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158-697: The Namco Museum name was originally used for a chain of retail stores in the 1980s, which sold merchandise based on Namco video games and characters. The compilations include video games developed by Namco for both arcade hardware and home game systems, including the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis . Some iterations use software emulation for the games, while others instead reprogram them from scratch. The collections typically include interchangeable game settings, online leaderboards or unlockable extras, such as games or promotional material. The original PlayStation series, with

316-431: A Dragon Quest VIII "slime" controller, a Final Fantasy X-2 "Tiny Bee" dual pistol controller, an Onimusha 3 katana controller, and a Resident Evil 4 chainsaw controller. Optional hardware includes additional DualShock or DualShock 2 controllers, a PS2 DVD remote control , an internal or external hard disk drive (HDD), a network adapter, horizontal and vertical stands, PlayStation or PS2 memory cards ,

474-678: A digital video recorder and DVD burner in addition to playing PS2 games. The device was released in Japan on 13 December 2003, and was the first Sony product to include the XrossMediaBar interface. It did not sell well in the Japanese market and was not released anywhere else. PlayStation 2 users had the option to play select games over the Internet , using dial-up or a broadband Internet connection . The PlayStation 2 Network Adaptor

632-520: A multi-million-selling franchise as a result. The company continued expanding its operations overseas, such as the acquisition of Bally's Aladdin's Castle, Inc., the owners of the Aladdin's Castle chain of mall arcades. In December, Namco acquired Nikkatsu , Japan's oldest-surviving film studio that at the time was undergoing bankruptcy procedures. The purchase allowed Nikkatsu to utilize Namco's computer graphics hardware for its films, while Namco

790-477: A "safe bet" despite not being the "newest or most powerful", noting that the console "yields in-game graphics with more jagged edges". CNET also criticized the DVD playback functionality, claiming that the console's video quality was "passable" and that the playback controls were "rudimentary", recommending users to purchase a remote control. The console's two controller ports and the high cost of its memory cards were also

948-473: A 5.75 out of 10. The team was evenly split: Shawn Smith and Crispin Boyer, each voting a 6.5 out of 10, found the interesting museum content and the two or three enjoyable games make the collection worthwhile, while Dan Hsu and Sushi-X both gave it a 5.0 and said it was a disappointment compared to the earlier volumes. Both Gerstmann and GamePro commented that the first three volumes of Namco Museum had exhausted

1106-543: A 7.125 out of 10, with all four remarking that the compilation had two or three genuine classics, with the remaining three or four games being mediocre and overly obscure. However, they disagreed on which games fell into which group; for example, Dan Hsu said that " Super Pac-Man stinks", while Crispin Boyer called it "the best reason to buy NM2" and "the height of the yellow pellet-eater's evolution." Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot similarly commented, "While Mappy , Xevious , Gaplus , and Super Pac-Man are infinitely playable,

1264-474: A Nintendo third-party licensee, instead relying on publishers such as Bandai to release its games in North America. In Japan, Namco developed two theme park attractions, which were demonstrated at the 1990 International Garden and Greenery Exposition ( Expo '90 ): Galaxian3: Project Dragoon , a 3D rail shooter that supported 28 players, and a dark ride based on The Tower of Druaga . As part of

1422-488: A cohesive world made it an astounding success in Japan, recording record-breaking sales figures that had not been seen since Space Invaders . The game's success led to merchandise, tournament play, and the first video game soundtrack album. The same year, Namco released Mappy , an early side-scrolling platformer, and the Pole Position sequel Pole Position II . Endō went on to design The Tower of Druaga

1580-553: A conversion of Ridge Racer , its most-popular arcade game at the time. The PlayStation was released in Japan on December 3, 1994, with Ridge Racer as one of its first titles. Sony moved 100,000 units on launch day alone; publications attributed Ridge Racer to the PlayStation's early success, giving it an edge over its competitor, the Sega Saturn . For a time, it was the best-selling PlayStation game in Japan. Namcot

1738-481: A decentralized model of online gaming where the responsibility is up to the developer to provide the servers, Sony's moves made online gaming a major selling point of the PS2. In September 2004, Sony revealed a newer, slimmer model of the PlayStation 2. In preparation for the launch of the new models (SCPH-700xx-9000x), Sony stopped making the older models (SCPH-3000x-500xx) to let the distribution channel empty its stock of

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1896-445: A few non-video arcade games itself, such as Shoot Away (1977). As the video game industry prospered in Japan during the 1970s with the release of Taito's Space Invaders , Namco turned its attention towards making its own video games. While its licensed Atari games were still profitable, sales were decreasing and the quality of the hardware used began deteriorating. Per the recommendation of company engineer Shigekazu Ishimura,

2054-430: A few weeks prior. There were shortages in more than 1,700 shops in North America on the day before Christmas. In 2010, Sony introduced a TV with a built-in PlayStation 2. The PlayStation 2 continued to be produced until 2013 when Sony announced that it had been discontinued after over twelve years of production—one of the longest lifespans of any video game console. New games for the console continued to be made until

2212-408: A fixture in popular culture, spawning a multi-million-selling media franchise. Namco regularly released several successful games throughout the early 1980s. It published Galaga , the follow-up to Galaxian , in 1981 to critical acclaim, usurping its predecessor in popularity with its fast-paced action and power-ups. 1982 saw the release of Pole Position , a racing game that is the first to use

2370-507: A larger scale. In 1988, Namco became involved in film production when it distributed the film Mirai Ninja in theaters, with a tie-in video game coinciding with its release. Namco also developed the beat 'em up Splatterhouse , which attracted attention for its fixture on gore and dismemberment, and Gator Panic , a derivative of Whack-a-Mole that became a mainstay in Japanese arcades and entertainment centers. In early 1989, Namco unveiled its System 21 arcade system, one of

2528-520: A level select feature to all of the arcade games except Cutie Q . Arcade Games Remix Games Simply titled Namco Museum , it was developed for the Nintendo Switch and released on July 28, 2017 on the Nintendo eShop . Much like Namco Museum DS , the game includes a remake of Pac-Man Vs. . It contains the following games: Due to the violent nature of Splatterhouse , this is

2686-438: A maximum colour depth of 16.7 million true colours . When accounting for features such as lighting , texture mapping , artificial intelligence , and game physics , the console has a real-world performance of 25 million polygons per second. The PlayStation 2 also features two USB ports, and one IEEE 1394 (Firewire) port for SCPH-10000 to 3900x models only. A hard disk drive can be installed in an expansion bay on

2844-589: A memory card. All six volumes were added to the Japanese PlayStation Store as PSOne Classics . Volumes 1 to 4 were released on December 11, 2013 while Vol. 5 and Encore were released on December 18, 2013. The five numbered installments were added to the North American PlayStation Store on September 30, 2014. Namco Museum 64 for Nintendo 64 and Namco Museum for Dreamcast and Game Boy Advance are

3002-464: A minority stake in the company and Nakamura retained his position as its board chairman until the middle of 1988. In Japan, Namco continued to see expeditious growth. It published Pro Baseball: Family Stadium for the Famicom, which was critically acclaimed and sold over 2.5 million copies. Its sequel, Pro Baseball: Family Stadium '87 , sold an additional two million. In 1986, Namco entered

3160-418: A particularly steep decline in the series' critical standing, with most critics agreeing that of the five games included, only Ordyne and Assault were at all worthwhile. Gerstmann gave it a 4.5 out of 10, and said the collection "is just plain depressing. It contains five games, and most of them are little known games that were little known for a reason." Electronic Gaming Monthly ' s review team gave it

