As a number of celebrated video classics reach their 25th anniversary, three core industries are looking to cash in on the popularity. Along with the consumer entertainment and visitor-attraction industry, there is the amusement scene – the original home of these games. The arcade industry is working to revive its past glories and proven bankability.

What many would call the natural home of retro gaming has proved a difficult medium to master. The first sanctioned appearance of retro gaming was from UltraCade Technologies/Global VR with its UltraCade multi-game system, a machine that houses more than 30 classic titles licensed from their originators. Though not the first retro, UltraCade made the important step of licensing the rights to run these classic games, rather than illegally stripping the game code for arcade rerelease.

UltraCade and its new owner Global VR have built on the concept of classic popularity in a reliable box with Dragon’s Lair, the stylish laser-disc game hamstrung by unreliability, now rereleased through System 99 LLC. Likewise, the widely admired Fast Draw Shoot Out and other laser-disc gun games have been rereleased as dependable PC versions by Global VR. The range had been distributed by UDC, Brent and Electrocoin Sales with mixed results as more and more operators became interested in the benefits of retro cabinets.

The major arcade manufacturers have been inspired to move their own operations to look at classic-game properties from their back catalogues. Namco Europe, in collaboration with Nintendo, recently launched Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior and Mario Bros., building off the successful reception that its previous Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga and Pac-Man 25th Anniversary Model retro titles received.

The company has used its classic brand identity to publicise other genres of products, such as the Pac- Man Ball pusher. Namco’s involvement with retro titles has extended to all its divisions – maximising its profitable back catalogue – the company’s mobilephone division releasing Ms. Pac-Man and other classic titles to be played on handsets.

A victim of the counterfeiters stripping past classic titles, Taito started to develop a series of retro cabinets in the late 1990s. Space Invaders/Qix also marked the celebrations for Space Invaders’ 25th Anniversary Special Edition. The anniversary of such prominent classic games from arcade history is an important factor in audience recognition and free marketing, merger partner Square regarding this as a major asset.

When considering classic amusement, pinball gaming looms large in the memories of many thirtysomethings. The classic gaming element that pinball evokes has cemented Stern pin tables in the operators’ minds. The ability of pinball tables to conjure up feelings of nostalgia has allowed continued market penetration of a product that is receiving a revival: Stern’s latest tables are becoming classics in their own right.

One key aspect of the video-amusement scene is the use of a simplistic gaming infrastructure in classic titles among SWPs and Section 16/21 products. Systems such as the ItBox and the more recently launched Rollerball from Intouch Games incorporate homage titles that bear a resemblance to retro games.

As hardened player groups unable to find satisfaction in what remains of their local arcades attempted to replicate their nostalgic enjoyment at home, the popularity of classic arcade-machine ownership found its peak in 2000. Players are now prepared to install the latest classics on their computers, and thus has evolved the world of the Multi Arcade Machine Emulator (Mame) – the standard in PC-game architecture.

The new generation of domestic players now forgoes the original arcade cabinet in favour of homecustomised arcade systems, often known as electronic furniture. Companies such as Awesome Arcade and Coincepts are now offering the ultimate home-retro delight. The former’s upright PC cabinet is a mixture of home-gaming conformity and legal responsibility, having licensed classic titles for use on its product.

The home-entertainment market has recognised the benefits of nostalgic gaming for some time, from providing “arcade-perfect” games on consoles to more recently offering all-in-one plug-in TV retro-game devices. Even the next-generation consoles have attempted to play Mame at its own game. Microsoft’s new XB360 console features the Xbox Live: Arcade online download service that comprises a growing stable of classic coin-op games to relive.

The other next-generation console developers hope to follow suit with their own retro games. Nintendo’s new Wii platform, for example, proposes to offer Wii: Virtual Console downloadable classics. And with the downloading and playing comes the scoring. In the local arcade of yesteryear, the knowledge that those three initials on the high-score board were yours was enough, but now, top scorers are internationally publicised. The online resource Twin Galaxies has become the equivalent of the Guinness Book of Records for current video gaming.

Technology is also advancing from the arcade games of a bygone era, played in the home, to recalling the nostalgia of those games and passing them on to the new generation.

Visitor-attraction exhibits based on the history of electronic video entertainment have recently become popular with curator and public alike. The first successful arcade-based museum exhibit was Videotopia. The Chicago-based Electronic Conservancy worked hard to establish a detailed chronicle of the move into the electrical/mechanical video-based entertainment sector.

More recently, the UK-based Game On exhibition has attempted to do the same. It was shown at the Barbican, then a successful tour of locations in America and Europe culminated in a return to London with an appearance at the Science Museum. The exhibition – a mixture of predominately home gaming with some early coin-op examples – was partly funded by a million-pound sponsorship investment by the consumer-games giant Nintendo.

Among all this retrograde interest, one new exhibition concept hopes to break the mould and prove that arcades can entertain on their own. The newly announced Virtual Arcade Experience (VAE) offers a temple in which to worship video gaming, and aims to apply the same level of interaction to learning about the classic days of video amusement – and its future – as simply playing the games. VAE will provide a true edutainment experience, far more than a collection of dusty old machines with signs documenting their history.

Where coin-operated amusement started, the classics continue to influence the entertainment values of the maturing gaming audience. The blatant hijacking of these retro masterpieces to assist flagging consumer spend is an example of amusement’s strengths ... and weaknesses.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Feature writer Kevin Williams is founder and director of the outof- home leisure entertainment consultancy KWP Limited (www.thestingerreport.com/kwp.htm) His extensive experience in the global video amusement and hitech attractions industry includes top management and design posts, with special focus on new technology development and applications. A well-known speaker on the industry and its technology, he pens an extensive number of articles. He is also editor and publisher of The Stinger Report, a leading free industry e-newsletter and webbased information service (www.thestingerreport.com).

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