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Retro Gaming Hacks
Craig Maloney writes "It's hard to imagine that over 35 years ago, video games were relegated to large computer rooms with a small dedicated computer following. With the explosion of the video game industry, characters like Pac Man, Donkey Kong, and Mario have achieved a cultural celebrity status. There has been a lot of interest lately in Classic Games and the Classic Gaming era. From the efforts of books like Supercade and Leonard Herman's "Rolenta Press" offerings, to sites such as Digital Press, AtariAge, and Good Deal Games, classic games are once again capturing the hearts and minds of those who experienced classic games first hand, and those experiencing classic games for the first time. Retro Gaming Hacks is a treat for both retro gaming enthusiasts and the retro-curious wondering what all the fuss was about." Read the rest of Craig's review.
Retro Gaming Hacks
author
Chris Kohler
pages
472
publisher
O'Reilly
rating
10/10
reviewer
Craig Maloney
ISBN
0-596-00917-8
summary
An excellent guide to all forms of Retro Gaming
Retro Gaming Hacks is another entry in O' Reilly's "Hacks" Series, The "Hacks" Series is an ever-growing set of books with focused attention on a particular topic, like Astronomy, Mental Improvement, or even Halo 2. Each book contains article-length "hacks" of varying difficulty. Some of these hacks may even involve taking the cover off of some electronic device and voiding the warranty on the device. The format allows for quick reference to a particular topic, and the authors present a casual, expert discussion about the topic.
Retro Gaming Hacks begins with a chapter on acquiring actual classic gaming hardware. No matter how good emulators get, there is no experience like playing a classic game on the hardware it was designed to be played on. The author describes the places one can go to pick up hardware, and gives good advice for potential consumers on what to look for and what to avoid when making the final purchase. Next the book discusses a few classic console systems in detail, starting with the grand-daddy of them all: the Magnavox Odyssey, and continuing with the myriad of Pong clones available. After the Odyssey, the book features the game system that defined classic gaming for a generation: the Atari 2600. The author is a bit critical of the system and the games, preferring the Colecovision instead, but the overview of the Atari 2600 is a good introduction to the hardware and some notable games for the system (although I would have omitted mentioning Coleco's dreadful port of Donkey Kong in favor of Pitfall or the incredible Solaris). Other "Golden Era" systems are briefly mentioned, including the Mattel Intellivision, Coleco's Colecovision, the Atari 5200 and 7800, and GCE's Vectrex. The author continues the hardware discussion with several pages on the Nintendo Entertainment System, with several pages on the NES and it's Japanese counterpart: the Famicom. Hack #6 describes the process for repairing the "toaster" NES systems, while the latter part of Hack #5 includes a description of the interesting Neo-Fami adapter for the Game Boy Advance. Also included in the chapter are tips for buying full arcade games as well as JAMMA cabinets. The chapter rounds out with a description of the Holy Grails of classic gaming. (If you find any of these, please send them my way. Thanks!)
The next chapter describes the cheaper way of playing lots of classic games in one location. Many manufacturers have introduced "X in one" TV game systems, which contain one or more controllers, that hooks up to a standard television. The author provides a very comprehensive list of the currently available "X in one" game collections, pointing out the pluses and minuses of each in great detail. Similarly, the synopsis of the classic gaming collections for modern consoles is very thorough (although I'm uncertain if the issue the author raises about the Pac Man patterns relates to a conscious reprogramming of the games, or the differences between the Midway released versions of Pac Man versus the original Namco versions). Ending the chapter is a series of tips for finding hidden classics in current console games (easter eggs), like the arcade Star Wars games in Rebel Assault III, or the hidden NES titles in Animal Crossing. There were several games I wasn't unaware were hidden, and the author helps the search by providing details of how to find each one.
