The gaming industry is often criticized for releasing sequels in seemingly unnecessary numbers. We often protest against this practice because it shows a stagnation in game creativity. We want to see new things and new ways of playing them. We want this to be the future. And I think the future is going to be great, because tomorrow, we're getting all the great games... of yesterday!


This is the future. We bought it in 1980 we're buying it now, we'll buy it tomorrow.

Because let's face it, nostalgia has a lot going for it. All these old games are dirt cheap, and in most cases they still tend to be fun. Look at the example in my image above. We like Pac-Man a lot. For most of us, it was the first game we played. It's an iconic representative of video games. Pac-Man is not merely a mascot of Namco, but the mascot of an industry. We can buy Pac-Man today for XBox 360, for PS3, for the iPhone/iPod Touch, or as a goofy joystick we can plug into our televison. We all still want to play Pac-Man, and there's nothing at all wrong with that. We love our memories, and for those of us not fortunate to have enjoyed a particular game during it's release or heyday, it has the potential to be enjoyed by that new audience today for a small purchase as a digital marketplace download, or as part of a collection of classic games. I myself am a proud owner of the Taito, Midway, Capcom and Sega collections that have been released within the past 2 conslole generations, and many of the games on those discs are games I had never played until I bought those collections. As time goes on, more games will become emulated or ported, and they too will be enjoyed again, long after their original conception. Games once thought unportable to the home market for technological reasons will soon be feasible in homes, thanks to the technology finally being available at a consumer level. Konami's Police 911 series of games had a wonderful system where your physical body movements translated to taking cover behind objects within the game and dodging attacks. This so far is unable to be replicated in a home environment, but with Project Natal's release, such a game is a possibility. To my knowledge, Konami is not producing a Police 911 game for Natal, but Police 911 is exactly the sort of game that should be done with Natal. Microsoft's recent announcement to bring us Game Room provides more evidence that we want these games again. Game Room focuses further on the nostalgia factor by bringing us something we haven't seen since the last time we touched a coin-operated video game: Cabinet and screen border art. Game Room aspires to bring back everything that was wonderful about arcade games beyond just the game. They want to give you cabinets that can be appreciated. They even want you to be able to just play a single game for 50 cents. Sure, games like that USED to cost a quarter, but inflation has not been kind to our money.

They used to say that arcades died because modern consoles made them obsolete. Now they truly are.

That's not to say that we'll always return to our low-resolution graphics with their bleeps and bloops. Sometimes we delight in playing our old thing in a way that takes advantage of our new technology. We as gamers love re-makes. Sure, some can argue that sequels achieve the same thing, but with a remake there's a strange duality that fascinates us as game players. There's a purity to it but also a lot is re-interpreted in a way that can be potential blasphemy. Bionic Commando Rearmed is the best example of this duality, and is also the most successful game I'm using as an example. The game has tweaked the story, the graphics, and redone the sound completely to make it feel like a modern release. The gameplay also has been modernized in a way, but the core of the game is left pure. The simple focus on a guy with an extensible arm and an inability to jump brings back the nostalgic fun we saw in the original game. This is a trend that will surely continue. Many arcade games on Xbox Live Arcade feature such classics with renewed graphics and sound. Serious Sam HD is another game that's a bit more recent, but still shows us using new technology to have fun the way we used to have. The game industry isn't the only one guilty of this: Hollywood remakes old movies all the time. Sometimes it's nice to see how a different time, a different place and a different person can handle an idea, and the future will bring us this in spades!


Let's face it: We'll buy the older version too, given a sliver of the chance

And as we come to the conclusion of this exploration of the past, present, and imminent future of retrogaming, we must finally turn toward the titles we're enjoying now. Our Mass Effects and Left 4 Deads, our Borderlands and our Uncharteds will all be re-sold to us on new platforms in the future. We will surely see many more sequels to these games between now and 20 years later, but we will surely be presented with the original article, redone to run on our new technology.Today's triple-A titles will be the future's cheap download. I'm looking forward to buying them all over again at their attractive budget prices that retrogames tend to be priced at. Onward: To the future!