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Namco Museum

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Namco Museum logo

The logo for the series, being used since 2017 (Namco Museum on Switch).

Namco Museum (ナムコミュージアム/Namuko Myūjiamu) is a series of video game compilations containing games created by Namco during the 1980's and the early 1990's. Namco started the Namco Museum compilations on November 22nd, 1995 for the original Sony PlayStation, and they continue to this very day. The series has seen some growth and some decline, some good entries and some mediocre entries, but the series continues, and has appeared on many consoles from the 5th generation onward, even getting its own dedicated handheld mini system.

Namco Museum Vol. 1[]

Namco Museum Vol

Namco Museum Vol. 1 (NTSC-U/C) cover art.

Namco Museum Vol. 1 was released on November 22nd, 1995 in Japan for the Sony PlayStation. It was later released in North America on July 31st, 1996, and in Europe on August 17th, 1996.

NAMCO MUSEUM VOL 1

Greatest Hits re-release artwork.

The game features a robust amount of history of the games presented and memorabilia and bonuses in a large museum (hence the name) and features emulations of the games using JAMMA emulation. Some games look a bit different from their actual arcade counterparts due to the limited resolution of the PlayStation, like Pac-Man and Galaga. Some games also sound different compared to their arcade counterparts, such as Pac-Man sound effects (Pac-Dots, Power Pellet, etc.) and the music of Toy Pop.

It is one of two Namco Museum titles to do well enough on PlayStation to be given a Greatest Hits re-release, the other being Namco Museum Vol. 3.

This compilation contains the following games, in the order of when they are said in the commercial:

Namco Museum Vol. 2[]

Namco Museum Vol

Namco Museum Vol. 2 (NTSC-U/C) cover art.

Namco Museum Vol. 2 was released on February 9th, 1996 in Japan for the Sony PlayStation. It was later released in North America on September 30th, 1996, and in Europe on November 22nd, 1996.

Like its predecessor, the game presents a large amount of memorabilia and history of the games, within a large museum. The museum is no different from it's predecessor, aside from the fact that the weather outside is different (sunset, rather than midday), and anything relating to the games included has been changed to accommodate for the difference in game library. The collection still uses JAMMA emulation to faithfully recreate the games, which indeed look faithful. Most differences between the original arcade games and these emulations are minor, aside from screen position being changed to accommodate for the PlayStation and it's limited resolution.

This compilation contains the following games, in order of when they are said in the commercial:

The original Japanese release included Cutie Q and Bomb Bee (as a hidden game), which were instead replaced with Super Pac-Man in all non-Japanese releases.

Bomb Bee is unlocked by inputting a code while Cutie Q is starting up.The code is: Circle x7, Square x6 and X/Cross x5. Doing this will unlock the game if done correctly, but you must input the code before the color test looking screen pops up on Cutie Q.

There is also a glitch which prevents Dragon Buster from properly displaying the high score like the other games while being played. The high scores can be seen in the record book, however, so it's more so a minor inconvenience. This glitch occurs in every region.

Namco Museum Vol. 3[]

Namco Museum Vol

Namco Museum Vol. 3 (NTSC-U/C) cover art.

Namco Museum Vol. 3 was released on June 21st, 1996 in Japan for the Sony PlayStation. It was later released in North America on January 31st, 1997, and in Europe on February 12th, 1997.

198033 97351 front

Namco Museum Vol. 3 (Greatest Hits) cover art.

Like its predecessors, the game presents a large amount of memorabilia and history of the games, within a large museum, however the museum has been redesigned, and the layout of the museum has been changed, along with the game library. These changes bring a new lobby, a new main hall, multiple floors, newly designed rooms for specific art assets and the sound test, and even specially designed hallways towards the game room (i.e. exhibit halls), which are now related to the game itself, rather than just a generic hallway. The cabinets also continue to be recreations of the Japanese cabinet, even in the North American or PAL versions of the game. The game also continues to use JAMMA emulation for the games, recreating them as faithfully as possible for the target platform. Most differences between the original arcade releases and how they are presented here is screen sizes and sound (music in Phozon and Ms. Pac-Man are slightly different sounding).

