Retro games offer an alluring respite

Chicago Tribune ^ | 12/7/04 | Eric Gwinn

[qam1]

Today's video games are so deep, complex and involving that you don't play them, you live them. For people who already have a life, that's a problem.

Games now can take 24 hours or more to complete, because gamemakers want to make sure you feel you're getting your 50 bucks' worth from playing a game that cost $10 million or more to make. What happened to the Zen-like simplicity of "Pong," the uncomplicated mad dash of "Pac-Man"?

Actually, they're coming back.

Atari recently released the Flashback, a slim TV-top box stuffed with 20 games from the 1980s. Gamemakers Midway and Nintendo now offer Vol. 2 of their respective retro game compilations. "Xbox Live Arcade" brings in an Internet component so retro gamers with broadband-enabled Xboxes can compete against one another.

The differences between retro games and today's games are simple.

"Older games are reaction-based," notes Adam Sessler, co-host of a cable TV video game review show, "X-Play." To play, all you have to do is destroy the aliens or escape the monsters or jump at the right time, and you don't have to be inside anybody's head.

"There is no learning curve, no intimidation," says Michael Wolf, Xbox public relations manager, "just the opportunity to pick up and play with anyone at any skill level."

This year's hit story-driven titles "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" and "Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal" include old-school-style mini-games that are heavy on action and light on plot, a nod to the popularity of this kind of simpler entertainment and a break from the intensity of the main game's mission.

There's clearly an audience -- these games have become staples of the Internet. Sites such as Yahoo!, AOL and MSN draw hundreds of thousands of gamers,

[JerseyHighlander]

Right, theoretically one could find a Nintendo NES emulator, and joust rom and be able to play, though not quite legal...

[realpatriot]

I would pay big bucks for an arcade Marble Madness!

[Hegewisch Dupa]

sounds like I need not remind you to "avoid spikes"

[Hegewisch Dupa]

did you know how to defeat the 'undefeatable (?) Ptaradactyal?

[RadioAstronomer]

Thanks for the info. :-)

I still have the following consoles:

Vectrex (The only vector-graphic gaming console ever made for the personal market)
Original Pong
Atari 2600
Nintendo NES
Super NES
N64
Game Cube
Play Station 1
Play Station 2
X-Box
Sega Saturn

[RadioAstronomer]

I like M.U.L.E. as well :-)

Played that for hours on the Commodore 64

[SnuffaBolshevik]

I beat a kid out of $75 playing Asteroids back in '81. It was half a week's pay for me at the time.

[qam1]

It's from an Asteroids game I lost that I got my screen name. Me and someone else who played it at the bowling alley where the game was, used the same 3 letter initials for high scores. So we played against each other, winner keeps initials loser picks something else. I lost* so I closed my eyes and randomily picked letters and up came QAM and 25 years later I am still using that name (Now systems require you to use 4 characters minimum so I later tacked on the 1).

* I technically won, But in Asteroids when you go over 99,990 it resets back to 0 and I had 99,970 and just before I commited suicide into a 20pt Asteroid to get a perfect 99,990 the ^@^# little ship shot it out from under me and I crashed into the resulting 50 point asteroid and went over.

[jmc813]

My daughter was impressed when i found a Gallaga machine this summer, and even 20 years later, old Mom can keep it going for 15 minutes

It's like riding a bike, isn't it? I play Ms. Pac Man maybe once or twice a year, and each time I make it to the final maze without a problem.

[rbg81]

My kids routinely play retro games like Missile Command and Asteriods (on my old Atari 800 no less) while the newer PS2 games sit on the shelf. The newer games have cooler graphics, but sometimes it takes 10 minutes to get thru all the menus to start the game. Plus, you need to devote your life to some to become expert in. With the old games, it plug, play, and have fun. Thats why they will still be around 100 years from now.

[SedVictaCatoni]

Super Mario Bros. 3 was possibly the best game ever, I have to concur. SMB3 was magnificent and still (until quite recently) the best-selling console game of all time.

Thank you, Mario, but our princess is in another castle! ... Just kidding.

[tiamat]

Well, if you can do that, your reflexes are better than mine!

[CAR913]

I loved Sprint, Punch-Out, Galaga, Dig Dug, 1942, Centipede, Pole Position, Tempest, Pac-Man (all versions) and Defender. Never cared for Donkey Kong though.

[Slump Tester]

One word: MAME

If you guys like the old stuff, google for Mame.

[this_ol_patriot]

They sound good and read good till you play them again and wonder how you spent so many hours and quarters on them the first time around. Like most things old, the memories are better than the reality.

[centexan]

I miss the old style pinball machines. Pinball was one game that was ruined by technology. I'd love to have one of the old 70's style machines.

[this_ol_patriot]

When we were kids we used to play pinball on one machine at a small local pool hall near us. We spent HOURS and tons of nickles on just that one machine trying to turn it over or get all the lights lit. I am at a loss to explain why we didn't get bored. They never changed the machine but we just played and played and played. Later I used to hit all the machines in the pizza joints, restaurants, stores or wherever else they may be.

Man I spent a lot of money and time playing pinball. I recently tried some of those same machines at a retro-arcade and the magic was gone. Maybe I'm getting too old but I still game like crazy on the computer, most likely just I'm spoiled now.

[edchambers]

I know this is apples an oranges but I just put the finishing touches on my own "time machine".I've always been more of First Person Shooter fan, I get bored too quick with most of the arcade games.I got on my old 233 mhz clunker and downloaded literally all the 3d shooters from www.dosgames.com.With a little work 90% of these games will run straight from the 98se desktop.In semi historical order there's Catacombs Abyss,Wolfenstien 3d,Spear of Destiny,Blake stone,Nightmare3D,Hurl,Kens Labyrinth,Corridor 7,Doom,Heretic,Rise of the Triad,Terminator Future shock,Duke Nukem3D,Descent,Radix,Blood,Shadow Warrior,Quake and a few more I forgot.

Most if not all of these games can be made to run on a modern machine although the more modern your computer is the more tweaking you'll have to do IE if you're running XP and an onboard sound card you'll probably need a DOS and a Sound Blaster emulator.If you've got an old clunker gathering dust in the garage you're in luck These are all legal shareware demos with three to six levels each but with that many games it'll be a long time before I feel like shelling out the big bucks for a full version.There are allot of other of games on this website from MS.Pacman to Tomb Raider or a couple or 3 different Asteroid clones.

I am in no way affiliated with www.dosgames.com I'm just letting you know that if you miss your old games they're all out there on the net and most of them are free.Also I have never got a virus from www.dosgames.com but use common sense when downloading and installing stuff from the web.Resident spyware shields up, virus scan before you install.

Happy blasting

[jdub]

there are tons of old pinballs out there for sale. there is a whole cottage industry devoted to them, as well as the newer electronic ones. i had four at one time, and still have two. I'll help you find a website for pinball classifieds if you like (i'll have to do some searching for the url, but shouldnt be a problem.

[Eric Roelfsema]

I also had the Intellivision. You can get a controller for that out of the JCPenney Christmas Catalog (plug). I had about 75 games for the Intellivision which I purchased when I had a paper route back in the late 70s and early 80s.