Let’s Get Physical
EXPANDING YOUR RETRO COLLECTION USED TO NECESSITATE HUNTING FOR USED GAMES, BUT OLD FAVOURITES ARE NOW BEING REISSUED FOR THEIR ORIGINAL SYSTEMS. WE TALK TO THE COMPANIES BEHIND THESE RELEASES TO FIND OUT HOW AND WHY THEY’RE HAPPENING
Meet the companies that are still supporting your favourite classic consoles
here are plenty of ways to play classic games today, from mini consoles and the Evercade to digital re-releases on modern hardware, but some of us just prefer original hardware. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but modern demand doesn’t always play nicely with historical supply. Some games that are now recognised as classics were underappreciated in their own time, meaning that there aren’t too many copies to go around. Others may have been regionally restricted, or wound up as the victim of publisher problems. Lest we forget, gaming is also more popular than it was 30 years ago. Constant demand from players enthralled by modern sequels is enough to push up the price of even the most common of classics. In the past, that has meant that players either had to pay through the nose or go without, but today there are a number of companies out there that have decided to return classic console games to market by manufacturing brand-new copies, compatible with the original hardware.
But why manufacture new games for obsolete hardware in the first place? Surprisingly, we encountered a variety of different motivations. For one company, it was a simple case of supporting its other business ventures. “Retro-bit started producing clone consoles and peripherals so publishing carts was something we always wanted to do,” says marketing manager Richard Igros. “We believe there will always be a demand for physical media and even more so in gaming. With retro gaming having a more prominent space in the industry over the years and breaking more into the mainstream, this was only going to be a natural next step and companies are starting to realise that.” Retro-bit’s reissues have included games such as the Data East Classic Collection and Jaleco Brawler’s Pack multicarts, as well as Metal Storm for the NES.
Josh Fairhurst of Limited Run Games sees it as a simple case of satisfying market demand. “Reissuing
existing games has always appealed to me because there are a ton of younger people being introduced to these older platforms via Youtube and they want to collect for these systems. Supplies are fixed, so prices have been rising to a pretty absurd degree. The market’s response to this has been to turn to bootlegs,” he explains. “These bootlegs aren’t earning the licence holders anything, but at the same time the licence holders aren’t pressing these themselves. Someone needed to step in to fix this so new, legal copies can enter the market.” Limited Run Games has manufactured new runs of The Secret Of Monkey Island for Mega-cd and a variety of Star Wars games including Shadows Of The Empire, as well as original NES projects like Jay & Silent Bob Mall Brawl. Over at iam8bit, the driving force behind the decision to enter the market was a desire to celebrate games. “We’ve always been fascinated by the homebrew scene – going to classic gaming expos and seeing new riffs on the defunct consoles,” say co-owners Jon M Gibson and Amanda White. “Way back in 2006 we even officially commissioned, with Capcom’s permission, a playable Atari 2600 version of Mega Man for an art exhibition installation, to play along with a 15-times-scale Atari controller. Our cartridge obsession has always been there, so we started thinking – what if we created a ‘Criterion’ style label for old-school games?” The result is the company’s Legacy Cartridge Collection, which so far includes games such as Mega Man 2 for the NES, Street Fighter II for the SNES and Aladdin for the Mega Drive.
If you had the misconception that reissuing a game is a simple task, the amount of time it takes should hopefully disabuse you of that notion. “From securing a licence to going to market can be anywhere from nine months to a year,” says Richard. “This entails everything from preliminary discussions to agreements with IP holders, brainstorming ideas for packaging and collectibles, testing, approvals and production.” For Jon and Amanda, the process is even longer. “It can take many years. We have projects in the pipeline that we began a few years ago that won’t be publicly revealed until 2021 or 2022, or beyond that. It’s a long process, because for us, it’s about doing it correctly versus rushing it out the door.”
The first task is to select titles for publishing, and each company has a different decision-making process on this front. “We are looking for titles that were either not available in specific regions or titles that have gone up in price,” says Richard, explaining Retro-bit’s approach. “We want to make them available at a reasonable price to have fans experience them.” But for iam8bit, market prices and availability are secondary concerns. “The
Legacy Cartridge Collection is our iam8bit ode to the absolute best of the best – cartridge-based games that were landmarks of their time,” Jon and Amanda tell us. “Sure, you’ll see some high-value resale releases from us in the future, but if we’re to look at the Legacy Cartridge Collection [edition] of Street Fighter II, that’s a game that you can find in the bargain bin for a couple bucks. Still, it’s one of the most integral, pinnacle games ever released, and you can’t argue with that kind of rank.”
Over at Limited Run Games, the approach is less simply explained. “For me it is a variety of things – notoriety, IP, availability. For example, the original versions of our Star Wars releases aren’t exactly expensive or hard to find, but at the end of the day, I’m a huge Star Wars fan. It’s a franchise that defined my childhood. Having the opportunity to have any association with something this important to me, it’s not something I was going to pass up,” says Josh. However, the company does have the goal of increasing availability of games that are difficult to find. “For some of the other stuff we’re looking into for future releases, yeah, rarity and availability is a huge part of why we want to re-release those. They’re games that are being frequently bootlegged and we want to try and put a stop to that to earn the games’ developers and creators the money they deserve.” Josh is also candid about the fact that he can’t get every game he pursues. “I tried to convince Sega to let me release Pulseman, an amazing game from Game Freak that only saw release on Sega Channel, but unfortunately that
was unsuccessful!”