I knew it was going to suck and reality has proven me correct. The newly launched Arcade Room for the Xbox 360 had its high point yesterday when it launched and wouldn’t work. MS should have left well enough alone, as the downloading and installing of Arcade Room was more entertaining than the games on offer.
I’m sure Arcade Room seemed like a great idea at some point but something went terribly wrong along the way, leading to an environment that doesn’t have a single compelling element. It looks like a 3D environment, similar to Sony’s Home, but you can’t interact with anything, nor can you even move freely within this environment. You simply swivel your view around and pick a section of game room that houses whatever game you want to play. There you see some very uninteresting arcade cabinets, followed by even worse versions of classic titles like Asteroids Deluxe.
I examined quite a few of titles on offer and was shocked to discover that many games are actually worse, in terms of graphics, than the original games. Asteroids Deluxe looks like a mess, verified by myself when loading up MAME, the arcade emulator, and checking out the original ROM, which has noticably higher resolution than the half-assed 360 version.
So, in the end, you have a bunch of lame classic games that are grossly over-priced. Why people would want to pay to play crappy Intellivision games is beyond me, especially when every Intellivision game can be found freely (and legally) on the net using nothing more than a JAVA emulator.
Arcade Room is really nothing more than a front-end for game emulation. Problem is, the front-end horribly designed, big, bulky, slow, unwieldy…and the emulation aspect is a joke. Do yourself a favor, go download a real PC front-end like EmuLoader, get yourself some ROMS, and enjoy these classic titles as they were. Better yet, with a front-end like EmuLoader, you can add great high-res shots of the original arcade cabinets, original gameplay fliers and historical information that puts Arcade Room to shame.
I have no idea what MS was trying to accomplish with Arcade Room, but if embarrassment was their goal then it is a resounding success.
That’s not exactly the successor to the Dreamcast that you’re looking at above. It’s the Sega Zone, the newest addition in the long lineup of proprietary consoles – or plug-n’-play systems – that come bundled with a limited number of games (such as the Atari Flashback).
Sega’s Zone contains a Wii-like controller (as well as upright console design), 20 classic Sega games and 30 additional games, 16 of which are motion controlled. The system contains two of these Wiimote knockoffs which can be used with familiar sports games such as golf and table tennis:
The Sega Zone is reported to be releasing this summer in Europe for a price of £50.
The Pocket Retro Game Emulator is saddled with a lame name, but the specs sure are impressive and the $99 price-tag is just about right. What’s it do? It plays all games for the NES, SNES, GBA, SEGA Genesis and NEO GEO. Better yet, no third-party emulation software is needed as it can play any and all ROMs you throw at it. But wait, there’s more! This bad boy can play movie files, audio files, can view JPEGS, read E-books, record your voice and even has a built-in FM radio. That’s a hell of a package for $99.
Want specs? Course ya do!
Product Features
Mini Handheld gaming system plays roms from your favorite 8 and 16 bit game consoles
No emulator software to load. Just copy over the roms and start playing.
4GB of internal storage, expandable via mini SD
Beautiful 2.8 inch QVGA (320×240) LCD Screen
Output to TV via included composite video cables
Full media player functions including videos, music, FM radio, e-books and voice recorder
Built-in Stereo Speakers
Internal li-battery gives 6-8 hours of runtime on a single charge
Product Specs
Primary Function: Gaming and media player entertainment system
Display: 2.8 inch QVGA LTPS (Low Temperature PolySilicon) LCD Screen
Color: Black
Memory:
– Internal 4GB
– External Mini SD card
Controller Design: D-pad
Gaming Console Modes:
– NES (Nintendo Entertainment System – 8bit)
– SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System – 16bit)
– Sega Genesis (Sega Mega-Drive – 16-bit)
– GBA (Nintendo Game Boy Advance)
– Neo-Geo (SNK Neo-Geo)
– CPS1 and CPS2 (CAPCOM, arcade game systems, 1st and 2nd edition)
I/O Slots
– Earphone jack
– Mini-USB port
– Mini-SD slot
– AV OUT (output to TV – NTSC or PAL, 16:9 or 4:3)
– Stereo Speakers
Additional Media Functions:
– FM Radio with recording function
– Voice Recorder (MP3, WAV)
– Image viewer (JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG)
– Ebook reader (with text to speech function)
Bult-in li-battery gives 6-8 hours of runtime on a single charge
Loading ...
Loading ...