This compilation contains the following games, in order of when they are said in the commercial:

There are also hidden versions of The Tower of Druaga known as "Another Tower" and "Darkness Tower", which can be found by inputting a code in either the main hall, the exhibit hall for TToD, or being in the game room for TToD. By holding L1 & R1 and pressing Up, Right, Down and Left 3 times, you will obtain a pickaxe, much like the game's first treasure. When entering from the main hall (lobby) to the exhibit hall, run to the flat wall in front of you, and don't turn right, then break it by pressing X/Cross to go to a hidden extra room, where Gil can be seen fighting Druaga. You can actually help him by collecting an item that will drop after watching them fight, causing Druaga to be defeated. The arcade machine will play a version of the game known as "Another Tower", where the logo, methods to get treasure, and mazes are all different, and more difficult. By then going into test mode and flipping the 4th DIP Switch, and then going back to the game, inserting a credit with Select and inputting X/Cross, Right, Circle, Down, Square, Left, R1, L1, R2 and L2 in that order, the game's logo will change from green and white to dark green and orange, and the originally unused jingle from the game will play. This signifies that the game has changed to what is known as "Darkness Tower", which makes the game more difficult and different than Another Tower. There's also new enemies and treasures added in.

Namco Museum Vol. 4[]

Namco Museum Vol

Namco Museum Vol. 4 (NTSC-U/C) cover art.

Namco Museum Vol. 4 was released on November 8th, 1996 in Japan for the Sony PlayStation. It was later released in North America on June 30th, 1997, and in Europe on August 18th, 1997.

Like its predecessors, the game presents a large amount of memorabilia and history of the games, within a large museum. Just like Vol. 2, it uses the previous collections museum layout, the only differences being games, exhibit halls, game rooms, and the lobby. The main hall has not been changed, although the music playing in said hall has been changed. The game still continues to use JAMMA emulation to recreate the games on the target platform as faithfully as possible, with only some minor changes made when necessary.

This compilation contains the following games, in order of when they are said in the commercial:

Namco Museum Vol. 5[]

C) Cover.

Namco Museum Vol. 5 (NTSC-U/C) cover art.

Namco Museum Vol. 5 was released on February 28th, 1997 in Japan for the Sony PlayStation. It was later released in North America on November 26th, 1997, and in Europe on February 26th, 1998.

Like its predecessors, the game presents a large amount of memorabilia and history of the games, within a large museum, however, like Vol. 3, the museum has been redesigned with a unique architecture, with elevators, stairs, and multiple floors, including a basement for one game, that being Baraduke. It also, like it's predecessors, uses JAMMA emulation to recreate the games, which is done really well here.

This compilation contains the following games, in order of when they are said in the commercial:

Namco Museum Encore[]

Namco Museum Encore cover

Namco Museum Encore cover art.

Namco Museum Encore was released on October 30th, 1997 in Japan for the Sony PlayStation. It is the only Namco Museum title on the PlayStation to be released only in Japan. It is believed or rumored to have not released Internationally either due to poor sales of the previous collections in those areas, or due to the contents included in some games in this collection (Wonder Momo being a tad risqué, and Rompers including an enemy using drugs).

Unlike its predecessors, the game goes for a unique kind of museum, as you no longer walk around a museum itself, but rather look around a spaceship with the games in it, and the receptionist. All of the exhibits are also attached to the game machines themselves, which you can now inspect, just like how they would be in real arcades. Like its predecessors, however, JAMMA emulation is still used to recreate games a faithfully as possible, which is done fairly well.

This compilation contains the following games, in order of when they are said in the commercial:

Namco Museum 64, Namco Museum (Dreamcast) and Namco Museum (Game Boy Advance)[]

DC NAMCO MUSEUM

Namco Museum (Dreamcast) cover art.

Namco Museum 64 for the Nintendo 64, released on October 31st, 1999, and Namco Museum for the Sega Dreamcast, released on June 25th, 2000, both releasing exclusively in North America, were new titles in the franchise, for the first time, being available on non-Sony platforms. Another collection with similar games and music was released on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance worldwide on June 11th, 2001.