3318-416: A point of criticism. The slim model of the PlayStation 2 received positive reviews for its incredibly small size and built-in networking but received criticism for easily overheating due to the exclusion of the original model's built-in fan. The requirement for a separate power adapter was criticized while the top-loading disc drive was noted as being less likely to break compared to the tray-loading drive of

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3476-491: A production plant in February 1966, moving its corporate office to a four-story building in Ōta, Tokyo . The company secured a deal with Walt Disney Productions to produce children's rides in the likenesses of its characters, in addition to those using popular anime characters like Q-Taro ; this move allowed the business to further expand its operations and become a driving force in the Japanese coin-op market. Though

3634-535: A racing game, in 1993. Ridge Racer usage of 3D textured polygons and drifting made it a popular title in arcades and one of Namco's most-successful releases, and is labeled a milestone in 3D computer graphics. The company followed its success with Tekken , a 3D fighting game, a year later. Designed by Seiichi Ishii , the co-creator of Sega's landmark fighting game Virtua Fighter , Tekken ' s wide array of playable characters and consistent framerate helped it outperform Sega's game in popularity, and launched

3792-470: A real racetrack (the Fuji Speedway ) and helped laydown the foundations for the racing genre. It released Dig Dug the same year, a maze chaser that allowed players to create their own mazes. Namco's biggest post- Pac-Man success was the vertical-scrolling shooter Xevious in 1983, designed by new-hire Masanobu Endō . Xevious ' s early usage of pre-rendered visuals, boss fights, and

3950-462: A robot named Putan that solved pre-built mazes. In August 1973, American game company Atari began establishing a series of divisions in Asia, one of which was named Atari Japan. Its president, Kenichi Takumi, approached Nakamura in early 1974 to have his business become the distributor of Atari games across Japan. Nakamura, already planning global expansion following his company's success, agreed to

4108-434: A second console around the time of the original PlayStation's launch in late 1994. At some point during development, employees from Argonaut Games , under contract for semiconductor manufacturer LSI Corporation , were instructed to design a rendering chip for Sony's upcoming console. Jez San , founder of Argonaut, recalled that his team had no direct contact with Sony during the development process. Unbeknownst to him, Sony

4266-454: A specific task, integrated onto the same die . These units include a central CPU core, two Vector Processing Units (VPU), a 10-channel DMA unit, a memory controller , and an Image Processing Unit (IPU). There are three interfaces: an input output interface to the I/O processor running at a clock speed of 36.864 MHz, a graphics interface to the graphics synthesiser, and a memory interface to

4424-455: A television as long as there is access to mains electricity or a similar power source. These screens can fold down onto the PS2 in a similar fashion to laptop screens. There are many accessories for musical games, such as dance pads for Dance Dance Revolution , In the Groove , and Pump It Up titles and High School Musical 3: Senior Year Dance . Konami microphones for use with

4582-429: A total of 10,035 software titles had been released worldwide including games released in multiple regions as separate titles. Initial reviews of the PlayStation 2 from 2000 highly acclaimed the console, with reviewers commending its hardware and graphics capabilities, its ability to play DVDs, and the system's backward compatibility with games and hardware for the original PlayStation. Early points of criticism included

4740-509: A versus or co-operative mode using the PSP's ad hoc feature. Game Sharing, a feature that had not yet been used on the PSP, was introduced in this game. This allowed others PSPs in the area to download the first few levels of some of the games. The "Arrangement" games in this compilation are not the same as they were on the arcade's Namco Classic Collection Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 . They are entirely new games that were designed to take advantage of

4898-535: A vital role in the console's mainstream success. Sony recognized Namco's commitment to the console, leading to Namco receiving special treatment from Sony and early promotional material adopting the tagline "PlayStation: Powered by Namco". Namco was also given the rights to produce controllers, such as the NeGcon , which it designed with the knowledge it gained through developing its cancelled console. Though it had signed contracts to produce games for systems such as

Namco Museum - Misplaced Pages Continue

5056-590: A year later, a maze game that helped establish the concept for the action role-playing game . Druaga ' s design influenced games such as Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda . 1984 also saw the release of Pac-Land , a Pac-Man -themed platform game that paved the way for similar games such as Super Mario Bros. , and Gaplus , a moderately successful update to Galaga . The success of Namco's arcade games prompted it to launch its own print publication, Namco Community Magazine NG , to allow its fans to connect with developers. In July 1983, Nintendo released

5214-529: Is also the case with its counterpart game, Pac-Man Collection . On the Wii U Virtual Console , however, the Restore Point feature saves scores for both games. The N64 version requires a Controller Pak with eight free pages and one free slot to save high scores and settings. The Dreamcast version requires a VMU with eight free blocks for saving progress, while also offering a mini-game that's exclusive to

5372-498: Is available for the system to connect to older TVs. The PlayStation 2 has undergone many revisions, some only of internal construction and others involving substantial external changes. The PS2 is primarily differentiated between models featuring the original "fat" case design and "slimline" models, which were introduced at the end of 2004. In 2010, the Sony Bravia KDL-22PX300 was made available to consumers. It

5530-471: Is distributed on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM; the two formats are differentiated by their discs' bottoms, with CD-ROMs being blue and DVD-ROMs being silver. The PlayStation 2 offered some particularly high-profile exclusive games. Most main entries in the Grand Theft Auto , Final Fantasy , and Metal Gear Solid series were released exclusively for the console. Several prolific series got their start on

5688-411: Is good but suffers from the absence of the voice clips from the arcade version, The Tower of Druaga has aged poorly, and Phozon was a terrible game to begin with. However, while Gerstmann concluded the collection to be "a real letdown" after the first two volumes and advised gamers to skip it, giving it a 5.6 out of 10, Next Generation concluded that "the number of true classics on Volume 3 outweigh

5846-507: Is made up of two sets of games. The first is Xbox Live Arcade , which includes nine Xbox Live Arcade games . These are identical to the digital Xbox Live Arcade versions but are present on the game-disc. These games can be selected from the compilation's menu or, only while the game disc is in the console, accessed directly from the Xbox Live Arcade menu. The next set is Museum, which also includes Museum games, although these are

6004-501: Is the successor to the PlayStation , as well as the second installment in the PlayStation brand of consoles. As a sixth-generation console , it competed with Nintendo 's GameCube , Sega 's Dreamcast , and Microsoft 's Xbox . It is the best-selling video game console of all time , having sold over 160 million units worldwide, nearly triple the combined sales of its competing consoles. Announced in 1999, Sony began developing

6162-583: The Karaoke Revolution games, dual microphones (sold with and used exclusively for SingStar games), various "guitar" controllers (for the Guitar Freaks series and Guitar Hero series), the drum set controller (sold in a box set (or by itself) with a "guitar" controller and a USB microphone (for use with Rock Band and Guitar Hero series, World Tour and newer), and a taiko drum controller for Taiko: Drum Master . Unlike

6320-505: The Family Computer , a video game console that utilized interchangeable cartridges to play games. The console's launch came with ports of some of Nintendo's popular arcade games, like Donkey Kong , which at the time were considered high quality. Though Namco recognized the system's potential to allow consumers to play accurate versions of its games, the company chose to hold off on the idea after its ports for platforms such as

