Posted on 08/14/2004 12:47:49 PM PDT by qam1
The video game industry is on alert. A challenger is gobbling up players -- and her name is "Ms. Pac-Man."
Yes, the classic games of the 1980s are making a comeback, from the beribboned pink Ms. to those "Super Mario Bros." and the one-and-only "Donkey Kong." Vintage and reissued video games are the hottest trend in the usually forward-thinking $7 billion-per-year gaming industry. Gamers are expected to spend an estimated $250 million to $300 million on retro games this year.
"They're huge," says Lee Eisenberg, owner of game hub Fun City in Parma, Ohio, and a retro gamer himself. "Our older stuff is outselling our new stuff. I've never seen anything like this."
Eisenberg carries both vintage and reissued games and systems, but says the old ones outsell the new products. He has a hard time keeping those big, clunky two-decade-old Nintendo, Atari and Intellivision systems ($40) and games ($3 to $10) in stock. Fortunately, he has a warehouse supply of no-longer-manufactured consoles and cartridges acquired from trade-ins, garage sales, Web sites and other sources.
The flashback started with nostalgic thirtysomethings, says Eisenberg, 39. But "younger kids are really getting into them now, and not just with their parents."
He says the appeal is simple.
"The newer games are really really violent and expensive. A lot of people want to go back to their childhood. They want younger, simpler games."
The nostalgia factor was one reason behind game giant Nintendo's June relaunch of eight '80s classics, including "Super Mario Bros." and "Donkey Kong," all for Game Boy Advance.
"Many of us grew up playing Nintendo and have a fondness for some of the great games from our original console, the Nintendo Entertainment System," says Beth Llewelyn, public relations director for Nintendo of America.
"With the 15th anniversary of Game Boy this year ... we thought it would be fun to go back to our '80s roots and release some of the classic NES games."
Sales have been very strong, she says, already hitting the 500,000 mark. The company is also selling a Classic NES Limited Edition Game Boy Advance SP ($100) that re-creates the look of the original NES.
Nintendo's not the only company thinking retro. Toy maker Jakks Pacific recently launched a series of plug-and-play hand-held systems called TV Games, featuring classics such as "Ms. Pac-Man," "Galaga," "Pong," "Centipede" and "Asteroids" from Atari, Namco, Capcom and Activision. The $20 battery-powered system looks like a joystick and plugs into your television.
Radica Games Ltd. will release its own classic system this fall. The $30 console, dubbed Arcade Games, also plugs into your TV and features reissued Sega-Genesis games such as "Sonic the Hedgehog."
And the revival isn't limited to the home-tech world. "Pac-Man" bleeps and blurps are sampled in new songs by hip-hoppers Lil' Flip and Beanie Sigel, and game sounds and images have been used in ads for Hummer and Saturn autos. T-shirts with "Space Invaders," "Pac-Man," Atari joysticks and classic logos are a trendy urban retro-kitsch look.
Namco has even launched a "Class of '81" series of arcade machines.
Many fans aren't content with reissues, however. Vintage Intellivision, Sega-Genesis, Nintendo and Atari games and consoles are hot commodities at the eBay online auction site. A recent search on Intellivision turned up 492 games and systems. A "classic Atari" search yielded 219.
There's even an annual get-together for retro game fans. The seventh Classic Gaming Expo is set for Aug. 21 and 22 at the San Jose Convention Center in California. Last year's expo in Las Vegas attracted 1,500 people and caused organizers to move to a bigger venue, where they expect even more attendees this year, says expo spokesman Jayson Hill.
"There's a huge nostalgia factor to classic-game appeal," Hill explains. But he says the interest has grown beyond sentimental Generation X-ers. He was "shocked" by the number of kids and teens at last year's event.
But are these kids shocked by the primitive graphics and sounds of 8-bit classics, compared with today's 256-bit games?
Hill doesn't think so.
"Sometimes people don't want everything served to them," he says. "If you give a person everything, they get nothing from their imagination. It's not as much fun as if you have to fill in the blanks."
Contact George Castanza
I beleive Nintendo is releasing ports of their old classics as GameBoy titles.
Don't worry, author of the country song "19 something" made the same mistake, talking about Pac-Man in "1970-something."
Yes, THAT irks me - video games were MY decade!!!!
Otherwise - love the song! (Except the myth of "big hair" - it was the decade of SPIKES!!!!)
The best way to get Mame roms is via the Free MAME Roms society at http://www.freemameroms.com/ Very easy to get a full set.
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