Games You Played Today The Nonbiri Express '09 (Galaxie ((500×2)−1)) 9小時9人9ゲーム LOOK I MADE IT LONGER: The Power of One

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Namco Museum Archives Volume 1 (PC/Steam)

I extracted the ROMs from the Steam version with MArchiveBatchTool GitHub - farmerbb/RED-Project: ROM Extraction Documentation Project and played them in Mesen.

The games:

Dig Dug (FC) (no NES)
Dragon Buster (FC) (no NES)
Dragon Spirit: The New Legend (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

00_dig_purp

Like this better than the arcade version: creepy black sky, weird soil colors, smoother pumping.

Dragon Buster

00_bust

Remarkably terrible.

Dragon Spirit: The New Legend

00_dragspir

Worse looking than the arcade version at 1st glance but the funky pixelization started to grow on me.

Tower of Druaga

00_druag

Never grokked Druaga. Range-fried by a wizard, no desire to try again.

Galaxian

00_galax

Slower, crustier Galaga.

Mappy

00_map_title

OH so when the big red cat hides behind something, they aren’t waiting to leap out at you–take the item they’re hiding behind, they hold up a “1000” bonus sign!

01_map_sign

Hadn’t realized you can bounce up into the attic. = o Later stages put bells above the outer shafts: knock bells onto cats for big combos.

02_map_bell

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

00_melon

Weird looking and sounding but plays surprisingly well.

Sky Kid

00_sky_kid

Always hated, still hate & now I find the chibi military theme super gross.

Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti

00_wanpak

Slidey but fun; great ghoul designs; I’ll have to scum through some time.

Xevious

00_xev_riv

I think I liked Xevious for about 4 minutes as a kid.

Pac-Man Championship Edition

00_ce_norm

Faster & smoother than the non “demake” version.

01_ce_xtra

Namco/M2 didn’t create NES CE; they polished an unacknowledged, unreleased 2008 homebrew port by Japanese 8-bit console port hobbyist coke774 ( https://www.youtube.com/@coke0774 ):

2007
CE releases on Xbox 360
2008
coke774 posts video of their “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

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”

famicom
famicom680×510 87.4 KB

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
  • Making no mention of coke774, 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!”

  • 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/Shacknews analysis: M2 polished the FX, replaced the sound, added more fruit, and the menu stuff: Extra mode, in-game achievements, replays, sound test

Sources:

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