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It’s official- retro games are cool. Whether you’re associated with the thumb-crippling Space Invaders, sport dead developers’ logos on you T-shirts or listen to mixes of pre-8-bit in-game music, retro games have begun resurgence as a fashion trend.
If you saw Ridley Scott’s epic film, Bladerunner, a few years you might have laughed at the sign of the Atari logo in the background of a street scene. After all, with Atari having gone bankrupt over a decade ago it seemed absurd that the future vision of gaming singled them out as one of the long standing names.
However, in the last few years it’s been cool to wear clothes bearing the “Mount Fuji” Atari logo. To be associated with the age of bedroom coded games is cool. What’s odd is that, at the time at least, gamers were seen as spotty, teenage boys who never got out much. But now, with the rebranding of the Atari brand name as cool the publishers who own the Atari name have begun to release games bearing the developer’s name.
Not that the games actually have anything to do with the old Atari of course! The new publisher is using a French development team to make Atari’s new games- a far cry from the American coin-op kings from ages past. Replacing the originality and diversity of Atari’s arcade and console divisions is a “same-as-the-last-game-but-a-bit-better” ethos of churning out guaranteed sellers based on tried and tested methods.
And Atari isn’t the only company to have their name rekindled. Just the other day I saw a rack of ties in a “fashionable” store adorning silhouettes of the original version of Space Invaders. I’m left in no doubt that Pacman branded clothing is going to follow on soon.
That said, the retro resurgence isn’t limited to T-shirt retailers trying to cash in. This time last year Zombie Nation was toping the music charts- not bad for a remix of in game music that’s decade old! It turns out that a fair few trance and dance acts of using sound bytes of old video games. Not only do soundtrack of old games boast tried and tested rhythms that, however much they’re repeated, never seem old, but the beeping tunes are perfect for adapting as needed.
As a final tribute to the retro games of old, many are having remakes, sequels or reworkings. While a new Manic Miner game is in development, the classic button-bashing flying shooting genre has been reinvented in Rez. Emulators of the Spectrum are more popular than ever, and Amstrad’s new fax/telephone/email machine allows you to play old Sinclair classics. Meanwhile the “Games On” exhibition of retro games in the Barbican is seeing unprecedented success- I for one am certainly going to take a look some time soon.
Sonic
If you saw Ridley Scott’s epic film, Bladerunner, a few years you might have laughed at the sign of the Atari logo in the background of a street scene. After all, with Atari having gone bankrupt over a decade ago it seemed absurd that the future vision of gaming singled them out as one of the long standing names.
However, in the last few years it’s been cool to wear clothes bearing the “Mount Fuji” Atari logo. To be associated with the age of bedroom coded games is cool. What’s odd is that, at the time at least, gamers were seen as spotty, teenage boys who never got out much. But now, with the rebranding of the Atari brand name as cool the publishers who own the Atari name have begun to release games bearing the developer’s name.
Not that the games actually have anything to do with the old Atari of course! The new publisher is using a French development team to make Atari’s new games- a far cry from the American coin-op kings from ages past. Replacing the originality and diversity of Atari’s arcade and console divisions is a “same-as-the-last-game-but-a-bit-better” ethos of churning out guaranteed sellers based on tried and tested methods.
And Atari isn’t the only company to have their name rekindled. Just the other day I saw a rack of ties in a “fashionable” store adorning silhouettes of the original version of Space Invaders. I’m left in no doubt that Pacman branded clothing is going to follow on soon.
That said, the retro resurgence isn’t limited to T-shirt retailers trying to cash in. This time last year Zombie Nation was toping the music charts- not bad for a remix of in game music that’s decade old! It turns out that a fair few trance and dance acts of using sound bytes of old video games. Not only do soundtrack of old games boast tried and tested rhythms that, however much they’re repeated, never seem old, but the beeping tunes are perfect for adapting as needed.
As a final tribute to the retro games of old, many are having remakes, sequels or reworkings. While a new Manic Miner game is in development, the classic button-bashing flying shooting genre has been reinvented in Rez. Emulators of the Spectrum are more popular than ever, and Amstrad’s new fax/telephone/email machine allows you to play old Sinclair classics. Meanwhile the “Games On” exhibition of retro games in the Barbican is seeing unprecedented success- I for one am certainly going to take a look some time soon.
Sonic
SMÉAGOL wrote:
> Bring on the GC Sonic Mega Collection.
> Anyone see the speculated Retro Goddness in it???
I for one can't wait! Mind you, I might have to get an Xbox just fr Panzer Dragoon!
