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."
Don't forget Joust.
Yes. You flew around on a prehistoric bird jousting the bad guys.
I loved Tempest as an arcade video game.
I blew entirely way too much money playing it back in the early 80's.
'BallBlazer' and 'Rescue on Fractalus' for the Atari XE.
Actually the coolest thing about the game is if you were eaten by a dragon the game didn't just shut down, Instead you were just stuck there in it's belly left to struggle futilely, If you waited long enough the bat could come by and fly you all over the place.
Only video game I could ever play was the original Star Wars. The one with the X-wings flying above and into the Death Star.
Lousy 3-d depth perception prevents me from even trying the new stuff.
Think they'll bring back that X-wing game?
My parents bought the home edition of "Pong" sometime in 1974 or 1975. It was so cool until we saw "Atari 2600" in the Meijer's store. I remember being fascinated watching the little airplanes on the tv screen and being able to shoot at each other's planes! Wow...my parents ended up buying that for Christmas soon after and I thought it was great.
That is great. I downloaded it a while back and got addicted all over again to the classic video games I played in the arcades. They are the exact same games...Joust was...well...Joust! Pacman is Pacman...drat...now I have to play again.
Though it was a Christmas present for our daughter, my husband and I enjoyed playing with it even more than she did.And yes,I sometimes still DO play with it. :-)
And I LOVED the King's Quest series for the early computer.
Ooooh....I loved Q-Bert, and Dig-Dug. My favorite was on Metroid.
I got mine from a Usenet newsgroup. But p2p is a great source as well.
What I REALLY want to go along with all those ROMs is one of these.
Zak McCracken and the Alien Mindbenders! Ahh the good old days. :)
Although I probably spent a solid year game time in the 1st Wizardry so I'm with ya yo.
I loved Sinistar, Joust, Defender, etc....basically all the Williams games from that era. I probably spent 80% of the money I would get for my birthdays on video games. The other 20% was spent on pinball!
Ah, memories.
Interesting. Sounds similar to the old game Centurion.
Actually, there's at least one version of Zelda (Link is the "hero") for every Nintendo game system. As a matter of fact, it's possible to play the original Zelda, Zelda 2, Zelda Ocarina of Time, Zelda Majora's Mask, and Zelda Wind Waker, all on the Gamecube. I think that the only version that was originally made for a game console that isn't available for Gamecube is Zelda--A Link to the Past, which was originally for Super Nintendo, and it's available for the Game Boy Advance.
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