You might recall that my fantasy Xmas list last year included Star Wars: The Arcade Game. Well, I finally got one. Ok, it wasn't the real thing, but it is close enough for now. You see, if you pre-order Rogue Squadron III for the GameCube you can get a bonus disc that includes not only a demo of RS3, but also an emulated version of SW:TAG. To my knowledge, this is the very first legitimate emulated version of this arcade game to be released, although it has been ported to several systems in the past, including many 8-bit systems (Atari 2600, et al) and the Apple Macintosh. Naturally, I couldn't let this opportunity pass me by and my demo disc arrived via UPS on Friday. I've now spent enough time with it to give an opinion, and the results aren't as good as I hoped. Let's just say that emulation packages like this one will not convince many people to fork over money for licensed versions and forsake MAME and illegal ROMz.

An update has been posted with some different screenshots, taken with an S-Video cable as suggested in the comments below.

Playing Star Wars: The Arcade Game (cockpit version) at my local arcade is an indelible memory from my youth. While it was a premium game (only accepting quarters) I saved all my real cash that I carried to the arcade for that game. Later, when it started accepting tokens (easily obtained for free with my report cards) I always saved my last few credits for a few plays at the end each semi-regular gaming binge. I haven't been able to play the real thing for years now, but I have played it via MAME on my Windows PC. Someday, I hope to own the real thing.

Naturally, I was ecstatic to hear that a real emulated version was going to be released for a modern system. And, while I'm not as interested in Rogue Squadron III as perhaps I should be (given that I've pre-ordered it), I'm modestly pleased to have this emulated game despite its flaws.

To start with, the emulated vector graphics seem quite dim. With the light on in the living room, I'd dare say that it's almost difficult to see some of the lighter vectors at all. With the lights turned down, however, most of the fine details come to life. Regardless, the game still seems blurry, as if the antialiasing were too strong. The screencaptures here aren't perfect, but they do give an idea of the faintness of the game's video and the blurriness of the vectors. The third screenshot in this article is one of the screenshots from KLOV, cached locally to avoid using their bandwidth. I wish that the GameCube version looked brighter and sharper, like that third screenshot.

It's not just my setup that makes this game look bad. Looking at GameSpot you can find these screenshots of the emulator which also seem washed out and blurry, in a way that reflects what I'm seeing.

Next, the controls are somewhat sub-optimal. I doubt that anything will ever be as natural as the X-Wing control yoke on the original game, but a mouse is a decent substitute in MAME. At least for two of the three stages, the dogfighting and skimming along the surface of the Death Star, the mouse is just fine. It's in the trench that things gets dicey, but I believe the game in MAME is still ultimately controllable with a modest amount of practice. On the GameCube, however, the analog stick is used to control the X-Wing. That, in itself, isn't an awful thing, but the stick is self-centering (let go, and the crosshair snaps back to the center of the screen) which makes holding a bead on a moving target much more difficult. Had the controls mimicked a mouse, using the analog nature to determine the acceleration of the crosshair, then I think the game would be much easier to control. At least I think that would have been preferrable for the first two stages, and perhaps the self-centering steering would have been ideal for the trench run. One can argue that no alternative control scheme will ever compare to the original, but I'd argue that there are some that are better than others, and that this one is poor.

Finally, the game is almost as spartan of options as it can be, short of having absolutely nothing. The two things you can do which aren't part of the original game are (a) pause the game (via the Start button) and (b) reset back to the demo disc main menu. Compared to other emulators, this is just sad. There are no options to change the brightness or strength of the aliasing of the vectors, which might have alleviated the issues with the video. There are no options to change the control scheme, which might have made it easier to play. There are no dip switch settings, which would have allowed geeks to tweak the game's set-up. There are no developer interviews or original artwork, which would have made this a truly unique product and one that fans would truly value. These are standard in other emulator (or simulator) collections like those created by Digital Eclipse for Midway or the Namco Museum series.

Of course, you can insist that this is just a free bonus and so I have no right to complain. Ok, but I feel that a poorly-made commercial package of Star Wars: The Arcade Game does a disservice to one of the most beloved video games ever. It disappoints many fans who had been longing for this game, and even more so folks like me who have stopped using MAME until we can legitimately own the real thing. This bonus is being advertised to push sales of the new Rogue Squadron; after all, it's been the lead-off selling point in the biggest advertisement on the EB Games website front page for the past week. I'll admit: their ploy worked and I bought their game. But I'm going to be much more wary of such deals from LucasArts in the future, given how poorly this one turned out.

Although it pains me to say it, MAME is still a better experience for playing Star Wars: The Arcade Game. This little bonus could have been so much more, but in the end it is just a quick hack with no frills, dodgy controls, and subpar rendering quality. I expected that this jewel of gaming would have been treated with much more respect. Even after seeing the crap pumped out by game companies over the years I guess that some part of me still held on to the hope that someone somewhere still cared about the products they made. That's what I get for hoping.