Midway Arcade Origins: Play 31 Arcade Classics Today on PS3

Today, Backbone is excited to give PS3 owners a chance to truly test their old-school arcade skills. For those of you who can actually remember having to put tokens or quarters into an actual Joust or Robotron machine, you may know this isn’t the first Midway collection Backbone has developed. But Midway Arcade Origins is the first of this generation, and it’s definitely the best ever with 31 Midway arcade games assembled on one disc.

First off, we really wanted to make sure we paid proper homage to the collection’s arcade roots, so right from the main menu we included a model of the original arcade cabinet and the marquee (arcade term for the light-up game logo) for each game. In terms of emulation quality, each game looks and plays exactly the same as its arcade counterpart. In fact, the PS3’s capabilities has made it possible for many of the games to feature true sound emulation for the first time on a console, resulting in a better sound response than in any previous collection. In a further attempt to capture the arcade spirit, each game features its own unique wallpaper background based on the game’s original bezel artwork or cabinet side art.

As many of the games in this collection were also responsible for feeding what would become the high score craze of the 80’s, it was a no-brainer to include online leaderboards. In the game’s Score Attack mode, players are only given one game (or credit) to get as far as they can with the default settings. This is the true test of the high score king, and we’re looking forward to seeing the results posted on the scoreboards for everyone to see. This is also the only mode where Trophies can be unlocked, so you’re going to have show some skill to earn them — keep reading to see the full Trophy list below.

We also included a Free Play mode for more casual players, where you can adjust the same original arcade settings the arcade operators did. This enables you to tweak how the game plays, such as changing the difficulty setting, adding more lives per credit, or increasing the gameplay timer. The endless credits of Free Play mode enables you to sit down with a friend and finally get to see the end of games such as Smash TV and Total Carnage, or get a marathon four-player session of Gauntlet going.

Beyond that, we also added a couple options in terms of visuals. There’s a filter that gamers can apply to the graphics in order to give them a smoother, more modern look. If players don’t like the way this looks, they can stick with the pixel perfect, non-filtered version, which still looks great on a high definition television.

We even added a bit of trivia to the game. If the game is paused for any reason, a scroll bar will appear and detail some facts and interesting odds and ends about each game’s development and release. So don’t say we didn’t warn you in the event you learn something… and see you on the leaderboards!

Trophy List