Well, if you’re part of a younger generation and you’ve never had access to prior generations of gaming consoles, you’re seriously missing out. To prove it to you, we’ll give you five reasons why you should be gaming retro.

1. Quality

It’s important not to forget that these are the games that helped start it all. Some of the most important RPG, FPS, adventure and platforming titles started their life on consoles like the NES, the Amiga, the Master System… It’s like watching new sci-fi films all the time, but never having seen the original Star Wars trilogy.

2. Accessibility

If you’ve ever found that modern games have ridiculously complex mechanics or are cluttered with features, then you need to streamline your gaming experience, and retro games are renown for their simplicity. That’s why you’ll find so many hardcore gamers playing games that hark back to earlier times – just a score, a simple mechanic, and a difficulty curve.

3. Graphics

The high-definition world of Crysis has redefined what we can show on a screen, but that doesn’t lessen the breathtaking artwork and modelling of older games. Sprites are still used even today, and like we said in number one, it’s always great to go back and see some of the best.

4. Fun Factor

Back before the days of the internet, which helped spawn everything from Partypoker.com to, more importantly, the Xbox Live achievements system, there was no meta-game to play. There was nothing to encourage you to go above and beyond what you usually would in a videogame. Thus, earlier games relied on being a complete and engaging experience from start to finish, as a stand-alone experience. There’s no need for a 50G achievement pop when you’ve just cleared a retro title.

5. Nostalgia

Even if you weren’t around when the NES was (if so, we’re all getting a little old, which is worrying in itself), it’s so fun to get an older console. The cartridges, the reliable controllers, the many great aspects of the games and the colossal back catalogue are all reasons why people still whip out a SNES when their friends are round.

So, if you’re unsure of retro gaming, we hope this list has prodded you towards testing it out. Try it: you’ll never regret it. Think simple, think fun, and think original: retro gaming is for the really passionate games enthusiast.

I love documentaries, especially if it is on a subject that I enjoy. Whether that be a nature documentary or one concerning the early twentieth century, I love the way documentaries edit, construct and tell the story using archive and new footage. When I heard that a film had been made about Donkey Kong, I was a little sceptical. I assumed that it would be a film about how Nintendo made the game and though that would have been interesting, it wouldn’t exactly keep me entertained for ninety minutes.

King of Kong is not about the creation of Donkey Kong. It is about something so much better. Rather than being about the creators of the game, it is about those who mastered or tried to master the game.

Billy Mitchell Circled. Doesn't he just resonate smugness?

In 2005 Billy Mitchell had held the world record on Donkey Kong, amongst other games, for over two decades at 874,300. It was a record seemingly unbeatable until Steve Wiebe, a man who had been laid off and had some time on his hands, decided to give it a go.

The ultimate underdog! Come on Steve!

The documentary follows Wiebe’s attempts to master the game and beat the record. Setting up an Arcade Cabinet in his garage he spends a considerable amount of time working out the ins and outs of the game until he has mastered it. This he does, achieving a record of 1,006,600 points which he submits to Twin Galaxies, a site dedicated to recording and verifying the authenticity of world records. Upon hearing this, Mitchell who is a thoroughly repulsive man, obsessed with his reputation and his records, sends someone to investigate Wiebe’s machine and thus has his score disqualified. Mitchell claims that the only truly authentic score is a live score and so Wiebe travels to the Funspot Arcade in New Hampshire and here not only achieves a score of 985,600 and officially crushing Mitchell’s world record, but also achieves a Kill Screen which I’m sure many of you will know is a point at which the game’s code suddenly malfunctions and glitches to the point where the screen almost falls apart. This usually happens if you go beyond a certain level (Example Level 29 on Tetris or the 22^nd Stage of Donkey Kong) or if you go over a certain score level, such as 9999 etc.

If you are playing Pacman and you see this screen. You are THE MAN!

Wiebe’s victory is short lived because as soon as he has achieved this score, Mitchell sends in a VHS with him achieving a score of 1,047,200 points. The footage is of a poor quality, but due to Mitchell’s reputation is it accepted as authentic.

Don't you just want to slap him?

