The New Zen of Playing Old Video Games
On Sept. 29, a new Tickle Me Elmo arrived in online storesand then quickly vanished. That same day, Nintendo's new Super NES Classic, a Lilliputian version of the '90s-era game console compatible with today's television sets, sold out in minutes. The wee machine proved popular partly because it comes with some 20 classic games built in, including a never-released version of cult favorite Star Fox. But mostly it went so fast because retro game boxes are like fidget spinners for nostalgic grownups. The 79 Super NES Classic isn't the first throwback game device by far. A line of plug-and-play set-tops crammed with Atari's iconic games has been around since the early 2000s. And so-called virtual consoles have allowed players to download halcyon hits to modern Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft platforms through software emulation for years. But it took last year's impossible-to-find, heavily scalped 59 NES Classica mini Nintendo Entertainment System with 30 built-in games, including the first Super Mario and Legend of Zeldato jolt the category. There's more to come Atari announced what it calls an Ataribox, a new console styled after its 1977 Atari 2600 that is designed to run both old and new games. A pint-sized C64 Mini laden with classic Commodore 64 games will go on sale for 69 early next year. At this rate, a miniature Apple II and TRS-80 seem inevitable. Part of retro gaming's allure stems from a preservationist impulse, like remastering classic music albums or releasing "definitive" editions of beloved films. Vintage video games have it rough by comparison, though. Lo-fi graphics optimized for old-school TVs look garish on today's ultra-high-definition screens. Retro consoles ease that translation with modern perks like HDMI support. More interesting is why you might want to play a classic game at all, especially if you don't harbor fond memories from their particular era. Sure, Nintendo mainstays like Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past may look crudely basic at first glance. But playing one in 2017 is a reminder of not only how much they got right about game design but also how much they influenced contemporary titles. The experience is not unlike re-engaging a superlative jazz solo or a half-century-old abstract painting. Whether you view a system like the Super NES Classic as a portable library of bygone times or just a reminder of how tortuously difficult some of those games were, its popularity makes one thing certain the game with the longest odds, at this point, is finding one.