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60-461: Namco Museum Virtual Arcade is a compilation of video games published by Namco and its successor, Namco Bandai Games . The collection contains 34 games that encompass a variety of genres, including maze chasers , shoot 'em ups , and platformers . It is divided into two sets of games that can be selected in the in-game menu. The first set contains nine Namco Bandai-published games for Xbox Live Arcade , which in addition to being selectable through

120-480: A " combo meal " or "value meal". A bundle of products may be called a package deal ; in recorded music or video games , a compilation or box set ; or in publishing , an anthology . Product bundling is most suitable for high volume and high margin (i.e., low marginal cost) products. Research by Yannis Bakos and Erik Brynjolfsson found that bundling was particularly effective for digital information goods with close to zero marginal cost, and could enable

180-603: A bundler with an inferior collection of products to drive even superior quality goods out of the market place. Most firms are multi-product or multi-service companies faced with the decision whether to sell products or services separately at individual prices or whether combinations of products should be marketed in the form of "bundles" for which a "bundle price" is asked. Price bundling plays an increasingly important role in many industries (e.g. banking, insurance, software, automotive) and some companies even build their business strategies on bundling. In bundle pricing, companies sell

240-410: A centrist candidate by ensuring she/he has centrist social, economic, and law enforcement positions. Advantages: Disadvantages to the consumer: Disadvantages to the seller: In the computer industry, bundled software is distributed with another product such as a piece of computer hardware or other electronic device, or is a group of software packages which are sold together. Software which

300-411: A consumer, as they do not have to hand-pick each accessory and add-on item (this is the 2nd and 3rd point). Bundling is often thought of mainly as a value pricing strategy, in that product bundles often cost less than if each item were purchased separately. However, bundling can also have other strategic advantages. For example, when a grocery store is making up a gift basket , they can use the design of

360-466: A form of price discrimination . Venkatesh and Mahajan reviewed the research on bundle design and pricing in 2009. A 1997 study by Mercer Management Consulting, in Massachusetts stated that good bundles have five elements: (1) the package is worth more than the "sum of its parts" for the consumer; (2) the bundle brings order and simplicity to a set of confusing or tedious choices; (3) the bundle solves

420-432: A life bar at the bottom-left of the screen. Amur can use bombs to destroy eggs found on the ground of some stages, which will award one of two powerup items; a blue orb that will give Amur an extra head, granting him additional firepower, or an orange orb that will strengthen Amur's shots when three are collected. The game features nine stages, which include large rivers, volcanoes, glaciers and jungles. Dying halfway through

480-424: A maximum revenue of only $ 240 by setting a $ 60 price for each product—both consumers will buy both products. Revenue cannot be increased without bundling because as the seller increases the price above $ 60 for one of the goods, one of the consumers will refuse to buy it. With bundling, a seller can generate revenue of $ 320 by bundling the products together and selling the bundle at $ 160. Thus, bundling can be considered

540-400: A package or set of goods or services for a lower price than they would charge if the customer bought all of them separately. Pursuing a bundle pricing strategy allows a business to increase its profit by using a discount to induce customers to buy more than they otherwise would have. Bundling is most successful when: While many well-known examples of bundling are all products or services from

600-437: A problem for the consumer; (4) the bundle is focused and lean in an effort to avoid carrying or including options, goods or services the consumer has no use for; and (5) the bundle generates interest or even controversy. Number 1 can be read as simply that a bundle should cost less than buying each item separately; however, even if the bundle were to cost the same in dollars, a bundle may still be an appealing value proposition for

660-521: A serious home theatre enthusiast may wish to have a powered subwoofer with a user-adjustable crossover, a "subsonic" filter and other higher-cost advanced features. In oligopolistic and monopolistic industries, product bundling can be seen as an unfair use of market power because it limits the choices available to the consumer. In these cases it is typically called product tying . Some forms of product bundling have been subject to litigation regarding abuses of market share . United States v. Microsoft

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720-464: A similar value proposition for the buyer: the HTIB package ensures that all of the speakers are of the correct impedance and power handling capabilities, the cables are of the correct type, and the crossover points and other technical details have been set up by the manufacturer. The most serious home theatre enthusiasts do not typically buy HTIB bundles, as they are a more sophisticated target market. As such,

780-410: A stage will start the player at a checkpoint. At the end of each stage is a boss that Amur must fight in order to progress to the next stage. Amur can sometimes find special orbs throughout the game that can grant him additional abilities, such as a homing shot, a multi-shot, and the ability to shrink down in size to evade bullets. The game's opening cutscene shows Amur atop a mountain raising his sword in

