I wanted to start a series of posts on retro gaming in the modern era, a series on how to explore retro gaming on newer consoles. This first entry can almost be considered retro itself, since I'll be discussing a set of 5 discs available on the original Playstation known as Namco Museum. It was released as 5 seperate discs, each one having around six games. There were also tons of extras, like being able to check out the original cabinets, as well as flyers and other items from the respecfive arcade titles. The Namco Museum name has carried on through newer releases on more modern consoles, but the original Playstation releases have a great feel and interface that hasn't been surpassed by newer versions. So, lets explore the "first opening" of the Namco Museum.

Volume 1 featured Pac-Man, Rally-X, New Rally-X, Galaga, Bosconian, Pole Position, and Toy Pop. Other than Toy Pop, all of the games were relatively popular games in the market, and having them in the first volume was a great start to the collection. A little heavy on the Rally-X, but I spent hours on Pac-Man and Pole Position, as well as Galaga.

Volume 2 featured Mappy, Xevious, Gaplus, Grobda, Dragon Buster, and Super Pac-Man. While having a few smaller titles, most were still very fun, with Mappy, Xevious, and Super Pac-Man all being stand-out titles.

Volume 3 featured Galaxian, Dig Dug, Ms. Pac-Man, Pole Position 2, The Tower of Druaga, and Phozon. While I feel Tower of Druaga is a weak game, the inclusion of Pole Position 2, Ms. Pac-Man, Dig Dug and Galaxian made this disc one of my favorites in the entire collection.

Volume 4 featured Pac-Land, Assault, Ordyne, The Return to Ishtar, Genji and the Heike Clans, and Assault Plus. To be honest, this was one of the weaker discs in the series for me, with Pac-Land and Return to Ishtar being the two games I played the most. All the others are worthy of at least a try though.

Volume 5 featured Pac-Mania, Dragon Spirit, Metro-Cross, Baraduke, and Legend of the Valkyre. This one was better than Volume 4 just for the inclusion of Pac-Mania and Dragon Spirit, but at this point you could tell Namco was looking very deep in their collection to fill these discs.

The Japanese market got an Encore disc as well, however the only notable inclusion was Rolling Thunder. If one were to pick up the five US releases, they would have a great collection of every Namco hit from its arcade heyday as well as some bonus games that, while may not have been hits, are still worth playing and might become a favorite that you have never tried before. You can tell that this collection came out before Namco starting over-charging for just Pac-Man and Galaga. Anyone who wants to check out Namcos golden era needs to pick up a PS1 or PS2 and hunt down these five discs.