Retrogaming

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Super Potato, a retro game store in Akihabara, Tokyo
Gameplay of Alex Kidd in Miracle World on a Master System, and others in the background, in 2012

Retrogaming, also known as classic gaming and old school gaming, is the playing and collection of obsolete

personal computers, consoles, and video games. Usually, retrogaming is based upon systems that are outmoded or discontinued, although ported retrogaming allows games to be played on modern hardware via ports or compilations. It is typically for nostalgia, preservation, or authenticity. A new game could be retro styled, such as an RPG with turn-based combat and pixel art in isometric camera perspective
.

Retrogaming has existed since the early years of the video game industry, and was popularized with the Internet and emulation technology.[1] It is argued that the main reasons players are drawn to retrogames are nostalgia for different eras,[2] the idea that older games are more innovative and original,[2] and the simplicity of the games.

Retrogaming and retrocomputing have been described as preservation activity and as aspects of the remix culture.[3]

Games

The distinction between retro and modern is heavily debated, but it usually coincides with either the shift from 2D to 3D games (making the fourth the last retro generation, and the fifth the first modern), the turn of the millennium and the increase in online gaming (making the fifth the last retro generation, and the sixth the first modern), or the switch from analog to digital for audiovisual output and from 4:3 to 16:9 aspect ratio (making the sixth the last retro generation, and the seventh the first modern). They can be played on original hardware or in modern emulation.

Retrogaming methods

With increasing nostalgia and success of retro compilations in the fifth, sixth, and seventh generations of consoles, retrogaming has become a

La Mulana
.

This concept, known as deliberate retro

System 16 hardware running on PlayStation 2
to create a 16-bit reimagining of the 8-bit original.

Vintage retrogaming

Used Super Famicom consoles and games are sold in like new condition in Akihabara. Used games are sold with or without packaging.[7]

Vintage retrogaming can involve collecting original cartridge and disc media

millennial generation pursuing the hobby during the lockdown due to boredom and nostalgia.[12]

Retrogaming emulation

Main article: Video game emulator

Retrogaming may involve older game systems being emulated on modern hardware. It bypasses the need to collect older consoles and original games. Read-only memory (ROM) files are copied by third parties, directly from the original media. They are then typically put online through file sharing sites.[8] They are often sold as re-releases, typically in compilations containing multiple games running on emulation software.[13] The accessibility of emulation popularized and expanded on retrogaming.[14]

Ported retrogaming

Ported retrogaming involves original games being converted to native on new systems, just as emulation but without original ROM files.[8] Ported games are available through official collections, console-based downloads, and plug and play systems.[14] Ported retrogaming is comparatively rare, since emulation is a much easier and more accurate method.

Remakes

Main article: Video game remake

Modern retrogaming may be more broadly applied to retro-style designs and reimaginings with more modern graphics. These enhanced

Pac-Man: Championship Edition, Space Invaders Extreme, Super Mega Worm, and 3D Dot Game Heroes. Some are based directly upon the enhanced emulation of original games, as with Nintendo's NES Remix
.

graphic card.[15]

When remakes are created by an individual or a group of enthusiasts without commercial motivation, such games sometimes are also called

fan-made remakes are King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown, King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones, and Freeciv
.

The nostalgia-based revival of past game styles has also been accompanied by the development of the modern

chiptune genre of game music. Chiptunes are characterized by severe limitations of sound imposed by the author's self-restriction to using only the original sound chips from 8-bit or 16-bit games. These compositions are featured in many retro-style modern games and are popular in the demoscene
.

Re-releases

With the new possibility of the

Rock, Paper, Shotgun[16]

A digital distributor specialized in bringing older games out of abandonware is GOG.com (formerly called Good Old Games) who started 2008 to search for copyright holders of older games to re-release them legally and DRM-free.[17] Other companies have also been established to rerelease retro games, including Limited Run Games and iam8bit.[18]

Online platforms for older video game re-releases include Nintendo's Virtual Console and Sony's PlayStation Network.