840-432: A very high budget may find a $ 10,000 home theatre package attractive, even if it costs a bit more than buying each item separately, because this is an impressive total cost. Bundling in political economy is a type of product bundling in which the "product" is a candidate in an election who markets his or her bundle of attributes and political positions to the voters. For example, a political candidate may market herself as

900-454: Is pre-installed on a new computer is an example of bundled software. For example, as of 2017, most desktop, laptop and mobile computers are bought pre-loaded with various software and software applications ("apps"). A pack-in game is a form of bundled software. Early microcomputer companies varied in their decision to bundle software. BYTE in 1984 observed that " Kaypro apparently has tremendous buying and bargaining power", noting that

960-430: Is a 1987 vertical-scrolling shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco . In North America, it was distributed by Atari Games . Controlling the dragon Amur, the player must complete each of the game's nine areas to rescue the princess Alicia from the demon Zawell. Similar to Namco's own Xevious , Amur has a projectile weapon for destroying air-based enemies and a bomb for destroying ground enemies. It ran on

1020-518: Is included in several Namco video game compilations, such as Namco Museum Vol. 5 (1997), Namco Museum 50th Anniversary (2005), Namco Museum Virtual Arcade (2008) and Namco Museum Essentials (2009). The TurboGrafx-16 conversion was digitally re-released onto the Wii Virtual Console in 2007, while the arcade version was released in 2009 exclusively in Japan. A version for Japanese mobile phones

1080-457: Is over. Dragon Spirit was released in Japan by Namco on May 15, 1987, later licensed to Atari Games for release in North America. The game's music was composed by Shinji Hosoe , originally a graphic designer for the company. After asking Wonder Momo composer "Yudate" how to add music to the game code, he inserted many of his tracks during his own time — once the development team behind

1140-426: Is renamed Retro-Cross . According to the review aggregator website Metacritic , Namco Museum Virtual Arcade received "mixed or average reviews", holding a 63/100 on the site. It sold 5,912 copies in Japan by the end of 2009, making it one of the worst-selling Namco Museum games in the country. Critics were generally pleased with the selection of games. Steve Hannley, a reviewer for GamesRadar+ , wrote: "For

1200-529: Is the first Namco Museum to include Sky Kid Deluxe (1986), which had previously been rereleased in Japan through Namco Collection Vol. 1 (1999) for Windows . The three Arrangement games were taken from the PlayStation Portable game Namco Museum Battle Collection (2005), and were upscaled and modified to support high definition video and improved sound. Pac-Man Championship Edition , Galaga Legions , and Mr. Driller Online were added to

1260-511: The Family Stadium series would be named after Amur and the game itself. In 2012, a webcomic adaptation of Dragon Spirit was created for ShiftyLook a subsidiary of Namco Bandai Games that focused on reviving older Namco game franchises for use in comics and animations. Illustrated by artist Steve Cummings, the comic was a tongue'n cheek parody of the "damsel in distress" storyline used in fiction, featuring characters and settings taken from

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1320-545: The Namco System 1 arcade board. Music for the game was composed by Shinji Hosoe and designed by Tatsuya Ishikawa. Hosoe, previously a graphics artist for Namco, was allowed to work on the music himself due to most of the company's composers working on Genpei Tōma Den , however much of his work was accidentally wiped from the hardware midway through development and forced him to start over. Ishikawa previously created character artwork for Rolling Thunder , being assigned to

1380-599: The Kaypro 10 came with both WordStar and Perfect Writer , plus "two spelling checkers, two spreadsheets, two communications programs and three versions of BASIC". Stating that year that a computer that weighs 30 pounds "really isn't very portable", Creative Computing concluded that "the main reason that the Osborne was a success was not that it was transportable, but that it came with a pile of bundled software". Compaq , by contrast, did not bundle software, stating that "You remove

1440-483: The TurboGrafx-16 conversion, IGN praised the game's vibrant graphics, unique setting and challenge, recommending the title to fans of Xevious and other similar vertical-scrolling shooters, while Eurogamer liked its lack of a one-hit player kill and colorful visuals. Nintendo Life was the most critical of the conversion, disliking its sudden difficulty spike towards the end and inferior quality compared to

1500-499: The United States, also known as vMVPDs , such as FuboTV , Hulu + Live TV , Philo , Sling TV , and YouTube TV , launched in the 2010s, providing additional options for consumers who want access to linear cable channels but are dissatisfied with local providers. Additionally, reduced-price bundles of streaming service packages, such as The Disney Bundle , are also offered by some providers. Dragon Spirit Dragon Spirit