Upon learning that the Guinness World Records wanted to publish a number of scores including Mitchell’s Donkey Kong score he travels to Florida to challenge Mitchell to a public competition. He refuses though there is a very tense scene where Billy does arrive at the Arcade where Steve is playing and stands behind him and though Steve acknowledges that he is there Billy simply walks away. It is followed by a rather odd segment where Mitchell’s insanely hot wife (Who gives all video game nerds hope) says she has never seen her husband compete in video games and then a speech by Mitchell claiming that ‘if you don’t play when you have to play… you’re really not good enough.’ During this scene you really feel for Wiebe who even admits ‘I can handle losing if he would at least compete against me’. He leaves the Arcade unable to beat Mitchell’s high score, though they declare that he has the highest ever live score recorded.

As the film ends, you really feel for Wiebe and begin to utterly hate the smugness of Mitchell. It was at that point where I would have given this film a bad review based on the fact that the film didn’t really do anything, but that’s when it hit with its perfect ending. We see Wiebe back in his garage playing and as he plays we see his high score get bigger and bigger, illustrated by a graph and then we see him beat Mitchell’s score with a new world record of 1,049,100 points. Booyah!

To be king of kong you gotta master the game!

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is such a wonderful documentary that it is surprising that it was not nominated for the Oscar that year (Though I doubt it would have won over that year’s winner the excellent Man on Wire). What the film did was fuse a classic one on one contest with a trip down memory lane for all us gamers who grew up in the Arcade era. When I see Arcades now, they are usually filled with ‘Answer Questions for Money’ or Claw games and so to remember when I would spend all my pocket money on Streetfighter 2 or Space Harrier is great and this film made it clear just how important some games are. When people who play baseball talk about how many home runs they have hit and how important it is, this passion is exactly how gamers feel about a high score or fastest time to complete a game. Rather than make us look to be the geeks who shut ourselves in our basement (granted this is exactly what Wiebe did), but shows that we are normal people who have a passion and as one of the competitors says ‘I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do drugs, I play videogames, which I think is far superior an addiction than any of those other ones.’ I couldn’t agree more.

10/10 One of the Best documentaries I have ever seen. Not just for videogamers, but for anyone who ever had a goal in life!

There are many people who have created emulators for all the classic consoles so that you can play all the classics from the comfort of your PC. Just upload and away you go.

But nothing beats the experience of playing the game in its original console format. Whether it is a trip down memory lane or just a discovery there are many who swear to the greatness that is the original console over an emulator. Much like those who talk of the warm quality of an LP over an MP3 of the same song. It is true that there are times when you do wish you could just press and play (Anyone who remembers waiting upwards to an hour to load a game on the Spectrum will vouch for that), but the wait is still well worth it.

That being said, here is my guide to Purchasing a Classic Console.

Classic!

1.) Check for Damage

How many people have purchased a vintage car only to find you need a part? A part that they probably don’t even make any more? Imagine trying to find a part for an NES from  the 1980s? It’s not going to be easy. Sure there are dealers and people who specialize in these repairs, but many will be charging top dollar prices and that cheap bargain you found on eBay could soon turn into a money pit.

2.) All Parts Included

In the same area, if you think a part will be difficult, buying a controller, adaptor or even a plug might be even worse. There’s nothing worse than opening a box to find that all the parts are included except for the one that connects it to the TV and unlike these days were all you need is a standard cable, Nintendo and others had a particularly bad habit of creating wires that could only be used on their consoles. This again leads to trawling through the internet for ‘Power Plug for NES’ and again that bargain… becomes less so.

Got just a few games then?

3.) Check your Region

The world is usually divided into three regions when it comes to gaming: USA, Europe and Japan. Make sure you have the correct one or you might yourself with a console that doesn’t play the games you want or just simply will not work on your TV… or at all. Check on the region for the games to as you may find again that you have a perfect Sega Genesis and a less than perfect bunch of Sega Megadrive games!

4.) They are not antiques

Over 60 Millions NES’s were sold in its lifetime, Atari 2600 clocks in a 30Million even Sega’s little known Nomad sold over a million. There maybe people who post on eBay that they have a ‘collectible’ but unless they are truly unique. i.e. First Generation Makes or have something else special about them such as still boxed or signed by the creator you should treat these consoles as something that can be picked up everywhere. However, in terms of games there are some rare games that if you find or have could be worth hundreds or thousands and so you ever come across a copy of Stadium Events for the NES then you grab that and pay whatever the old lady who doesn’t know any better wants!

