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."
"up up down down left right left right A B B A" PING
I wonder what ever happened to my old Magnavox Odessey?
It even had screens that you could tape to your tv set to "change the game" you were playing. For instance, there was a "tennis screen", which was green and had the markings of a tennis court, and then there was the "hockey screen," which was blue, and had the markings of a hockey rink... Of course, the game itself was the same... PONG!
Mark
That game is pure crack.
That's because the designers set up to create a graphical version of a rogue-like game still around, Nethack. Probably the most replayable game ever.
set up = set out
It was "Return to Zork" released in 1993 that you looked like Rush Limbaugh.
see post 77.
I never saw that one either. Way cool.
I truly liked replaying FFX and the Zelda games as well. :-)
Thank you,
They have "Return to Zork" but only the demo
I keep meaning to get a couple of those. I'm interested to see their upcoming Mortal Kombat system. If they don't lose any buttons, and it's flawless emulation, it should be pretty cool.
Were those console games? I don't remember them. Did you ever play any of the rogue-like games, like ADOM or Nethack? The "graphics" were ascii characters. Emphasis was on replayability (if that's even a word) not flash.
FFX was PS2 and Zelda was on the N-64 and Game Cube. I have "Far Cry" on my PC currently.
There were a couple other text-based Zork games between Zork III and Return to Zork. Their names escape me but they were pretty good and had the original's sense of humor.
I loved the King's Quest/Space Quest/Sierra quest games. Have you seen this parody? It's actually pretty fun, though I admit I got stuck in a few places:
http://www.homestarrunner.com/disk4of12.html
You can download updated versions of King's Quest 1 and 2 here:
http://www.agdinteractive.com/
Warning! King's Quest I is a pretty straight update--new graphics, mostly--but King's Quest II is a "reimagining." Personally, I found some of the religious stuff to be quite offensive in this version, but maybe I'm overly sensitive. I remember the female vampire being pretty hot, though. :)
Anyone know where to find a downloadable version of the old game . . .
STIX
or QIX OR SOME SUCH
--one marked off geography of the screen--I think in rectangles--trying to avoid getting zapped before one had marked off the most territory.
Was the only computer game I ever enjoyed.
I don't understand MAME at all. Seemed like a good idea until I found out that I can't get the ROMs anywhere.
I don't know what Atari 800 games are worth, but I'm not sure these old carts are exactly a goldmine anyway. I saw a list of Atari and Coleco cartridges, and I had quite a few that were considered "ultra rare." They could net something like $35. To me, that's not worth losing cartridges I've had for years. I'll hold on to them.
My all-time favorite PC games (excluding text genre and rogue-like games) were Civilization and Masters of Orion. Both turn-based strategy games. Oh, and Diablo II. I'm not up on what's current because the descent into real-time strategy created disinterest.
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