1560-821: The addition of many premium channels. In the US prices for pay TV have doubled in the last twenty years, averaging 6% per year, while wages have remained the same for nearly 20 years causing dissatisfaction and many cancellations. Costs have risen 53% since 2007 and Comcast and AT&T 's Direct TV went up in January 2018. With the Digital television transition opportunities for competition to pay TV ushered in online video companies and forcing pay TV companies to examine à la carte cable company packages . A 2018 consumer report shows many subscribers are dissatisfied with cable TV, mainly over prices, which has led to many complaints. Google Fiber

1620-439: The air, with lightning striking it and transforming him into his dragon form. If the player makes it to the end of the ninth level and defeats Zawell, Princess Alicia will be seen held captive behind glass, which shatters as she yells "Amur!". The dragon then retransforms into human form and embraces Alicia, and an end scene is shown where the people of the kingdom are celebrating peace and prosperity now that Zawell's reign of terror

1680-544: The arcade version. They also unfavorably compared it to Super Star Soldier , only recommending it to hardcore fans of the genre. Famitsu awarded the PC-Engine port the "Gold Hall of Fame" award for its gameplay and strategy. A sequel game, Dragon Spirit: The New Legend , was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1989 and published outside Japan by Bandai . Taking place several years after

1740-512: The basket item list as a way to promote new products or brands that a customer may not know or as a way to liquidate merchandise that is not selling well. Also, even though many bundles are less expensive than all of the items if purchased separately, in some cases the bundle costs more than if each item was purchased separately; this tactic is particularly effective in high-end retailing where conspicuous consumption and prestige pricing elements come into play. A well-off home theatre enthusiast with

1800-421: The case was whether Microsoft was allowed to bundle its flagship Internet Explorer (IE) web browser software with its Microsoft Windows operating system. Bundling them together is alleged to have been responsible for Microsoft's victory in the browser wars as every Windows user had a copy of Internet Explorer. Cable and satellite television (Pay TV) have bundled TV channels since the inception of both. In

1860-634: The collection worth the purchase. Among the Museum games, critics found Dragon Spirit , Pole Position , and Metro-Cross to be some of the standouts. GameSpot ' s Don Francis felt the library relied too heavily on Pac-Man games, but possessed a good selection of titles regardless. Writing for IGN , Ryan Geddes pointed out that most of the games were included in past Namco Museum collections, and said those are likely worth seeking out instead of Virtual Arcade . The collection drew largely negative responses towards its presentation. The menu layout

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1920-456: The controls for certain games, though they attributed this to the poor quality of the Xbox 360's directional pad and not the pack itself. Product bundling In marketing , product bundling is offering several products or services for sale as one combined product or service package. It is a common feature in many imperfectly competitive product and service markets. Industries engaged in

1980-493: The disc, and include 22 Namco arcade games from the 1970s and 1980s as well as three "Arrangement" remakes of Pac-Man , Galaga (1981), and Dig Dug (1982). Players can modify in-game settings such as controller inputs, difficulty, and the starting number of lives. This would also be the last time Ms. Pac-Man (1982) would be included in a Namco Museum video game compilation, as future reissues were strictly standalone or on dedicated minicades . Namco Museum Virtual Arcade

2040-501: The early years of the cable industry this was necessary due to the technological constraints associated with allowing and blocking channels transmitted via analog methods. The progress towards complete cable, internet, and telephone packages gave subscribers many more options as well as offering hundreds of channels. The "package" price depends on the level of service a customer prefers within each bundle. The services range from low speed internet and minimum channels to high speed internet and

2100-438: The events of the original, it adds many of the levels from the arcade version alongside new stages, enemies, boss fights and cinematic cutscenes, alongside a brand-new storyline. A second sequel, Dragon Saber , was released for arcades in 1990, running on the Namco System 2 arcade board. Subtitled After Story of Dragon Spirit , this game adds two-player co-operative play, charging shots and new enemy types. A PC-Engine version

2160-544: The freedom from the dealers to really merchandise when you bundle in software ... Why should you be constrained to use the software that comes with a piece of hardware? I think it can tend to inhibit sales over the long run." MacWrite 's inclusion with early Macintosh computers discouraged developers from creating other word processing software for the computer. Many companies sold multimedia upgrade kits—a CD-ROM drive , sound card , speakers, and what Computer Gaming World described as "a boatload of bundled software"—during

