Little games done all growed up

by Vladimir Cole { Feb 7th 2006 at 5:40AM }

Daniel McNamara writes a short, but high-quality history lesson on the evolution of games from the arcade to the home market. The article explains the nostalgia-driven desire for the simpler games that still drives the gaming decisions of those of us who are old enough to have owned the original NES and Sega Genesis consoles.

As this is only part one of a five-part series on gaming, so we're betting that a subsequent article in the series takes the logical leap of asking--and maybe even answering--the question of whether the NES-generation's desire for simplicity will fuel success of the Nintendo Revolution console, due out later this year. Nintendo promises that the Revolution will be engineered for more user-friendly gaming and will be able to play the entire back-catalog of Nintendo games.

Will wistful gamers looking to recreate the spark of their gaming youth buy it for that reason?

[Image from John Sellers's guide to classic arcade titles.]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

soopa koopa @ Feb 7th 2006 6:46AM

I wonder if the rev's last secret has anything to do with downloading retro games from the rev to your DS. you store them on your SD card in the rev then pop the sd card in an adapter play yan style in the gba slot, and voila! nes/snes/n64 games to go. I'd be extremely surprised if this feature wasn't implemented

Matthew @ Feb 7th 2006 7:44AM

Interesting article. It certainly reminds me of my youth except that we usually didn't wait until after school to go to the arcades. Back then, it was all about SF2 and MK.

I don't know if the consoles 'killed' arcade gaming, or if it merely fell out of fashion. More than a place to play video games, the video arcase represented the place to meet my friends. It was something out of a TV sitcom. If you showed up at the arcade, you would run into someone you knew within 15 minutes and within an hour there were enough people for a party.

I rarely ever go to the arcade anymore. When I do, I tend to gravitate to the really immersive games like sit-down racers, mech warrior games or some form of simulation game. I'm looking for a bigger experience than I can get at home which is tough because I buy all kinds of peripherals for my 'Big 3' systems.

DG @ Feb 7th 2006 8:36AM

Arcades stopped being necessary once you could get an exact port to your home console. The lure of the arcade was that SF2 looked a billion times better in the mall than on my Genesis.

In the article, they quote: �I played that off the wall,� said Ramirez, 20, who remembers getting his first Nintendo at age 7.

I'm not surprised that the only person they could interview at EBGames is 20, but that would have made his first Nintendo system an SNES in 1993. I don't really consider him to be an expert on gaming nostalgia, but whatever.

I tend to gravitate towards older games because of that phenomenon I can't remember the name of. The one where the more realistic the characters are, the more likely you are to be push away from them.

I liked the missing technology that made Saturn and PSX games so ugly, that made SNES games seem like such an achievement. Now that pushing polygons has gotten so easy, it's less rewarding to play video games.

chris w @ Feb 7th 2006 9:52AM

DG, you're thinking of the uncanny valley.

I really miss the arcades of old. I myself have become a collector for the sole reason of passing down the gaming goodness that I grew up with. I really miss the arcade atmosphere. The "future" was online gameplay: which has allowed 12-year-olds in all their pubescent glory cursing you out because you play better than them on the online consoles.

I miss the days where when you talked smack at a videogame, you better back it up with gameplay otherwise you got beat down.

Those were the days we would walk 3 miles barefoot in the snow to reach the nearest arcade...

PodMonkeys @ Feb 7th 2006 10:08AM

o hman. I remember going to the "Gold Mine" in the mall. It was decorated like a mine, and was really dark. Just the perfect atmosphere for playing Gauntlet, Tempest, and Red Baron!

cap-n-crunch @ Feb 7th 2006 10:24AM

Consoles didnt kill the arcades, I remember the atari and coleco losing popularity about the same time as arcades started shutting down. It's like there was a huge gap in time between then and when nes/sega came out. Also street fighter 2 and mortal kombat were

In the mid 80's I begged my parents to take me to the arcade. In the beginning it was packed with all different age groups. They were HUGE! I mean people were elbow to elbow waiting to play games like Tron, Donkey Kong JR. and Space Ace. Toward the end arcades were always nearly empty populated with only rough lookin older kids and most of the games had out of order signs on them.

I continued to play arcade games like double dragon and two tigers, but it was usually at dept. stores or dairy bars. since most arcades were in big cities. and nowhere near as popular as they were in the mid 80's.

I cant wait to finally get a credit card so I can get xbox live. Because from what I hear from team ninja, my favorite devolper, they want to bring back the feel of the arcade. I believe if anyone can it's them!