Classic Gaming Article

[Boz]

For anyone who has been in computers and the Internet for a while, tomshardware.com is an invaluable source for staying current on loads of technology. I've been going there for years when I need to study up on the bleeding edge. I was out there today just coasting and ran across someone's take on the "trendy" classic gaming movement. It's a pretty short article, but I found it interesting that there was no mention of Mame or other emulators or even those who build their own cabs.

At any rate, this seemed relevant enough to make my first post.

http://www.tomshardware.com/game/20050917/index.html

-In2ishun

[MaximRecoil]

They probably wanted to stay away from the legal "grey area" of Mame and other emulators; though they did link to an "abondonware" site, which is an equally grey area of legality.

[stratjakt]

The screenshot of Outrun isn't pixelated, it sure looks like it's being rendered through the OpenGL filter.

Me, I don't like "classic games" per se, just good games.   I'd say I split my playtime pretty evenly between stuff less than 5 years old and stuff thats older.  Good games age well, bad ones suck from the get-go.

I dont wax nostalgic for games thats sucked.  I don't revere Pac Man just because its 25 years old, I thought it sucked then and think it sucks now.  Name one good Pac Man game, ever.  Although, it's a brilliant example of the pure force of marketing hype to turn a sows ear into a silk purse.  Theres a whole industry around vintage games that, at least to me (it's all opinion) just aren't any fun.  To each their own, but I want stuff in my gameroom that'll get played on a near-daily basis, not museum pieces that I dust twice a year.

Most gearheads I know don't dig a car just because it's classic, but because they think it's a great car.  Hell, some crappy old hatchback from 1981 will qualify for "classic" plates next year, that doesn't make it a nice car.

I'm so bored today, I'm just ranting on every thread I can find.

[DaveMMR]

Name one good Pac Man game, ever.

Uh... let's see.. perhaps "Pac Man"?  Oh, and "Ms. Pac Man" too. 

[MaximRecoil]

The screenshot of Outrun isn't pixelated, it sure looks like it's being rendered through the OpenGL filter.

It isn't Outrun, that is why. It is a remake of Outrun, not an emulation. Not only can you tell that just by looking, but it also says:

Sega plans to release SEGA Classics Collection, featuring titles such as Outrun, Virtua Racing, Golden Axe and Space Harrier. These all offer the same old school gameplay, but with a few tweaks here and there.

[brophog]

Besides nostalgia, there is a very good reason retrogaming is becoming popular:

It's cheap!

Video games are becoming very expensive to make. Long gone are the days of a single programmer. You now have an entire team of programmers, designers, artists, writers, voice talent.......it's really becoming quite the 'hollywood' endeavor. It can take years to make a video game and many do not come close to getting a return on investment.

Meanwhile, it's not very difficult to remake or emulate a classic (commercially). You won't get a tenth of the sales, but it won't cost 1/100th of the cost either. Plus, there is a built in market of people that want to buy the product......the people that originally used it!

Add that to the fact there are so many games published that we as consumers never see! One of the things that amazes me when looking back at arcade games is the number of ports to systems that I didn't know about. And that problem is getting worse. We currently have 3 handheld systems, 3 current generation systems and an upcoming next generation system all taking shelf space......and that doesn't count systems that just don't get the time of day anyhow.  There's only so much inventory room to go around.

Retrogaming is here to stay, and not just via emulators and similiar. I think the cost of the next generation will be a driving force to not only keep re-releasing older games, but also to take the older style of games and soup them up a bit (much the way shmups have been juiced up in recent years).

[RayB]

It's also popular because people want to load a game and be playing right away with out a 10 minute movie intro, and they want their games to be quick fun for 10-15 minutes, not 10-15 hours.

(I'm not implying people want one OR the other. There are three kinds of players out there. The ones who only want short quick games. The ones who want the long big budget modern games, and then the ones who want both.)

[brophog]

I agree with you there. The game I play most on the gameboy (a fast loading concept anyhow).....

The Mario Bros add-on to every SMB title on the system.

As for current console titles, I don't know how people spend 80 hours playing a modern RPG. I want to get on, kill some baddies, and get off. Playing many console games is like using the internet with a Commodore64 modem.