Retro Gaming Australia

Desert Demolition starring Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote is one of only a handful licensed 16-bit games that are actually any good. The game boasts superb sprites and animation, and does a pretty spectacular job of capturing the spirit of the classic Road Runner shorts. It’s a bit on the easy side, though.

Warner Bros. has decided to make the most of their acqusition of Midway’s back catalogue by throwing 31 of Midway’s arcade classics into a new package called Midway Arcade Origins for release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 later this year.

The games are: 720°, A.P.B., Arch Rivals, Bubbles, Championship Sprint, Cyberball 2072, Defender, Defender II, Gauntlet, Gauntlet II, Joust, Joust 2, Marble Madness, Pit-Fighter, Rampage, Rampart, Robotron 2084, Root Beer Tapper, Satan’s Hollow, Sinistar, Smash TV, Spy Hunter, Spy Hunter II, Super Off Road, Super Sprint, Toobin’, Total Carnage, Vindicators Part II, Wizard of Wor, Xenophobe, and Xybots.

Sound familiar? Almost all of these games can be found on the three Midway Arcade Treasures packages released on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube and PC. Backbone is still listed as the developer of the new collection, so don’t go in expecting new and improved emulation.

A string of recent commercial failures isn’t going to stop the Rampage franchise from making the leap to the silver screen. New Line Cinema is behind the film, and hopes to make something along the lines of disaster pic Independence Day.

According to Variety, movie exec-cum-screenwriter Ryan Eagle (On a Clear Day) will be writing the script and John Rickard (Horrible Bosses) will be producing. Apparently film is a priority for New Line parent Warner Bros. who also owns the Rampage IP after their consumption of Midway’s leftovers.