware) too if you want them to look good and don't have an exact resolution.
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Re: DU: The Atari Collection 2
[Re: Smitdogg]
#377476 - 07/06/18 08:03 AM
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Neat...since they specifically 'improved' Roadblasters' controls, I wonder if they did the same with 720 (Degrees).
On Midway's 'Arcade Party Pack' for the Playstation, you could use an analog stick to 'aim' your direction, pretty much like the arcade...and if you moved the stick across to an opposite direction (like you -can't- on the arcade cab), it would 'sweep' your rotation to there and not just snap.
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Re: DU: The Atari Collection 2
[Re: Haze]
#377477 - 07/06/18 11:24 AM
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You can choose to put 320x240 resolution, but it looks the same.... I wonder if that would work using crt emudriver super resolutions + groovymame.... I'll check it next week
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Re: DU: The Atari Collection 2
[Re: Smitdogg]
#377491 - 07/06/18 08:59 PM
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Have the ROMs in these old collections been extracted (or gathered from RAM while running) to check if there's any changes in them?
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Re: DU: The Atari Collection 2
[Re: ICEknight]
#377492 - 07/06/18 09:10 PM
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I'm not aware of anyone looking at it yet other than to try and fix a minor readout error.
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