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Vintage Video Games ReloadedBy Peter Suciu
Dec 1, 2015 6:00 AM PT
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The movie and music industries over the past three decades have reaped profits from
their vaults. Old music recordings have been rereleased on new formats ranging from
CDs to digital downloads to streaming services. Hollywood has experienced its own
cash cow from the introduction of DVDs, Blu-rays and streaming movie services.
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Technological advances in hardware provided new revenue streams for old media.
The electronic entertainment industry largely has failed to reap the same rewards,
even as it continually has released new hardware platforms. Many older video games
essentially are left behind and unplayable unless the gamer has an old console or PC
sitting around. Many classic titles are all but forgotten as a result.
There have been some attempts in recent years to rerelease games for newgenerations, but the most common solution has been remakes. This is a noted
contrast to the movie industry: Film buffs can see multiple versions of Beau Geste on
DVD or decide which version of Ocean's 11 wasn't really that bad, but in the case of
PC games, typically only the most recent is playable on today's hardware.
"It is common in entertainment to look back at your library of content," said Joost van
Dreunen, co-founder of SuperData Research.
"With music, movies and books, this has been very common as the old inventory
becomes historical and there is always the consideration of the market for the future,"
he told TechNewsWorld.
The Latest and Greatest
The video game industry hasn't always seen things the same way. Software is used to
push new hardware, and as the systems have aged, there has been little incentive to
ensure that old titles remain playable.
However, hardware makers have seen a need to make current systems backwardcompatible with at least the most recent former system. Microsoft last month
announced that it would make 104 Xbox 360 games playable for the Xbox One.
"Games are not just about the latest and greatest anymore," added van Dreunen.
"There is a demand for those old games as people do have affinity for older titles."
The PC Advantage
It would seem that the PC has an instant advantage over console-based games
because, even as hardware improves and the operating system is upgraded, the
basics of the computer really don't change much. Unfortunately for gamers -- or really
users of any older software -- this is far from the case.
With each new operating system comes compatibility issues. The greatest occurred 20
years ago with the introduction of Windows 95, which meant that a lot of DOS-based
software no longer would be playable. Programs such as DOSBox and other software
emulators allowed old games to be played on new PCs, but this has occurred mostly
at the grassroots level rather than a serious effort.
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Perhaps the industry has seen that what's in the archives still has potential value. Just
as streaming media services have changed the way people interact with music and
video, they are changing games as well. Services such as Steam offer software
publishers the chance to publish older PC games and even make money in the
process.
The old games, however, don't exactly have the same value that classic movies or
music might have.
"The industry hasn't always done a good job of monetizing old content; the emphasis
always goes to the new title as these are on the hook to break even and then make
money," said SuperData Research's van Dreunen.
"While that is the nature of the beast to push the newest, the margins are lower on
old games and it is a sign that games are maturing as a form of entertainment that
publishers are seeking ways of selling the old stuff," he noted.
A Major Adventure
The biggest hurdle for rereleasing old games on new systems goes back to the issue
of incompatibility. Minor hardware upgrades such as a new generation of video cards
can be problematic, but each new operating system leaves much software unable to
run.
This is where services such as Steam come into play. It works with publishers to
optimize games for newer hardware.
GOG.com has built its business model around old games. The company launched in
2008 and has been growing and expanding ever since. It started by porting small
titles and rereleasing them for newer PC operating systems, but now it works with
many major publishers.
Getting the games to run on new PCs can be challenging -- and that's only after the
legal hurdles have been cleared.
"There really isn't a single rule. There's a bunch of different ways that we begin
recovering the classics. Occasionally we'll be approached by publishers or rights
owners, but most of the time we're the ones seeking them out," said Tomasz
Nalewajk, brand director at GOG.com.
"It's kind of like detective work in a way -- there are countless games out there that
we have in our sights, but it's usually not as simple as contacting the right person,"
he told TechNewsWorld.
