Posted on 08/14/2004 12:47:49 PM PDT by qam1
The video game industry is on alert. A challenger is gobbling up players -- and her name is "Ms. Pac-Man."
Yes, the classic games of the 1980s are making a comeback, from the beribboned pink Ms. to those "Super Mario Bros." and the one-and-only "Donkey Kong." Vintage and reissued video games are the hottest trend in the usually forward-thinking $7 billion-per-year gaming industry. Gamers are expected to spend an estimated $250 million to $300 million on retro games this year.
"They're huge," says Lee Eisenberg, owner of game hub Fun City in Parma, Ohio, and a retro gamer himself. "Our older stuff is outselling our new stuff. I've never seen anything like this."
Eisenberg carries both vintage and reissued games and systems, but says the old ones outsell the new products. He has a hard time keeping those big, clunky two-decade-old Nintendo, Atari and Intellivision systems ($40) and games ($3 to $10) in stock. Fortunately, he has a warehouse supply of no-longer-manufactured consoles and cartridges acquired from trade-ins, garage sales, Web sites and other sources.
The flashback started with nostalgic thirtysomethings, says Eisenberg, 39. But "younger kids are really getting into them now, and not just with their parents."
He says the appeal is simple.
"The newer games are really really violent and expensive. A lot of people want to go back to their childhood. They want younger, simpler games."
The nostalgia factor was one reason behind game giant Nintendo's June relaunch of eight '80s classics, including "Super Mario Bros." and "Donkey Kong," all for Game Boy Advance.
"Many of us grew up playing Nintendo and have a fondness for some of the great games from our original console, the Nintendo Entertainment System," says Beth Llewelyn, public relations director for Nintendo of America.
"With the 15th anniversary of Game Boy this year ... we thought it would be fun to go back to our '80s roots and release some of the classic NES games."
Sales have been very strong, she says, already hitting the 500,000 mark. The company is also selling a Classic NES Limited Edition Game Boy Advance SP ($100) that re-creates the look of the original NES.
Nintendo's not the only company thinking retro. Toy maker Jakks Pacific recently launched a series of plug-and-play hand-held systems called TV Games, featuring classics such as "Ms. Pac-Man," "Galaga," "Pong," "Centipede" and "Asteroids" from Atari, Namco, Capcom and Activision. The $20 battery-powered system looks like a joystick and plugs into your television.
Radica Games Ltd. will release its own classic system this fall. The $30 console, dubbed Arcade Games, also plugs into your TV and features reissued Sega-Genesis games such as "Sonic the Hedgehog."
And the revival isn't limited to the home-tech world. "Pac-Man" bleeps and blurps are sampled in new songs by hip-hoppers Lil' Flip and Beanie Sigel, and game sounds and images have been used in ads for Hummer and Saturn autos. T-shirts with "Space Invaders," "Pac-Man," Atari joysticks and classic logos are a trendy urban retro-kitsch look.
Namco has even launched a "Class of '81" series of arcade machines.
Many fans aren't content with reissues, however. Vintage Intellivision, Sega-Genesis, Nintendo and Atari games and consoles are hot commodities at the eBay online auction site. A recent search on Intellivision turned up 492 games and systems. A "classic Atari" search yielded 219.
There's even an annual get-together for retro game fans. The seventh Classic Gaming Expo is set for Aug. 21 and 22 at the San Jose Convention Center in California. Last year's expo in Las Vegas attracted 1,500 people and caused organizers to move to a bigger venue, where they expect even more attendees this year, says expo spokesman Jayson Hill.
"There's a huge nostalgia factor to classic-game appeal," Hill explains. But he says the interest has grown beyond sentimental Generation X-ers. He was "shocked" by the number of kids and teens at last year's event.
But are these kids shocked by the primitive graphics and sounds of 8-bit classics, compared with today's 256-bit games?
Hill doesn't think so.
"Sometimes people don't want everything served to them," he says. "If you give a person everything, they get nothing from their imagination. It's not as much fun as if you have to fill in the blanks."
For those of you who don't know, the point of the game was to defend U.S. cities from attack by utilizing a pseudo-SDI system. I know it was the 80's - but in retrospect it was quite chilling because one was always destined to lose...
THANK YOU!! Tetris it is!!
Let's hear it for Frogger!
I used to have Tetris on my HP48.
So did I. I must have been "nuts" too as well. :-) The games I liked the best on the N-64 were Banjo Kazooie, Zelda Orcarena of Time, and Zelda Majora's Mask. :-)
I have an HP48 as well but my only calculator game was Lunar Lander on my old Hp-65. :-)
What about carts to work on Atari 800s (don't think they work on anything else, but don't know)? I have Miner 2049r, Pac Man, Space Invaders, Missile Command, others, all working, as does computer (1982 vintage).
I have thought this for a while. The old games seemed to have a lot more originality. Because computers now have the power to make realistic images, most games have settled into one of a few limited genres.
And someday maybe I'll get back to working some more on the 2600 game I started to write (it produces a display--no easy feat on the 2600--but I don't have the 'action' in yet).
I am not sure. I do know old computers are becoming major collector peices. I would hang on to it. I have about 9 pre 1980 computers myself.
Oh yeah who can forget Zork I-III. I even like the first non-text based Zork game because your character looked like Rush Limbaugh
The other great games for the early PC's were the King's Quest games and Archon (I'm surprised they never tried to bring this one back).
I have all three Zorks and Archon II with my C-64. I never did aquire a mainframe (LOL) but I was able to download Adventure for my PC. My oldest computer is a Vintage Minivac 6020 from 1962. My second oldest is a vintage PDP-8 with real core memory.
Hehehe! I never saw that one. I did see some of the early ones like "Blade of Blackpool".
Cool! I never saw that one, but will keep my eyes out for it now! Thanks! :-)
WOW thanks. :-)
You're welcome!
You must have never played Diablo II :)
That game is pure crack.
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