Reviving Old Computer Games

Remember the good old days of gaming, when there were only 5 pixels in the protagonist and your imagination could turn them into a heroic figure of Schwarzenegger proportions? When the enemies and the heroes were distinguished by colour and you only needed one button on the joystick? Well times have changed and technology has moved on. Pulling my old Commodore 64 or Atari out of the back of the cupboard and setting them up often takes more time than the nostalgic pang lasts. I've also noticed that some of my old disks are starting to age and become corrupted. Enter the Internet.

The wonderfully technologically gifted and giving Internet populace is out in force in their attempts to preserve the older side of gaming. Remakes and Emulators for almost any old machine can be found around the Internet. Emulators act as a layer between old software and new hardware allowing modern PCs to run programs that such hardware was never meant to see. Commodore 64, Amiga, NES, Master System, Arcade Machines and more have all been emulated and the necessary programs placed online for download, usually for free.

Emulation is not a new idea. I had a hardware emulator for the VIC20 that plugged into the back of my Commodore 64 and allowed the use of the older VIC20 cartridges with the new hardware (I never actually owned a VIC20 or any programs for it but that's another issue). Emulator popularity has been fading in and out for many years, only coming into many people's attention with the release of Bleem!, a Playstation emulator for PC that was released while the PSOne still held a dominant share of the video game market. Bleemcast (a Playstation emulator for the Sega Dreamcast) soon followed causing one of the more interesting video game legal battles as Sony fought to have the emulator shut down. However, the emulators have a strong following and very active user base.

Emulators are easy to find and download. Simply search for the system you want and add the word emulator to the end (e.g. "SNES Emulator") and you'll probably come up with a lot of hits. Be slightly wary as some emulator sites will either be false links or may contain pornographic ads. Setting the emulators up to run is usually fairly straightforward and there's a fair chance that you'll be able to find some documentation and help. Some of the newer systems require a BIOS image to be installed with the emulator. This is to get around the legal issues raised by Sony in the Bleem! legal battles by requiring you to be in possession of a Playstation BIOS (and hence, presumably, a Playstation) in order to play the games on your computer. Making a BIOS image to load into your computer will most likely be beyond your technical expertise, but a quick check of your console's case will reveal the file you need to get and then it's as simple as searching the internet for a BIOS image that matches the BIOS you already own.

Of interest are the PC emulators now available. Windows no longer has very good support for older DOS-based games so there are a few emulators out there now to emulate the DOS environment. DOSBox (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/) is probably the best known of the crop. There are also game-specific emulators such as ScummVM (www.scummvm.org) or DOOM Legacy (http://legacy.newdoom.com/) that focus specifically on certain games and hence are able to improve the experience for those particular titles.

Once you have yourself an emulator you'll need to get yourself some programs to run with it. These programs are called 'ROMs' and are images of the original storage device that the program came on (be it a cartridge, tape, floppy or other). The process of creating a ROM is probably far too technical for the vast majority of computer users so you're probably going to have to find a 'backup' from somewhere to download. This is where the venture gets slightly foggy. Basically the deal is that you can only have a program ROM if you own the original program. So if you have boxes of old Amiga disks, NES cartridges, or other old gaming programs stored away somewhere, you're in luck, otherwise you're treading on legally shifty ground. While it can easily be argued that the downloading of a 1987 computer game is of no real consequence to the company that has in all likelihood closed down, copyright doesn't actually expire for 50 years and computer games just haven't been around that long.

Online 'emulation' is a new area now being explored. The idea is that you simply play the game in your browser through a Java applet or Flash application. These might not always strictly be emulated programs but many remakes are feature perfect with the originals. The graphics, sounds, and game play remain intact. One excellent place to look for online games is Every Video Game (http://www.everyvideogame.com). While the site does not in fact contain 'every video game' it does have a very large list of old games from the arcades, GameBoy, NES, and Master System all playable through your browser. Many remakes can also be found at Shockwave's site (http://www.shockwave.com/sw/actiongames/arcade_classics/).

