|
IThe horde of new games entering the market this
time of year can bring about many types of feelings.
I would assume that excitement is among the top. I
mean, who wouldn't be excited at the likes of GTA:
San Andreas, Halo 2, Metroid Prime 2, Ratchet & Clank
3, and the myriad of other AAA titles. The other feeling
I can easily see, especially in myself, is frustration.
Frustration because I don't have an Xbox to play Halo
2, much less any constant amount of time to feed my
habit of playing any of these games. It all brought
me back to the days when I was younger and my only
care was how fast I could finish a game an move onto
the next one. Those days are gone but the memory lives
on.
Instead of relishing the new games coming out this
holiday season, I got to thinking about the gaming
experiences that stood out in my mind. What are the
best products on the market today that will bring
back that feeling of…Nostalgia.
5. The Anniversary collection/Compilation:
Re-releases of games such as Street fighter II and
Mega Man in all their glory. The Compilation: These
are of the "Namco Museum" variety. A bunch of older
games from past systems that are compiled en masse
on a handy disk for your newer system. Especially
noteworthy are the Midway Arcade classic series. A
great way to relive the past with minimal output of
finances.
4. The honorary remake:
These are private groups or individuals that have
taken it upon themselves to re-create a game for the
world of today. A couple that come to mind are Zelda
Classic, Exult: The remake of Ultima VII, and Super
Metroid Classic. Each endeavor not only seeks to remake
the original game in exacting detail, but also improves
on the original in many ways. Zelda Classic comes
with a game editor where you can create your own adventure
using production tools. Exult brings an aging PC game
to faster PCs without any adverse effects. Most of
these are far from perfect and they have numerous
bugs. Overall though, they are a great place to relive
your memories if that specific game is one of them.
3. The package system:
These look much like an Atari 2600 controller or
some other simple joystick but they are the entire
system with 10 of the more popular games programmed
inside. Simply plug them into your TV and begin playing.
2. DVD Games:
A strange category but it instantly brought me back
to 1983 at the Minneapolis Airport arcade where it
stood as a beacon of supremacy and production to the
other denizens of the arcade. Dragon's Lair was so
new and cutting edge that it easily usurped the attention
of every other game in the room. At a whopping (for
the time) fifty cents per play, and an average life
span of Dirk the Daring of Ohhh about 9 seconds, it
would quickly eat up my $1.00/week allowance. Since
I didn't have millions of dollars to throw at Dragon's
Lair it became the unattainable pinnacle of perfection
at that time in my life.
Last year my brother brought me into the 21st century
with the information that Dragon's Lair had been re-released
on DVD. I bubbled with excitement at the thought of
infinite chances to send Dirk to his doom and the
thought that I might actually get to see Singe the
Dragon face to face for once in my lifetime. Coupled
with the fact that I needed nothing more than the
$30 DVD player I picked up at Wal-Mart and the $20
Disk. Easily better than the one hundred chances I
would have had to play with the same $50 in the arcade
20 years ago. Using the DVD remote to control Dirk
is easy enough and I quickly used up my "credits"
watching Dirk die and re-appear as a skeleton. The
nearly flawless interaction brought me back to those
years in the arcade and I enjoyed every second of
it. A must have for any fan of the game. There are
even remakes of Dragon's Lair II, and Space Ace. You
can get all three games in a special combo pack as
well.
1. The Emulator:
For those of you that know nothing about emulators,
they are small programs that emulate, or pretend to
be the operating system of arcade machines or consoles.
Provided you can find an emulator AND the game data,
called a ROM, to play the games, you are capable of
playing most anything. Thanks to the Internet both
emulators and ROMs are available everywhere and for
most every system. I must mention here that while
Emulators are legal, most of the ROMs out there are
illegal copies of games.
-wileee
|
