Capcom Arcade Stadium Review (PokemonFan102)
So the two Arcade Stadium collections were on a steep discount so I decided to go ahead and grab them because they seemed nice. Buyer Beware.
Everything looked great at first while I was in the little arcade area, This is something I actually quite like, it's a cute menu to choose the games from (I wish it used models of the actual cabinets instead of generic ones but whatever). But then I started playing 1942 as a quick test. The games stutter, they stutter BADLY. I kid you not in the two levels of 1942 I played, There were two instances where I died because the screen froze for a half-second. V-sync is turned off and it does this regardless of what refresh rate I set the game to. Despite how much of a hassle it is, I'd recommend just emulating games through MAME over this. The extra game modes and leaderboards are neat, but stuttering this bad (especially in action games, which all of these are) is unacceptable. Turns out the Enigma DRM Capcom uses really hurts the game's performance. Why are you even using DRM for this!? These are 30 year old games!
This collection has great presentation and has great potential, however Capcom's ineptitude has rendered all of these games effectively unplayable, at least for me, YMMV. I'll keep trying different settings and report back if I fix it, but if I can't get the games to stop stuttering by the 2 hour mark you better believe I'm requesting a refund. This disappointment has truly been the cherry on top of the dreadful day I've had.
Edit: Now I'm just confused, Stadium 2 running with the exact same settings will run games buttery smooth, while the original doesn't. I tried fiddling with a few settings but no dice, the games still stutter like crazy. I want to be able to play these games smoothly through this, so I think I'll try tech support before requesting a refund. God this is giving me a headache.