Everything Old is Old Again 106
TechDock writes "GameDaily interviews some of the folks involved with retro game services, including GameTap, XBox Live Arcade, and assorted standalone retro game devices. They discuss the new business models associated with the retro business, and why 25 year-old games are still popular." From the article: "Want to feel really old? It's been 26 years since the sound of 'waka-waka-waka' first resounded in an arcade. Yes, 1980 was the year Midway licensed and installed the coin-op version of Namco's Pac-Man in the U.S. And 2006 is the year that Pac-Man has become one of the most popular downloads on Xbox Live Arcade and GameTap. Talk about a game with legs."
In time... (Score:1, Interesting)
yeah, it's new again (Score:2, Interesting)
there's a bar in williamsburg brooklyn, barcade. full of old-ass consoles. place is always packed, and not because of the ubiquitous williamsburg indie rock jerkoff either. 30-somethings dump tons of quarters into those badboys. two reasons:
1) they still cost a quarter
2) they've got Robotron 2084 for hell's sake. robotron 2084!!. and time pilot.
Re:I'll tell you why... (Score:3, Interesting)
I think in some ways older games are still popular because the games are GOOD and they will always be GOOD, they aren't good because they're following a trend or a fad they are themselves and they are classic and original in their execution; they don't try to be things that they're not.
That's not to say that games today are all bad, certainly there are THOUSANDS of old games and we still only talk about a very very small number of them. I think every generation has titles that stand the test of time. Doom, Street Fighter II, Mario 64, Final Fantasy VII, etc. Those games will still be played for a long long time because they're original and timeless.
In other ways retro games like PacMan are popular because there aren't any modern alternatives, and in the rare instance that we DO get a modern alternative gamers jump on it like rabid wolves, just look at titles like Bejeweled, Geometry Wars, Lumines, Brain Age, etc. All of those games are incredibly simple rely very minimally on graphical glitz for their popularity and could probably be recreated in a short time with some dedication.
Basically, They're simple cheap and fun games, and the gaming industry seems to completely ignore this type of game... We keep hearing about the costs of development rising but that's only because they're pursuing the graphical envelope, if they just stopped and looked around they're realize that there is a giant gaping hole in the market for fun and innovative retro-style games, that are cheap to develop and offer infinite replayability. I love lots of older games but I don't really think I like them for nostalgic reasons (I'm too young to remember PacMan in the Arcade but I still love the game) it's just because they're good games, I also love Geometry wars and if they made more GOOD games in this simple style I'm sure I'd find a lot to like in them too.
Why does everything have to be 3D? Why does everything have to use the latest technological advances? Why can't new hardware advances be used to make new and innovative classic games (think of a PacMan era game but with the advantage of the wiimote). There's no reason except that the industry rarely ever thinks to make games like that. Hopefully we'll get some indy talent fixing this situation with things like Steam, XNA Express/XBLA, and the Virtual Console.