Unlike the collections prior, these entries in the series lack the museum that the series' name and fame were for, also lacking any bonus material, including DIP Switch options, flyers, test modes, etc. Test modes are in the game's code leftover in NM 64, but aren't implemented.

The GBA version was more basic, lacking Pac-Man, although this is more than likely a deliberate choice to market Pac-Man Collection, which was released around the same time, and also, infamously, lacking a high score saving feature. Despite these hiccups, NM on GBA sold 2.96 mil. units, making it the best selling Namco Museum to date, also being the

They contain a similar library of games, listed by the box art:

Namco Museum (PS2, Xbox and GCN)[]

546321 front 26443 zoom

PlayStation 2 cover.

Namco Museum was released in 2001 for the Sony PlayStation 2 and in 2002 for the Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft Xbox, all exclusively in North America. The specific dates are unknown.

This entry doubles the amount of games from the previous entry, and is the first Namco Museum to include a non-arcade title, being Pac-Attack, released for home consoles in 1993. The Sega Genesis/Mega Drive version is present here, evidenced by the sound. The game does lack the original title screen, however.

Aside from menu colors (White for PS2, Yellow/Purple GameCube, and Blue for Xbox) and the PS2 version having a menu with less animations and screenshots of games, rather than videos, the games are practically identical for every console.

The games included, as presented by the menu and manual:

Pac-Attack is unlocked by scoring either 20,000 points (PS2 & Xbox) or 15,000 points (GameCube) in Pac-Man. Likewise, Pac-Mania is unlocked by scoring either 25,000 points (PS2 & Xbox) or 20,000 points (GameCube) in Ms. Pac-Man.

Namco Museum (PSP)[]

44062 jap-Namco-Museum (1)

The cover art for the game.

Namco Museum was released on February 24th, 2005 exclusively in Japan for the Sony PlayStation Portable. It would later be released in North America under a different name, seen below.

This is the first Namco Museum title to use actual arcade roms to run the games through emulation, which is done fairly good here. It also includes its own Arrangement titles, although they have nothing to do with their 1990s counterparts seen in the previous Namco Museum title.

You also can play with others, or share a game with another using the Ad-Hoc mode on the PSP to wirelessly transmit a demo of one game, or play together in multiplayer, although playing multiplayer requires two copies of the game.

The games featured, as presented by the box art:

Namco Museum Battle Collection[]

C)

Cover art for the game, showing the new Arrangement titles.

Namco Museum Battle Collection was released on August 24th, 2005 in North America for the Sony PlayStation Portable. It was later released in Europe on December 9th of the same year.

This collection is the International release of the previous Namco Museum title only released in Japan on the same console, albeit with extra games. These extra games would later be released in Japan in a later title, Namco Museum Vol. 2, which can be seen below. This was the largest Namco Museum at the time, boasting 21 games. The name of the game is referring to the ability to play with others, or share the games with another, as the Ad-Hoc Mode abilities from the Japanese counterpart are also included here.

The games included, listed from left to right on the back of the U.S. cover:

Namco Museum 50th Anniversary[]

Namco Museum 50th Anniversary cover art

Nintendo GameCube (NTSC-U/C) cover art.

Namco Museum 50th Anniversary was released for the Microsoft Xbox, Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Game Boy Advance and PC, all in North America on August 30th, 2005 (aside from PC, releasing on October 25th, 2005), and in Europe on March 24th, 2006 (Xbox), March 31st (PS2 & GBA), May 5th (GCN), and May 19th (PC). It was also released in Australia only on PC on March 27th, 2006, and in Japan only on PS2, renamed Namco Museum Arcade Hits!, released on January 26th, 2006.

50th Anniversary was made to celebrate Namco becoming 50 years old, being founded in 1955, and it goes for a unique menu style, being presented as a virtual arcade space with all of the machines being put in a circle, but unlike the old titles, it has no bonus material, the games are the main content. Along with this new menu, some classic 80s music was chosen to play within the menu, evoking the feeling of playing these games in a real arcade.