6478-567: The Nintendo DS reached 100 million shipments in 4 years and 5 months from its launch. By July 2009, the system had sold 138.8 million units worldwide, with 51 million of those units sold in PAL regions . By 31 March 2012, over 155 million PlayStation 2 units were sold worldwide, and in the same year, Sony officially stopped supplying updated sales numbers of the system. On 29 March 2024, Jim Ryan (CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment) stated on

Namco Museum - Misplaced Pages Continue

6636-608: The PlayStation from 1995 to 1998, including one ( Namco Museum Encore ) that was released only in Japan. When Namco unveiled Volume 5 at the November 1996 PlayStation Expo, it was announced that it would be the final volume in the series, hence the sixth volume's title, "Encore". The first five volumes pose a 3D virtual museum that players are able to walk around in, with each game being stored in an "exhibit" room. In these museums, players can view conceptual artwork, marketing material, arcade system boards, and other material relating to

6794-505: The Sega Genesis , TurboGrafx-16 , and PlayStation . Namco continued to produce hit games in the 1990s, including Ridge Racer , Tekken , and Taiko no Tatsujin , but later endured financial difficulties due to the struggling Japanese economy and diminishing arcade market. This led to the 2005 announcement of a merge with toy maker Bandai , which was completed in 2006 as Namco Bandai Holdings ; Namco's former video games division

6952-568: The Sord M5 flopped. Nakamura suggested that his son-in-law, Shigeichi Ishimura, work with a team to reverse-engineer and study the Famicom's hardware in the meantime. His team created a conversion of Galaxian with their newfound knowledge of the console's capabilities, which exceeded the quality of previous home releases. The port was presented to Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi alongside notification that Namco intended to release it with or without Nintendo's approval. Namco's demonstration

7110-431: The multitap accessory. There was, however, some concern about the system's abilities following the lack of anti-aliasing in the two most popular early titles, Ridge Racer V and Tekken Tag Tournament . It was exacerbated for a period of time post-launch amid concerns about the relative lack of new quality software. This situation was eventually turned around following a spate of big and highly acclaimed games in

7268-500: The multitap for PlayStation or PS2, a USB motion camera ( EyeToy ), a USB keyboard and mouse , and a headset . The original PS2 multitap (SCPH-10090) cannot be plugged into the newer slim models. The multitap connects to the memory card slot and the controller slot, and the memory card slot on the slimline is shallower. New slim-design multitaps (SCPH-70120) were manufactured for these models; however, third-party adapters also permit original multitaps to be used. Early versions of

7426-402: The 1960s, it manufactured electro-mechanical arcade games such as the 1965 hit Periscope . It entered the video game industry after acquiring the struggling Japanese division of Atari in 1974, distributing games such as Breakout in Japan. The company renamed itself Namco in 1977 and published Gee Bee , its first original video game, a year later. Among Namco's first major hits was

7584-561: The 2001 holiday season with the release of several blockbuster games that maintained the PS2's sales momentum and held off its newer rivals. Sony also countered the Xbox by securing timed PlayStation 2 exclusives for highly anticipated games such as the Grand Theft Auto series and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty . In a 2002 article analysis of the system up to that point, Edge noted: Now, 18 months on, things are looking much rosier for PS2 owners. Developers are coming to terms with

7742-518: The Famicom's first " killer app ". Namcot also began releasing games for the MSX , a popular Japanese computer. Namco's arcade game ports were considered high-quality and helped increase sales of the console. Namcot was financially successful and became an important pillar within the company; when Namco moved its headquarters to Ōta, Tokyo in 1985, it used the profits generated from the Famicom conversion of Xevious to fund its construction (the building

7900-471: The GameCube version allows the player to insert a limited number of credits, about five or six, by repeatedly pressing the Z button when the game first starts, but then players can only exit to the main menu during gameplay. The PS2, Xbox, and PC versions allow the player to exit a game at any time, but skip being able to add credits. For Dragon Spirit , Pac-Mania and Galaga '88 , the continue features from

8058-584: The Japanese compilation Namcot Collection , featuring Namco-published games for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Family Computer . Vol. 1 contains an 8-bit demake of Pac-Man Championship Edition , and Vol. 2 contains a homebrew conversion of Gaplus . In August 1996, Namco claimed accumulated sales of 600,000 units for the Namco Museum series in Japan alone. In the United States, The NPD Group in 2010 listed Namco Museum among

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8216-570: The Japanese dedicated arcade cabinet charts by October 1991, holding the top six positions that month with Starblade at the top. In February 1992, Namco opened its own theme park, Wonder Eggs , in the Futakotamagawa Time Spark area in Setagaya, Tokyo . Described as an "urban amusement center", Wonder Eggs was the first amusement park operated by a video game company. In addition to Galaxian3 and The Tower of Druaga ,

8374-613: The Japanese government in 1976, as Nakamura Seisakusho began returning higher profits; its import of Atari's Breakout was so successful that it led to rampant piracy in the industry. By the end of the year, Nakamura Seisakusho was one of Japan's leading video game companies. Nakamura Seisakusho changed its corporate name to Namco in June 1977. It opened a division in Hong Kong named Namco Enterprises Asia, which maintained video arcades and amusement centers. As Namco's presence in Japan

8532-606: The Japanese-only Namco Anthology Vol. 2 , and Pac-Man Collection ). The version of Pac-Attack seen here also resembles the Genesis version, as opposed to the SNES version. This is distinguished by the music, which sounds like the Genesis version of the game. The "Arrangement" games in the collection were originally on the arcade's Namco Classic Collection Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 . The pitch of

8690-527: The Namco banner continued opening up in Japan and overseas, such as the family-friendly Play City Carrot chain. Namco saw continued success in the consumer game market as a result of the "Famicom boom" in the late 1980s. By 1989, sales of games for the Famicom and NES accounted for 40% of its annual revenue. During the same time frame, the company's licensing contract with Nintendo expired; when Namco attempted to renew its license, Nintendo chose to revoke many of

8848-699: The Official PlayStation Podcast, that the PlayStation 2 had sold 160 million units worldwide. This statement was not corroborated by Sony directly until nearly eight months later, with this figure appearing on the PlayStation 30th Anniversary website on 26 November 2024. Using homebrew programs, it is possible to play various audio and video file formats on a PS2. Homebrew programs can also play patched backups of original PS2 DVD games on unmodified consoles and install retail discs to an installed hard drive on older models. Homebrew emulators of older computer and gaming systems have been developed for

9006-437: The PS2 could be networked via an i.LINK port, though this had little game support and was dropped. Some third-party manufacturers have created devices that allow disabled people to access the PS2 through ordinary switches, etc. Some third-party companies, such as Joytech , have produced LCD monitor and speaker attachments for the PS2, which attach to the back of the console. These allow users to play games without access to

9164-403: The PS2 remained the only sixth-generation console for over 6 months before it faced competition from new rivals: Nintendo's GameCube and Microsoft's Xbox . Many analysts predicted a close three-way matchup among the three consoles. The Xbox had the most powerful hardware, while the GameCube was the least expensive console, and Nintendo changed its policy to encourage third-party developers. While

9322-491: The PSP's hardware and features. The Japanese version is divided into two volumes, with the second containing three additional games: Dragon Spirit , Motos Arrangement and Pac-Man Arrangement Plus . A special edition that marks Namco's founding as a toy manufacturing company in 1955. It was the second Namco Museum compilation to be released on the PlayStation 2 , Xbox and the GameCube . The Game Boy Advance version

