Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits (Mega Drive)

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Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits (Mega Drive)
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Sega Saturn
Publisher: Williams Entertainment (US), THQ (EU) Midway
Developer: Digital Eclipse
Original system(s): Arcade boards
Developer(s) of original games: Williams Electronics
Game total: 6
Genre: Compilation
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code US 1996-04-10 T-97126 EU 1996 T-97126-50 UK 1996-11 £39.9939.99 BR 1997-07 042790 US 1996-12-23 T-9703H
ESRB Tectoy

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Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits (Mega Drive) is a compilation of arcade games released in 1996/1997 for, among other systems, the Sega Mega Drive and Sega Saturn. The Mega Drive version was published by Williams Entertainment in North America, which, following restructuring and buyouts in the mid-1990s, became part of Midway Games, who published the European Mega Drive and Saturn versions as Midway Presents Arcade's Greatest Hits.

Arcade's Greatest Hits contains a selection of arcade games originally released by Williams Electronics in the early 1980s. The ports were handled by Digital Eclipse, who would go on to produce numerous re-releases of this nature (such as Midway Presents Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 1). Though the Saturn versions are nearly identical to their original arcade forms, on the Mega Drive slight alterations exist to accommodate the differing hardware. The Saturn version also has extras, such as videos and artwork.

The Sega Dreamcast game Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits Volume 1 is much the same as this release, although features higher quality emulations.

Gameplay

	Defender (1980)
	Defender is a 2D side-scrolling shoot-'em-up, in which the objective is to shoot aliens, avoid projectiles and obstacles and protect humans from being captured. It was unique for its day for allowing the player to move both left and right, the maps "looping" to create a "circular" playfield. It is also the primary influence for the Sega classic, Fantasy Zone. Configurable options: ships to start, bonus at, difficulty increase, maximum difficulty, waves per planet.
	Defender II (Stargate) (1981)
	Defender II is the sequel to Defender, though curiously was never known as Defender II in the arcades, instead opting for the title of Stargate on grounds of legal issues (Defender II being reserved for the NES and older Atari 2600 ports). Defender II is much the same as the first game, but introduces new enemies, a cloaking device and similar minor gameplay additions. Configurable options: ships to start, bonus at, difficulty, inviso time per ship, men to warp, last wave for warp.
	Joust (1982)
	Joust is a single-screen 2D "platform game", in which players control a man riding a "buzzard", who needs to hit the heads of enemies, similar to traditional jousting. Configurable options: lives to start, bonus at, difficulty.
	Robotron 2084 (1982)
	Robotron 2084 is a dual-joystick top-down shoot-'em-up, in which you attempt to save the last surviving human family from robots. This game traditionally causes problems on systems with less than four face buttons (like the Mega Drive), as without a means to emulate the dual joysticks, eight directional firing is hindered, making the game significantly harder. Configurable options: lives to start, bonus at, difficulty, controller angle.
	Sinistar (1982)
	Sinistar is a top-down shooter similar to Atari's Asteroids, however as well as shooting enemies, players need to locate sinibombs to prevent the creation of the extremely powerful Sinistar. Configurable options: ships to start, first bonus at, extra to next bonus, difficulty, rapid fire.
	Bubbles (1982)
	Bubbles is unique to the Saturn (and PlayStation) versions. Players control a bubble and need to clean a sink. Bubbles was less well received than the other games in this compilation back in 1982, so until this compilation emerged, did not see any home ports.

Production credits

Mega Drive version

• Lead Programmer and Game Translations (except Joust): Dan Filner
• Joust Translation: George Phillips
• Sound Translation: Terry Coatta, Peter Phillips
• Producer: Andrew Ayre
• Special Thanks: Wes Gale

Magazine articles

Main article: Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits (Mega Drive)/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Next Generation (US) #22: "October 1996" (1996-09-17)
also published in:

• EGM² (US) #29: "November 1996" (1996-xx-xx)

Print advert in Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #89: "December 1996" (1996-xx-xx)

Print advert in Computer & Video Games (UK) #183: "February 1997" (1997-01-10)

Physical scans

Mega Drive version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source Mean Machines Sega (UK) 90

	90
Based on 1 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 40 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 80 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 48 Mean Machines Sega (UK) PAL 90 Sega Power (UK) PAL 64 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 60

	64
Based on 6 reviews

Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits (Mega Drive)

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, BR
Cover

Saturn version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source GamesMaster (UK) 70 №69, p80 Sega Saturn Magazine (UK) 80

	75
Based on 2 reviews

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score

	N/A
Based on 0 reviews

Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits (Mega Drive)

Saturn, US
Cover
Disc Manual

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 d68e9c00 MD5 0e1cbc28671b781b174693d234a5a446 SHA-1 8c648318fdd54e2c75c44429a72c1c1a846e67cb	512kB	1996-09	Cartridge (US)
?	CRC32 c0dce0e5 MD5 c8f4f5adc64fb344ca091982b60334af SHA-1 97e35e8fbe1546b9cf075ab75c8f790edcd9db93	512kB	1996-11	Cartridge (EU)
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	602,274,288		CD-ROM (US)	T-9703H V1.000