Those songs are as follows:

This collection is the first to use arcade roms on home consoles, however the GBA version does not due this due to technical limitations. The PS2 version of the game also was immediately released with a "Greatest Hits" label, no black label copies of the game exist in any way, at least not legitimately, in the NTSC-U/C region. This does not affect the actual game, but does irritate some collectors. The GBA version, much like the original Namco Museum for said platform, has a more limited game library compared to its console counterparts, and also lacks the ability to save high scores. The Japanese PS2 release, also unlocks the two unlockable games (see below) immediately, and replaces the licensed songs with original menu music, but other than these changes, and a name change (see above), the game is identical to the original American/European releases. The PC release also added back the ability to continue in games that allowed it (Pac-Mania, Dragon Spirit, Galaga '88, etc.), while all other releases lack the ability to do this.

The games included, listed from top to bottom on the back of the U.S. cover:

Pac-Mania is unlocked by getting 15,000 points in Pac-Man and 25,000 points in Ms. Pac-Man, in any order you wish. Likewise, Galaga '88 is unlocked by getting 40,000 points in Galaga.

Namco Museum Vol. 2 (PSP)[]

Namco Museum Vol

Namco Museum Vol. 2 was released on February 23rd, 2006 for the Sony PlayStation Portable. It is the Japanese continuation of the previous Japan only collection on the platform, released the previous year (364 days after, to be exact), and includes the other games included within battle Collection, which wasn't released in Japan, and includes a few extra titles.

The menu has a different color than Vol. 1/Battle Collection, but the collection of games is mostly unchanged from how they appear in Battle Collection, albeit with the addition of the new titles not present within Battle Collection. It also includes the ability to either play multiplayer or share games with others through the PSPs Ad-Hoc mode.

The games included, listed from top-left to bottom-right on the cover:

Namco Museum DS[]

Namco Museum DS cover

Namco Museum DS (PAL) box art.

Namco Museum DS was released on September 18th, 2007 in North America for the Nintendo DS. It was later released in Japan on October 11th, 2007, and in Europe on February 22nd, 2008.

DS is a substantial collection compared to the previous collections on Nintendo handhelds, and contains not only the games, but features such as a navigation feature (present in Galaga, Xevious, The Tower of Druaga and Super Xevious.) to help find hidden goodies within games, a jukebox, and even bonus material that made the series different than other compilations when it first released in the 90s. It also has the ability to save high scores, and you can use DS Download Play to either share a game with another, or to play Pac-Man Vs. in multiplayer with others who don't own the game, which like the original on the Nintendo GameCube, is required to play.

The games included, which are categorized by their release date on the menu:

Super Xevious and the old levels in Dig Dug II can both be unlocked by flipping a special DIP Switch by inspecting the CPU Board while playing. To access Super Xevious, flip the game mode switch from Normal to Super, and with Dig Dug II, flip the version switch from New to Old. Once done, they will appear on the main menu to become easier to access.

Namco Museum Remix[]

Let's Play Together! Namco Carnival cover

Japanese cover, showing the different title.

Namco Museum Remix was released on October 23rd, 2007 in North America for the Nintendo Wii. It was later released in Japan on December 6th, 2007, in Europe on April 18th, 2008, and in Australia on May 1st, 2008. It was renamed to Let's Play Together! Namco Carnival in Japan. This name was chosen because the game seemed like an attraction park, so the name was changed as it seemed more accurate.

Remix has a blend of both the old Namco Museum titles, where you have a 3D space to travel, and the newer titles, as it mostly only features the games, with no bonus content to be found in game. This Namco Museum is unique, however for being the first Namco Museum to include a kind of Namco game that wasn't just an arcade game, being Gator Panic Remix, which is based on Wacky Gator, an attraction game that plays like whack-a-mole. The game menus allow you to control Pac-Man with similar controls to Pac 'n Roll and roam around the space to access the games by going into one of 6 entrances, one entrance for every Remix title, and one for the arcade, where all the classic games are presented.

An updated version of the game would be made in 2010, named Namco Museum Megamix, which has info listed below.