2220-403: The game found out, he was automatically assigned as the game's composer. During its development, Namco was low on composers as many of them went to work on Genpei Tōma Den , allowing Hosoe to be able to compose the music himself. Graphics were created by Tatsuya Ishikawa, who had previously produced character artwork for Rolling Thunder — after taking interest in the game's enemy designs,

2280-451: The game was also produced. Dragon Spirit is a vertical-scrolling shooter video game. The player controls the dragon Amur in his effort to rescue the princess Alicia from the serpent demon Zawell. Amur can move in eight directions and has access to two weapons; a flame projectile to destroy air-based enemies, and a bomb to destroy ground-stationed enemies, similar to Namco's Xevious series. Amur can take two hits before dying, indicated by

2340-465: The game's addictive gameplay and soundtrack, saying it lives up to games such as Galaxian and Galaga . Japanese publication Gamest called it a "Namco shooting masterpiece" for its graphics, realism and soundtrack, awarding it the 5th "Grand Prize", 2nd "Best Ending" and 5th "Player Popularity" awards in 1998. In a retrospective review, Hardcore Gaming 101 praised the game's graphics, challenging gameplay and iconic opening cutscene. Reviewing

2400-586: The hardware, but his idea was scrapped by Namco due to high production costs. In North America and Europe, Dragon Spirit was ported to several home consoles and computers, including the Atari ST , Commodore 64 , Amiga , ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC . In Japan, Namco ported the game to the Sharp X68000 and PC-Engine , the latter being published in North America by NEC for the TurboGrafx-16 . Dragon Spirit

2460-568: The lineup to represent the company's ability to produce well-designed followups to its older arcade games. Namco Bandai Games announced Virtual Arcade at the 2008 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), and released it in North America on November 4, 2008. The game was later released in Europe on May 15, 2009, in Australia on May 21, 2009, and in Japan on November 5, 2009. In the European version, Metro-Cross

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2520-437: The lowest price point; mid-tier bundles, the most common type; and higher-cost HTIB bundles made by BOSE and other higher-end manufacturers. At the economy grade HTIB package, the customer is provided with a basic home theatre set-up, with modest sound quality and relatively few options for adjusting the sound. The mid-tier and upper-tier packages offer better performance and more set-up options. All three HTIB tiers, though, have

2580-460: The main menu can also be accessed through the Xbox 360's dashboard , as long as the disc is in the console. Some of these are ports of arcade games like Pac-Man (1980) and Xevious (1983), while others such as Pac-Man Championship Edition (2007) are brand-new sequels with different gameplay structures and mechanics. These Xbox Live Arcade games also contain achievements and online leaderboards . The second set of games are only available on

2640-477: The mid-1990s. In the 1990s and in the 2000s (decade) and 2010s, many consumer electronics companies designed home theatre equipment bundles, known as Home Theatre in a Box (HTIB). For a customer who already owned a TV, and in some cases a DVD player or other source for playing back movies, a HTIB package provides all of the electronics hardware, speakers and cables needed to set up a home cinema. There are three grades of HTIB bundles: economy bundles, aimed at

2700-471: The most serious home cinema-philes typically purchase each component (power amplifiers, speakers, subwoofer cabinet, speaker cables) separately, so that they can choose which items meet their specific movie-watching goals. For example, a serious home theatre enthusiast may wish to have a large cabinet subwoofer enclosure with heavy bracing, a type and size of subwoofer cabinet that would not be found in any HTIB bundle due to its large size and high cost. As well,

2760-414: The practice include telecommunications services, financial services, health care , information, and consumer electronics . A software bundle might include a word processor , spreadsheet , and presentation program into a single office suite . The cable television industry often bundles many TV and movie channels into a single tier or package. The fast food industry combines separate food items into

2820-459: The project after taking interest in the enemy designs. The game was dedicated to Shouichi Fukatani, a Namco programmer who had died a few years earlier in 1985 and worked on many of the company's older games, such as Dig Dug and Super Pac-Man . The game was ported to several home systems, including the Sharp X68000 , Atari ST and TurboGrafx-16 , and is included in several Namco video game compilations . The arcade version of Dragon Spirit

2880-431: The right buyer, this is a gleaming golden treasure even with bits of tarnish here and there." Out of the included titles, Pac-Man Championship Edition and Galaga Legions were considered the highlights of the package. Jeuxvideo.com author Pixelpirate recommended Virtual Arcade for those games alone. The inclusion of Namco Bandai's Xbox Live Arcade library was also met with praise, and critics said this helped make