9480-554: The PlayStation 2 theoretically had the weakest hardware of the three, it had a head start due to its installed base plus strong developer commitment, as well as a built-in DVD player (the Xbox required an adapter, while the GameCube lacked support entirely). The PlayStation 2's initial games lineup was considered mediocre, with a lack of quality games especially amid the expectations of its hardware capabilities (partly caused due to its complex architecture for developers). This changed during

9638-557: The PlayStation 2, including God of War , Ratchet & Clank , Jak and Daxter , Devil May Cry , Kingdom Hearts , and Sly Cooper . Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was the best-selling game on the console. Game releases peaked in 2004, but declined with the release of the PlayStation 3 in 2006. The last new games for the console were Final Fantasy XI : Seekers of Adoulin in Asia, FIFA 14 in North America, and Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 in Europe. As of 30 June 2007,

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9796-424: The PlayStation, which requires the use of an official Sony PlayStation Mouse to play mouse-compatible games, the few PS2 games with mouse support work with a standard USB mouse as well as a USB trackball . In addition, some of these games also support the usage of a USB keyboard for text input, game control (instead of a DualShock or DualShock 2 gamepad, in tandem with a USB mouse), or both. PlayStation 2 software

9954-592: The Sega Saturn and 3DO Interactive Multiplayer , Namco concentrated its consumer software efforts on PlayStation for the remainder of the decade. PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 ( PS2 ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment . It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, in Australia on 30 November 2000, and other regions thereafter. It

10112-548: The VMU titled Pac-It , with gameplay similar to Kaboom! . In the United States, Namco Museum for the Game Boy Advance sold 2.4 million copies and earned $ 37 million by August 2006. During the period between January 2000 and August 2006, it was the third-highest-selling game for handheld game consoles in that country. It was also the first time an entry had been released on PlayStation 2 , Xbox , and GameCube . It

10270-433: The add-on. Sony chose to refocus its efforts in designing the PlayStation in-house as its own console. As it lacked the resources to produce its own games, Sony called for the support of third-party companies to develop PlayStation software. Namco, frustrated with Nintendo and Sega's licensing conditions for its consoles, agreed to support the PlayStation and became its first third-party developer. The company began work on

10428-469: The all-time top ten best-selling video games in the United States . The franchise has sold a total of at least 14.087 million copies worldwide. The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly gave Volume 1 an 8.125 out of 10, citing the excellent quality of the emulation and the interesting virtual museum content. Mark Lefebvre summarized that "Namco has given gamers what they've always been asking for: old titles." Next Generation likewise complimented

10586-615: The back of the console, and is required to play certain games, notably the popular Final Fantasy XI . The system has 4 MB of Video RAM in the form of eDRAM . Software for the PlayStation 2 was distributed primarily on DVD-ROMs , with some titles being published on blue-tinted CD-ROM format. In addition, the console can play audio CDs and DVD films and is backward-compatible with almost all original PlayStation games. The PlayStation 2 also supports PlayStation memory cards and controllers, although original PlayStation memory cards will only work with original PlayStation games and

10744-544: The business grew in size, it used its clout to purchase amusement machines in bulk from other manufacturers at a discount, and then sell them to smaller outlets at full price. While its machines sold well, Nakamura Seisakusho lacked the manufacturing lines and distribution networks of its competitors, which made the production of them longer and more expensive. The company was unable to place its machines inside stores because other manufacturers already had exclusive rights to these locations. In response, Nakamura Seisakusho opened

10902-520: The colour black as it represents the infinity of the universe. The blue represents the intelligence and life spouting up." —Teiyu Goto reflecting on the PlayStation 2's aesthetics Sony unveiled the PlayStation 2 at the Tokyo Game Show on 20 September 1999. Sony showed fully playable demos of upcoming PlayStation 2 games including Gran Turismo 2000 (later released as Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec ) and Tekken Tag Tournament —which showed

11060-685: The company Nakamura Seisakusho Company, Ltd. The Mitsukoshi department store chain noticed his success in 1963, and approached him with the idea of constructing a rooftop amusement space for its store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. It consisted of horse rides, a picture viewing machine, and a goldfish scooping pond, with the centerpiece being a moving train named Roadaway Race . The space was a hit and lead to Mitsukoshi requesting rooftop amusement parks for all of its stores. Along with Taito , Rosen Enterprises, and Nihon Goraku Bussan , Nakamura Seisakusho became one of Japan's leading amusement companies. As

11218-492: The company financially. Against Nakamura's protest, Namco signed Nintendo's new licensee contract anyway. While it continued to produce games for Nintendo hardware, most of Namco's quality releases came from the PC Engine and Mega Drive . In 1989, it was reported that Namco was underway with developing its own video game console to compete against companies such as Nintendo and NEC. Electronic Gaming Monthly claimed that

11376-454: The company retrofitted its Ōta manufacturing facility into a small game division and purchased old stock computers from NEC for employees to study. Namco released Gee Bee , its first original game, in October 1978. Designed by new hire Toru Iwatani , it is a video pinball game that incorporates elements from Breakout and similar "block breaker" clones. Though Gee Bee fell short of

11534-455: The company's idea of "hyperentertainment" video games, Namco engineers had drafted ideas for a possible theme park based on Namco's experience with designing and operating indoor play areas and entertainment complexes. Both attractions were commercially successful and among the most popular of Expo 90's exhibitions. In arcades, Namco released Starblade , a 3D rail shooter noteworthy for its cinematic presentation. This led to Namco dominating

11692-469: The company's personal computer and home console divisions to Commodore International founder Jack Tramiel , who renamed his company Tramel Technology to Atari Corporation . Warner was left with Atari's arcade game and computer software divisions, which it renamed Atari Games . Namco America purchased a 60% stake in Atari Games on February 4, 1985 through its AT Games subsidiary, with Warner holding

11850-545: The company's sales expectations and was unable to compete with games such as Space Invaders , it allowed Namco to gain a stronger foothold in the video game market. In 1979, Namco published its first major hit Galaxian , one of the first video games to incorporate RGB color graphics, score bonuses, and a tilemap hardware model. Galaxian is considered historically important for these innovations, and for its mechanics building off those in Space Invaders . It

12008-566: The company. Viewing the majority-acquisition as a failure, in 1987 Namco America sold 33% of its ownership stake to a group of Atari Games employees led by Nakajima. This prompted Nakajima to resign from Namco America and become president of Atari Games. He established Tengen , a publisher that challenged Nintendo's licensing restrictions for the NES by selling several unlicensed games, which included ports of Namco arcade games. Though its selloff made Atari Games an independent entity, Namco still held

12166-519: The console after the immense success of its predecessor. The highlight of the system was its Emotion Engine processor, co-developed by Sony and Toshiba , which was said to be more powerful than personal computers. The PS2 offered backward-compatibility for its predecessor's DualShock controller, as well as its games. The PlayStation 2 received widespread critical acclaim upon release. A total of over 4,000 game titles were released worldwide, with over 1.527 billion copies sold. In 2004, Sony revised

12324-601: The console continued to be released until shortly after the end of its life and support from Sony. Released in 1994, the original PlayStation proved to be a phenomenal worldwide success and signalled Sony's rise to power in the video game industry . Its launch elicited critical acclaim and strong sales; it eventually became the first computer entertainment platform to ship over 100 million units. The PlayStation enjoyed particular success outside Japan in part due to Sony's refined development kits , large-scale advertising campaigns, and strong third-party developer support. By