The games included, organized from screenshots (Remix Titles) and from left to right (Arcade Games) are as listed:

Remix Titles:

  • Pac 'n Roll Remix
  • Galaga Remix (Not the same as the Galaga Remix App Store game)
  • Pac-Motos
  • Rally-X Remix
  • Gator Panic Remix

Arcade Titles:

Namco Museum Virtual Arcade[]

Namco Museum Virtual Arcade Xbox 360 front cover

Cover art for the game, depicting most of the Live Arcade titles included (aside from Pole Position).

Namco Museum Virtual Arcade was released on November 4th, 2008 in North America for Microsoft's Xbox 360. It was later released in Europe on May 15th, 2009, in Australia on June 3rd, 2009, and in Japan on November 3rd, 2009.

Virtual Arcade is still to this day the largest Namco Museum collection in terms of titles included, being 34, and it includes not only classic games, but also includes Xbox Live Arcade titles, including those like Pac-Man Championship Edition. The game does not support Xbox 360 Achievements, although, this is because all of the Xbox Live Arcade titles have all of their Achievements intact, and available to collect.

Many things in this collection seem missing, or basic, such as there being missing settings to change, and no bonus material, leaving just the games themselves.

The games included, in order from top to bottom in their respective menus:

Xbox Live Arcade Games:

Museum Games:

Namco Museum Essentials[]

NME artwork

Cover image of the game, showing all of the games included.

Namco Museum Essentials was released on January 29th, 2009 in Japan for the Sony PlayStation 3 as a PlayStation Store exclusive downloadable title. It was later released in North America on July 16th, 2009, and in Europe on April 1st, April Fools Day, 2010. In Japan, the game was called Namco Museum.comm, which stands for communication, as the game has online capabilities, but was then renamed to Namco Museum Essentials in every other region.

It was released as a PlayStation Home title, which Sony was trying to push at the time. It also included an original game only available in this compilation called Xevious Resurrection, which was a new Xevious title complete with secrets, new graphics and sound, and simultaneous multiplayer gameplay.

It also had a demo you could download for free which included the first few levels from Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig Dug, and Xevious.

The games included, in order from left to right on the main menu:

The game was delisted from the PlayStation Store in all regions, including its demo on March 15th, 2018. This was done presumably because there are other ways available to play most of these games available on the platform (Namco Museum Vol. 1 - 5 available on PS Store through PSone Classics, Encore included in Japan as well, and 20GB and 60GB Fat PS3 consoles can play both Namco Museum and Namco Museum 50th Anniversary due to backwards compatibility with PS2 games).

Namco Museum Megamix[]

Namco Museum Megamix cover

Cover for the game.

Namco Museum Megamix was released on November 16th, 2010 exclusively in North America for the Nintendo Wii.

Megamix is an update to Remix, being the same game but including more content, as it adds an extra Remix title, being Grobda Remix, an extra 9 arcade games, and a level select feature to all games, excluding Cutie Q. The games included, listed from left to right and top to bottom on the back of the cover:

Remix Titles:

  • Pac 'n Roll Remix
  • Galaga Remix
  • Pac-Motos
  • Rally-X Remix
  • Gator Panic Remix
  • Grobda Remix (New to Megamix)

Arcade Titles:

Namco Museum (Nintendo Switch)[]

Namco Museum (switch) cover art

Cover image for the game, showing the new logo for the series.

Namco Museum was released on July 28th, 2017 in all territories for the Nintendo Switch. It was not released on the other 8th generation platforms, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One for 2 reasons, Xbox One and PS4 already had the Arcade Game Series, and it was a Switch exclusive to make the platform stand out more, being only almost 5 months old at the time of release. This new collection added some features like a challenge mode, where every game has its own challenge to complete, although it's the same challenge every time. There is also a remake of Pac-Man Vs., although this version is more comparable to the Nintendo GameCube original, rather than the stripped down and basic version available on Nintendo DS through Namco Museum DS.

The games included, in order of left-to-right in the main menu:

A physical release bundled with Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus, titled Namco Museum Arcade Pac, was released on September 28th, 2018 in all territories.