2940-427: The same store or provider, such as the sports package for a car or a grocery store's gift basket , in some cases, cross-industry bundles are assembled and sold. For example, some travel agencies have vacation tour bundles that may include air tickets, rail tickets, a rental car, hotels, restaurants, museum and sightseeing attraction tickets and live music event tickets. These bundles include products and services from

3000-564: The smaller companies only Armstrong received top ratings and RCN , Hawaiian Telcom (bought by Cincinnati Bell in 2018), and Grande Communications received slightly higher ratings. The high price of current complete bundling, upwards of $ 180–200, along with poor customer service, surprise bills, and technical difficulties, resulted in Angie's List reporting that these things were the number two most complained about category. Alternative streaming -based providers of cable TV channel bundles in

3060-399: The team assigned him as the lead artist. Ishikawa listened to Hosoe's music when he was low on ideas for enemy or background designs. Hosoe's music was accidentally wiped from the hardware around midway through the development process, forcing him to start over again. After the first set of arcade boards were released, Hosoe remade the game's music in hopes it could be reused for a re-issue of

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3120-411: The transportation, accommodation, tourism, food service and entertainment industries. Consumers have heterogeneous demands and such demands for different parts of the bundle product are inversely correlated. For example, assume consumer A values a word processor software at $ 100 and a spreadsheet processor at $ 60, while consumer B values a word processor at $ 60 and spreadsheet at $ 100. Seller can generate

3180-566: Was a set of civil actions filed against Microsoft Corporation pursuant to the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 Sections 1 and 2 on May 18, 1998, by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and 20 states. Joel I. Klein was the lead prosecutor. The plaintiffs alleged that Microsoft abused monopoly power on Intel-based personal computers in its handling of operating system sales and web browser sales. The issue central to

3240-439: Was an exception to widespread consumer dissatisfaction. Verizon and the two satellite-TV companies —AT&T's DirecTV and Dish Network rated better than Cox Communications , Comcast , Spectrum , Optimum , CenturyLink , SuddenLink Communications , Atlantic Broadband , Frontier Communications , and Mediacom was rated at the bottom. Internet providers EPB (Fiber Optics) and Google Fiber received top ratings for value. Of

3300-591: Was criticized for being needlessly complicated and making it difficult to navigate through the different libraries. Francis and a reviewer for Retro Gamer showed frustration towards this menu as hindering what is otherwise a well-made compilation. Pixelpirate similarly found the menu difficult to use, but praised its minimalist art style and background music. The lack of included extras was criticized by Geddes, who unfavorably compared it to collections like Activision Anthology that contained additional content like developer interviews and artwork scans. Some also disliked

3360-540: Was developed and published by Namco Bandai Games for the Xbox 360 . Its development was handled by the company's North American division, with its marketing director Todd Thorson serving as the project director. Virtual Arcade was designed to be the largest and most comprehensive in Namco Museum line of compilations, in addition to serving as a convenient and affordable way for consumers to play its back catalog. The collection

3420-473: Was met with a positive response from critics, who praised its graphics, music and Paleozoic setting, and for standing out among other similar games during the time. Allgame praised its "gorgeous graphics" and soundtrack, and for being unique compared to other games of its genre, while German magazine Power Play praised its interesting gameplay mechanics, notably the double-head powerup, and for its captivating gameplay. Computer & Video Games praised

3480-420: Was met with positive reviews from critics for standing out amongst other shooter games, being praised for its Paleozoic setting, graphics and soundtrack. Home versions were met with a more mixed reception, being criticized for its high difficulty and inferior graphics and music. It was followed by two sequels, Dragon Spirit: The New Legend (1988) and Dragon Saber (1990). A ShiftyLook webcomic adaptation of

3540-611: Was released a year later in 1991, while the arcade version was released as part of the Japan-only Namco Museum Encore compilation. The PC-Engine conversion was released for the Japanese Wii Virtual Console in 2008, followed by the arcade version in 2009. Amur appears as a playable character in the WonderSwan Color role-playing game Namco Super Wars , alongside Princess Alicia. Several players in

3600-513: Was released in 2003. Arcade version of Dragon Spirit was released under the Arcade Archives label for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in 2022. In Japan, Game Machine listed the game on their July 15, 1987 issue as being the sixth most-successful table arcade unit of the month. It went on to be the fourth highest-grossing table arcade game of 1987 in Japan. Dragon Spirit

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