Retro Lament

The recent purchase of a used Star Control 2 game has got me in Retro Mode. By "retro," I don't mean using a hotrod gaming PC powerful enough to control a Space Shuttle launch to play Choplifter. I mean "Retro" in the sense of quality enduring through time.

It really frosts my flakes to consider how many of the truly great games of yesteryear - real classics like M.U.L.E., Star Control 2, Archon, Starflight, the better Ultimas, etc. - have vanished into the mists for most gamers.

Vanished is certainly the term. We're not talking about the dusty bottom shelf of the local EB or overlooked stacks of $10 jewel cases. Many of the classics are practically unobtainable.

Take M.U.L.E. Published in 1983 for the Atari 800 (and later ported to the Commodore 64), this excellent game never appeared on either the PC or Mac. I'd wager that only about 2-3/100 of current gamers have even heard of it. We're not talking about an average title, either. M.U.L.E. is one of the best computer games ever. Yet, at this point, it might as well have never existed.

Even those old enough (or retro-devoted enough) to even know about M.U.L.E. cannot legally play it unless they have a working Atari 8-bit PC or a Commodore 64. Sure, there are some of those still knocking about. But look, I don't care how elite a vintage PC collector you are; these things were not built to last decades.

There is also the fragility of the magnetic game medium itself to consider. The day is coming - and it's not as far off as we would like to think - when a working Atari 800 will be as rare as a Dusenberg. At that point, those who still possess and maintain them will be either outright professional collectors or gaming's version of manuscript-scribbling monks. Either way, they're not going to let you anywhere near their precious antiques.

Well then, we think, thank goodness for emulators. Problem solved, right? I beg to differ. I don't want to start a nasty (and endless) fight over the propriety of emulators and abandonware. All I will say is that the whole thing is a very shaky basis - legally and ethically - to stake the preservation of classic games on.

What's more, we have to appreciate how small the emulator audience is. Hardcore PC and console gamers devoting time and money to keeping older games and tech alive and spending hours (and small fortunes) scouring eBay for mint-in-box copies of Suspended are fine as far as that goes - but it doesn't go very far. Most gamers are oblivious to this. For them, when a platform (or entire generation) crosses the line into 'dead tech,' it's gone.

Aside from making curmudgeonly Ancient Gamers like me feel old, the historical amnesia caused by rapid technological obsolescence has a detrimental effect on game design overall. Even the best games have a very short 'life' - except in the hands of collectors and die-hards - before they are shoved off the stage to make room for the Next Big Thing.

This not only prevents a lot of people from enjoying (or even knowing about) great games like M.U.L.E. but also prevents the formation of a collective, creative memory for the gaming community. For the bulk of current gamers, any titles older than 5 years might as well have never been made. With the classics out of sight and mind, gamers are left with the same old ideas served up again and again because they seem new each time.

I would also argue that this is a factor in gaming's protracted adolescence; more specifically, the fixation with violence, puerile sexuality and "attitude." Having no accessible past, gaming's collective mind is confined to the Perpetual Now. It literally cannot grow up. Perhaps I'm over analyzing this. But consider this: In most creative endeavors, quality and worth are proven over time. With computer games, that which is old is simply... old. Forgotten. The "good" stuff is always what's about to happen, not that which has endured over time and transcended the circumstances of its creation.

What flat-out puzzles me is why more gaming companies don't see what a gold mine of ideas, stories and great gaming hooks reside in these old worthies. How many games have you played recently that were technically / visually dazzling but utterly empty of good writing, interesting characters and that ever-elusive 'fun?'

Why not revisit, say, Starflight? Here's a space exploration game from 1986 that's smart, funny and genuinely involving. A good development team could port this thing in their sleep. All the tricky writing stuff - character design, background story, dialog, surprise ending, you name it - is already there. A splash of new art, update for DirectX support, and you're done. A classic lives again.

When I win the lottery, I'd like to buy the rights to the golden oldies, assemble some good programmers, and re-release them for Windows and the Mac. I'll bet I could do a good job on Sundog for less than what Romero's Ion Storm spent on office furniture.