> Bring on the GC Sonic Mega Collection.
> Anyone see the speculated Retro Goddness in it???
I for one can't wait! Mind you, I might have to get an Xbox just fr Panzer Dragoon!
AliBoy wrote:
> The one thing I don't understand about retro games is why so many of
> them aren't re-made or given sequels in this day and age,
*
SEGA are in the process of doing this quite a lot at the moment - with the likes of Shinobi, Panzer Dragoon and Toejam & Earl all due for release in the Autumn.
> The one thing I don't understand about retro games is why so many of
> them aren't re-made or given sequels in this day and age,
*
SEGA are in the process of doing this quite a lot at the moment - with the likes of Shinobi, Panzer Dragoon and Toejam & Earl all due for release in the Autumn.
Bring on the GC Sonic Mega Collection.
Anyone see the speculated Retro Goddness in it???
Anyone see the speculated Retro Goddness in it???
Tellah, did you ever read my "...Time to Die" post on gaming- it's still somewhere in this room.
Tekki is one game that is as unforgiving as the arcade games you mention- if you die in the game, that's it. Your memory card is wiped, and you have to restart the whole game- you can only used the emergency eject button as a very final resort!
Sonic
Tekki is one game that is as unforgiving as the arcade games you mention- if you die in the game, that's it. Your memory card is wiped, and you have to restart the whole game- you can only used the emergency eject button as a very final resort!
Sonic
An arcade emulator called MAME is actually behind many of the playable games at the Game On show at the Barbican you mentioned. It saves wear and tear on the original hardware.
Remakes on the new consoles tend to never be as good as the originals, because you don't have the pressure of doing well for your 10p. If you mess up, you hit 'pause', 'restart', 'yes'. In the old arcades, you couldn't do that - you had to fight the level no matter how much you messed up (unless you were loaded with change!) - It's this pressure that was fun, combined with arcade atmosphere, rugged controls, strangers admiring your progress etc.
None of this can be recreated in the home easily.
Over the last 2 years I've gone retro game crazy.
I can't get enough. Mainly because I remember being a kid in the arcades playing Commando, Green Beret, Track n Field etc. I loved it.
I've had the arcade emulator MAME for a couple of years now - and the games are perfect emulations of the originals. I'm sure that a few of you enjoy classics emulated on the PC too.
The thing was - for the full experience I needed the original controls. The PC keyboard just didn't quite cut it.
So I bought an arcade machine for £40 off ebay! (A standard cabinet with 2 joys and 3 buttons each + 19" monitor).
I've put my PC inside it instead of a game-board, hooked up the monitor to the VGA card, hooked up the controls and the coin slot to the keyboard (PS2)socket - And I can now play thousands of emulated games in an original cabinet! It even gives you a credit when you put 10p in the coin slot!
None of this can be recreated in the home easily.
Over the last 2 years I've gone retro game crazy.
I can't get enough. Mainly because I remember being a kid in the arcades playing Commando, Green Beret, Track n Field etc. I loved it.
I've had the arcade emulator MAME for a couple of years now - and the games are perfect emulations of the originals. I'm sure that a few of you enjoy classics emulated on the PC too.
The thing was - for the full experience I needed the original controls. The PC keyboard just didn't quite cut it.
So I bought an arcade machine for £40 off ebay! (A standard cabinet with 2 joys and 3 buttons each + 19" monitor).
I've put my PC inside it instead of a game-board, hooked up the monitor to the VGA card, hooked up the controls and the coin slot to the keyboard (PS2)socket - And I can now play thousands of emulated games in an original cabinet! It even gives you a credit when you put 10p in the coin slot!
Odd that you mention sequels and remakes not getting the attention they deserve... check out my other prime topic of the day;)
The one thing I don't understand about retro games is why so many of them aren't re-made or given sequels in this day and age, we see countless sequels that offer very little in terms of improvements over the original. At the same time there are countless great ideas in retro games that with todays standards of games could be great.
I know some like frogger were given the new look and failed miserably but If the right developers had a go and made an effort at re-working some of the old great games then maybe there is a part of this industry that could offer even more, and also please a lot of older gamers.
Retro is cool, I have a bundle of old consoles, spectrum, Dragon 32 etc and although I never play them anymore, thinking about the fun I had playing with them reminds me why gaming is fun. There are a lot of old retro games that I will always remember playing. Classics.
I know some like frogger were given the new look and failed miserably but If the right developers had a go and made an effort at re-working some of the old great games then maybe there is a part of this industry that could offer even more, and also please a lot of older gamers.