"Studios and publishers close down, rights get passed on, split up between different
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parties, transferred, or eventually forgotten," Nalewajk noted. "We follow any leads
until we hopefully get in touch with the right people. For example, getting the rights
to our Forgotten Realms rereleases was a job that took several years of work and
research."
Open the Ports
Restoring classics doesn't end with obtaining the rights. The process can range from along and arduous project to a neat and quick touchup.
"The three biggest challenges we always face are the rights, procuring the assets, and
finally the actual fixes," said Nalewajk.
When dealing with older and particularly rare releases, the company is often on its
own, and that means scrounging the Web to collect assets.
"As far as fixes go, we have to work with what we have and to get really creative
sometimes," Nalewajk added. "We take advantage of different methods, from simple
Windows compatibility tools, through combinations of custom wrappers, tools like
DOSBox, and occasional reverse engineering. Then we test, test, test. This can be a
fairly quick process or a many-months-long game of lights out between our QA testers
and programmers."
Once a game is released through GOG.com, the company must continue to ensure
that the product works, which involves constantly monitoring community feedback to
quash any new problems quickly and keep the games running.
The Modern Rerelease
In Hollywood, it's all too common to remake a movie or reboot a franchise. Game
publishers over the years have rereleased games, with one of the most famous
examples being Doom 3, which was a retelling of the original Doom using the then
new graphics technology of 2004.
More recently, some small publishers have opted to remake classic games without the
same level of visual updates, instead trying to keep the appeal of the original by not
completely changing what made it so enticing.
A good example of this is Colonial Conquest , a turn-based strategy game developed
by Argonauts Interactive. Based on a game developed by now-defunct game studio
Strategic Simulations for the Apple II and Commodore 64, this remake is an homage
in that it features the simple gameplay of the original with modern elements. It was
released earlier this year after a successful Kickstarter campaign.
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"From our point of view, we did not want to do a copy of a game, but to bring our
take of a specific kind of gameplay and idea," said company co-founder Orpheus.
For Colonial Conquest , the goal was to do a game inspired by the original with
graphics that are more visually appealing than the sprites and blocks that were
common in the era in the Apple II and Commodore 64.
"We were inspired by a great game, but we did not try to copy it," Orpheus told
TechNewsWorld.
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Join the discussion!
The Nostalgia Factor
Remaking and releasing old games can fill the aforementioned void -- but it needs to
be done at a reasonable cost. Today many new PC titles can run US$50 or more, but
Argonauts Interactive is offering Colonial Conquest and its other games for around
$10 a piece. Most of the titles GOG.com offers are available for less than $30, and
many are less than $20.
That is really crucial both to get old fans to take another look and to get new players
to see what they may have missed.
"Nostalgia is naturally a huge, huge factor as well," said GOG.com's Nalewajk.
"Gamers who grew up with these games have a fondness and appetite for reliving
experiences that are just not the same nowadays -- whether it's the gameplay, the
sounds or unique art. It's like reuniting with an old best friend that can never be
replaced."
Peter Suciu is a freelance writer who has covered consumer electronics, technology, electronic entertainment and fitness-related trends for more than a decade. His work has appeared in more than three dozen publications, and he is the co-authorof Careers in the Computer Game Industry (Career in the New Economy series), a career guide aimed at high school studentsfrom Rosen Publishing. You can connect with Peter on Google+.
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Re: Vintage Video Games Reloaded
Posted 2015-12-02
I have gamed on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. The recent move to forgo single player mode in the next
Call of Duty series for the Xbox 360 has caused me to rethink gaming consoles. For one, my old
games except for a couple won't play on the Xbox One. I don't care to run two consoles so I either
give them up or hope Xbox One will eventually support them. Backwards support is severely lacking in
Xbox One and Microsoft is making a token attempt to fix it. Not all is happy on the PC side either as
older games are tricky to play in newer Windows OS if they originally were not designed or updated
for it. Some games work fine, some don't. The gaming industry is about moving forward. Selling you a
new console, new games, new video cards for PC's, they are all meant to support a gamingecosystem.
Reply
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