Yesterday, my wife and I were at the Target in West Windsor, NJ, looking for a few of the games that I have mentioned on Operation Gadget. We found all of the throwback electronic games I’ve talked about, including a few that I didn’t know had been released.
One of the games that I didn’t know was available, and I definitely think is worth the money, is Namco TV Games. This is an integrated joystick-game controller with five classic Namco arcade games: Pac-Man, Rally X, Galaxian, Dig Dug, and Bosconian. It’s very similar to the Atari Classsics 10-in-1 TV Games system that I talked about here earlier.
For less than $25.00, this game gives you arcade-quality Pac-Man and Galaxian. I played each of them for about 20 minutes after we got home from the store, and the biggest criticism that I can offer is that the sound level that came through my TV was lower than any of the TV channels we get through our home theater system. This just means that I have to turn the volume up higher to hear the sounds of these games than I do to hear programs coming in from my settop box, DVD, or VHS players.
The sound effects produced on the games that I remember are indistinguishable from those you hear in the arcade. This includes the intermission music and animation after clearing two boards on the Pac-Man game. I give Namco TV Games my highest recommendation. It’s worth the money for Pac-Man and Galaxian alone.