Worth $41,300???

So really what you have to ask yourself is why you are buying it. If it is to collect you can pick up an unopened NES for around four hundred pounds, but if it is to play you can probably pick one up with all the trimmings for less than fifty.

The best place to start looking for retro consoles would probably be eBay, or you could just have a look around your house or your families, someone is bound to have an old console hidden with the Game of Life and Monopoly boards.

Master System of Wii? Hmm Decisions Decisions!

If you have a look around your local junk shops and charity stores you may find yourself surprised at the number of consoles that people have donated. If you do, put your hand in your pocket, pay the pittance that is being asked and enjoy the classic game as it was meant to be played.

You can thank me later.

The Mega32x is sometimes declared to be the dumbest move that SEGA ever made. But was it really? If you look back on its subjectively in terms of the system it was a great move, just poorly planned.

The Megadrive had been for the SEGA their biggest selling console (and probably still is) and it was also their most popular console. It was the first time that SEGA was actually winning in the console war with Nintendo and so their decision to try and extend the longevity of it makes sense. They first tried with the Mega-CD which was a limited success and then they updated the look of the Megadrive with the slim-lined Megadrive 2 and then finally they pulled out their last card: The Mega32x.

Simples!

This was an adaptor, affectionately dubbed ‘The Mushroom’ due to its shape, that slotted onto the Megadrive. By doing this it allowed you to play 32-bit quality games. Its main purpose was to bridge the gap while SEGA prepared for the release of the Saturn. Instead it became an industry joke and was looked at as a ‘poor man’s entry’ to the 32-bit gaming world. Few games were developed for the system and despite initial orders of over a million consoles, SEGA could not produce them to meet the demand and once players discovered that few games would be available the interest tailed off, price was slashed repeatedly until only around 600,000 units were sold. This was still pretty impressive for what was essentially an ‘add-on’ but compared to the Megadrive (Estimated at 29-40 Million) and Saturn (9.5 Million) it was hardly a drop in the ocean.

Doom on Saturn or 32x? Can you see the difference?

When I got my Mega32x it was probably as cheap as it could be. I got it mainly because I couldn’t afford the proper upgrade, but also because many of the games that were released were games that I was interested in. It is true that most games for the system were either Arcade conversions or sooped up versions of Megadrive games, but then we could say the same about most consoles. Among these games available was a pretty decent version of Doom and the game that I bought the system for: Mortal Kombat 2. I had already been stunned by the game on the Megadrive and it was about to do it all over again! Other than in the Arcade, I think this was possibly the greatest version of Mortal Kombat 2 released. It is also one of the best examples of the pure power of the Mega32x. The game looked and felt richer; the inclusion of the original arcade intros and cutscenes made the game that much better that if I did not buy another game for it, it would have been fine.

The other area Mega32x really excelled in was bringing Arcade games into the home. Ports of SEGA classics like Afterburner and Spaceharrier just blew me away like they did when I first played them in the Arcade. It is odd that with all the ‘retro’ or ‘classic’ collections that one of the systems has not released a SEGA Arcade pack with these games and others such as Outrun, Virtua Fighter and Daytona Racing.

As close to the Arcade game as you're going to get

Sadly the Mega32x was never given the time to make the impact that it should have. Very few games were developed for it and games were so expensive that even I only had four of them the entire time I owned it! Though we could argue this would be normal today with PS3/360 games still clocking in around the thirty-forty level for a new release. If the system had been released a few years earlier instead of the Mega-CD it could probably have given SEGA the dominance they lost with the Saturn and were finally finished off with the Dreamcast. A Megadrive/32x combo codenamed ‘Neptune’ was developed, but was scrapped in favour of the Saturn and once the Saturn was released the Mega32x faded into gaming obscurity. Instead of being the last great stand of the SEGA Megadrive, it became just a whimper of the machine being put out of its misery. A damn shame!