The mid-section of Retro Gaming Hacks darts back and forth between classic game and computer emulation on modern hardware, and restoring classic computers to functioning status. Chapter 3 discusses MAME, and the various interfaces for running MAME. Installing MAME under Windows, Macintosh, and Linux is covered in depth, as are several graphical interfaces for using MAME under each platform. There are also pointers for running MAME on the x box, as well as creating a self-booting MAME CD. There's even mention of the rather odd project known as LASER-MAME (think vector-based games like Asteroids played using LASERs). Lest we think of MAME as just a way to play semi-legal arcade games, the book has pointers to several legal arcade ROMs, such as Gridlee, Robby Roto, Poly Play, and several homebrew arcade games. There are also tips for purchasing legal ROMs, as well as tips for caring for your ROM collection. No section on MAME could be complete without discussing arcade controllers, and Retro Gaming Hacks includes pointers to the Hot Rod, X-Arcade and Slik Stik, as well as a how-to for creating your own controllers from scratch. Chapter four continues with emulations for many classic console game systems using MESS. Also covered in this chapter are several methods for copying games to actual hardware, as well as several emulators for PDAs and Smart Phones. Chapter five continues with classic computers, both in getting the actual hardware running optimally, and in emulating the hardware on modern machines. (There's even a section on getting the Atari 8bit computers running on a Dreamcast). Chapter 6 tackles text adventures, with a healthy section on the INFORM engine from Infocom (with a hack on how to write your own INFORM games. Too cool!) Chapter 7 deals with everyone's favorite gaming operating system DOS, from getting FreeDOS running on actual hardware, to using the "why waste a whole system on DOS" alternative, DOSBox. (And just in case you wanted to develop some games in DOS, there's several hacks for doing just that, too). There's an incredible amount of information in these chapters, with just about every game system imaginable covered. (Yes, even the incredibly crappy RCA Studio II).
Rounding out the book are sections covering creating your own games. There's a brief bit of information on creating retro-style games in Flash and SDL, as well as sections for developing on the Atari 2600 and the Game boy Advance. While this section could easily be covered in separate books, the authors do an admirable job of creating a good introduction to the tools required to start developing your own games.
Lest a book on retro gaming concludes without some game hints, Retro Gaming Hacks finishes off with the pattern from Pac Man, the minus world from Super Mario, and some tricks for Leisure Suit Larry. The Pac Man pattern is only for the first half of the first level, but it does work. (All in the name of research. :) )
Retro Gaming Hacks is a book that I can't say enough about. I'm one of the co-organizers for CinciClassic, and am relatively active in the classic gaming community. I can heartily recommend this book for anyone from the casual newbie to the classic gaming junkie. The resources mentioned in the book are the same resources I would recommend to anyone to satiate their classic gaming curiosity. While some may scoff and say there's plenty of gaming resources available online, Retro Gaming Hacks provides a great resource for finding things you weren't even looking for. (I know I would never have thought to emulate an Atari 800 on my Dreamcast, nor would I have ever thought that I didn't need to gut a keyboard in order to make my own MAME controller). There's something for every gamer, whether you were weaned on the Coleco Telstar arcade, or began your journey with Ultima IV. Retro Gaming Hacks is a fun book and I highly recommend to anyone who has even a remote interest in classic gaming.
(This review was written before CinciClassic 2006 occurred. I was so impressed with the book that I asked O' Reilly if they'd send a few copies for CinciClassic 2006. Their sponsorship of CinciClassic in no way swayed the reviewer or the review.)"
You can purchase Retro Gaming Hacks from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Retro Gaming Hacks is another entry in O' Reilly's "Hacks" Series, The "Hacks" Series is an ever-growing set of books with focused attention on a particular topic, like Astronomy, Mental Improvement, or even Halo 2. Each book contains article-length "hacks" of varying difficulty. Some of these hacks may even involve taking the cover off of some electronic device and voiding the warranty on the device. The format allows for quick reference to a particular topic, and the authors present a casual, expert discussion about the topic.
Retro Gaming Hacks begins with a chapter on acquiring actual classic gaming hardware. No matter how good emulators get, there is no experience like playing a classic game on the hardware it was designed to be played on. The author describes the places one can go to pick up hardware, and gives good advice for potential consumers on what to look for and what to avoid when making the final purchase. Next the book discusses a few classic console systems in detail, starting with the grand-daddy of them all: the Magnavox Odyssey, and continuing with the myriad of Pong clones available. After the Odyssey, the book features the game system that defined classic gaming for a generation: the Atari 2600. The author is a bit critical of the system and the games, preferring the Colecovision instead, but the overview of the Atari 2600 is a good introduction to the hardware and some notable games for the system (although I would have omitted mentioning Coleco's dreadful port of Donkey Kong in favor of Pitfall or the incredible Solaris). Other "Golden Era" systems are briefly mentioned, including the Mattel Intellivision, Coleco's Colecovision, the Atari 5200 and 7800, and GCE's Vectrex. The author continues the hardware discussion with several pages on the Nintendo Entertainment System, with several pages on the NES and it's Japanese counterpart: the Famicom. Hack #6 describes the process for repairing the "toaster" NES systems, while the latter part of Hack #5 includes a description of the interesting Neo-Fami adapter for the Game Boy Advance. Also included in the chapter are tips for buying full arcade games as well as JAMMA cabinets. The chapter rounds out with a description of the Holy Grails of classic gaming. (If you find any of these, please send them my way. Thanks!)
