''Konami 80's AC Special'' (known in Japan as is a compilation of arcade video games originally released by

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

in arcades in 1998. It was later ported to the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

in 1999, where it was renamed to ''Konami Arcade Classics'' for its North American release. It was supposed to be released in September 1999, before the game was delayed to its release date of December 9, 1999. Unlike most of Konami's PlayStation games, the PlayStation version was not released in

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

regions. While many compilations on home consoles predate ''Konami Arcade Classics'', it is one of the earliest examples of an arcade reissue of classic games, being preceded only by the '' Namco Classics Collection'' series. It is also, to date, one of only two arcade compilations with both a coin-op and consumer release (the other being '' Space Invaders Anniversary'').

Development

The collection was developed for the System 573 arcade system - hardware based on the Sony PlayStation architecture. This made the collection easy to convert to the PlayStation home console. A look into the software's

readme In software distribution and software development, a README file (computing), file contains information about the other files in a directory (file systems), directory or archive (computing), archive of computer software. A form of Software doc ...

files reveals notes that the original ROM data was used to obtain assets for the reprogrammed games. While the arcade version had an intro movie and also had an attract mode for certain games, the PlayStation version got its own unique intro movie. In addition, the North American PlayStation version got a small history feature, which gave brief blurbs of facts about each of the included games.

Included games

* ''

Pooyan is a fixed shooter arcade video game released by Konami in Japan in 1982. It was manufactured in North America by Stern (game company), Stern Electronics. The player controls "Mama", a pig whose babies have been kidnapped by a group of wolves. ...

'' (1982) * '' Scramble'' (1981) * '' Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' (1984) * '' Roc'n Rope'' (1983) * '' Shao-lin's Road'' (originally released in North America as ''Kicker''; 1985) * '' Circus Charlie'' (1984) * ''

Super Cobra ''Super Cobra'' is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed by Konami, originally released as an arcade video game in 1981. It was published by Konami in Japan in March 1981 and manufactured and distributed by Stern in North America on June ...

'' (1981) * '' Road Fighter'' (1984) * '' Time Pilot'' (1982) * '' Gyruss'' (1983)

Reception

The PlayStation version received average reviews according to the review aggregation website

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

. Many magazines gave the game mixed to positive reviews while it was still in development. Chris Charla of '' NextGen'' said of the game in its early review: "They were fun then, they're fun now, and with 10 games included, this package is an excellent deal." ''

GamePro ''GamePro'' was an American multiplatform video game magazine media company that published online and print content covering the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software. The magazine featured content on various video ...

'' said of the game in its early review: "They may be dusty and obscure, but the collection of games in ''Konami Arcade Classics'' offers unique and surprisingly fresh gameplay. Retro still rocks!"

Notes

References

External links