{"id":69412,"date":"2025-07-09T21:02:44","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T11:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.digitallydownloaded.net\/?p=69412"},"modified":"2025-07-09T21:02:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T11:02:44","slug":"arcade-archives-enters-a-new-era-arcade-archives-2-is-so-exciting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.digitallydownloaded.net\/2025\/07\/arcade-archives-enters-a-new-era-arcade-archives-2-is-so-exciting.html","title":{"rendered":"Arcade Archives enters a new era – Arcade Archives 2 is so exciting"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the quieter events that piggybacked off the Nintendo Switch 2 launch was the release of the first in Hamster\u2019s Arcade Archives 2 series. Ridge Racer launched with the console, and now there\u2019s already a second title, with the arcade dogfighting sim, Air Combat 22 (don\u2019t be surprised that we\u2019ve already got two, as Hamster is incredibly prolific with this series \u2013 it has exceeded 400 titles).<\/p>\n

This is actually a significant development. Previous Arcade Archives titles have been largely focused on the earlier eras, and the vast majority (if not all of them) were 2D arcade titles. The first two Arcade Archives 2 titles have been System 22 titles, and, obviously, 3D. 3D arcade titles have been a bit of a lost era as far as preservation is concerned (or, at least, in comparison to the quality of preservation of 2D arcade titles), so it\u2019s exciting to think what Hamster might have in store for us from here. Even if this series is just going to cover System 22 titles, there\u2019s a lot to be excited for in terms of potential future releases, including the classics, Alpine Racer and Time Crisis, though the latter would need some thought put into how it\u2019ll handle what was light gun technology in the arcades itself.<\/p>\n

It’s easy to look back at these games now and barely bat an eyelid. Early 3D games have \u201caged\u201d far more significantly than 2D games because early era polygons tend to look more primitive today compared with a benchmark of modern 3D games, whereas the \u201cretro\u201d aesthetic of sprites has become so timeless that modern games actively aim to emulate that style.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s hard to fully articulate what a treat these 3D arcade games were back then. In the early to mid 1990s, when Ridge Racer and Air Combat 22 were releasePreview (opens in a new tab)<\/span><\/a>d, 3D games at home were a real rarity and required some pretty high-end PCs, typically. For comparison, Quake and Tomb Raider wouldn\u2019t be released until 1996, the first 3D horror game of all, Alone in the Dark, was only released in 1992, and the first meaningful generation of 3D home consoles landed somewhere between 1994 (PlayStation) and 1996 (Nintendo 64).<\/p>\n

Back in those days, for most people, gaming at home meant 2D games, and so going to an arcade was an opportunity for a mind-blowing AV experience. And so, for the nostalgic like me, it doesn\u2019t really matter that there is a better version of Ridge Racer available on the Switch (the N64 app has Ridge Racer 64), it\u2019s the arcade version of Ridge Racer that specifically takes me back to the days when a trip to arcade was an experience to really look forward to. It was a time when arcades were a kind of indoor theme park offering experiences of a visual depth and quality that were simply impossible to get from home. Remember, arcades only died because home gaming reached the point where the arcade was an unnecessary space. The types of games have persisted.<\/p>\n

Both Air Combat 22 and Ridge Racer have the same quality emulation treatment that we\u2019ve seen with all previous Arcade Archive titles. The games run pristinely on the hardware, and Hamster has even added Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) to even more accurately reproduce the original arcade game. For Arcade Archives 2, there are also new features, including Time Attack Mode (basically a speedrun mode) and Network Mode for live multiplayer (though that\u2019s not applicable in single-player games, obviously). This is in addition to the rich leaderboard features that come with every game in the series.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What I love about the entire Arcade Archives project (and I do have more than 40 of the releases on my Switch), is the pure intent behind them. Rather than try and remake or modernise them (like a studio like Nightdive does), Hamster focuses all its development efforts into making sure the original game runs flawlessly. Rather than approach preservation like a museum or gallery experience (like Digital Eclipse does), Hamster instead focuses on recapturing the experience of those arcade games\u2026 i.e. the thrill of trying (endlessly) to get on the leaderboard. The result looks and feels simple \u2013 a \u201cbasic\u201d emulation of a classic game. However, the utterly flawless quality of them, and the fact that Hamster invests in arcade games that have almost no modern audience (I\u2019m personally ranked in the top 30 in the world in Crazy Balloon and I can assure you that I do not have a great score) makes this preservation effort honest and genuine in its own way, and its one that you inherently want to support. Assuming that game preservation matters to you, of course.<\/p>\n

Of the two System 22 games, I would recommend Air Combat 22 over Ridge Racer. Air Combat 22 might be a simplified take on dogfighting, but it has an exceptional game feel, with fast, responsive controls and a simple but satisfying wave-based loop. Like all arcade games, the time clock ticks down fast, requiring you to take out a full wave of enemies before the game over screen at 0 seconds, and there\u2019s nothing quite like being out of missiles but being able to calculate the right leading the target angle to take down the last enemy using machine gun fire with just a second\u2019s time left.<\/p>\n

Ridge Racer, meanwhile, is superseded by Ridge Racer 64 on the N64 app. It\u2019s still a good time, though, as an arcade racer that doesn\u2019t have much use for the brake button (and indeed tends to punish you by making oversteering too easy if you have the brake button pressed down). Just be prepared for a relatively thin track list and range of cars. Don\u2019t forget, back then, the expectation was that you\u2019d run out of money after just a few races and move on to the next thing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After more than 11 years, the Arcade Archives project shows no real sign of slowing down. And hopefully it doesn\u2019t. In an industry where developers and publishers only see value in games that they can \u201cremake\u201d or \u201cremaster\u201d to make them appealing to a modern audience, we do need a company like this focused more on preserving history by giving is the exact experience of those games.<\/p>\n

Now we just need Hamster to give us ports of Mace: the Dark Ages, NBA Jam, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, The Simpsons, Tekken 3, Dead or Alive, Bloody Road, Daytona USA\u2026 I realise that licensing might make these difficult, but I believe in Hamster!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the quieter events that piggybacked off the Nintendo Switch 2 launch was the release of the first in Hamster\u2019s Arcade Archives 2 series. Ridge Racer launched with the console, and now there\u2019s already a second title, with the arcade dogfighting sim, Air Combat 22 (don\u2019t be surprised that we\u2019ve already got two, as Hamster is incredibly prolific with this series \u2013 it has exceeded 400 titles). This is actually a significant development. Previous Arcade Archives titles have been largely focused on the earlier eras, and the vast majority (if not all of them) were 2D arcade titles. The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":69416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,49],"tags":[16817,16818,16399,12864,12764],"coauthors":[12758],"class_list":["post-69412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arcade-archives","category-retro","tag-arcade-archives","tag-hamster","tag-nintendo-switch-2","tag-retro","tag-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digitallydownloaded.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digitallydownloaded.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digitallydownloaded.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitallydownloaded.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitallydownloaded.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69412"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitallydownloaded.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69419,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitallydownloaded.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69412\/revisions\/69419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitallydownloaded.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digitallydownloaded.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitallydownloaded.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitallydownloaded.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69412"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitallydownloaded.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=69412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}