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Anstream Arcade unlocks 1000s of classic games on PlayStation 4 and 5

ALSO: MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Collections coming to Xbox One, and the news round-up

Author

Christian Cawley
September 04, 2024

Hi again! So much to get through this week, with four main news features and a lot of smaller items in the roundup (but retro news is never really small, is it?)

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Table of Contents

Antstream Arcade is coming to PlayStation 4 and 5 - full details

Following in from news shared in our August 15th edition, PlayStation 4 and 5 users are getting Antstream Arcade from September 6th (this Friday).

This is great news for current and last gen PlayStation owners, giving them access to a library of games that are now available on every platform except Nintendo Switch.

Over 1300 games from SEGA Mega Drive to C64, classic arcades to Amiga and all the way up to PS1 can be found with this platform. Antstream Arcade also gives you unique mini-game challenges and access to global leaderboards, helping you to finally determine if you genuinely are the best Defender player in the world.

Head to www.antstream.com to learn more.

Play Antstream Arcade on any device

If you haven’t already heard of Antstream Arcade, don’t worry. The service has been around a few years, launching in 2013, but it wasn’t until around 2020 (when a lot of people had plenty of time on their hands) that it started to really grow.

You can access Antstream Arcade on PC, Mac, Linux, Android and Android TV, Samsung TV, and in your browser. It has already arrived on Xbox back in July 2023.

It’s even available on smart TVs and boxes as an app - for example you can install Antstream Arcade on an Amazon Fire TV stick.

With Anstream Arcade, you simply launch the app, select the game, and play, using your console’s existing controller.

MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Collections coming to Xbox One

Great news for Xbox One owners concerned that their console will soon be considered retro - two collections of fighting Marvel vs. Capcom classics are landing in 2025, namely Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics and Capcom Fighting Collection™ 2!

15 fighting game classics are spread across the two collections:

MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics

  • X-MEN CHILDREN OF THE ATOM

  • MARVEL SUPER HEROES

  • X-MEN VS. STREET FIGHTER

  • MARVEL SUPER HEROES vs. STREET FIGHTER

  • MARVEL vs. CAPCOM CLASH OF SUPER HEROES

  • MARVEL vs. CAPCOM 2 New Age of Heroes

  • THE PUNISHER

Capcom Fighting Collection 2

  • Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro

  • Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001

  • Capcom Fighting Evolution

  • Street Fighter Alpha 3 UPPER

  • Project Justice

  • Power Stone

  • Power Stone 2

  • Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein

Meanwhile, each collection includes online gameplay, training modes, support for 14 languages, art and music galleries and other behind-the-scenes content, and the usual re-release quality-of-life options like display filters and save states.

The Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics and Capcom Fighting Collection 2 will be out on Xbox One in 2025.

(Both collections are also scheduled for release on PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.)

Can Infrogrames really preserve classic games?

You may know that the company you currently know as Atari was previously Infogrames. After picking up the Atari name in 2000, in 2009 Infogrames opted to rebrand, and since then the story has been a bit of a soap opera.

Infogrames logo 1996-2000

But in 2020 things settled down a bit, a state of affairs that brings us to Atari’s current resurgence. But of course, the Infogrames name still exists, and it appears there is a strategy for it — to republish classic games, as a “preservationist” publisher.

Speaking at Gamescom, CEO Wade Rosen explained the idea behind this new direction, which is to focus on “…IPs that have been out for a long time, that people have moved on from. The people who want to focus on their future projects and want to raise capital to make new games and focus on those–that's really what Infogrames is looking for."

Combine this with the original aim of publishing “games that fall outside the core portfolio of IP associated with the Atari brand," you can see what they have in mind.

In the merry-go-round of brand names and properties and franchises and acquisitions and bankruptcy filings and cryptocurrencies and consoles associated with 20th century Atari, did you ever imagine the Infogrames name could be associated with a curated library of reissues?

Me neither, and yet it actually seems like an interesting strategy.

GameStop is opening retro gaming stores

Some private “mom and pop” US computer game stores may not be happy at the news that they have a mainstream commercial competitor. GameStop has rebranded some of its stores into GameStop Retro, offering Nintendo, SEGA, Microsoft, and Sony consoles and games (including mainly: NES, SNES, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy, N64, Nintendo DS, Wii, Wii U, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS Vita, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, and Dreamcast).

We’re not sure where Atari and retro computing platforms sit in this scenario.

If you’re in the USA, this is great news for you. For those of us in the UK, our best bet for retro hardware is independent stores or CeX. Where Game still has stores, they can’t be trusted to display the Evercade cartridges they have out the back, let alone stock other retro gear.

(All of which implies Britain could also do with a retro gaming chain… perhaps a topic for another time, though.)

Retro gaming news roundup

Here’s the bulk of the latest retro games news, split by category: software, hardware, and merchandise.

Games

Star Runner is a new SEGA Master System inspired game that you can play in your browser. It’s a fun little game with an interesting mechanic to shrink the main character, and is worth checking out.

The British studio behind Star Fox has been resurrected. Argonaut Games is working on a remaster of its 1997 3D platformer Croc.

Chase HQ spinoff Crime City is being adapted for SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis by homebrew developer Master Linkuei.

A HD-2D remake of Dragon’s Quest III is now available to pre-order in the Nintendo eShop/

25th anniversary of Worms Armageddon is being celebrated with a special release on current gen consoles, with bonus content.

Multiplayer tank combat game TankX is available for the Amiga, and runs on 512kb systems.

Montezuma’s Revenge! Director’s Cut has become an entirely new game to the original, and is now available as a free demo.

A port of R-Type for the Atari 7800 has been previewed on X/Twitter. It’s still a work-in-progress, but looks stunning.

The three Nintendo DS Castlevania games, Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia, have been re-released in the Castlevania Dominus Collection, available for Nintendo Switch, PS5, Steam/PC, and Xbox Series X|S

*

Ipswich retro arcade store Blast from the Past has moved to new premises.

And finally…

A DOOM mod called Thatcher's Techbase (which features a representation of the late UK Prime Minister Lady Thatcher, who died in 2013) has been deemed unsuitable for the new Bethesda-supported mod browser, citing “real world politics.”

Hardware

If you’re a fan of the new emulators on iPhone, Bitmo Lab’s Gamebaby is a Nintendo Game Boy-style holder for the iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 16 Pro Max. It has an RRP of $39.99, but currently is half price.

Merchandise

The Console Chronicles, a book by websites Time Extension and Lost in Cult, has been previewed on the Time Extension website ahead of its September 12th release. (It’s currently sold out)

Ray traced Wolfenstein teased in DOOM 2 secret level

Not too much to say about this other than to tell you to click each image to see them in full resolution.

(BTW, you will find MAP31: Wolfenstein via MAP15: Industrial Zone, if you know where to look…)

Game Over

Thank you for reading, and for keeping the shares up.

As ever, if you find anything of use, please forward to your friends, share on social media, or just ring someone and tell them to subscribe. Anything works!

Until next time, take it easy…

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