Preserving the culture of games

Why do I have to live in New Zealand? It makes the virtual console almost useless to me. They need to make it region free or they force me to piracy.

I know I'm hanging on to all my old games.

The downloadable stuff is fine nowadays, but it doesnt beat having hundreds of old games complete with cases, instructions, ect.

It REALLY blows that all the mom and pop shops are going away.

We didn't have a Rhino Games nearby but if we did I'd surely be there rummaging through old games. Here in Cincinnati we still have a handful of mom and pop shops that deal in *gasp* cartridges.

There's always the flea market circuit too. Some of the guys that buy out stalls in these places practically have stores of their own and you can bet that retro stuff outnumbers Xbox and PlayStation 1,000:1.

As for Virtual Console style distribution, that's great for the biggest games of yesteryear, but what are the chances of, say, Flashback, Turrican, or Star Control finding their way online? Some of my favorite games are probably lost forever with publishers and developers who closed up shop a decade ago.

"So who is working to preserve our history?"

Ebay

I find it offensive that my housemate who has played NWN constantly for the past several years has never played through any Zelda. He saw me playing TP and asked, "how many people do you get in your party?"

I love the idea behind the virtual console and I have even purchased a couple games that I already had on my pc as roms for emulation just so that I could re-experience them on a full screen tv with a classic controller. But what happens when Wii 2 or whatever it may be in 5 years comes out? Is Nintendo going to allow you to port your VC purchases to the next console or are you SOL? The way this is handled I guess will be our answer in terms of how the retro catalog will be preserved and it will tell us if Nintendo was just making a fast buck versus actually caring about preservation as well.

@3 Shawn

Star Control II is available for free now. I loved that game!
http://sc2.sourceforge.net/downloads.php

Oh please. Retro gaming has never been easier. Ever hear of Amazon.com? Ever hear of eBay? Ever hear of flea markets? And let's not forget or dismiss Nintendo's VC or Microsoft's XBLA (What's more important, the game or the packaging that stores its bits?)

Think back to 1990, if you're old enough. At that point in time there were a few obsolete system and this fabricated concept of "The Man" keeping gamers away from classics hadn't yet occurred. I can't think of any retail outlet that sold used games from that time. I couldn't find used Atari 2600 games at K-Mart. Nope. Used NES games weren't available at Clover. Back then you had flea markets, yard sales, and word of mouth for acquiring old games. That's it. Hell, just a few months ago I spent about 10 minutes online and grabbed a cheap copy of the Gameboy title "Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters" but I'm supposed to believe the modern gamer just isn't able to find old titles.

What, do you guys want Gamestop to open up widdle shops right in front of your (parents') front door? Do you need a Gamestop employee to hold your widdle hands as you look for a specific game, and wipe your tears if they don't have your title?

redjack:

You beat me to it. If authenticity is what you're after (and it is, for a lot of us), there are still plenty of easy ways to get it through "viable retail means" that still involve the transfer of money in exchange for an actual physical product. In fact, this is one of the reasons why Ebay exists, and vintage games has always been one of their top categories.

I would rather see developers incorporate classic elements into new games rather than brining back the old games.

The problem with the VC and XBLA being used for archival purposes is that Nintendo and MS seem reluctant to put a truly huge catalog, good and bad, of games up there.

It's great that some of the finest classic games of all time will officially be preserved digitally (assuming you can re-download them on their successors), but what about those games that no one remembers?

Maybe I WANT to play Space Mega Force or Xexyz or Ghostbusters on the NES.

Anyhow, it is sad that another giant corporation is gobbling up all it's competition for the worse (as usual).
I'll go to EB Games or Gamestop when I want to pick up a cheap, used modern game, but if I want to get my mitts on a real classic, I'll have to go to a mom and pop shop here like Record Exchange or something.

My suggestion to all of you: go to Home Depot, buy a bunch of plywood, and make your own arcade cabinet from scratch. Then check out something called "I-PAC" and convert your old 500MHz computer into an emulator rig.

Trust me. It'll be the greatest thing you ever did.

Keep in mind that including every cart version and region - there are something like 8,000 NES carts (not games) released. I would have to say that of those MAYBE 200-250 GAMES were actually decent and of those maybe 75-100 were actually what most would consider GOOD games. Those are the ones that will show up on VC and other places. Games like Zelda I and II, Metroid, Final Fantasy. The good news is that you don't have to wade through the junk. The bad news is that the "junk" games - some of which you just want to play sometime are harder to find. The silver lining though is that all 9000 or so NES games only take up about 2 gigs and are able to be (illegally) downloaded and preserved. I sincerely doubt that 100 years down the road these games will be lost to history. They may not be the games people play on their Wii XI but something tells me that if you really, really enjoyed your old games (meaning that they were "worth" preserving - that it is not too difficult to find a proper emulator and rom and play. Even if you wind up emulating it in "Hyper Linux" running Windows XP in VMWare6 100 years from now.

