I’m still working my way through UFO 50. If you aren’t familiar, it’s a game that presents itself as a collection of 50 games from a lost platform (it looks like an old Microcomputer like the Apple II, but feels like an NES). They’re not quite mini-games, even if some are quite simple and short, but rather, they’re full nouveau retro games that you get to dig through.
While fictional, the games are assigned a release date from 1983 to 1989 and are depicted with similar limitations to game development standards at the time. In this way, it provides a similar experience to actually digging through a real console, publisher, developer, or genre’s back catalog. It might not even be with video games; it can also happen with movies or music. I fall down those holes all the time. I’m still kind of going through one that has me delving into any game I can find involving Yoshiro Kimura and friends.
But maybe this is the first time you’ve had that feeling. It makes you feel like a sponge absorbing every possible piece of information like dirty dishwater. It’s satisfying because it’s something you’re experiencing in a complete and meaningful way. If you know what dark alley to wander down, you can download a console’s entire library these days, but if you’re only interacting with the games on a superficial level, it’s hard to stay engaged. So, if you’re looking for more catalogs with context, then I’ve got some suggestions for you.
Coming up with 50 unique game concepts is a pretty amazing flex. No notes, as they say. But you can also get that sort of variety from real game compilations. Have you tried Capcom Arcade Stadium? Have you tried Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium? Together, they provide you with 60 games (30 a piece, roughly) from Capcom’s prolific arcade output. Maybe you know of Final Fight and Street Fighter, but have you tried The Speed Rumbler or Black Tiger?
While the Capcom Arcade Stadium games are largely just standard compilations and don’t do much to provide context to make it easier to dive into, it has additional features to make it feel like a real arcade. There are not only CRT filters to make it look like the games are being played on an old monitor. You can even set it so that it’s displayed on the 3D model of the arcade cabinet, giving you the feeling of playing in an arcade. For extra credit (and I recommend this for playing arcade titles from any collection), get an arcade/fight stick. Arcade games have a degree of physicality to them, and it’s sometimes lost when using a joypad.
Nintendo Switch Online
A Nintendo Switch Online subscription gives you access to NES, SNES, and Game Boy titles, and if you spring for the Expansion Pack subscription, you also get Game Boy Advance, N64, and Sega Genesis titles. While a lot of the titles are just Nintendo’s own back catalog, you also get access to a lot of terrific hidden gems and titles that were only released in Japan (and are still in Japanese; just a warning).
There’s no real curation or context given to the games. You can’t even read their instruction manual without looking them up on sites that Nintendo would probably prefer didn’t exist. However, it’s at least limited and focused in a way that downloading every single ROM in the universe isn’t, which makes it much easier to get invested in delving into each title.
Antstream Arcade
Speaking of getting access to a lot of games at once, Antstream Arcade is still the place to go to get access to a tonne of arcade titles that you can’t get easy access to elsewhere. It’s advertised as having over 1400 games, which includes titles across classic consoles and microcomputers. More importantly, each game has challenges that you can undertake, giving you new way to interact with them. There are also constantly changing online competitions to take part in and test your skills against others. It’s a great way to get into something new.
Antstream Arcade is a streaming service, meaning you don’t play the games locally on your device, but rather through the internet. This results in some visual artifacts, especially in moments of high speed, but I found everything rather responsive. It also has the downside that sometimes games get delisted. Antstream was once one of the only places to play Midway and Atari Games’ old titles like Smash TV and Tapper, but after the contract expired with Warner Bros, they disappeared. I can’t say I’m a fan of the ephemeral nature, but it’s relatively cheap and gives you access to a huge library with added context.
Atari 50
Compilations of old Atari games are nothing new, even recently. Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, however, is no mere compilation. Assembled by Digital Eclipse (who Atari later acquired), it’s set up as more of an interactive documentary. All the games are placed on a timeline that guides you through the history of their release. Many of them are supplemented with additional material, such as behind-the-scenes documents and interviews.
An Atari 2600 game on its own is not that impressive anymore. The console could only handle very basic designs, and they can get old pretty quickly. However, with the added context, you can earn a new appreciation for them that you wouldn’t get in a normal compilation.
Hi Score Girl
Hi Score Girl isn’t a collection, nor is it an individual video game. It’s instead a manga by Rensuke Oshikiri which was later turned into an anime series. It is a slice-of-life, bittersweet romance, but more importantly, it’s set in the ‘90s and heavily centers around video games. And this isn’t the mere hobby of playing video games; specific games are mentioned frequently. Loads of real-world video games from different developers and publishers. While it is particularly focused on the fighting games of the decade, it always takes time to take a tour around the arcade.