Namco Museum Mini Player[]

Namco Museum Mini Player-0

Close picture of product, showing Galaxian being run, while showing the side art.

The Namco Museum Mini Player was licensed by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment, and released by My Arcade on June 24th, 2019. This Mini Player is more dynamic than the other average products released by My Arcade, as usual Pocket and Micro Players released by the company (which include individual Namco games like Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, etc.) would use home console versions of the games, most notably the NES/Family Computer ports made by Namco officially in the late 80s to mid-90s, on occasion using the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive conversions. This Mini Player, however, for any game that was released in arcades originally, use their arcade ROM versions, making 15 of the games included arcade games, the other 5 being console games, which are labeled in the games list below.

The games included, listed alphabetically on My Arcade's website:

Namco Museum Collection 1 & 2[]

Namco Collection 1

Image used on the official website, showing the games included in the first compilation.

Namco Museum Collection 1 and Namco Museum Collection 2 (as their names are listed on the official Evercade website) are two compilations for the Evercade handheld, released on June 8th, 2020 only in Europe. The boxes' spines for the games call them "Namco Collection 1" and "Namco Collection 2", however, they use the Namco Museum logo, and are called Namco Museum Collection on both the fronts of the boxes, and on Evercade's website.

EVERCADE-GAME-REVEAL-NAMCO-2

The same image for the second entry.

These compilations are the first in the series to have only console games, rather than include mainly arcade originals for all the games. These games can range from 8-Bit ports from the NES/Famicom, to 16-Bit ports on the Super Famicom or Sega Mega Drive. The first collection focuses on more popular and well known titles, while the second collection focuses on more obscure releases and more games made only for consoles.

The games included, in order of how they're listed on the website:

Collection 1:

  • Battle Cars (Super NES)
  • Dig Dug (Famicom)
  • Galaxian (Famicom)
  • Libble Rabble (Super Famicom)
  • Mappy (Famicom)
  • Mappy Kids (Famicom)
  • Metal Marines (Super NES/Super Famicom)
  • Pac-Man (NES/Famicom)
  • Quad Challenge (Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive, also known in arcades as Four Trax)
  • Star Luster (Famicom)
  • Xevious (NES/Famicom)

Collection 2:

  • Burning Force (Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive)
  • Dig Dug II (NES/Famicom)
  • Dragon Spirit: The New Legend (NES/Famicom)
  • Galaga (NES/Famicom)
  • Pac-Attack (Super NES)
  • Phelios (Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive)
  • Splatterhouse Part 2 (Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive, also known simply as Splatterhouse 2.)
  • Splatterhouse Part 3 (Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive, also known simply as Splatterhouse 3.)
  • The Tower of Druaga (Famicom)
  • Warpman (Famicom)
  • Weaponlord (Super NES/Super Famicom)

Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1 & 2[]

Namco-museum-archives-vol-1-cover-art

Cover art for Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1, as seen from Nintendo's website.

Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1 and Namco Museum Archives Vol. 2 were released on June 18th, 2020 in all territories for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. These collections, much like the previous collections released for the Evercade, comprise only of console ports of arcade games and console made games, however unlike those previous Evercade collections, these two only include games released and made for the NES and Famicom. These collections are based off of the Japanese only Namcot Collection, a collection released only on Nintendo Switch where you purchased games in packs, or as separate titles, similar in vain to Capcom Arcade Cabinet. Unlike Namcot Collection, these two releases are just separate games with 11 games included each.

Namco-museum-archives-vol-2-cover-art

Vol. 2's cover art.

Along with 10 main games being included, both collections have a bonus 11th game never before seen or released. Vol. 1 includes an 8-Bit demake of 2007's Pac-Man Championship Edition, based off of a 2008 ROM hack created by Coke774, while Vol. 2 includes an 8-Bit demake of the arcade game Gaplus, which never had an NES or Famicom port, and was created as a new bonus.

The games included, in order of how they're listed on the in game menus:

Vol. 1:

Vol. 2:

Gallery[]

External links[]

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