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Meet the Gamers Keeping Retro Consoles Alive

Posted by timothy on from the disco-is-not-dead-disco-is-life dept.

An anonymous reader writes "You see those stories popping up every now and then — new Dreamcast game released, first SNES game in 15 years etc — but an in-depth feature published today takes a look at the teams behind the retro revival, and looks at why they do what they do. Surprisingly, there seems to be a viable audience for new releases — one developer says his games sell better on Dreamcast than they do on Nintendo Wii. Even if the buyers vanished, the retro games would still keep coming though: 'I wager I'd have to be dead, or suffering from a severe case of amnesia, to ever give this up completely,' says one developer." Update: 03/23 18:28 GMT by T : If you want to play original classic games on new hardware, instead of the other way around, check out Hyperkin's RetroN 3, which can play cartridges from 5 classic consoles.

9 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Not surprising by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Given the demand of emulators on PC, Wii, smart phones, etc, this article really isn't surprising. Old platforms do many things better than new generation consoles, including fostering creativity by limiting resources and force developers away from spending their time budgets on shallow eye candy.

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    while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
    1. Re:Not surprising by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And they cater to the same needs that the now so successful "casual games" do: They are simple, easy to learn, ok to pick up for a few minutes whenever you have time and generally very "family friendly" (ok, aside of brawling games where you spend those hours simply learning those friggin' combos).

      There is a market for "simple" games and it's far from small. And such games don't need fancy graphics or flashy gimmicks, they don't need realistic physics or an involving storyline. They mastered the art where you could learn the controls and "rules" of the game in 5 minutes but could still play for months to master it.

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      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Not surprising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      You're full of shit. Both the NES and SNES, along with most other consoles, don't have "interrupt-based controllers", they poll the controller during vertical blanking, every 1/59.97th of a second in the NTSC region.

    3. Re:Not surprising by loufoque · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What you just described is known as arcade gameplay.

  2. Re:Umm.. 16 bit is not classic by hedwards · · Score: 2

    Classic is relative, but yeah, I'd say Sega Master, Atari 2600 and NES as the newest to really deserve that title.

  3. Offline play, ftw by Nyder · · Score: 2

    One thing these old systems have, that the next generation won't (well, at least MS's crap won't) is the ability to play anywhere, any time. None of this "always online" shit that MS is going to force, not sure if Sony is that stupid, but based on past experiences, they are more then that stupid.

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    Be seeing you...
  4. Re:Expected graphical complexity by Doctor_Jest · · Score: 2

    Indeed. I still play Nethack. One day I'll win... one day....

    And I play the terminal version (not the slash'em or other improved versions.) :) I just like the game a bunch... and forget Demon Souls and Dark Souls... you want crushing difficulty, play Nethack. ...and get off my lawn! :)

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    It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
  5. Warranty, video hardware support, etc. by tepples · · Score: 2

    So where can one "buy the real hardware" with a warranty that it'll even work when one receives it in the mail? And where can one "buy the real hardware" that is compatible with modern video standards such as HDMI? Perhaps the solution is to decap and delayer the original console's chips, use FPGAs and Verilog to develop a gate-for-gate clone, and then license that clone to a manufacturer. It's expensive, but that's how it is sometimes for preservation.

  6. Not retro enough. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Not retro enough. I alone have made over 6 Atari 2600 games.
    http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/207626-mmsbc-2-done/
    http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/196946-mmsb-of-cincinnati-done/
    http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/169496-nitebear-on-sleepystreet/
    http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/166569-candybar-for-atari-2600/
    http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/201535-cyber-willy-done/
    http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/201771-s3-the-sensational-santuci-sisters-wip/