Some of the old games have even been remade and updated for this modern world we now live in. Try doing a search for remakes of a game title you particularly enjoyed and you may be surprised at what you find. There are games that have been updated to be 3D, such as some old favourites of mine: Pac man (http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/f1292.html) and Barbarian (http://www.dgdevteam.tk/), and while these might not always be brilliant games or remakes in their own right, the thought and effort put in often leads to an enjoyable diversion. There are also more traditional versions of games that have just updated the code as well as possibly the graphics so that they can still be run.

So if you're feeling nostalgic or just can't get the hang of these new-fangled games that require you to push fifty buttons in a precise configuration just to jump, you may like to check out the emulation and remake scene. It's surprisingly entertaining to go back in time to when games were simple yet fun.

Daniel Punch M6.Net Web Helpers http://www.m6.net

---

Review - Sony PSP

I'm fairly certain there are folks at Nintendo feeling some... Read More

Theories Behind Magic Trinkets in Video Game and Virtual Reality

In Gaming we deal between Simulation, Augmented Reality, Fantasy and... Read More

Why We Play Games, Part 2

Last week we started to get into the motivation of... Read More

Rent Games Online for the Kids

It's risky business allowing your children to play games online.... Read More

A Parents Guide to Online Gaming, Part 2

In part 1 we talked about online gaming and your... Read More

Zuma Deluxe Style Games Evolution

As I think most of gamers who play in shareware... Read More

Ten Things You Should Know in Video Games

Bloodborne | It's Zero Hour | Star Wars: Battlefront |... Read More

Codename Revolution - Nintendos Next Generation Gaming System

Over the past year or so plenty of hype, mystery... Read More

Best of British: Gizmondo Doomed To Fail?

The Gizmondo combined media player, phone and gaming gadget went... Read More

Aerial Blimp Refueling of UAVs

Aerial refueling from blimps might be easier than we think.... Read More

Xbox vs. PS2 Game Consoles

There has been a great deal of discussion regarding the... Read More

SMS Gaming - Text Paging Games that can be Played by Anyone

Using the Physical World as a Game Board: This is... Read More

Downloadable Game Review: Diner Dash

Playvue.com Editor's Rating: 8.0StorylineDiner Dash brings us the story of... Read More

Sony PSP

The period of the greatest portable console has finally arrived.... Read More

Full Version Pocket PC Games For Free

Play Games InsteadDo you like your full version pocket pc... Read More

Sega Dreamcasts Cause of Death?

What ever happened to that game console we used to... Read More

A Look at the Sony PlayStation 3

At the recent E3 gaming Convention, Sony gave the world... Read More

PC Gaming Video: Meeting the Demands

If you have an interest in playing PC games that... Read More

Increasing Rates of Climb in Fighter Aircraft Like the New Joint force Strike Fighter

We know from studying aircraft like the F-8 Crusader, in... Read More

Create Computer Games - Get Started on Creating Your Own Virtual Worlds

I've always loved video games, ever since I first played... Read More

Next Generation Games Consoles - Separating Fact from Fiction

Over the next 18 months the 3 giants of the... Read More

Rent Games Online

Renting video games online has exploded in recent months! I... Read More

The Future of Submarine Games

In the last six months, the demise of sims has... Read More

The Future of Video Games

I've recently been thinking about where video games could be... Read More

Mind Boggling Information About The Popular Bingo Game!

Have you ever considered mind boggling statistics of a BINGO... Read More

Games To Encourage Thinking Skills

There is no doubt about it, using computer games is... Read More

Reviving Old Computer Games

Remember the good old days of gaming, when there were... Read More

Computer Game on Mars; Design for Communication Device

Powering up hand held wireless devices in the field for... Read More

Cloud Laser Art

A new art form in the future will be CLA.... Read More

Why We Play Games, Part 1

There exists some ephemeral quality that separates gamers from the... Read More

Great Games Youve Never Played

Do you know what you're missing?Some of the best computer... Read More

Malicious Advertising

Advertising is a necessary irritant in the world today. You... Read More

Best Space Themed Games - Part I

Space? How much we can place where? Incredible words, unknown... Read More