Emulating Classic Games As A Profession?

jvm writes "Jeff Vavasour has been working on commercial emulation of arcade games at Digital Eclipse since the mid-1990s and Curmudgeon Gamer just posted an extensive three-part interview with him. The first part is for gearheads, delving into the origins of commercial emulation and the issues emulation vs. simulation. The second part is about the business of emulation, and describes a crisis of confidence in the late 1990s not unlike what the recording industry now faces. (Note, the emulation industry overcame their fear of downloadable ROMs!) The third part asks some personal questions, looks to the future of emulation, and reveals that some long-awaited arcade games may actually receive professional, commercial emulation attention. (Anyone remember I, Robot?)"

Comments

Hobbyist crossover

[Kris_J]

I'm rather happy about the inclusion of new "homebrew" Atari 2600 games on the Activision Anthology for the GBA (Pre-order now available), Skeleton+ for example, which I'm mentioning here for the second time in as many days, will be amongst the games available in this new retro collection.

Maybe we're finally starting to see a rationalisation in the development of gaming products. An understanding that you can't just create entertainment product in isolation from your audience. Another example could be Bioware's encrouagement of NWN modules. Given that computer games operate in "Internet Time" it makes sense that they're the first entertainment industry to adapt.