The next chapter describes the cheaper way of playing lots of classic games in one location. Many manufacturers have introduced "X in one" TV game systems, which contain one or more controllers, that hooks up to a standard television. The author provides a very comprehensive list of the currently available "X in one" game collections, pointing out the pluses and minuses of each in great detail. Similarly, the synopsis of the classic gaming collections for modern consoles is very thorough (although I'm uncertain if the issue the author raises about the Pac Man patterns relates to a conscious reprogramming of the games, or the differences between the Midway released versions of Pac Man versus the original Namco versions). Ending the chapter is a series of tips for finding hidden classics in current console games (easter eggs), like the arcade Star Wars games in Rebel Assault III, or the hidden NES titles in Animal Crossing. There were several games I wasn't unaware were hidden, and the author helps the search by providing details of how to find each one.
The mid-section of Retro Gaming Hacks darts back and forth between classic game and computer emulation on modern hardware, and restoring classic computers to functioning status. Chapter 3 discusses MAME, and the various interfaces for running MAME. Installing MAME under Windows, Macintosh, and Linux is covered in depth, as are several graphical interfaces for using MAME under each platform. There are also pointers for running MAME on the x box, as well as creating a self-booting MAME CD. There's even mention of the rather odd project known as LASER-MAME (think vector-based games like Asteroids played using LASERs). Lest we think of MAME as just a way to play semi-legal arcade games, the book has pointers to several legal arcade ROMs, such as Gridlee, Robby Roto, Poly Play, and several homebrew arcade games. There are also tips for purchasing legal ROMs, as well as tips for caring for your ROM collection. No section on MAME could be complete without discussing arcade controllers, and Retro Gaming Hacks includes pointers to the Hot Rod, X-Arcade and Slik Stik, as well as a how-to for creating your own controllers from scratch. Chapter four continues with emulations for many classic console game systems using MESS. Also covered in this chapter are several methods for copying games to actual hardware, as well as several emulators for PDAs and Smart Phones. Chapter five continues with classic computers, both in getting the actual hardware running optimally, and in emulating the hardware on modern machines. (There's even a section on getting the Atari 8bit computers running on a Dreamcast). Chapter 6 tackles text adventures, with a healthy section on the INFORM engine from Infocom (with a hack on how to write your own INFORM games. Too cool!) Chapter 7 deals with everyone's favorite gaming operating system DOS, from getting FreeDOS running on actual hardware, to using the "why waste a whole system on DOS" alternative, DOSBox. (And just in case you wanted to develop some games in DOS, there's several hacks for doing just that, too). There's an incredible amount of information in these chapters, with just about every game system imaginable covered. (Yes, even the incredibly crappy RCA Studio II).
Rounding out the book are sections covering creating your own games. There's a brief bit of information on creating retro-style games in Flash and SDL, as well as sections for developing on the Atari 2600 and the Game boy Advance. While this section could easily be covered in separate books, the authors do an admirable job of creating a good introduction to the tools required to start developing your own games.
Lest a book on retro gaming concludes without some game hints, Retro Gaming Hacks finishes off with the pattern from Pac Man, the minus world from Super Mario, and some tricks for Leisure Suit Larry. The Pac Man pattern is only for the first half of the first level, but it does work. (All in the name of research. :) )
Retro Gaming Hacks is a book that I can't say enough about. I'm one of the co-organizers for CinciClassic, and am relatively active in the classic gaming community. I can heartily recommend this book for anyone from the casual newbie to the classic gaming junkie. The resources mentioned in the book are the same resources I would recommend to anyone to satiate their classic gaming curiosity. While some may scoff and say there's plenty of gaming resources available online, Retro Gaming Hacks provides a great resource for finding things you weren't even looking for. (I know I would never have thought to emulate an Atari 800 on my Dreamcast, nor would I have ever thought that I didn't need to gut a keyboard in order to make my own MAME controller). There's something for every gamer, whether you were weaned on the Coleco Telstar arcade, or began your journey with Ultima IV. Retro Gaming Hacks is a fun book and I highly recommend to anyone who has even a remote interest in classic gaming.