12482-527: The console was never released, it allowed Namco to familiarize itself with designing home video game hardware. Tadashi Manabe replaced Nakamura as president of Namco on May 2, 1990. Manabe, who had been the company's representative director since 1981, was tasked with strengthening relationships and teamwork ethics of management. Two months later, the company dissolved its remaining connections with Atari Games when Time Warner reacquired Namco America's remaining 40% stake in Atari Games. In return, Namco America

12640-505: The console with a smaller, lighter body officially known as the Slimline , popularly called the "PS2 Slim". Even after the release of its successor, the PlayStation 3 , it remained popular well into the seventh generation . It continued to be produced until the beginning of 2013 when Sony finally announced that it had been discontinued after over twelve years of production, one of the longest lifespans of any video game console. New games for

12798-528: The console's graphic abilities and power. The PS2 was launched in March 2000 in Japan, October in North America, and November in Europe. Sales of the console, games and accessories pulled in $ 250 million on the first day, beating the $ 97 million made on the first day of the Dreamcast. Directly after its release, it was difficult to find PS2 units on retailer shelves due to manufacturing delays. Another option

12956-483: The console, named the "Graphics Synthesizer". It has a fillrate of 2.4 gigapixels per second, capable of rendering up to 75 million polygons per second. The GPU also runs with a clock frequency of 147.456 MHz (which is half the clock speed of the Emotion Engine), 4 MB of DRAM is capable of transmitting a display output of 1280 x 1024 pixels on both PAL and NTSC televisions. The PlayStation 2 has

13114-693: The controllers may not support all functions (such as analogue buttons) for PlayStation 2 games. The standard PlayStation 2 memory card has an 8  megabyte (MB) capacity and features MagicGate encryption. There are a variety of non-Sony manufactured memory cards available for the PlayStation ;2, allowing for a memory capacity larger than the standard 8 MB. The PlayStation 2 can natively output video resolutions on SDTV and HDTV from 480i to 480p , and some games, such as Gran Turismo 4 and Tourist Trophy , are known to support up-scaled 1080i resolution. The PlayStation 2 supports

13272-422: The country's largest arcade game companies. The Atari Japan purchase was not an immediate success, in part due to the medal game fad of the 1970s. While Nakamura Seisakusho saw some success with imports such as Kee Games 's Tank , the Japanese video game industry's decrease in popularity did not make them as profitable as hoped. The market became more viable once restrictions on medal games were imposed by

13430-547: The deal. In part due to employee theft, Atari Japan was a financial disaster and nearly collapsed in its first few years of operation. When Takumi stopped showing up to work, the company was handed to Hideyuki Nakajima, a former employee of the Japan Art Paper Company. Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, whose company was already struggling in America, chose to sell the Japanese division. His fixer, Ron Gordon,

13588-572: The earliest arcade boards to utilize true 3D polygonal graphics. Nicknamed "Polygonizer", the company demonstrated its power through the Formula One racer Winning Run . With an arcade cabinet that shook and swayed the player as they drove, the game was seen as "a breakthrough product in term of programming technique" and garnered significant attention from the press. Winning Run was commercially successful, convincing Namco to continue researching 3D video game hardware. Video arcades under

13746-412: The emulation quality and the virtual museum, and concluded that for those interested in retro compilations, "this is as good as this sort of thing gets." They scored it four out of five stars. Maximum gave it three out of five stars, reasoning that "On the one hand, this is a collection of six indisputably classic games, three of which rank among the most influential titles in the history of videogames. On

13904-609: The end of 2013, including Final Fantasy XI : Seekers of Adoulin for Japan, and FIFA 14 for North America. The last game to be released on the PlayStation 2 is Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 , which was released in the United Kingdom on 8 November 2013. Repair services for the system in Japan ended on 7 September 2018. The PlayStation 2's main central processing unit (CPU) is the 64-bit R5900-based " Emotion Engine ", custom-designed by Sony and Toshiba . The Emotion Engine consists of eight separate "units", each performing

14062-592: The era in Japan, remaining towards the top of sales charts for the rest of the decade. Namco's continued success in arcades provided its arcade division with the revenue and resources needed to fund its research and development (R&D) departments. Among their first creations was the helicopter shooter Metal Hawk in 1988, fitted in a motion simulator arcade cabinet. Its high development costs prevented it from being massed-produced. While most of its efforts were commercially unsuccessful, Namco grew interested in motion-based arcade games and began designing those at

14220-436: The exception of Mr. Driller Online' s online mode. The Xbox Live Arcade games can only be played when the disc is inside the system. The games must be downloaded from Xbox Live Marketplace for their regular prices in order for the games to be retained in the system's game library. Namco Museum Essentials was released on January 29, 2009. It includes: PlayStation Home included a virtual arcade space with sample versions of

14378-487: The exception of Namco Museum Encore , instead placed the player in a virtual museum that housed the individual games. The Namco Museum series has been met with a mixed to positive critical response, some praising the emulation quality and unlockable extras while others criticizing the overall presentation and lack of updated features to the included titles. The franchise has sold a total of more than 14 million copies worldwide. Six Namco Museum volumes were released for

14536-421: The final quarter of 2001. Later reviews, especially after the launch of the competing GameCube and Xbox systems, continued to praise the PlayStation 2's large game library and DVD playback, while routinely criticizing the PlayStation 2's lesser graphics performance compared to the newer systems and its rudimentary online service compared to Xbox Live . In 2002, CNET rated the console 7.3 out of 10, calling it

14694-496: The first Namco Museum game to be rated T for Teen by the Entertainment Software Rating Board . A retail release bundled with Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus , titled Namco Museum Arcade Pac , was released on September 28, 2018. Namco Museum Mini Player is a dedicated handheld console shaped like a miniature arcade cabinet developed by My Arcade that includes 20 Namco games and

14852-478: The first compilations in the series to omit a virtual museum. The GBA version was released worldwide and was a launch title for the system in North America, while other versions were exclusive to North America. The following games, originally featured in Namco Museum Vol. 1 and Namco Museum Vol. 3 for the PlayStation, are included: The GBA version does not retain high scores when powered off, which

15010-530: The five games included in the Game Boy Advance version. This version is similar to the original Namco Museum for that console, which also includes five games and no score-saving capability. 50th Anniversary replaces Galaxian and Pole Position with Pac-Man and Rally-X . This is the first edition of Namco Museum with actual arcade game emulation using the original game ROM images (although voice sounds in "Rolling Thunder", sounds for both "Pole Position" games and "Xevious" are stored in .wav files ). Also,

15168-495: The fixed shooter Galaxian in 1979. It was followed by Pac-Man in 1980. Namco prospered during the golden age of arcade video games in the early 1980s, releasing popular titles such as Galaga , Xevious , and Pole Position . Namco entered the home market in 1984 with conversions of its arcade games for the MSX and the Nintendo Family Computer , later expanding to competing platforms, such as

15326-439: The following standards: composite video (480i), S-Video (480i), RGB (480i/p), VGA (for progressive scan games and PS2 Linux only), YP B P R component video (which display most original PlayStation games in their native 240p mode which most HDTV sets do not support ), and D-Terminal . Cables are available for all of these signal types; these cables also output analogue stereo audio. Additionally, an RF modulator

15484-484: The game disc to the Xbox 360 HDD is disallowed. Xbox Live Arcade Games Museum Games The Arrangement games are the same as they were on Namco Museum Battle Collection for PSP, although New Rally-X Arrangement is not included in this compilation. Additionally, on all games, the original 2-player modes from the original arcade versions (where applicable) do not appear here; all games are one-player only. The Xbox Live Arcade games do not have multiplayer either with

