1836: Namco Museum Archives Volume 1 \\ Steam - All 11 NES ROMs in Mesen: Pac-Man CE, Dig Dug, etc!
0Playing the 11 NES/Famicom ROMs of Namco Museum Archives Volume 1!
My Namco Museum Archives playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZO3OPzPjIzN46QqUt-7-VAmv1LZbKbkg
0:00 - start
0:25 - Dig Dug
4:51 - NTSC vs square pixels
14:39 - Dragon Buster
22:42 - Dragon Spirit - The New Legend
34:58 - The Tower of Druaga
40:44 - Galaxian
43:18 - Mappy
52:31 - Pac-Man
1:04:09 - Sky Kid
1:07:32 - Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti
1:23:55 - Xevious
1:28:52 - NES Pac-Man CE created by coke774
1:49:48 - NES CE Normal
1:58:14 - NES CE Extra
2:06:01 - Normal again
2:16:43 - more Normal
I extracted the ROMs from the Steam version using MArchiveBatchTool: https://github.com/farmerbb/RED-Project
The games:
Dig Dug (FC) (no NES)
Dragon Buster (FC) (no NES)
Dragon Spirit (NES)
Druaga to Nou (FC) (aka Tower of Druaga; no NES)
Galaxian (FC) (no NES)
Mappy (FC) (no NES)
Pac-Man (FC) (late NES Namco release after Tengen (Atari) unlicensed ver)
Pac-Man Championship Edition
Sky Kid (FC)
Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti (FC) (no NES)
Xevious (FC)
These look designed for square pixels; at NTSC screen ratio they are slightly too wide: oval Pac-Man, rectangular Dig Dug dirt, etc.
Dig Dug
Like this better than the arcade version: creepy black sky, weird soil colors, smoother pumping.
Dragon Buster
Remarkably terrible.
Dragon Spirit - The New Legend
Worse looking than the arcade version at 1st glance but the funky pixelization started to grow on me.
Druaga to Nou
Never grokked Druaga. Range-fried by a wizard, no desire to try again.
Galaxian
Slower, crustier Galaga.
Mappy
OH so when red cat hides behind something, they aren't gonna jump you--take the item they're hiding behind, they hold up a "1000" bonus sign!
You can bounce into the attic. = o Later stages put bells above the outer shafts: knock bells onto cats for big combos.
NES Mappy video gets riddled with music copyright claims. Doesn't happen w/ PS4 Arcade Archives, which is harder, probably due to the narrower vert screen.
Pac-Man
Weird looking and sounding but plays surprisingly well.
Sky Kid
Always hated, still hate & now I find the chibi military theme super gross.
Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti
Slidey but fun; great ghoul designs; I'll have to scum through some time.
Xevious
I think I liked Xevious for about 4 minutes as a kid.
Pac-Man Championship Edition
Faster & smoother than the non "demake" version.
Namco/M2 didn't create NES CE; they polished an unacknowledged, unreleased 2008 homebrew port by Japanese 8-bit console port hobbyist @coke0774 ( https://www.youtube.com/@coke0774 ):
2007
CE releases on Xbox 360
2008
coke774 posts video of "FC VER."/"NES" CE to YouTube and Niconico, and screenshots to their personal website
2009
A presumed copy of coke774's 2008 NES CE video appears on Vimeo
https://vimeo.com/2581153
2013
coke774 tweets (Google Translate) "It's been a while since I received an email from a foreigner asking for a Pac-Man ROM"
2014
A Twitter user shares a photo of a Famicom cart w/ a sticker on it saying "PACMAM Championship Edition DX"
2015
According to Namco's NES CE director in a 2020 interview, Namco "negotiates" & starts work on a never-released stand-alone 3DS port of NES CE
2018
coke774's YouTube NES CE video nears 150K views
2019
coke774 sets their NES CE videos private & takes down their personal web site
2020
- Namco teases their "new," NES version of CE
- Namco's NES CE director says "While there are some people who knew about this project beforehand, I bet even they will still be surprised at the finished game!"--no mention of coke774
- Official NES CE release as flagship game in the "Namco Museum Archives Volume 1" collection, credited entirely to M2
- Confronted by Ars Technica, Namco half-assedly admits "In the case of Coke774, his work was highly appreciated by our team and we worked with him officially to implement his design into our game"
- TCRF: M2 polished the FX, replaced the sound, added more fruit
Sources:
- https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/07/we-traced-namcos-new-pac-man-demake-to-its-source-a-2008-fan-romhack/
- https://medium.com/attract-mode/so-about-that-pac-man-championship-edition-demake-a39c92ab6e6e
- https://www.siliconera.com/pac-man-championship-edition-demake-started-out-as-a-3ds-game/
- https://www.mobygames.com/game/146704/namco-museum-archives-vol-1/credits/windows/?autoplatform=true
- https://www.google.com/search?q=twitter+tweet+412916369680629760
- https://tcrf.net/Prerelease:Pac-Man_Championship_Edition_(NES) ( https://tinyurl.com/nhbszekh )
3/24/24
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