Leonie Manshanden - marketing director at Midway - has announced they will be producing the classic adventure game Myst for the popular dual screen portable console by Nintendo. Now this is a favorite of mine. I wonder if the other 'episodes' will also become available.

I was picking up the kids' Christmas pictures (aka our Christmas cards) at JCPenney the other day, when I came across the Midway Arcade. The baby fell asleep in the stroller, and this arcade machine intrigued me more than shopping for Christmas presents. (Giving is cool, it's the shopping part that can be a nuisance.) Anyway the last player had been playing Defender, so I tried that out first. The controls were stiff, but the old games are much better played with a joystick than with your corporate-issue Sony Playstation controller. I tried Wizard of Wor next. I hadn't played that one since my Atari 800XL days, so that was a real treat, untril I got treated to a beat down after about three levels. Nowhere near "The Arena" (level 8), but they say those reflexes slow down with age, so I guess its downhill afte age 11.

I have some info that's sure to please many folks here at Armchair Arcade: Midway is offering ten classic games playable for free right in your browser. These conversions use Macromedia Shockwave to very good effect--there's even support for joysticks. The games are Bubbles, Defender, Joust II, Rampage, Robotron, Satan's Hollow, Sinistar, Spyhunter, and Tapper.