15642-552: The gameplay off eating and designed its characters with soft colors and simplistic facial features. Puck Man was test-marketed in Japan on May 22, 1980 and given a wide-scale in July. It was only a modest success; players were more accustom to the shooting gameplay of Galaxian as opposed to Puck Man ' s visually distinctive characters and gameplay style. In North America, it was released as Pac-Man in November 1980. Pac-Man ' s simplicity and abstract characters made it

15800-444: The gamer, as its debut pricing was less than many standalone DVD players on the market. This made the console a low-cost entry into the home theater market. The success of the PS2 at the end of 2000 caused Sega problems both financially and competitively, and Sega announced the discontinuation of the Dreamcast in March 2001, just 18 months after its successful Western launch. Despite the Dreamcast still receiving support through 2001,

15958-489: The games in these compilations are based on their home console versions ( NES/Famicom , SNES/Super Famicom , and Genesis/Mega Drive ) rather than arcade versions. Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1 and Namco Museum Archives Vol. 2 were both released on June 18, 2020 for the Xbox One , PlayStation 4 , Nintendo Switch , and Steam outside of Japan. Developed by M2 and B.B. Studio , the two volumes are localized versions of

16116-479: The games. The PlayStation Store also had a free trial version that only includes the first at the few levels of: Both the demo and the full version were delisted from the PlayStation Store on March 15, 2018. An updated version of Namco Museum Remix for the Wii , which was released on November 16, 2010 in North America only. It adds additional arcade games and an additional "Remix" game. It adds

16274-433: The included games. Encore replaces the museum with a standard menu system. The means by which Namco recreated the games for the PlayStation hardware is unclear; the arcade game conversions contain pieces of the original game data but none of the original source code , suggesting they are object-level recreations. The control systems of each of the games were well-preserved. However, since the PlayStation's analog controller

16432-403: The industry possessed a predominately male playerbase. Toru Iwatani began work on a maze video game that was targeted primarily towards women, with simplistic gameplay and recognizable characters. Alongside a small team, he created a game named Puck Man , where players controlled a character that had to eat dots in an enclosed maze while avoiding four ghosts that pursued them. Iwatani based

16590-524: The internal hard disk drive. It also lacked an internal power supply until a later revision (excluding the Japanese version), similar to the GameCube , and had a modified Multitap expansion. The removal of the expansion bay was criticized as a limitation due to the existence of titles such as Final Fantasy XI , which required the HDD use. Sony also manufactured a consumer device called the PSX that can be used as

16748-570: The lack of online support at the time, its inclusion of only two controller ports, and the system's price at launch compared to the Dreamcast in 2000. PC Magazine in 2001 called the console "outstanding", praising its "noteworthy components" such as the Emotion Engine CPU, 32 MB of RAM, support for IEEE 1394 (branded as "i.LINK" by Sony and "FireWire" by Apple), and the console's two USB ports while criticizing its "expensive" games and its support for only two controllers without

16906-498: The late 1990s Sony had dethroned established rivals Sega and Nintendo in the global video game market. Sega, spurred on by its declining market share and significant financial losses, launched the Dreamcast in 1998 as a last-ditch attempt to stay in the industry. Though Sony has kept details of the PlayStation 2's development secret, Ken Kutaragi , the chief designer of the original PlayStation, reportedly began working on

17064-549: The lesser-known Grobda and Dragon Buster are mediocre at best." He gave the compilation a 7.1 out of 10, praising the charm of the antiquated graphics and sound effects and the still potent gameplay. Next Generation picked Grobda , Dragon Buster , and Mappy as the mediocre games in the compilation, reasoning that "all are examples of game genres that have evolved way beyond these originals, and with good reason." They scored it two out of five stars. In direct contradiction to GameSpot and Next Generation , GamePro said that of

17222-428: The manufacturing facility was largely reserved for its Disney and anime rides, Nakamura also used it to construct larger, more elaborate electro-mechanical games . The first of these was Torpedo Launcher (1965), a submarine warfare shooting gallery later titled Periscope . Its other products included Ultraman -themed gun games and pinball -like games branded with Osomatsu-kun characters. The name Namco

17380-470: The menus for Xevious and Dig Dug II , respectively. This game also allows access to each game's DIP switches , but some arcade-exclusive options are left out such as the "Rack-Test" on Pac-Man . It was re-released as part of a "Dual Pack" bundle with the DS version of Pac-Man World 3 in North America on October 30, 2012. Namco Museum Remix was released on October 23, 2007 for Wii . This compilation has

17538-744: The music in Pac-Man Arrangement and Dig Dug Arrangement has been changed slightly from the original: it is higher-pitched than in the arcade versions. This compilation was released only in North America on all three of the consoles on which it was released. This title was released on the PlayStation Portable in 2005. It contains over twenty of Namco's games such as Pac-Man (1980) and Galaga (1981). In addition, new "Arrangement" variants are available for Pac-Man , Galaga , New Rally-X (1981) and Dig Dug (1982), which have updated gameplay, graphics and can be played in

17696-429: The ones accessible directly from the disc. However, they do not come with achievements or online play. Namco Museum Virtual Arcade is the first Namco Museum game to include Sky Kid Deluxe (1986), while all of the rest were already or previously available on consoles. In common with other disc releases that include full Xbox Live Arcade games on-disc (like Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged for example), installation of

17854-415: The ones that never should have been unearthed", and gave it three out of five stars. GamePro approved of both the entire set of games and the quality of the emulation, and deemed Volume 3 "must-have arcade fun". Though Electronic Gaming Monthly never reviewed Volume 3, they named it a runner-up for "Best Compilation" (behind Street Fighter Collection ) at their 1997 Editors' Choice Awards. Volume 4 saw

18012-497: The online-capable Xbox. Coinciding with the release of Xbox Live , Sony released the PlayStation 2 Network Adaptor in late 2002, with several online first-party titles released alongside it, such as SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs to demonstrate its active support for Internet play. Sony also advertised heavily, and its online model had the support of Electronic Arts (EA); EA did not offer online Xbox titles until 2004. Although Sony and Nintendo both started late, and although both followed

18170-492: The original arcade versions have only been retained in the Windows PC version of the collection. It is also the last edition of Namco Museum to be released by Namco as an independent company, before merging with Bandai later in 2005. Namco Museum DS was released on September 18, 2007. The collection includes ten games: Super Xevious and the old version of Dig Dug II are hidden games that must be found by browsing

18328-587: The original arcade versions of: It also had "Remix" versions of certain games: When played on multiplayer, the Miis are used. Galaga Remix on this compilation is not the same as the Galaga Remix iOS application. This collection was released for the Xbox 360 on November 4, 2008, in North America, May 15, 2009, in Europe, June 3, 2009, in Australia and November 5, 2009, in Japan. Namco Museum Virtual Arcade

18486-423: The original model. Demand for the PlayStation 2 remained strong throughout much of its lifespan, selling over 1.4 million units in Japan by 31 March 2000. Over 10.6 million units were sold worldwide by 31 March 2001. In 2005, the PlayStation 2 became the fastest game console to reach 100 million units shipped, accomplishing the feat within 5 years and 9 months from its launch; this was surpassed 4 years later when

18644-404: The other hand, all the games on the disk are over ten years old, and influential or not, they're definitely well past their sell by date. Pole Position may have revolutionised the racing genre in 1982, but would you really choose to play it over Ridge Racer Revolution in 1996?" While GamePro found that all of the games save ToyPop remained great fun, the reviewer criticized the absence of

