Video gamers, game streamers, Sloto Cash and other online casino players and even esports competitors often enjoy taking a step back into the gaming world of the ‘70s and the ‘80s with some old school gaming fun. Retro games are currently enjoying a wave of popularity as people enjoy the simplicity of retro games’ unpretentiousness.
In our age of metaverse imagery, augmented and virtual reality, casinos online and other high-tech energy, it can be soothing to sit back and experience the uncomplicated minimalism of classic gaming entertainment. Some of these retro games, like Pac-Man, are almost certainly known to almost all of today’s gamers.
But there are plenty of retro games that take one back to the basics of the gaming world that can be experienced on today’s consoles, PCs and even mobile devices.
Give retro-gaming a spin!
What is Retro Gaming?
Retrogaming involves playing old games that were originally designed for old arcade machines, PCs and consoles. Retrogames are based on discontinued or outmoded systems.
Many of these games are enjoying renewed popularity and are being reprogrammed so that they can be played on modern devices. Some of the retrogames are restyled so that 21st century elements integrate with the simplified gameplay of decades-old games.
Retrogaming is a small sub-section of the gaming world but its adherents are passionate about their preference for games that evoke nostalgia and are, oftentimes, more original and innovative than many of today’s games.
Retro games are largely 2D analog games but the popular ones have been reconfigured for modern devices. There are multiple generations of retrogames, each of which fits a different generation of consoles. They have limitations on resolution, memory and color palette and can be purchases as re-releases, often as part of compilations that run on emulation software.
Popular Retrogames
Some of the most popular retrogames sold today include:
Pac-Man: Championship Edition
The iconic Pac-Man is now available in Championship Edition on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation and PCs with Windows 7 or more. The ghost chain-gobbling chomping game now comes with a refined user-interface so you can compare your achievements with other players.
The game has more content so you wake up the ghosts, form chains of pursuers and munch as many of those ghosts as possible. You can create an escape route with bombs as you play either against yourself or compete against other gamers on social media.
The retro Pac-Man features neon-like mazes with maze line-ups, complicated courses, customized experiences, unique layouts and special options and multiple levels, each of which with its own unique set of challenges.
Space Invaders Extreme
Space Invaders Extreme can now be played as either a single-player or multi-player on Xbox Live Arcade, Steam, Nintendo and PlayStation.
The original version was released in 1978 and the premise of the game remains the same – to get rid of the space invaders while preventing them from destroying the players’ cannons. UFOs circle the screen while the cannons shoot the invaders and the players try to avoid being hit.
There are multiple levels to the game, and in each, the aliens’ formations change as they descend, sometimes individually, sometimes in groups. Some of the invaders fire lasers while others can split into duplicates.
Boss levels include large invader forces and different guards. The more you fulfill the instructions that flash in the background (hit invaders of a certain type or color), the higher your score.
Game highlights include power-ups, freezes, extra player options, bonus rounds, and “Fever Time” which awards the player with more abilities for short periods of time. In Stage Mode a player can replay any stage a second time. Extreme Mode presents the highest level of challenges.
Super Mega Worm
Super Mega Worm was developed for iOS devices and plays on Macs, iphones and ipads. The game was first released in 2010 but it adopts a retro style in its graphics and sound design. In the game, the player controls Wojira, the Great Death Worm, who is trying to destroy the human race. As the game progresses the worm grows and acquires new powers.
Throughout the various levelsthe worm moves around underground, blasting out and landing on surfaces – including on humans and animals – aboveground and destroying them. Bouncing the worm around keeps him above the surface and helps increase the gamer’s score.
To keep the worm’s strength up, he eats animals and in order to get a high enough score to move to the next level, the worm must eat a certain number of humans – the higher the level, the more humans the worm need to eat. There are power-ups – speed boosts, machine shut-downs and projectiles that the worm shoots from his mouth — to help move from one level to the next.
NES Remix
The NES Remix video game compilation was developed for Nintendo for Wii U and was released in 2013. It is composed of 16 classic Nintendo Entertainment System Games consisting of 28 vintage games with 373 challenges. The remix features unique challenges that weren’t possible technologically in the early games but are now included.
The remix challenges are excerpted from the vintage games – speedrunning, defeating enemies, clearing an area, etc. In the remix more graphical features are blended in to provide new experiences – navigating on disappearing platforms, switching characters, completing darkened levels with little light, etc.
Players accumulate stars and points which unlock collectable stamps and new challenge stars.