Ever since we performed our first down right punch producing a fireball on Streetfighter 2 games have had the lure of the special move. This is a move that is generally a game breaker, master the move and you master the character and then ultimately the game. Here I take a look at the Top Five Special Moves or Attacks in Video Games. Some are obvious, some not so much.

5. Subzero’s Freeze Attack (First Appearance Mortal Kombat)

There are too many Ice puns for this!

It was a toss up between this and Scorpion’s ‘Get Over Here’ Hook, but just for sheer effectiveness it has to be this move. The simplest of moves to pull off in the original Mortal Kombat, but amazing both visually and within the gameplay of the game. As the games have progressed over the years, attacks have become more and more elaborate, but still nothing slows down an opponent’s momentum like putting them on ice.

4.) Blue Shell (First Appearance Mario Kart 64)

This was an attack that could make or break a Mario Kart tournament. Sometimes all you need is for the CPU to not come in first all the time and that’s where this handy blue shell comes into effect. Everyone who has played as known the satisfaction and the agony of throwing or being hit by this shell when they are on the cusp of victory and no other item in the Mario Kart arsenal is more devastating or heartbreaking.

Think you're first? Think again!

3.) BFG-9000 (First Appearance Doom)

Goodbye!

Even if the Chainsaw was more fun, in Doom the reason you explored every room, every nook and cranny was to get your grubby paws on this weapon. It’s true that it did look like you were firing a toaster oven, but its effect was devastating taking out most enemies in one shot. Awesome!

2.) Fireball/Hadoken (First Appearance Streetfighter)

We've come a long way baby!

Although it made its appearance in the original Streetfighter it was in its iconic and groundbreaking sequel where this move became the move to master. Everyone remembers the sound of Ryu or Ken screaming ‘Hadoken’ as they threw a fireball at their opponent and in the Streetfighter universe none had the same impact. Sure Bison’s Torpedo looked cool and Chun-Li’s Bicycle Kick was… ahem… interesting, but there was nothing as satisfying as throwing multiple fireballs and watching your opponent have to deal with it.

1.)  Police Backup (First Appearance Streets of Rage)

Here comes the Cavalry!

Riffing off the magic attack from Golden Axe, this move is just so bizarre that you can’t help but love it. If battling the scum of Metro City gets too much you simply press A and out of nowhere comes a SWAT car armed with a grenade launcher. The shooter is so accurate he is able to take out all of the enemies on the screen, missing you in the process. As ridiculous as it sounds, this is a devastatingly effective move and it’s just a shame that the series abandoned it for the sequels.

So there we have it, the top five Special Moves or Attacks. Agree, Disagree? Think Mario’s Fireball or Guile’s Sonic Boom deserved a mention or have your own Top Five? Post all your comments here.

I’m not very technical and I’m kind of lazy too, so I have a lot of respect for those who take old systems and improve them in some way, even if the improvement is somewhat strange!

Here is a list of 7 cool Nintendo Modifications. Enjoy

1. NES DVD Player

First up is the NES DVD player. The original NES casing was used to create a fully functional DVD player. The power LED lights up when it’s switched on and the tray opens just like a normal DVD player too. The 2nd controller port is used as a receiver for the remote control.

2. Nestari

Ben Hecks Nestari has to be one of the coolest fan made portable systems ever made. The device lets you play original Atari 2600 and NES games. Check out BenHeck for a full explanation of how the device was built.

3. Super Nintoaster – Super NES in a Toaster

The Super Nintoaster has to be one of the strangest Nintendo mods ever built. It is a fully functional Super NES within a toaster casing. The toaster level turns the system on and the toasting setting switch, which usually sets how well your bread is toasted, is used to turn the orange LED light within the unit up and down.

4. SNESp: Portable Super Nintendo

Brian Hendersons is a fantastic portable system which lets you play original SNES cartridges. It looks a little like a large Nintendo DS but this bad boy has a slot in the back for your SNES cartridges. Not sure how good battery life is but it’s a cool looking device nonetheless.

5. Darth64 – The portable N64 Handheld

The Darth64 is an obscure portable device which plays Nintendo 64 cartridges. The design is based on a ‘Laser Doodle’ and uses a 5 inch screen and a Hori joypad for the joystick and buttons etc. It looks like it would be difficult to play some 64 games but it’s still pretty good how he managed to squeeze a full Nintendo 64 into the casing.

