Retro gaming has never been better (wakka wakka wakka)

In 1976 my world changed forever when I went to the new Clifton Country Mall (in Clifton Park, N.Y.) and walked into the Electric Circuit, the new "arcade" that had a bunch of pinball machines, foosball tables and eventually, "video games" such as Pong, Asteroids, Space Invaders and Pac-Man.

Armed with a pocketful of quarters from my father, I would spend hours trying for the high score in Eagle (an obscure, Galaxian-like game), Robotron or hundreds of other similar games.The Electric Circuit eventually turned into the Gold Mine, and eventually faded away, just like other mall arcades from the 1970s and 1980s. If you can find an arcade these days, you'll see mostly ticket-expunging machines that let you win carnival-quality junk like a fake mustache (only 700 tickets).

Good gaming moved onto home console systems and PCs, and now most games have an online, multiplayer component that let you compete around the country with other players. But the video game companies haven't forgotten those gamers longing for the days when the hardest choice to make was whether to risk going for the 5,000-point banana (answer: yes).

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Armed with a pocketful of quarters from my father, I would spend hours trying for the high score in Eagle (an obscure, Galaxian-like game), Robotron or hundreds of other similar games.The Electric Circuit eventually turned into the Gold Mine, and eventually faded away, just like other mall arcades from the 1970s and 1980s. If you can find an arcade these days, you'll see mostly ticket-expunging machines that let you win carnival-quality junk like a fake mustache (only 700 tickets).

Good gaming moved onto home console systems and PCs, and now most games have an online, multiplayer component that let you compete around the country with other players. But the video game companies haven't forgotten those gamers longing for the days when the hardest choice to make was whether to risk going for the 5,000-point banana (answer: yes).

Two recent products and services are bringing back the glory days for us retro gamers: TBS (yes, the TV network) recently launched its GameTap service, a broadband-enabled service for PC users that gives access to hundreds of classic games and video game systems. In addition to letting users download older PC games, the service has a library that includes many Atari 2600-type games (including old Activision games like Pitfall and Kaboom!). Users pay a monthly fee ($15) and then can download any game from the library to their system (an authentication system prevents copying games to other systems). Atari 2600-type games take seconds to download; longer PC games might require an overnight download. In addition to the games, users can view unique content (including classic TV video game commercials) and TBS-branded content. Playing a game of Adventure during a recent beta test, a tear came to my eye when I remembered the exact maze pattern to get to the black castle.

Retro gaming has also advanced to the latest video game systems - the Namco Museum Battle Collection lets PlayStation Portable (PSP) owners play games such as Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man and Dig Dug. Just to keep up with the kids of today and their gaming habits, a new battle mode also lets two PSP owners duke it out via a wireless connection. Me, I'm just trying to figure out whether to let the Galaga ship capture my ship with its blue tractor beam.

Shaw can be reached at kshaw@nww.com.