(This review was written before CinciClassic 2006 occurred. I was so impressed with the book that I asked O' Reilly if they'd send a few copies for CinciClassic 2006. Their sponsorship of CinciClassic in no way swayed the reviewer or the review.)"
You can purchase Retro Gaming Hacks from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Anything left in the book the reivew didn't cover? Pretty long review if you ask me.
of a Coke, Commodore 64, 2 1541 drives banging drive heads while listening to the music of "Fast Hack'em" copying 5 1/4" diskettes.
I made a few hacks on Tempest....
I made the Open Level Selection Hack and also unlocked the maximum men bonus from 6 to 255. (Changed ROMs available here.)
The toughest part was getting around the CRC protection on the ROMs. You'd think it'd be simple, but Atari really hid the code to that pretty well. In the end, I got it figured out how to bypass the code by simply changing an unused byte elsewhere to what I needed.
I also documented a bit about Tempest and its source code. Others have since built on the work. Lots of neat stuff in there.
.. with a title like that, I was hoping it'd be detailed guide as to how to Wilford Brimley-ize retro arcade game roms.
http://nesdev.parodius.com/
My brother and I would rapidly switch the console off then on. Or sometimes carefully pull the cartridge out. 19 times out of 20, it would crash the game. But sometimes you'd get something entirely new. Pac-Man was the best for this. The colors might change, the sounds might change, but sometimes the mazes or even the gameplay would change. Our favorite version was when every time you moved, you automatically powered up and all the ghosts would come find you. Big time scores! Or the time all the pellets turned to power pellets. Ah, such fun!
Teh ony thing that ever came close was undeleting SimCity 1 saved games. A city with 1 million people that burns to the ground in a matter of minutes, leaving a charred ruin.
But alas, my "programming technique" never seemed to work on anything but those two instances.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
I wonder if my children will play something like San Andreas just for the antique novelty value. I can even imagine digging out my old N64 for some Goldeneye to play with my children.
That will be fun. But what will pacman mean to my children / grandchildren?
Vector Mame
Because playing vector games on a raster monitor makes Baby Jesus cry.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
[Shift L]
[Shift L]
[Shift L]
[Shift L]
[Shift L]
[Shift L]
[Shift L]
[Shift L]
[Shift L]
*kiss princess*
PROFIT!!
The End.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
There are two types of people in the world: those who divide people into two types and those who don't.
Double negatives are a no-no.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
I believe that the vast majority of games nowadays-- the mindless shooters-- are so popular because, well, most people are mindless. If you want a great, absorbing game, take a look at the classics: Rogue (and its text-based bretheren), SimCity, Civilization (shit, ANY game from Sid Meier), Myst, Spaceward Ho! and a whole slew of great shareware from the 80's and 90's. I'm sure I missed a bunch. Anyway, there's a big reason I keep coming back to Spiderweb Software and Ambrosia Software's stuff, despite the lack of state-of-the-art graphics: these are great games. When you didn't have graphics, you had to rely on imaginative worlds and gameplay to sell a game.
--Rob
Towards the Singularity.
Wow. There is an obscure blast from the past. If I didn't have one sitting in my garage, I would have thought I dreamed that entire platform.
HELP SPIKE!
OH NO! MOLLY!
I've got an aimbot for Asteriods if anyone's interested.
all your hacks
are belong to us
For what it's worth, I've read through Retrogaming Hacks, and can recommend it as strongly as the author of the review.
I was really surprised to see this on the main page - I thought I was about the only person out there to have heard about it.
Not only is Chris Kohler a fantastic writer, the list of contributers for RGH is rather large and distinguished.
Whether or not the book really qualifies as "Hacks" is one thing, but I can say that the material is really in-depth, and fun to read.
Because it's divided into small, easily digestible sections, it's a nice book for when you have a few minutes at a time.
If you're like me - ADD, nostalgic, obsessive about games, and pressed for time, it's a very cool book.
If you're expecting anything truly useful about hard core hardware mods, it's probably not the book you're looking for.
