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Jakanden
RealPoor Master of Posts
Joined: 11 Nov 2003
Posts: 5334
Location: Fuck if I know - I am always lost
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 Posted: 05/24/04 - 17:35 Post subject: In Video Games, Everything Old Is New Again
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In Video Games, Everything Old Is New Again
By Ben Berkowitz
May 24, 3:26 PM (EDT)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hold on to something long enough, the theory goes -- a car, a tie or even a hairstyle -- and eventually it will be cool again.
And so it goes with video games, where today's fans can't get enough of games that were popular when their parents were kids, and quarter-a-game arcade machines now sell for thousands of dollars each.
In a nod to the nostalgia boom for classic video games, the Electronic Entertainment Expo -- E3 -- the industry's major trade show, a forum devoted to hyping the latest in game technology, last week also organized a tribute to old-school pixilated fun.
Featuring classic arcade cabinets like "Ms. Pac-Man," "Popeye," "Donkey Kong," "Punch-Out" and "Space Age," and well-loved home consoles like the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis and 3DO, this year's expo drew fans nostalgic for the days when playing a game meant little more than mashing one or two buttons over and over again.
"These games are designed to be addictive," said Keith Robinson, president of Intellivision Productions, lamenting the fact that modern games are designed more for sneaking around dark corners and exploring vast mostly fictitious lands than the simple fun of trying to rack up high scores.
Robinson, one of the original programers for the 1980s' Intellivision game system, is one of the "Blue Sky Rangers," a tight-knit group of former Intellivision programers who continue to work together on various projects.
WHAT'S OLD IS NEW AGAIN
In fact, even as the modern games industry gets bigger and bigger, classic gaming is very much in vogue.
Collections of throwback arcade games are available for consoles, handhelds, personal digital assistants and cell phones, and Microsoft Corp. <MSFT.O> has announced it will launch an arcade featuring some classics such as the race favorite "Pole Position" on its Xbox Live online gaming service later this year.
One of the organizers of the Los Angeles Classic Gaming Expo, Joe Santulli, said the adults who own and play today's games grew up playing the kinds of games he has on display.
"There's the memories," he said. "Naturally, a childhood should bring happy thoughts of a simpler time."
And while new versions of old games are popular sellers, the originals are worth more money than some ever imagined.
At the E3 event, the organizers offered a flyer from a southern California shop selling pinball machines, redemption games and arcade cabinets from about $400 to nearly $7,000.
On eBay, a brisk business in old consoles has some systems, bundled with games and accessories, selling for well over $300, some of them even in various stages of disrepair.
PSSST, WANT TO BUY A VIDEO GAME?
Commercially, games have come a long way from the early 1980s, when game developers, like early underground hip-hop DJs, resorted to selling their wares out of the trunks of their cars, often packaged in plastic baggies.
"We didn't have advertising -- you found these things in a Laundromat," said George Sanger, a legend in video game history for his work on game audio whose nickname "Fat Man" belies his slight frame.
"We started in Mom's basement," Sanger said. "We had nothing to work with but two bits and a six-pack of Jolt."
But he said some of the creativity has been lost in modern games, vast and expensive undertakings that involve dozens of people that can make or break entire companies.
"It's impossible to do art under those conditions," Sanger said.
Though the Atari system and others like it are long gone, the names remain, and the head of the company that now carries the Atari name <ATAR.O> said the old games are an irresistible draw for some people, much like the child's sled that is the object of a media mogul's yearning in the film classic "Citizen Kane."
"It's like 'Rosebud,"' Bruno Bonnell, Atari's chief executive, said.
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Silvermouse
RealPoor Jedi
Joined: 12 Oct 2002
Posts: 11015
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Posted: 05/24/04 - 19:52 Post subject:
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Classic video games like Joust are fun for about 5 seconds when you play them again.
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Jakanden
RealPoor Master of Posts
Joined: 11 Nov 2003
Posts: 5334
Location: Fuck if I know - I am always lost
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Posted: 05/24/04 - 19:59 Post subject:
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I dunno - I still play Zelda, Metroid, Mario Bros, Ninja Gaiden, Faxanadu and games like that quite often. I still own an NES and i would never get rid of it (Even though i have about 200 NES Roms).
I will damn sure be getting the Mega Man and Street Fighter Collections when they come out too =)
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Mogling
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 29 Dec 2002
Posts: 2451
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Posted: 05/25/04 - 01:09 Post subject:
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OMFG your the only person ever I have heard of that played Faxanadu other then myself.
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halfbent
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 2944
Location: Kentwood, Mi
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Posted: 05/25/04 - 01:15 Post subject:
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I've beaten Faxanadu like 15 times I believe. I play it for the music alone now, that, and raping the King out of house and home with sploiterific skullduggery.
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ashwynd
RealPoor Sensei
Joined: 26 Aug 2003
Posts: 1686
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Posted: 05/25/04 - 03:10 Post subject:
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faxanadu was awesome, me and my friend used to play it every weekend after baseball practice ^_^ Don't forget super dodgeball or whatever the hell it was called.
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atarom
Dalai Lama of RealPoor
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 16398
Location: 375th st. Y
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Posted: 05/25/04 - 04:51 Post subject:
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i just went back and played the zelda series, awesomeness.
i plan on replaying faxanadu now. i always dork around on my nes emulator though. never gets old to go back and relive a classic.
just like watching an old movie... ahhh, the good old days.
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compusmack
RealPoor Master of Posts
Joined: 15 Oct 2002
Posts: 6354
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Posted: 05/25/04 - 08:59 Post subject:
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| Mogling wrote: | | OMFG your the only person ever I have heard of that played Faxanadu other then myself. |
I played it as well.
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Maelstrom
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 4072
Location: Montréal
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Jakanden
RealPoor Master of Posts
Joined: 11 Nov 2003
Posts: 5334
Location: Fuck if I know - I am always lost
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Posted: 05/25/04 - 11:50 Post subject:
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| Mogling wrote: | | OMFG your the only person ever I have heard of that played Faxanadu other then myself. |
Faxanadu is my favorite NES game of all time. I have played it quite alot
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Silvermouse
RealPoor Jedi
Joined: 12 Oct 2002
Posts: 11015
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Posted: 05/25/04 - 19:08 Post subject:
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When I said old games are fun for 5 minutes, I mean the real old games, as in before Nintendo. Nintendo games can still be fun.
Bionic Commando
Shadowgate
Goonies 2
Super Mario 3
Tyson's Punchout
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Syke
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 12 Oct 2002
Posts: 2976
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
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Posted: 05/25/04 - 19:42 Post subject:
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I let this kid borrow my copy of Faxanadu when I was in second grade.
Never saw it again 
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Posted: 05/25/04 - 20:48 Post subject:
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