Even if you aren’t big on the romance part of Hi Score Girl, the games will keep you distracted. Video games are the central pillar in protagonist Haruo Yaguchi’s life as he grows up and learns to balance them with other developing priorities. It’s hard not to find the depth of his passion infectious, and it can lead to some introspection on the way you approach the hobby.
As I said, Hi Score Girl isn’t a collection of games, but it can help act as a guide. Not all of the titles mentioned are readily available on storefronts, but the majority of them are, either through other collections (like the aforementioned Capcom Arcade Stadium) or Hamster’s Arcade Archives releases.
Pico-8
Are you looking for something less old but still made in the spirit of UFO 50? Try Pico-8 which, I know how that looks, but it’s not a collection of eight games. The 8 refers to 8-bit, because Pico-8 is essentially a modernized 8-bit platform. That is to say, it’s a new platform, but it’s restricted in a lot of ways that an 8-bit computer would be, so developers who work on it have to create games around those limitations, much as they would if they were programming on a Commodore 64. And when you impose those limitations on creators, they have to get more creative to work around them.
Better yet, it’s free. You can play games made for it in your web browser. If you want more than that, you can play it on a variety of devices. There’s even an FPGA core for the Analogue Pocket. Then, if you’re feeling inspired, it’s not a bad way to learn to design your own games. At that point, you’ll have to pay for Pico-8, but it gives you all the tools you need to program your own game for it.
Game Center CX
Game Center CX also isn’t a video game. Kind of. We’ll get to that. It’s a long-running (since 2003!) Japanese TV show about a guy who plays through retro games. They aren’t Let’s Plays or longplays, though. They’re condensed into roughly an hour and include a narrator who talks about the events like it’s an extremely dramatic situation. In some of the early seasons, he also visits arcades, giving a look at that corner of the hobby. It’s a great way to learn about video games from a Japanese perspective and can introduce you to some titles that may not have been released over here.
There are a couple of problems here. The first is that Game Center CX never really aired in North America (aside from a rather disappointing attempt at localization). However, there’s a fan community around the show that releases English-subtitled versions. I can’t tell you where these are because this is a good, upstanding website, but you should be able to find them if you browse the high seas, me hearties.
Retro Game Challenge/Game Center CX 1+2 Replay
Game Center CX even got its own series of games. The first of which was released over here as Retro Game Challenge in 2009 on DS. If anything is similar to UFO 50 in this list, it’s Retro Game Challenge. Like UFO 50, it presents a set of nouveau retro games. In this case, they’re somewhat obviously supposed to be Famicom games. There are eight in total, and while you are initially given simple goals to complete within them, you’re eventually let loose to play through them in their entirety. Also, like UFO 50, these are essentially full games.
But more importantly, all the games are set within the context of the real world. You’re transported back to the ‘80s to be a kid again, and proceed through the games as they’re released. New magazines drop every so often, so you can read about tricks and secrets. It’s pretty authentic, even if it’s pretty Japan-focused.
The follow-up, Game Center CX: Arino no Chōsenjō 2 is largely the same concept but expanded to more games and consoles. It’s even better. However, the less we talk about Game Center CX: 3-chōme no Arino the better because, by many accounts, it’s not anywhere near as good, having been handed off to a new developer. Unfortunately, neither game was localized, so if you’re a monolinguistic anglophone, then you’ll have to rely on a fan translation.
To rub salt in the wound, the first two games were ported to Switch as Game Center CX 1+2 Replay. This, too, was not localized, and it looks like it isn’t going to be. That sucks. It really, really sucks.
Itch dot io
We’ve reached a point where there is no conceivable way to play every game that gets released. As such, even the most determined game spelunkers like myself have only seen a small sliver of what’s out there. Do you know what separates a popular game from an unknown one? Quality? Fuck no. It’s a big part marketing budget, and the rest of it is luck.
You can’t rely on someone to bring you your next favorite game, not even me! It’s better to try and seek it out yourself. And while you can plumb the depths of Steam, a better option is to dig through itch.io. Itch is a favorite of indie (actual indie, not just alternative) developers due in part to its open revenue split and marketplace. This means that a lot of devs who are starting into game design for the first time will market their games through Itch.
An uncurated, boundaryless, open market can lead to a lot of garbage. And indeed, it has. And with garbage, it can be daunting to try and reach in and pull out something of value. However, itch is also a community. The devs collaborate and participate in jams together. They follow each other’s work, and through one, you can find other similar creators, and through those, you can find more and more. Usually, the games are cheap. Sometimes, a developer will use a pay-what-you-want structure and that means, yes, you can get games for free.
Video games are art, and like art, not all of it is good. But I’d argue that it’s the big marketable games like the latest Ubisoft sandbox title or free-to-play gacha title that are the soulless dregs.