Mobile application developers have been purchasing the rights and licensing to re-release older arcade games on iOS and Android operating systems. Some publishers are creating spinoffs to their older games, keeping the core gameplay while adding new features, levels, and styles of play.

Plug-and-play systems

Atari, Sega, and Nintendo. These systems include stand-alone game libraries and plug directly into the user's television.[8]

Retrogaming community

The Art of Video Games premiered at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2012.

The retrogaming market is active with online and physical spaces where retrogames are discussed, collected, and played.[14]

Online

Several websites and online forums are devoted to retrogaming. The content on these online platforms typically includes reviews of older games, interviews with developers, fan-made content, game walkthroughs, and message boards for discussions.

speedrun or high score
records.

Fighting games

The competitive Fighting game community comes from arcades, such as Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.[19] Some fighting games have continued to receive arcade releases after the end of the arcade era.[20] Face-to-face competition of Super Street Fighter II Turbo has been featured in the Evolution Championship Series.[21]

Exhibitions

Events typically include vendors, gameplay, tournaments, costumes, and live music. The Classic Tetris World Championship has been streamed online to millions of views and recaps have been broadcast on ESPN2.[22]

Museums

Retrogaming is recognized by

Computerspielemuseum Berlin was founded in 1997. Some classical art museums bear a video gaming retrospective, as with 2012's Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibition titled The Art of Video Games[25] or as part of the Museum of Modern Art "Applied Design" exhibition in 2013.[26] Starting in 2015, The Strong National Museum of Play adds games annually to the World Video Game Hall of Fame. In 2016, the first museum dedicated solely to the history of the videogame industry, The National Videogame Museum
, was opened in Frisco, Texas.

Legal issues

An exemption in the United States'

No One Lives Forever, the rights remain ambiguous, preventing legal distribution.[28]

Emulators are typically created by third parties, and the software they run is often taken directly from the original games and put online for free download.[8] While it is completely legal for anyone to create an emulator for any hardware, unauthorized distribution of the code for a retro game is an infringement of the game's copyright.[29] Some companies have made public statements, such as Nintendo, stating that "the introduction of emulators created to play illegally copied Nintendo software represents the greatest threat to date in the intellectual property rights of video game developers".[30] However, video game developers and publishers typically ignore emulation.[8] One reason for this is that at any given time, most of the games illegally distributed for emulation are not presently being sold by the company which owns the game, and so the financial damages in a successful lawsuit would likely be negligible.[29]

Copyright infringement cases

Nintendo of America Inc. v. Tropic Haze LLC, No.

Nintendo filed a lawsuit in 2024 against Tropic Haze, claiming Yuzu, Tropic Haze's emulator, infringed copyright by reverse engineering Nintendo's hardware. The settlement included Tropic Haze paying $2.4 million and halting their emulator projects.[31][32][33]

Nintendo of America Incorporated v. Mathias Designs LLC.

Nintendo sued the owner of LoveROMs.com and LoveRETRO.co in 2018 for hosting copyrighted game files and facilitating piracy. The court awarded Nintendo $12,230,000 in damages, leading to the shutdown of the sites.[34][35][36]

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. v. Connectix Corp.

In 1999, Sony sued Connectix, the court issued a preliminary injunction against Connectix for copyright infringement on their Virtual Game Station, an emulator enabling PC users to play PlayStation games, violating Sony's BIOS copyright.[37][38][39]

Sega Enterprises Ltd. v. Accolade, Inc.

Sega Enterprises sued Accolade in 1992 for reverse engineering Sega's technology to develop compatible games for the Sega Genesis console. The court sided with Accolade, supporting certain reverse engineering efforts for compatibility.[37][40]

Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc.