18802-509: The parallel architecture and fears that the PS2 would suffer the same fate as the Sega Saturn now seem ridiculous. A mixture of hard work, trial and error and middleware tools is also ensuring that development cycles are getting shorter and game quality improving. It's taken much longer than anticipated, but exceptional titles are beginning to come through. Sony cut the price of the console in May 2002 from US$ 299 to $ 199 in North America, making it

18960-401: The park featured carnival games, carousels, motion simulators, and Fighter Camp , the first flight simulator available to the public. The park saw regularly high attendance numbers; 500,000 visitors attended in its first few months of operation and over one million by the end of the year. Namco created the park out of its interest in designing a Disneyland-inspired theme park that featured

19118-456: The preferential terms it originally possessed. Hiroshi Yamauchi insisted that all companies, including Namco, had to follow the same guidelines. The revocation of Namco's terms enraged Nakamura, who announced the company would abandon Nintendo hardware and focus on production of games for competing systems such as the PC Engine . Executives resisted the idea, fearing it would severely impact

19276-564: The remaining 40%. The acquisition gave Namco the exclusive rights to distribute Atari games in Japan. Nakamura began losing interest and patience in Atari Games not long after the acquisition. As he started viewing Atari as a competitor to Namco, he was hesitant to pour additional funds and resources into the company. Nakamura also disliked having to share ownership with Warner Communications. Nakajima grew frustrated with Nakamura's attempts at marketing Atari video games in Japan, and had constant disagreements with him over which direction to take

19434-500: The restaurant industry by acquiring the Italian Tomato café chain. It also released Sweet Land , a popular candy-themed prize machine . One of Namco's biggest hits from the era was the racing game Final Lap from 1987. It is credited as the first arcade game to allow multiple machines to be connected—or "linked"—together to allow for additional players. Final Lap was one of the most-profitable coin-operated games of

19592-456: The role. Manabe instead served as the company's vice chairman until his death in 1994. The company's arcade division, in the meantime, began work on a new 3D arcade board named System 22 , capable of displaying polygonal 3D models with fully-textured graphics. Namco enlisted the help of Evans & Sutherland , a designer of combat flight simulators for The Pentagon , to assist in the board's development. The System 22 powered Ridge Racer ,

19750-536: The same functionality as its predecessor. However, it includes analogue pressure sensitivity to over 100 individual levels of depth on the face, shoulder and D-pad buttons, replacing the digital buttons of the original. Like its predecessor, the DualShock 2 controller has force feedback , or "vibration" functionality. It is lighter and includes two more levels of vibration . Specialized controllers include light guns ( GunCon ), fishing rod and reel controllers,

19908-456: The same kind of stories and characters present in its games. Wonder Eggs contributed to Namco's 34% increase in revenue by December 1992. Namco also designed smaller, indoor theme parks for its larger entertainment complexes across the country, such as Plabo Sennichimae Tempo in Osaka. Manabe resigned as president on May 1, 1992 due to a serious anxiety disorder, and Nakamura once again assumed

20066-457: The same level they did when they were 17. The slogan used was: Live in your world. Play in ours. (Stylized as: "LIVE IN Y [REDACTED] UR W [REDACTED] RLD. PL [REDACTED] Y IN [REDACTED] URS.") Backward compatibility had been widely seen as a desirable feature for consumers since the debut of the first successor video game console, but prior to the PlayStation 2 only one console had featured true backward compatibility (i.e. without

20224-412: The same price as the GameCube and $ 100 less than the Xbox. It also planned to cut the price in Japan around that time. It cut the price twice in Japan in 2003. In 2006, Sony cut the cost of the console in anticipation of the release of the PlayStation 3 . Unlike Sega's Dreamcast, Sony originally placed little emphasis on online gaming during its first few years, although that changed upon the launch of

20382-414: The series concept and Namco's backlog of genuine classics, and that Namco should have let the series end with volume 3. Namco Namco Limited was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company founded in 1955 which operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, produced video games, films, toys, and arcade cabinets . They were one of the most influential figures in

20540-507: The six games, " Super Pac-Man ' s weak control makes it the biggest disappointment, while Dragon Buster ' s action/adventure swordplay and Grobda ' s rapid-fire tank shooting hold up the best." They recommended the compilation for "those who enjoy simple, classic gameplay". Volume 3 continued the trend of increasingly mixed reviews for the series. Jeff Gerstmann and Next Generation both commented that Dig Dug , Ms. Pac-Man , and Galaxian are genuine classics, Pole Position II

20698-580: The struggling post- World War II economy. Nakamura established his own company after his father's business saw success with producing pop cork guns . Beginning with only ¥300,000 (US$ 12,000), Nakamura spent the money on two hand-cranked rocking horses that he installed on the roof garden of a Matsuya department store in Yokohama . The horses were loved by children and turned a decent profit for Nakamura, who began expanding his business to cover other smaller locations. A 1959 business reorganization renamed

20856-405: The system memory. The Emotion Engine CPU has a clock rate of 294.912 MHz (299 MHz on newer versions) and 6,000 MIPS , with a floating point performance of 6.2 GFLOPS . The system's I/O processor was based on the PlayStation's CPU and was designed to provide full backward compatibility with the PlayStation. The system has 32 MB of RDRAM . The GPU is likewise custom-designed for

21014-464: The system, which was nearing completion, featured hardware comparable to the then-upcoming Nintendo Super Famicom . According to company engineer Yutaka Isokawa, it was produced to compete against the Mega Drive, a 16-bit console by Namco's arcade rival Sega. With the console industry being crowded by other competing systems, publications were unsure how well it would perform in the market. While

21172-653: The units. After an apparent manufacturing issue—Sony reportedly underestimated demand—caused some initial slowdown in producing the new unit caused in part by shortages between the time Sony cleared out the old units and the new units were ready. The issue was compounded in Britain when a Russian oil tanker became stuck in the Suez Canal , blocking a ship from China carrying PS2s bound for the UK. During one week in November, British sales totalled 6,000 units—compared to 70,000 units

21330-484: The use of add-ons), the Atari 7800 , due to the added hardware costs and industry concerns that backward compatibility could cause the console to appear to be a merely a new model of its predecessor or lead developers to prefer making games for the predecessor system. Later, Sony added new development kits for game developers and more PS2 units for consumers. The PS2's built-in functionality also expanded its audience beyond

21488-498: The voice samples from Pole Position and compared the 3D museum unfavorably to the bonus content in Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits . He concluded the compilation to be worth renting at the least, and a must-have for retro gaming fans. Reviews for Volume 2 were also mixed to positive, though most critics found the selection of games weaker than that of Volume 1. The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly gave Volume 2

21646-553: The worldwide coin-op and arcade game industry; Namco produced several multi-million-selling game franchises , such as Pac-Man , Galaxian , Tekken , Tales , Ridge Racer , and Ace Combat . In 2006, Namco merged with Bandai to form what is now named Bandai Namco Holdings ; the standalone Namco brand continues to be used for video arcade and other entertainment products by the group's Bandai Namco Amusements division. The Namco name comes from Nakamura Manufacturing Company , derived from its founder Masaya Nakamura . In

21804-540: Was Ridge Racer V followed by Geki Kuukan Pro Baseball: At the End of the Century 1999 , Tekken Tag Tournament , Kessen , Dead or Alive 2 and Jikkyo Powerful Pro Baseball 7 . Marketing for the PlayStation 2 reverted to the same tactic used in the early days of the original PlayStation: use 17-year-olds as the target audience , since younger audiences aspire to be teenagers and older audiences enjoy video games at