Video Game News, FAQs, etc
Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, B, A, Select, Start
To clarify, Inform wasn't Infocom's engine - they used a their own, completely different language to generate their interactive fiction story files. Inform is a language developed separately (and much later) by Graham Nelson, which also outputs story files readable by the Infocom virtual machine, effectively allowing anyone to create their own Infocom interactive fiction.
lets not forget that almost every single system is emulated on xbox... that makes playing any rom from any system a matter of choosing the emulator from the dash and picking a rom... all from the comfort of your recliner, and your big screen TV!
I rember back in borading school, a friend of mine and i connect our two machines 386 n 486sx together with a phone cable. We simulated a dial tone, and started playing video games while we were locked away in our rooms for two hours every night (some times reffered to as study hall) The game we would play was Scorched Earth. That game rocks
Fantastic.... Now all the 30-40'year old life-long nerds will come out of the woodwork, realizing that those stupid games represented the best thing that ever happened to them, since shortly after that, they started smoking weed, and ended up in mediocre jobs with ugly wives, looking fat and bald, and that IT DIDN'T FUCKING HAPPEN FOR YOU BUDDY, and ITS ALL YOUR FAULT. Now its time for you all to talk about who'se more old school. God I feel sorry for your children who get to try to look up to a bunch of has beens who are stuck in a 30 year old reality.
Am I the only one who was suprised there was no mention of assembly language in a review about retro gaming hacks?
I figured I would take this opportunity to whore out Romhacking.net, a retro game hacking/translation resource. It features community member databases, message boards, utility and document resources, user driven news and submissions. It's a pretty well place.
"Progress comes from the intelligent use of experience."
It was a masterpiece.
I renamed the last file in the list to the first file in the list, and vice versa. Continue this until the order of the files are reversed.
Start the game, and hey presto, she starts off naked. If you want to get her really skimpy just make her lose $100 once, and she puts on just the tiniest bit of clothing. You know, for the people that like that sort of thing.
This was an interesting hack. A really interesting hack. A REALLY REALLY interesting hack.
And then, suddenly, I wasn't so interested.
The Z-Machine was the virtual machine that ran the first Zork (maybe the rest?). The Zork Trilogy was written in ZIL, the Zork Implementation Language.
---- "XML is like violence. If it doesn't fix the problem, you aren't using enough."
To quote a famous Monty Python sketch: "Hello, I'd like to register a complaint".
"It's hard to imagine that over 35 years ago, video games were relegated to large computer rooms with a small dedicated computer following."
What's actually harder to imagine is a sentence that could make less sense, especially to those that were alive then.
As I recall, dedicated video game machines, such as Space Invaders, originally found lodging in arcades, where I spent far too much time as a teenager.
The game consoles that became available roughly around the same time (a few years later, I'd imagine - much time has passed, and I'm too lazy to look up the details), such as the Atari 2600, weren't actually all that large. Those that bought them tended to put them in the living room or family room - I don't recall anyone ever referring to those rooms as the "large computer room", or even the "computer room" - some people had home offices, far fewer than today, but the game consoles weren't generally put there. The personal computers that followed, however, were - I remember going to a friend's house in 1981, and playing Zork on the Apple II in his father's home office. His father had bought it for his business (He was an accountant, and VisiCalc was a huge time saver for him), but bought games for it as well.
No matter how hard I try, I simply cannot make sense of "a small dedicated computer following".
I used to be able to play Robotron for two hours on a single quarter! I'd have to start crashing into things to stop the score at 9,999,975 or it would roll over to 0. The best game I ever had, I had to crash 81 times to end it. In the arcades that allowed the 20 letter signature for the top scorer, I would put "Flash is Awesome".
;) I was pouring sweat, but it was a satisfying feeling to put those guys in their place! (It also drew a bit of a crowd watching me struggle with it, and still get a good score.) That was my worst game, once I had mastered it.
:)
I actually had calluses on my hands from the joystick handles! (Hey, I was a teen- I had no life!)
One arcade set the difficulty of the game to high... I remember being startled at how much more difficult it was to play! I also remember the guys behind the counter laughing at me, because my game ended much sooner than it had the last time I was there! (I also was ticked that my high score was gone!) So, I plunked in another token, and got busy. In spite of the much higher difficulty, I was able to rack up over 7 million points. Those guys weren't laughing anymore!
Ah, memories!
cayenne8, what was your best ever Robotron game?
Willie...