Retro is cool, I have a bundle of old consoles, spectrum, Dragon 32 etc and although I never play them anymore, thinking about the fun I had playing with them reminds me why gaming is fun. There are a lot of old retro games that I will always remember playing. Classics.
It’s official- retro games are cool. Whether you’re associated with the thumb-crippling Space Invaders, sport dead developers’ logos on you T-shirts or listen to mixes of pre-8-bit in-game music, retro games have begun resurgence as a fashion trend.
If you saw Ridley Scott’s epic film, Bladerunner, a few years you might have laughed at the sign of the Atari logo in the background of a street scene. After all, with Atari having gone bankrupt over a decade ago it seemed absurd that the future vision of gaming singled them out as one of the long standing names.
However, in the last few years it’s been cool to wear clothes bearing the “Mount Fuji” Atari logo. To be associated with the age of bedroom coded games is cool. What’s odd is that, at the time at least, gamers were seen as spotty, teenage boys who never got out much. But now, with the rebranding of the Atari brand name as cool the publishers who own the Atari name have begun to release games bearing the developer’s name.
Not that the games actually have anything to do with the old Atari of course! The new publisher is using a French development team to make Atari’s new games- a far cry from the American coin-op kings from ages past. Replacing the originality and diversity of Atari’s arcade and console divisions is a “same-as-the-last-game-but-a-bit-better” ethos of churning out guaranteed sellers based on tried and tested methods.
And Atari isn’t the only company to have their name rekindled. Just the other day I saw a rack of ties in a “fashionable” store adorning silhouettes of the original version of Space Invaders. I’m left in no doubt that Pacman branded clothing is going to follow on soon.
That said, the retro resurgence isn’t limited to T-shirt retailers trying to cash in. This time last year Zombie Nation was toping the music charts- not bad for a remix of in game music that’s decade old! It turns out that a fair few trance and dance acts of using sound bytes of old video games. Not only do soundtrack of old games boast tried and tested rhythms that, however much they’re repeated, never seem old, but the beeping tunes are perfect for adapting as needed.
As a final tribute to the retro games of old, many are having remakes, sequels or reworkings. While a new Manic Miner game is in development, the classic button-bashing flying shooting genre has been reinvented in Rez. Emulators of the Spectrum are more popular than ever, and Amstrad’s new fax/telephone/email machine allows you to play old Sinclair classics. Meanwhile the “Games On” exhibition of retro games in the Barbican is seeing unprecedented success- I for one am certainly going to take a look some time soon.
Sonic
If you saw Ridley Scott’s epic film, Bladerunner, a few years you might have laughed at the sign of the Atari logo in the background of a street scene. After all, with Atari having gone bankrupt over a decade ago it seemed absurd that the future vision of gaming singled them out as one of the long standing names.
However, in the last few years it’s been cool to wear clothes bearing the “Mount Fuji” Atari logo. To be associated with the age of bedroom coded games is cool. What’s odd is that, at the time at least, gamers were seen as spotty, teenage boys who never got out much. But now, with the rebranding of the Atari brand name as cool the publishers who own the Atari name have begun to release games bearing the developer’s name.
Not that the games actually have anything to do with the old Atari of course! The new publisher is using a French development team to make Atari’s new games- a far cry from the American coin-op kings from ages past. Replacing the originality and diversity of Atari’s arcade and console divisions is a “same-as-the-last-game-but-a-bit-better” ethos of churning out guaranteed sellers based on tried and tested methods.
And Atari isn’t the only company to have their name rekindled. Just the other day I saw a rack of ties in a “fashionable” store adorning silhouettes of the original version of Space Invaders. I’m left in no doubt that Pacman branded clothing is going to follow on soon.
That said, the retro resurgence isn’t limited to T-shirt retailers trying to cash in. This time last year Zombie Nation was toping the music charts- not bad for a remix of in game music that’s decade old! It turns out that a fair few trance and dance acts of using sound bytes of old video games. Not only do soundtrack of old games boast tried and tested rhythms that, however much they’re repeated, never seem old, but the beeping tunes are perfect for adapting as needed.
As a final tribute to the retro games of old, many are having remakes, sequels or reworkings. While a new Manic Miner game is in development, the classic button-bashing flying shooting genre has been reinvented in Rez. Emulators of the Spectrum are more popular than ever, and Amstrad’s new fax/telephone/email machine allows you to play old Sinclair classics. Meanwhile the “Games On” exhibition of retro games in the Barbican is seeing unprecedented success- I for one am certainly going to take a look some time soon.
Sonic