6. Gamecube Portable

The Gamecube Portable is a great looking portable device which lets you play original Gamecube discs. The discs spin on the back of the device. Since the discs are quite small, the device is a little smaller than most of the SNES and N64 mods around.

7. Giant NES controller coffee table

Whilst most of the other mods in this roundup took the original device and fit it into a smaller casing, Kyle Downes did the opposite with his gigantic NES controller coffee table. It’s maybe not as practical as the other mods for playing games, but it sure does look like a lot of fun. And it would surely be a conversational starter for anyone who visited your house.

You can read more about the table at Kyles blog.

Hope you enjoyed the list

There are lots of great emulation scripts available which let you play classic games from the 70s, 80s and 90s. Generally speaking, playing games in this matter is illegal. Some companies are happy for you to play an old emulated game on your computer if you own the original game itself though other companies disagree with this (e.g. Nintendo).

I will assume that most of you already know this so I will not go into this in too much detail in this article. I will also assume that many of you do use emulators to play games from time to time. Playing emulated games is very easy; all you need to do is plug in your USB controller, download an emulator and then download the ROMs of games you want to play.

If you do play classic games through your pc then it may be worth upgrading to a better joystick. Whilst reading a games site the other day I saw an advert for an arcade joystick from a company called X-Arcade. The joysticks aren’t cheap but they are very impressive so I thought I would tell you all a little more about it.

Here is a brief look at their 4 main controllers.

X-Arcade Solo Joystick

Their basic controller is the X-Arcade Solo Joystick. This study 10 button arcade joystick retails for $99.95.

X-Arcade Trackball

Their trackball controller also retails for $99.95. The button configuration is similar in style to a golf arcade machine with 3 buttons at either side of the trackball. Would be good for playing some sports games, simulation games and games from the 70s which used paddles.

X-Arcade Dual Joystick

Their 2 player controller offers the best value in my opinion, coming in at $129.95, which is only $30 more than the solo arcade joystick.

X-Arcade Tankstick + Trackball

Their most expensive joystick is the 2 player Tankstick, which retails for $199.95. The joystick has a similar style to the regular 2 player joystick except it also has a trackball in the middle.

Being $70 more expensive than the regular 2 player joystick, my initial impression was that their premium joystick wasn’t worth the money. Why pay $70 more for a trackball?

It’s only when you see the two joysticks side by side that you see how much bigger the Tankstick is, the thing is massive!!

Overview

All of the X-Arcade joysticks use USB so will connect to your pc or mac easily. You can also purchase adaptors which let you use the joystick with Playstations (1,2 and 3), Xbox (including the 360), Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo Gamecube and Wii.

There’s no getting away from the fact that buying an arcade joystick costing $100+ is an indulgence, but if you have the cash you might want to splurge out. It’s actually not too expensive when you realise that it can be used on computers and on several systems (via adaptors). I haven’t personally used the joystick myself but all of the reviews have been positive. Seems like a good way to recreate the fun of playing an arcade machine without actually buying an arcade machine!

I noticed the other day that the Sega Mega Drive: Ultimate Collection (known as Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection in North America) was down to £14.99 on Play. I mentioned this to my friend Joe and he told me I was crazy and would be throwing my money away if I purchased it. Before I talk about that, let’s look at the game itself.

The game was released for the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Games have apparently been updated to HD but they haven’t really. The game screen can be expanded to fit on modern televisions but the games have not been given a modern makeover like Bionic Commando Rearmed, Street Fighter II HD or Wipeout HD. So some of the games look very dated.

Still, it’s still a very cheap way to play some classic Sega games through your Xbox or PlayStation.

