Posted on: Tuesday, August 3, 2004
VIDEO GAMES
Retro games return to nostalgic past
By Ric Manning
The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal
Ms. Pac-Man is making a comeback.
Twenty-three years after making her debut at arcades across the nation, you can bring Ms. Pac-Man into your home thanks to a new game gadget that lets you play classic arcade games on your TV set.
The device is a battery-powered joystick with a cable that plugs into a TV set's audio and video jacks. "Ms. Pac-Man" and four other retro titles — "Galaga," "Pole Position," "Xevious" and "Mappy" — are all stored on a chip inside the joystick. Plug in and you're ready to play.
The joystick features a sturdy, pole-style controller, which makes chasing the blue ghosts more like the original arcade game than new computer or video game versions, which use the modern thumb-pad controllers.
Ms. Pac-Man TV Games is one of several retro game collections produced by toy manufacturer Jakks Pacific. The game sets are sold in toy and variety stores for about $20 each.
A previous release, the Atari 10-in-1 TV Games System, includes a single Atari joystick controller and 10 top titles from the Atari 2600. The games include "Asteroids," "Centipede," "Missile Command," "Real Sports Volleyball," "Adventure," "Breakout" and the mother-of-all-video-games, "Pong."
The new Atari Paddle TV Games collection contains a pair of the older, dial-type controllers and 13 Atari games, including "Breakout," "Steeple Chase," "Street Racer," "Super Breakout" and "Pong."
These are not updated versions of 25-year-old games. They're the originals, complete with blocky graphics, minimal colors and a squeaky, mono sound. The cars in "Street Racer" look like the letter H laid on its side.
But Jakks and other game companies are discovering that simplicity sells. The line-up of plug-and-play games at Jakks include a collection of video pinball games, the original "Mortal Kombat" arcade game and a set of original Activision games.
Other game companies are finding new life in old games.
Nintendo has released a special edition of its Game Boy Advance portable player and eight classic titles.
The Classic NES Limited Edition Game Boy Advance SP ($100) uses the same colors and type fonts as the Nintendo Entertainment System, the console game deck that Nintendo brought to the United States in 1985. The special Game Boy has the same black and gray colors and two bright-red A and B buttons.
The new retro titles include "Donkey Kong," "The Legend of Zelda," "Super Mario Brothers," "Excitebike," "Bomberman," "Ice Climber," "Pac-Man" and "Xevious: The Avenger."
Namco has announced that it's working on a new version of the original "Pac-Man," which turns 25 this year. And Microsoft plans to include several classic games when it releases Xbox Live Arcade this fall. Titles already announced include "Dig Dug," "Galaxian" and "Pole Position."
The game companies say they expect the retro games to have a nostalgic appeal for the over-30 crowd, adults who killed many after-school hours with an Atari game system and a bowl of Captain Crunch.
But younger players are also interested. Some are curious to see the games that Mom and Dad played. Others just like the quick fix you get from playing a really simple game.
