Sunday 20 February 2011

Is Game Room Pack 13 the last?

In the lead up to its launch, Microsoft made a lot of fuss about Game Room, but almost immediately after it went live it started to run into troubles.  Developer Krome were in financial difficulty and although they had the rights to emulate and distribute Atari, Konami and Intellivision games, the actual releases were all over the place.  Once Krome closed its doors rumours were rife that this spelt the end for Game Room.  Microsoft themselves have said very little about it either way but what is clear is Game Pack 13 will be the last one for the foreseeable future.

It's a shame, because this was the first really serious effort anyone has made to not only provide a legal emulation service, but one with unique and well thought out features that go above and beyond the remit of emulating old games machines.  While I will admit it was never the best interface for actually browsing and launching games, having that little virtual arcade ka-powing and zapping away on my TV brought back loads of happy memories.

So for reference, here are all the Atari and Konami arcade games that are available in Game Room, along with their Game Pack number:

Name Manuf. Pack #
Name Manuf. Pack #
Amidar Konami Game Pack 12
M.I.A. Konami Game Pack 12
Asteroids Atari Game Pack 4
Major Havoc Atari Game Pack 6
Asteroids Deluxe Atari Game Pack 1
Mega Zone Konami Game Pack 3
Battlantis Konami Game Pack 1
Millipede Atari Game Pack 4
Battlezone Atari Game Pack 3
Missile Command Atari Game Pack 5
Black Widow Atari Game Pack 6
Mr. Goemon Konami Game Pack 5
Blades of Steel Konami Game Pack 12
Ping Pong Konami Game Pack 5
Centipede Atari Game Pack 2
Pooyan Konami Game Pack 12
City Bomber Konami Game Pack 9
Rack 'Em Up Konami Game Pack 3
Crystal Castles Atari Game Pack 1
Red Baron Atari Game Pack 1
Detana!! TwinBee Konami Game Pack 12
Road Fighter Konami Game Pack 2
Devastators Konami Game Pack 13
Scooter Shooter Konami Game Pack 6
Finalizer Konami Game Pack 1
Scramble Konami Game Pack 1
Flak Attack Konami Game Pack 9
Shao-Lin's Road Konami Game Pack 2
Food Fight Atari Game Pack 12
Space Duel Atari Game Pack 4
Galactic Warriors Konami Game Pack 10
Strategy X Konami Game Pack 4
Gravitar Atari Game Pack 2
Super Basketball Konami Game Pack 9
Gyruss Konami Game Pack 7
Super Breakout Atari Game Pack 3
Hyper Crash Konami Game Pack 10
Super Cobra Konami Game Pack 2
Iron Horse Konami Game Pack 13
Tempest Atari Game Pack 2
Jackal Konami Game Pack 11
The Main Event Konami Game Pack 13
Jail Break Konami Game Pack 7
Time Pilot Konami Game Pack 4
Jungler Konami Game Pack 2
Trick Trap Konami Game Pack 12
Juno First Konami Game Pack 6
Tutankham Konami Game Pack 1
Kitten Kaboodle Konami Game Pack 9
TwinBee Konami Game Pack 12
Konami GT Konami Game Pack 10
Video Hustler Konami Game Pack 5
Liberator Atari Game Pack 5
Warlords Atari Game Pack 6
Lunar Lander Atari Game Pack 1
Yie Ar Kung-Fu Konami Game Pack 7


UPDMTWE (20/02/2011): On the 17th February, after four months of silence, a new message appeared on the Game Room Facebook page talking about technical problems people are having with the service.  This was followed on the 18th with two posts, one saying they can't recreate the technical problem and another saying this:

"..re GR plan. We are wholly focused on the mobile extension right now. We r also sorting through the bigger plan for GR, but expect us to be dark on that topic for a while because we have a lot to work through. I wish there was more to say at this time, but this is the situation as it stands for now. I cannot emphasize enough how much we appreciate your support. Thank you."

While that doesn't answer any questions, it is evidence that Game Room may not be dead after all. 

MTW

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