In total there are 40 games included from the start:

1. Alex Kidd In The Enchanted Castle
2. Alien Storm
3. Altered Beast
4. Beyond Oasis
5. Bonanza Bros.
6. Columns
7. Comix Zone
8. Decap Attack starring Chuck D. Head
9. Dr. Robotnik’s MBM
10. Dynamite Headdy
11. Ecco The Dolphin
12. Ecco II: The Tides Of Time
13. E-Swat
14. Fatal Labyrinth
15. Flicky
16. Gain Ground
17. Golden Axe I
18. Golden Axe II
19. Golden Axe III
20. Kid Chameleon
21. Phantasy Star II
22. Phantasy Star III: Generations Of Doom
23. Phantasy Star IV: The End Of The Millennium
24. Ristar
25. Shining In The Darkness
26. Shining Force
27. Shining Force 2
28. Shinobi III: Return Of The Ninja Master
29. Sonic 3D Blast
30. Sonic And Knuckles
31. Sonic Spinball
32. Sonic The Hedgehog
33. Sonic The Hedgehog 2
34. Sonic The Hedgehog 3
35. Streets Of Rage
36. Streets Of Rage 2
37. Streets Of Rage 3
38. Super Thunder Blade
39. Vectorman
40. Vectorman 2

By beating certain games you can win trophies and unlock interview videos of the people who created the original game. You can also unlock an additional 7 Sega arcade games and two master system games.

1. Alien Syndrome
2. Altered Beast
3. Congo Bongo
4. Fantasy Zone
5. Golden Axe Warrior (Sega Master System)
6. Phantasy Star (Sega Master System)
7. Shinobi
8. Space Harrier
9. Zaxxon

Is it worth buying Sega Mega Drive: Ultimate Collection?

Since I am playing modern warfare 2 religiously, I have time to see whether this collection is worth buying. My friend Joe was of the opinion that I’d be throwing my money away.

I have purchased several older games via the PlayStation store before so for me, £14.99 is actually good value for a collection of nearly 50 games. I can still remember when many of these games were released in the UK for £39.99 so maybe that is making me think this is good value.

The reviews for the game have been fairly positive, averaging a 7 or 8 out of 10 for most reviews. Some games like Sonic and Streets of Rage are still fun to play but some of them look a little dated now (Altered Beast etc). Plus it seems like Sega were a little lazy with the PAL release of this game as the screen shows Genesis carts instead of MegaDrive ones.

As I said, since I’m still actively playing the new Call of Duty game, I have time to consider whether this is a game worth buying. £14.99 seems like a bargain to be able to play 50 great Sega games. However, when you think about it, is it really worth it?

You are not playing these games on the original console, these games are simply being emulated. Therefore, they play the same way a Sega Emulator would play them. My laptop is hooked up to the same television which my PS3 uses and I could use this driver to use my Playstation Controller through my laptop so it’s perhaps a little silly to pay for the pleasure of playing these games via my PS3 as they haven’t been changed or improved in any way.

Sure, you can unlock trophies, but I’m a 30 year old man, and unlocking a trophy is something that just doesn’t interest me. So when I think about it logically, it seems silly to pay money for games which haven’t been improved as I could play the games using the same controller and on the same television for free. Yes, I know that emulation isn’t very legal but realistically, Sega aren’t going after old gamers who want a quick 30 minute blast of a game they used to play 20 years ago.

I’m still kind of in two minds about the game. £15 isn’t a lot of money and, being as lazy as I am, it would be handy to be able to just insert a disc and play some classic Sega games, plus it would be fun to play games like Streets of Rage or Sonic 2 on two player too. But, there’s no denying that you are just paying for emulated games, and you can easily download the whole MegaDrive collection within 30 minutes if you really want to play some classic Sega games.

What’s your opinion on the Sega Ultimate Collection disc and paying for emulated games in general. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this

In the meantime, check out this video review of the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection from James Woodcock.

Last week I participated in a discussion over at DigitPress. The thread started off talking about what people thought was better: the SNES or the MegaDrive (Sega Genesis); however the argument changed direction nearer the end with myself and a few others debating over which console had the best controller.

I liked the original 3 button MegaDrive controller. It was larger than the SNES and NES controllers and fit comfortably in your hand.

The Super NES controller was a good controller too. The extra 3 buttons over the Sega controller allowed more functionality in games. True, many games didn’t really require 6 buttons but it came in particularly useful for fighting games like Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct.

In 1993, 4 years after the Sega Genesis deputed in North America, Sega released an upgraded official 6 button controller to coincide with the release of Street Fighter 2. The controller was slightly smaller and featured 3 smaller buttons (X,Y,Z) above the original buttons (A,B,C).

