If you’re interested in 80s arcade games then you’ve probably played clones of Space Invaders, Pac-Man and other classics. If you’re a real fan then you might have set up an emulator to run the original game ROMs.
NewRetroArcade goes further. Not only does it give you MAME emulated playable arcade games, but it actually presents them in a Virtual Reality arcade for Oculus (although you can also run it on your Windows desktop to get a basic idea of what it can do).
You can walk around, look at the machines (and the ten-pin bowling alley, and the basketball machines), listen to music of the time via streamed internet radio, maybe try out the playable Gameboy and emulated SNES console. The only mildly unrealistic touch is there’s no-one else there, but at least it means there’s no queuing for your favorite machines.
Keep in mind that this is a free tech demo and doesn’t have a polished installer. Or any installer, really. Unzip the download and read "Install+Readme.txt" for guidance, details on the controls and more.
When you first run NewRetroArcade.exe you’ll be asked if you want to download a game pack. Agree, download Game Pack 1 and unzip it into your main NewRetroArcade folder.
Relaunch NewRetroArcade and you should find your arcade now has games like Asteroids, Street Fighter II, 1942, Frogger, Space Invaders, Out Run, Missile Command, Gauntlet, Defender and more. That is probably enough to keep you entertained for a while, but if not, the bundled Arcade Builder has further ways to tweak and customize the system.