Not having to hit the A button 50times to get through the mandatory back story of the game. I swear I hate games that dont let you just skip that stuff. My favorite game would have to be Star Raiders on the 2600. It had unique consequences for failed systems, if you shields were damaged they would flicker on and off, if photons were hurting you might fire one out of one side or it might fire every so presses, if the engines were damaged you couldnt hyperwarp and they sounded damaged. I've yet to find any other space fighting games as fun and simple as that game, I end up spinning around in 360degrees just trying to find a enemy to fight.
I used to squawk into my 300 baud acoustic coupler modem to try to "hack" a connection to another computer.
Guess it's up there with the game cartridge hacks (which I used to do on my Atari 800)
http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ubik+%22arcade+cl assics%22+c64&btnG=Search&hs=IcF&hl=en&client=fire fox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial
;)
lol. is it time for the retro retro-gaming revival yet?
Anyone remember when going to a pizza restaurant (like, gasp, Shakey's) was cool because they'd have video games there? I remember playing the original Atari Starship (think that's what it was called), and being amazed by the flashy Epilepsy-inducing graphics. Remember Space (two vector ships shooting at each other with a gravity star in the center of the screen). Remember the thrill of walking past a Berzerk machine and having it say "Coin detected in pocket!"
Ah, I'm geeking out here...
You've got a friend in Japan: http://www.jlist.com
is what i found in one of the retro gaming magazines a while ago, that being something like a geneology tree of the various gaming genres. So you could see what games were inspired by others and how the genre changed over time.
For example there was a tree for one-on-one fighting games: with Way of the Exploding Fist, Internation Karate and Barbarian with it branching out to Tekken, Mortal Kombat and Soul Calibur.
But otherwise the book sounds quite interesting and I'll probably try to find it.
See my art -> http://herbevore.deviantart.com
Emulators and new consoles just aren't the same. There was something about the aesthetic of the console in the old atari systems that's been lost in the newer generations of consoles. You really felt a part of the 2600 especially. The welcoming wooden brown, the stiff cartridges. It was such a great look and feel. Why is my PS2 a dull black box?
Ahh the memories. Time to go play some text based Streeet Fighter
1 (short ton / firkin) = 89.1432354 slugs / keg
Don't worry, I won't tell them your dirty little secret, "pacman"!
Worth mentioning because uk users may not have seen it. There's actually a newsstand magazine specifically for Retro gaming here going under the incredibly imaginative moniker of "Retro Gamer" magazine. They even have a pretty good forum if you're willing to do some chav dodging and can stand huge picture sigs.
There's also Retro Fusion which is only avaliable in Gamestation.
Speaking of retro games ...
Does anybody remember Apple Panic? In ~1982 it impressed me.
More then 20 years later I programmed an open source version
(see http://seed7.sourceforge.net/scrshots/panic.htm).
Greetings Thomas Mertes
Seed7 Homepage: http://seed7.sourceforge.net/
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed7
Project page: http://sourceforge.net/projects/seed7
What is so dang great about these OLD GAMES? I'm 15, and Tetris, Pac Man, and any other 'cult hits' are NOT my idea of fun. I just don't understand people's addiction to these games... I do still play MY old games... must have something to do with nostalgia huh?
Come on!! It really isn't about the games, at least not for me. The games are great, don't get me wrong. You can't go wrong with the classics... But what really brings me back is not the games themselves, but the memory of playing them. Seaside Heights, New Jersey, 10 years old or so... Mom loved to be on the beach, and bake herself. After about 1/2 hour in the ocean, I was done with the sun for the day. Mom would give me a few bucks, and I would head up to the boardwalk, for the darkness and light of the cool air conditioned arcades. With their sounds and atmosphere... there was nothing like it. A greasy piece of boardwalk pizza in one hand, a cheap cardboard cup of ice, with a little bit of soda in the other. The smells of cheap boardwalk food, and suntan lotion in the air, the distracting sounds of game hawkers, and bells and whistles in the background... a quarter put up on the machine, waiting for your turn at the 1 Tempest machine in this arcade... Classic... It wasn't what games you played, because there weren't many you cared to play. It was about the whole feeling while you played. You really can't capture that today, and in todays arcades.... It's just not the same.
Hey, taxi.
Pad 5 please.
Except that there are many solutions that don't require giving MS money.
Or end up with you having this massive box to deal with. That thing's always looked butt.