These "Arcades Greatest Hits" CDs are, admittedly, pretty cool for the
gamer with a fondness for the games he used to play at pizza parlors and
such when he was younger, but so far I think they've been a bit
"short"..not enough cool classic games to warrant the price of a single
disc collection.  I think that Atari Collection 2 breaks that mold a bit,
seeing as how some of Atari's best arcade classics are on it.

-Paperboy-
A great arcade game and a great home conversion.  Virtually arcade perfect
(other than the slightly slurred speech, which was a little more
understandable in the arcade version) and thankfully you can adjust
controller sensitivity since, at home, we don't get the groovy bike handle
controllers the arcade version.  I was surprised at how good this game was
as an emulated conversion.

-Road Blasters-
Another good conversion....although it felt a littel slower than the
arcade version, this great driving/shooter classic is still strangely
addictive.  Again, being able to adjust the controller sensitivity helps
make it more playable without analog.  This game will probably be pretty
cool for those with driving wheel controllers, since the arcade used a
driving controller (with pedal).  It's alot of fun, and even more fun
without anyone waiting to play it, or an empty pocket..

-Crystal Castles-
This game seemed a little old for this collection, but still as
interesting as ever.  Although the arcade version used a trak-ball, I
found using the controller actually more accurate. Big fans of this game
should be pleased with this conversion.

-Marble Madness-
Although arcade-exact, I was dissapointed that this game (unlike the
others) didn't have any controller options.  Although analog seems obvious
for this trakball-standard game, regular controller support is crap....I
used to have a Commodore 64 version of this game when I was younger and
the control was MUCH better.  It's almost unplayable, really......however,
such a classic, cool game warrants the purchase of an analog.

-Millipede-
What's their to say? :)  It's the classic done into a fine conversion,
although I feel it's very out of place on this collection which is really
a collection of unique, revolutionary games.

-Gauntlet-
The game to buy this disc for.  The original arcade version perfectly
converted, and contrary to some rumors I had been hearing, the game DOES
indeed support 4 players.  The classic co-op dungeon hacking, action game
that's great fun, even more so with 2-4 players....except now you can free
play!

The gallery option to the game was little dissapointing...the original
kiosks and kiosk art were cool, but deeper detail on the creation of such
revolutionary games would have been much better....however, the collection
still works well.  All in all, this collection is a must for retro-gamers,
especially yhose who don't have computers powerful enough to emulate them
properly...check it out.

-- 
-----------------
pslock@nmia.com
-----------------