Love Your Mac

Inspiring ideas for revamping old Apple kit

For as long as they’ve existed, I’ve wanted to own an original cabinet for Defender and Gauntlet. They were the best video games of their time, 1981 and 1985 respectively, by a wide margin. Every 10p I had as a teenager went into them. Eventually, home video games overtook the arcade, but the nostalgia value of those early masterpieces left its hooks deep in my brain. Those cabinets go for around £2,000 on eBay, but there are too many amazing new toys to buy without chasing every childhood dream as well. On the other hand, my old first-generation iPad takes up little space and has more computing power than an entire 1980s arcade. Instead of selling it for £50 and putting that towards my next frivolous indulgence, it can help me scratch a 30-year-old itch.

You can play Gauntlet on a touchscreen, but it’s much better with a real joystick and buttons.