Revenge Of Pac-Man - Vintage Gaming Still Hot?

Thanks to the New York Times for its article (free reg. req.) discussing the cresting popularity of retro game chic over many types of media, noting: "Last month Saturn introduced a commercial featuring its Vue sport utility vehicle rolling through a town, absorbing dots to the officially licensed sounds of a grazing Pac-Man. Billboard magazine's Hot 100 singles chart includes 'Game Over (Flip),' a song by the rapper Lil' Flip that contains a beat built from the sounds of Pac-Man." There's also insight into the financial benefits: "Robert Ennis, chief operating officer of Namco, publisher of the transcendent Pac-Man, said that classics represented about 5 percent of his company's revenue. More important, he said, the company's several 'museum' collections have involved little financial risk."

Comments

Mame.........

[MrIrwin]

It's by far the most used game on my computer, but not just by me. My 8 year old son and his friends pass hours playing PacMan, Invaders et al.

And after all these years I **still** can get nowhere with defender!

Two Categories: Nostalgia and Fun

[Thyamine]

I find that most of the old games fall into one of two categories: games that we sit back and say 'remember blah blah blah' or games that I still play (Gameboy Advanced, MAME, emulator on my laptop, etc).

Most of those old games are fun for about 5 minutes; long enough to realize that it was better to have just left well enough alone and enjoyed the memories. Otherwise, games like Zelda et al. I currently have in some form or fashion so that I can play them when I want to.

DOS games

[Zarks]

I don't know whether they count as 'vintage' or not but I love downloading and playing old abandonware DOS. Even though it's old and the graphics are normally incredibly blocky, its still fun. I believe firmly in gameplay over graphics. Getting some of them running can be quite hard though, sometimes a modern machine is just too fast for them.

Re:DOS games

[Jane_the_Great]

How much gameplay is there in many of those old DOS games though? I see this opinion that today's games look better but the gameplay is poor in comparison to the games of yesteryear bandied about on Slashdot quite a bit. Just because a game looks like crap, does not mean that it's got amazing gameplay. Likewise, just because a game looks good, the gameplay is not guaranteed to be garbage. Comparing say Commander Keen to Ratchet and Clank, I would say that the latter takes the prize in both the gameplay and graphics departments easily.

Classic gaming

[veganjay]

I completely agree with the earlier comment that gameplay is most important - not the graphics.

Also, perhaps it's my age - I'm now 30 and honestly have less time to play games. I can afford the fifteen minutes needed to play Qix - but something like Final Fantasy X needs to be played in hour sittings!

The NYT article just brushes the surface. For more info on the on-line classic gaming community, check out some of these sites:
AtariAge
Retrogaming Radio
Classic gaming

Magazines:
Armchair Arcade
Classic Gamer
Manci Games
Retrogamer

Also, there are quite a few gaming conventions, most notably Philly Classic and Classic Gaming Expo.

--
jason

I love the classics

[clu76]

I grew up in arcades of the 80's. Call me a littled biased, but I find games like Pac-man, asteroids, tempest, and such to be of much higher quality than most modern arcade games. Sure, they have better graphics and take up four times more space and cost two dollars, but they lack certain special something. Dance Dance Revolution is the obvious exception to this.

Anyways, I found myself at one of those kiddie pizza places with a modern arcade last night. And they had Ms. Pac-man, Asteroids and a Galaga machine in these ultra small cabinets, sized for 6 year olds. Only the adults were playing these games, including myself. You should have seen it. Everyone had to lean way over and out in order to reach the controls. Funny stuff.

Recently learned that the Ms. Pac-man / Galaga 20th Anniversary Machines have a very special Easter Egg... Pac-man! After you put in your money and the select screen comes up, enter in UP UP UP DOWN DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT LEFT. You should hear a noise and see the ghost change colors. Press start using the Ms. Pac-Man side and you have Pac-Man. I've verified that this works.

Vintage Gaming on the GBA...

[GTRacer]

My wife and I have 3 of the retro collections - Konami, Namco and Williams. We grew up on these games, and the ones in the collection are pretty much all twitch games. Great fun for short periods of time and you don't feel too bad if you have to switch off and get back to life (Unlike being midway through a two-hour enduro in Le Mans or GT3).

HOWEVER, why, pray tell, do NONE of these collections have a high-score save, options for control and difficulty, or proper collision detection (Williams, I'm looking at YOU!)?

It's a real PITA to have to remember high scores or keep a piece of paper with scores handy. Those GBAs go everywhere...

GTRacer
- Needs some SMB3 goodness...

Re:Licensing

[Blakey Rat]

Well, you'd start by contacting the owners of the property, duh. The Atari brand name belongs to the company that used to be known as "Infogrames" and, I would wager, all the characters, sounds, whatnot also belong to them. Contact their legal department and ask about it.

Or you could do what Aqua Teen Hunger Force did with the Mooninites characters. They were Atari-like without actually being any characters from any specific games. The sound effects associated with them were from very very obscure games.