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Maxim readers, please note.
Old VideogamesHaving been born in the late 60's, I played a lot of videogames as a kid. My parents had the original Odyssey game with the plastic sheets that went over the TV, and after a couple of Pong clones I got an Odyssey^2 myself when I was 8 or 9. Between then and when I moved away, I spent a lot of time on the following machines:
After moving out I did most of my gameplaying on the Amiga, and then on the PC which I still use now. These days I find that playing emulated versions of my old games is a lot more satisfying than the new games coming out (occasional Quake fix notwithstanding) and without the hassle of digging the old boxen out and hooking them up to a TV. They're simple, uncluttered, force you to use your imagination and your reflexes, and don't require a big time investment. Plus, in emulated form I can hack them, just as I wanted to at age 10 but never could. I've 'improved' upon Space Invaders for the Atari 2600, K.C. Munchkin for the Odyssey2 and most recently I made Ms. Pac Man for the 2600 into a halfway decent Pac Man. You can even play old arcade games on your computer, even the obscure ones that made up 90% of what we played in those days and don't merit rerelease now. For more information on the old games I'd say start at Retrogames, or any of my other daily visits.
*Yeah, so the C64's more obviously a computer, but I spent more time playing games on it than all my other game machines and computers combined -- even as I sat there writing BBS software and trying to write my own games. By the time I later bought a C128D and then an Amiga, I was using them much more for "real computing" and less for games, though the Amiga was a pretty sweet game platform and still is. [2001/05/05] Note to Maxim readers: I never really intended any of this stuff for a non-technical audience, so don't expect to get a lot of help out of me. What you need to know is that basically none of this stuff runs directly on your PC; almost all my projects are written for older systems, usually the Atari 2600, and you'll need an emulator program to run them. Try Stella to run the Atari stuff. If you are as nuts as I am you'll dig up a real Atari console at a flea market or whatever and get Hozer Video to make you a real cartridge of one of these things. But if you are non-technical enough that you don't know how to unzip files or run programs directly through Explorer, you will have a tough time using any of this stuff and you should probably try the commercial classic game offerings from Hasbro or Microsoft. They can usually be found in the cheap software bin at Staples or CompUSA, as well as at travelling computer shows. I bought Hasbro Space Invaders and Microsoft Return of Arcade (which includes Pac-Man) myself, and they are good, really cheap, and easy to set up. But don't consider those links an endorsement of those two online stores. I just wanted to show you the box art to make them easier for you to find. If you want more general information on running old videogames on your PC, try the MAME FAQ, which is a much better source of information on running old arcade games than this page. MAME is a program that lets you run actual arcade games on your PC, and it's bound to be much more interesting for you than my little hacks. I assume this because half of the emails I have gotten are like, "Can you tell me how to find a version of Donkey Kong for the PC??"
Rob's Old Games Page, August 2002, |
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Finally, I ported 