I think people forget the fact that "modern" (digital) console games are a whole different medium than games of yore and are able to be copied millions of times over and as such are much, much, much harder to be "lost" in time.

My only question is that once everybody who grew up playing those early games has died - will nostalgia still exist? Will people still want to play them?

Probably. Atleast the good ones.

You know, there is a significant difference between between fumbling through a ROMZ site and fingering through a case of "$1 NES games."

Likewise, there is a difference between a keyboard and jamming out some Skate Or Die on an NES Advantage. It's a tangible feeling and one which VC and Arcade doesn't properly emulate. And yes, it does suck that Gamestop got out of the uber retro just as quickly as they got in. There is a huge market for someone who says to himself "You know... I haven't played Contra in a LOOOOOOOONG time." Or what about the games we all know damn well will never be preserved like Shadow Of The Beast, Kabuki Quantum Fighter, or even Warsong?

Mom and Pop shops or chains like Games X Change or Slackers CDs & Games are fucking empires to the nerds.

At least they will never take down Slackers in central MO. They will live forever.

my xbox is basically a classic gaming machine.. i have all the major arcade compilations for it and the controls are really great with a joystick..

technically in

Gamestop is driving mom and pop shops out of business? I'm sorry but I just don't see how. Go to Gamestop, get $1 for your trade-in and only $5 off the brand new price for a used game. How can that possibly hold a candle to mom and pop shops that can offer MUCH better deals? Trade-in credit for 50% of retail price, discount of 25% off retail price for used games. Do that and Gamestop looks like the fools errand it is with regards to used games.

There are 2 Gamestops and 1 ebGames within a 10 mile radius where I live. In a city of about 20,000. They've been open for years and, as far as I can tell, they're doing quite well. I can't help but think that any store that opened up doing classic games (including the old consoles setup so you can try the games) and import games and such would do extremely well.

Re: Jamming out Skate or Die on an Advantage: You're right, but the VC comes closest, the Classic Controller is a thing of beauty, and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before very simple, $5 cheapo Wiimote adapters come out that let you hook up NES/SNES/N64 etc. controllers to your Wiimote and use them just like a Classic.

The most important thing is that Nintendo, by going the extra mile to ensure the most accurate and faithful emulation possible, has done its part. I didn't realize just how much of a difference there was until I rocked some VC SMB in flawless 240p and could even feel the smoothness over a cycle accurate emulator like Nestopia.

Gamestop does make a concentrated effort against mom and pop shops. The Gamestop on University Ave. in Minneapolis had a "buy 2 get 1 free" sale on used games for over a year and a half. After about a year my buddy asked the clerk why they always seemed to have that sale on when we stopped by, and the guy responded "yeah, corporate wants us to keep the sale on until we put Joko out of business."

Joko was a retro store about 3 doors down that focused on N64 and older games, but still sold some new stuff. About 6 months later, Joko moved and that Gamestop's sale ended.

That is a much different strategy than the Gamestop in Eagan Town Center, which offers no long-term sale, even though it is across the street from a direct competitor in Best Buy. If it was simply a case of competition driving down prices, Gamestop would run a similar sale at locations near any competition. Instead, they focused on crushing smaller competition with their discounts.

I'm not saying it's good or bad, but Gamestop DOES focus on squishing competition that can be squished (i.e. mom and pop's stores).

@ upirons

My guess is that, if you hold your Wii Console Number, you will be able to re-download all your VC titles, since Nintendo already has that system as an insurance pending the destruction of your Wii (and the next Nintendo will most likely have a 40-50 gig HDD, so you will be able to download GC, and possibly DC, titles)

it also allows younger gamers to experience the older games for the first time, many of which would of never done, seeing how NES'es are dying daily :p

And don't forget that a large number of these old games can't be released on digital distribution networks due to licensing issues, and the inability to contact the original IP owners.

Well even if you keep your old cartridges they are dated b/c they have batteries in them that die in 10 years so you can't save your game. EMU/ROM and VC XBOX LIVE is doing a good job keeping these games. Before these services I never heard news about Super Mario Brothers or Sonic the Hedgehog.