For me, a school kid with 50p a week pocket money and a high quality-control bar, they were a revelation.īut this was also the era of exploitation and chicanery in the games business, which was still in its infancy. Compilations such as They Sold a Million and the Zzap! 64 Sizzler Collection provided a way to ensure you got quality games to play, even if you’d never seen them before. In an era before the internet, it was also harder to know whether a new game was any good, and not everyone could afford a magazine subscription – so game compilations took on a vital curatorial role. But that was the thing with these collections: you accepted there would be a couple of stinkers in there, and it was fun to discover terrible B-games amid the gold.ĭarkstalkers: The Night Warriors in the Capcom Fighting Collection. Meanwhile, Magnificent Seven boasted the classics Wizball and Head Over Heels as well as the not-so-classic tie-in with Sylvester Stallone’s 1986 Cobra movie. I had Live Ammo, which contained the excellent second world war strategy adventure Great Escape as well as scrolling shooters Green Beret and Rambo. The legendary Manchester-based publisher Ocean was an absolute master at these, creating themed compilations, with lively and exciting packaging resembling the action movie video covers of the era. Four or five releases would be crammed on to two tapes and distributed in large, twin-cassette boxes with exciting names such as Solid Gold, Heatwave and Mega-Hot. I know, because I’ve bought most of them.īack in the home computer era of the 1980s, game compilations were a common way of scraping just a little more revenue from titles that had slipped from the software charts. Cynics may suggest we live in an age of endless nostalgia and brand regurgitation, but compilations have always been a staple of the video game industry. Sonic Origins collects the first four Sonic the Hedgehog titles, the Capcom Fighting Collection brings together various titles from the Darkstalkers and Street Fighter ranges as well as a couple of rarities, and Pac-Man Museum + gathers an astonishing 14 Pac-Man games from the past 40 years. I use it for most of my media needs.I t’s been a busy month for nostalgic video game compilations. Not everyone has multiple computers, and this sure does make it easier to browse somewhere else.Īlthough I did think MS would have done something like this though, but the 360 is great the way it is. Opera is putting in most of the work with the Wii browser, so it's not really drawing too many resources away from Nintendo. I don't see the problem with browsing a news site on my TV in my bedroom rather than going downstairs to the PC. It's just something where you can browse sites away from your computer. Of course Nintendo assumes you have a PC as well. Why bother? You are stuck surfing the web in 480p resolution. The amount of effort it would take to make one could be better spent on something other than a weak novelty. I think Microsoft understands if you have a 360 and a internet connection you probably have a PC also. I hope Microsoft sticks to the focus of gaming and media it makes much more sense than worrying about a web browser. I wouldn't be surprised in the future when they "unlock" XNA for non-creator's club members to download someone comes up with an XNA based browser (although whether or not that's possible I'd have no clue, if XNA 360 can't access network functions then it wouldn't be). I have a Wii though and I'm surprised how well their Opera based browser works, even flash seems to work flawlessly (even youtube videos). There's no big reason to release a web browser, but I do see why some people would find it useful, especially if their console is in a different area of their house then their PC, but that isn't the case for me. Although with the PS3, and Wii both having web browsers (The Wii browser was released today) there might be some pressure for Microsoft to release one. Is there any plans for one? Doesn't the Wii and PS3 have an integrated web browser? :whistle: Microsoft has done a great job with XBOX Live, Media Center Extensions, and the XBOX Live Marketplace (although, I don't agree w/ their prices and DRM strategy for the videos).
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