21962-510: Was a 22" HD-Ready television which incorporated a built-in PlayStation 2. The standard color of the PS2 is matte black. Several variations in color were produced in different quantities and regions, including ceramic white, light yellow, metallic blue (aqua), metallic silver, navy (star blue), opaque blue (astral blue), opaque black (midnight black), pearl white, sakura purple, satin gold, satin silver, snow white, super red, transparent blue (ocean blue), and also Limited Edition color Pink, which

22120-499: Was able to gain a foothold in the Japanese film industry. In early 1994, Sony announced that it was developing its own video game console, the 32-bit PlayStation . The console began as a collaboration between Nintendo and Sony to create a CD-based peripheral for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988. Fearing that Sony would assume control of the entire project, Nintendo silently scrapped

22278-456: Was also the second Namco Museum compilation for the GBA. It was also released on Microsoft Windows . In Japan, this was released under the title Namco Museum Arcade Hits! for PlayStation 2 only, with Pac-Mania and Galaga '88 unlocked right from the start and different menu music. This compilation includes 16 games, except for the Game Boy Advance, which only includes five games: † indicates

22436-509: Was being developed. Chris Deering , then-president of SCEE recalled that there was a degree of trepidation among Sony leaders to produce a console which would recapture or exceed the success of its predecessor. Sony announced the PlayStation 2 on 2 March 1999. Sega's Dreamcast enjoyed a successful US launch on 9 September of that year; fuelled by a large marketing campaign, it sold over 500,000 units within two weeks. "PlayStation 2's real-time graphics have no limitations. That's why I chose

22594-428: Was consolidated into Namco in 1995; its final game was a PlayStation port of Tekken , published in March in Japan and in November worldwide. Tekken was designed for Namco's System 11 arcade system board, which was based on raw PlayStation hardware; this allowed the home version to be a near-perfect rendition of its arcade counterpart. Tekken became the first PlayStation game to sell one million copies and played

22752-401: Was designing their own chip in-house and had instructed other companies to design rendering chips merely to diversify their options. By early 1997, the press was reporting that a new PlayStation was being developed and would have backward-compatibility with the original PlayStation, a built-in DVD player , and Internet connectivity. However, Sony continued to officially deny that a successor

22910-485: Was distributed in some regions such as Oceania, and parts of Asia. In September 2004, Sony unveiled its third major hardware revision. Available in late October 2004, it was smaller, thinner, and quieter than the original versions and included a built-in Ethernet port (in some markets it also had an integrated modem ). Due to its thinner profile, it did not contain the 3.5" expansion bay and therefore did not support

23068-486: Was first released in 2001 on PlayStation 2, followed by GameCube and Xbox in 2002. The compilation on these consoles includes all the games from Namco Museum 64 and Namco Museum for Dreamcast plus: This edition of Namco Museum is the first collection in the series to include a game that originated on home consoles ( Pac-Attack , originally released on the Genesis and the Super NES and also previously included in

23226-420: Was given Atari's video arcade management division, Atari Operations, allowing the company to operate video arcades across the United States. Namco began distributing games in North America directly from its US office, rather than through Atari. Namco Hometek was established as the home console game division of Namco America; the latter's relations with Atari Games and Tengen made the company ineligible to become

23384-507: Was given the task of finding the buyer for Atari Japan. After being turned down by Sega and Taito, Gordon's offer was accepted by Nakamura for ¥ 296 million ($ 1.18M), though Nakamura informed Bushnell his company was unable to pay the money by the deadline. With no other takers for Atari Japan, Bushnell ultimately allowed Nakamura to only pay $ 550,000 and then $ 250,000 a year for three years. The acquisition allowed Nakamura Seisakusho to distribute Atari games across Japan, and would make it one of

23542-435: Was introduced in 1971 as a brand for several of its machines. The company grew to having ten employees, which included Nakamura himself. It saw continued success with its arcade games, which had become commonplace in bowling alleys and grocery stores. The company also established a robotics division to produce robots for entertainment centers and festivals, such as those that distributed pamphlets, ribbon making machines, and

23700-549: Was merged into a subsidiary of the holdings company, Namco Bandai Games, now called Bandai Namco Entertainment . Namco is remembered in retrospect for its unique corporate model, its importance to the industry, and its advancements in technology. On June 1, 1955, Japanese businessman Masaya Nakamura founded Nakamura Seisakusho Co., Ltd. , in Ikegami, Tokyo. The son of a shotgun repair business owner, Nakamura proved unable to find work in his chosen profession of ship building in

23858-491: Was nicknamed "Xevious" as a result). The Talking Aid, a speech impairment device , was part of the company's attempts in venturing into other markets. By the time the Video game crash of 1983 concluded in 1985 with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Atari had effectively collapsed. After enduring numerous financial difficulties and losing its control in the industry, parent Warner Communications sold

24016-475: Was not available at the time, analog control for Pole Position and Pole Position II is only supported in these compilations by Namco's neGcon joypad. In Japan, Vol. 2 had a special edition box set that included replica promotional cards and the Namco Volume Controller. A limited edition of Namco Museum Encore was bundled with a case designed to hold the six volumes in the series plus

24174-449: Was purchasing the console online through auction websites such as eBay , where people paid over a thousand dollars for the console. The PS2 initially sold well partly on the basis of the strength of the PlayStation brand and the console's backward compatibility, selling its entire inventory of 1.4 million units in Japan by 31 March 2000, less than a month after launch. From its launch until the end of 2000 in Japan, its best-selling software

24332-464: Was released by Bandai Namco Entertainment on June 24, 2019. While it includes some games that originated on home consoles, the games included that did originate in arcades are based on their original arcade versions. The games included are: Namco Museum Collection is a series of video game compilations for the Evercade handheld console which was released on May 22, 2020. Unlike other compilations,

24490-442: Was released in North America by Midway Manufacturing , the video game division of Bally, where it became one of its best-selling titles and formed a relationship between Midway and Namco. The space shooter genre became ubiquitous by the end of the decade, with games such as Galaxian and Space Invaders becoming commonplace in Japanese amusement centers. As video games often depicted the killing of enemies and shooting of targets,

24648-514: Was required for the original models, while the slim models included built-in networking ports. Instead of having a unified, subscription-based online service like Xbox Live as competitor Microsoft later chose for its Xbox console, online multiplayer functionality on the PlayStation 2 was the responsibility of the game publisher and ran on third-party servers. Many games that supported online play exclusively supported broadband Internet access. The PlayStation 2's DualShock 2 controller retains most of

24806-517: Was steadily rising, Nakajima suggested to Nakamura that he open a division in the United States to increase worldwide brand awareness. Nakamura agreed to the proposal, and on September 1, 1978, established Namco America in Sunnyvale, California . With Nakajima as its president and Satashi Bhutani as vice president, Namco America's aim was to import games and license them to companies such as Atari and Bally Manufacturing . Namco America would release

24964-544: Was the impetus for Nintendo's decision to create a licensing program for the console. Namco signed a five-year royalties contract that included several preferential terms, such as the ability to produce its own cartridges. A subsidiary named Namcot was established in 1984 to act as Namco's console game division. It released its first four titles in September: Galaxian , Pac-Man , Xevious , and Mappy . Xevious sold over 1.5 million copies and became

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