In 1992, Lewis Galoob Toys was sued by Nintendo over the Game Genie, a device allowing game modifications for personal use. The 9th District Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Lewis Galoob Toys, stating such modifications did not infringe copyright, permitting the continued sale of the Game Genie.[37][41]

See also

References

  1. ^ Heineman, David S. (January 22, 2014). "Public Memory and Gamer Identity: Retrogaming as Nostalgia". Journal of Games Criticism. Vol. 1, no. 1. pp. 1–24. Retrieved February 22, 2016.
  2. ^
    Imagine Media
    . April 1997. pp. 36–45.
  3. hdl:2142/38392. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 13, 2018. Retrieved March 26, 2016. This paper looks at the world of retrocomputing, a constellation of largely non-professional practices involving past computing technology. Retrocomputing includes many activities that can be seen as constituting 'preservation.' At the same time, it is often transformative, producing assemblages that 'remix' fragments from the past with newer elements or joining together historic components that were never combined before. While such 'remix' may seem to undermine preservation, it allows for fragments of computing history to be reintegrated into a living, ongoing practice, contributing to preservation in a broader sense. The seemingly unorganized nature of retrocomputing assemblages also provides space for alternative 'situated knowledges' and histories of computing, which can sometimes be quite sophisticated. Recognizing such alternative epistemologies paves the way for alternative approaches to preservation.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (link
    )
  4. ^ "Deliberately Retro". giantbomb.com. Archived from the original on December 27, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
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  13. Imagine Media
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  14. ^ a b c d Heineman, David S. (January 22, 2014). "Public Memory and Gamer Identity: Retrogaming as Nostalgia". Journal of Games Criticism. Vol. 1, no. 1. pp. 1–24. Retrieved February 22, 2016.
  15. ^ Knight, Jason. "Paku Paku – A game for early PC/MS-DOS Computers". deathshadow.com. Archived from the original on January 19, 2013. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
  16. Rock, Paper, Shotgun
    . Retrieved June 28, 2013. The worst days [for game development] were the cartridge days for the NES. It was a huge risk – you had all this money tied up in silicon in a warehouse somewhere, and so you'd be conservative in the decisions you felt you could make, very conservative in the IPs you signed, your art direction would not change, and so on. Now it's the opposite extreme: we can put something up on Steam, deliver it to people all around the world, make changes. We can take more interesting risks.... Retail doesn't know how to deal with those games. On Steam [a digital distributor] there's no shelf-space restriction. It's great because they're a bunch of old, orphaned games.
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  18. GamesRadar. Archived
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  19. ^ Bowman, Mitch (February 6, 2014). "Why the fighting game community is color blind". Polygon. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
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  21. ^ Walker, Ian. "Evo 2015 Super Street Fighter II Turbo Side Tournaments Unveiled, Registration Now Live". Archived from the original on October 9, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  22. ^ "Organize This - Talking Tetris Champs With Vincent Clemente". www.twingalaxies.com. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
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  28. ^ Cobbett, Richard (May 10, 2015). "Why it shouldn't be left to pirates to keep our games alive". TechRadar. Retrieved June 17, 2023.
  29. ^
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  30. ^ "| Nintendo – Corporate Information | Legal Information (Copyrights, Emulators, ROMs, etc.)". www.nintendo.com. Archived from the original on June 18, 2016. Retrieved February 22, 2016.
  31. ^ Lyles, Taylor (March 4, 2024). "Yuzu Creators Will Pay Nintendo $2.4 Million in Damages and End Development of Switch Emulator". IGN. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
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  37. ^ a b c Lee, C. A. (2022). Video game modding in the U.S. intellectual property law: Controversial issues and gaps. Digital Law Journal, 3(4), 8-31.
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  39. ISSN 1059-1028
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  40. ISSN 1061-6578
    .
  41. ^ When Nintendo fought a device that gave Mario 'new superpowers'. (2020, November 18). CBC News. Retrieved January 19, 2023, from https://www.cbc.ca/news

External links

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