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."

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!

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 [atariage.com]
Retrogaming Radio [retrogamingradio.com]
Classic gaming [classicgaming.com]

Magazines:
Armchair Arcade [armchairarcade.com]
Classic Gamer [classicgamer.com]
Manci Games [mancigames.com]
Retrogamer [retrogamer.net]

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

--
jason

Newsgroup thread and encoded video files...

[antdude]

Newsgroup thead [google.com] about this with links and an article [retroblast.com] with a few encoded commercials (Saturn Pac-Man commercial is listed). :)

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.

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.