Although I did see the new 6 button controller in shops when it was released, I never used it. Therefore I am not able to compare the new 6 button controller to the original 6 button Super NES pad. However, should they be compared anyway?

In DigitPress some members believed that it’s fair to compare the upgraded controller to the original Super NES one because it was an official upgrade from Sega.

Though I don’t know if it’s right to compare these controllers. The 6 button controller was released 4 years after the console was released in North America and was only released to address the button limitations of the original controller, which wasn’t suitable for fighting games (very few games utilised the additional buttons on offer apart from fighting games such as Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat).

The Super NES had lots of third party controllers released for it though the original official controller was never replaced, so is it fair to compare to it to a controller which was brought out late in a consoles life?

I’m of the opinion that it’s not fair to compare them. I believe that if you compare the SNES controller to the Sega MegaDrive one then it should be the original 3 button controller. I do really love the original 3 button Sega joypad. It was perfect for beat em ups like Streets of Rage but it was limited with more advanced fighting 1 on 1 fighting games like Street Fighter II.

What do you think: Should you compare the SNES controller to the original 3 button MegaDrive Controller or the updated 6 button one?

In the last few years there have been a lot of budget gaming machines enter the market which allow you to play classic games and consoles. I’m sure you have seen them in a toy shop or a video games store. For example, there have been many Atari 2600 machines released, some of which are built right into the joystick itself. These are commonly known as clones.

Some of these clones were officially licensed, like the Atari Flashback systems. However, most of them were developed by 3rd party companies. If you are looking to get a cheap system to relive some classic games from your youth then a clone is a good option.

Should you buy the original console or a modern clone?

For many gaming purists, the only way to play games is through the original system itself. Though there are many good reasons why you might consider purchasing a clone instead.

Let’s look at the pros and cons of purchasing a clone system instead of the original system itself.

Pros

• Easier connectivity with modern televisions: Most modern clones are based on consoles which were popular in the 80s (Atari 2600, NES, Sega MegaDrive etc). These consoles connected to the television using an RF cable. However, most modern clone machines give you the option of connecting to the television using an RCA cable (sometimes known an AV cable).

  Bear in mind though that most light gun peripherals developed in the 70s and 80s only work with older CRT televisions and won’t work on LCD or Plasma televisions.

• Additional features: As well as being able to connect easily to modern televisions, most clones offer additional features. For example, controllers are usually improved. Some have turbo buttons added to them whilst offers have wireless capabilities.

  Many clones also play games from Japan and other territories and some, like the FC Twin pictured below, can play games from different systems.

  

• Size: Developers take advantage of modern technology and are able to make modern clones much smaller than the original system, which was usually quite big, bulky and used up a lot of power.
• Reliability: With some original consoles being more than 20 years old, it’s understandable that there is a chance any original console you purchase may not be working 100% correctly. Dust and general wear and tear being the main factors.

Cons

• Can’t play all original cartridges: Although many clones can play original cartridges and connect with all original accessories, they can’t play all games. For example, the NES clone Generation NEX apparently plays around 97% of original NES games though there are many great games that it cannot play.

  Many clones come with a set number of games built in and cannot play original game cartridges at all.

• Emulation: One of the main benefits of owning a modern clone is it’s reduced size. However, in order to do this (and to save money), developers have had to use modern technology to power the system. This is good in some respects as the machines tend to be more reliable and consume less power.

  Though this also means that clones with built in games aren’t played in their original form. Rather, they are ported to this new system. Essentially, the original games are being emulated on the new device. This causes a lot of games to play differently than they were intended.

Modern systems which let you play games from classic gaming systems are usually pretty cheap. However, since millions of the original systems were sold in the 80s and 90s, you can usually pick up an original machine for the same price if not much cheaper than a modern clone.

Therefore the decision is less about price and more about how you want to play classic games. Personally, for me it comes down to space and convenience. I grew up in the 80s and owned the original Atari 2600 and the Nintendo Entertainment System.

However, I already own a PS3, Wii and a gaming laptop. Therefore a smaller, more reliable machine which plays original cartridges is tempting.

What do you prefer – the iconic original console which plays all games or a smaller more reliable modern clone which plays most of them?