快猫短视频

THEIR graphics were lousy, their soundtracks infuriating, and they invariably
involved oversized fruit鈥攗sually as a power source, occasionally as a
deadly weapon. Yet when these primitive ancestors of today鈥檚 computer games
first invaded the games arcades in the late 1970s, their simple, addictive
powers hooked a generation.

Sadly, just a few years later, arcade classics such as Asteroids, Pong and Go
Go Mr Yamaguchi鈥攖ogether with similar games developed for early home
computers鈥攈ad been consigned to the loft or simply dumped in the rubbish,
outcompeted by the next generation of computer games. When you can fly a
realistic jet simulator or blast gangsters with a bazooka, who鈥檇 want to chase
giant grapes or lob exploding bananas at a bored gorilla? 鈥淭he early arcade
games died out because they were outclassed,鈥� says Gary Whitta, former
editor-in-chief at PC Gamer magazine. 鈥淎s the technology improved the
games got more sophisticated and so did our tastes.鈥�

Mr Yamaguchi and his pals may have vanished from the scene, but they haven鈥檛
been completely forgotten. A few diehard fans are desperately attempting to keep
the dubious thrills of early arcade action alive. Their lifeline is a small
number of carefully crafted programs such as MAME, the Multiple Arcade Machine
Emulator, first created in 1997 by a software designer called Nicola Salmoria
and made available for free via the Internet. MAME and others like it have now
been developed to the point where, if so inclined, you can use them to enjoy the
fruity thrills of almost two thousand arcade classics from the comfort of your
home PC.

These aren鈥檛 just the games most of us remember, such as Space Invaders,
Donkey Kong and Frogger. The list also includes many almost (and perhaps should
have been) forgotten games, like Atomic Robokid, Chiki Chiki Boys and Beastie
Feastie.

At first glance, the appeal of old games isn鈥檛 obvious. But players say they
gain a sense of satisfaction from these games that new ones just don鈥檛 give.
鈥淥ne of the real attractions about the old games is their purity,鈥� says Michael
Dixon, news editor for the Internet magazine ClassicGaming. 鈥淟ook at Pong. It鈥檚
tennis that has been cooked down to the kernel. It鈥檚 one grey bar against
another grey bar hitting a grey square. These games were pretty good.鈥�

Dixon was 4 years old when his parents bought an Atari VCS 2600 game console
for him and his brother. 鈥淲e were actually a bit too young to appreciate it. We
sort of grew into it,鈥� he says. He played the Atari games throughout much of his
childhood, but then drifted away from them. His interest was revived in 1997,
while he was in college at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. A friend
had an old Atari and hooked it up to a television in the dorm鈥檚 common room.
Dixon remembers: 鈥淗e said, 鈥業t doesn鈥檛 matter if we leave it out and it gets
stolen. It鈥檚 not worth anything.'鈥� So he began playing the old games again, and
later discovered MAME and the wide range of games available on the Internet.

The interesting thing about MAME, says Dixon, is that it doesn鈥檛 just
recreate these old video games. It lets you play them on your powerful home
computer using the same programs that powered the original arcade machines and
home consoles.

To make this possible, games enthusiasts had to bring the games back from the
dead. They needed two separate components: the original game program itself,
plus a program called a driver that simulates the particular arcade or home
video machine that the game was designed to run on.

Finding the original game program is simply a question of getting hold of one
of the old arcade machines, locating the chip in which the game program is
stored and saving it onto a modern hard disc. Today these programs are referred
to as 鈥淩OMs鈥� because they come from the read-only memory inside the arcade
machine, or plug-in cartridge in the case of games consoles.

Writing the driver is tougher. It means reverse engineering the electronics
of an actual machine and writing a program that allows a normal home computer to
act like it. This is where MAME comes in. MAME is a collection of these drivers,
designed to allow your computer to act in exactly the same way as an old Atari,
for example, or like a particular 1970s arcade machine.

Want to play the 1984 gem Beastie Feastie? Just install MAME on your PC, and
select the Beastie Feastie ROM. The relevant driver reads the ROM, the game
starts and your fruit munching thrills can begin. Many of the games even ask you
to 鈥淚nsert Coin鈥�.

MAME enthusiasts certainly enjoy playing the games, and love nothing better
than discussing the finer points of Pong tactics with fellow gamers. But they
say MAME鈥檚 most important goal is to preserve the old games before they
disappear completely. Many different versions of each title were produced, says
Bryan McPhail, a programmer who helps update MAME. For example, many games have
Japanese, US and also European versions, each with slightly different content or
graphics. 鈥淭o the casual observer each version is exactly the same, but MAME
tries to catalogue all of the small details.鈥�

Despite the profusion of ROMs that are available, there are still at least
1500 other games that haven鈥檛 yet been emulated. That鈥檚 either because no one
has found the machines, or because the technical difficulty of reverse
engineering them is too great.

For an enthusiast, collecting and playing the old games is a way of
recapturing their youth, says Martin 鈥淩etro Rogue鈥� Goldberg, content coordinator
at ClassicGaming. 鈥淧art of it has to do with the remembrance of childhood. It
has nostalgic value. It鈥檚 like someone who grew up in the 1950s and listens to
old 45s and restores old cars. It brings back their childhood,鈥� he says.

Goldberg himself got hooked on video games in 1982, when his family bought a
ColecoVision home video system. Like Dixon, he rediscovered them at college and
now he鈥檚 hooked. 鈥淚鈥檝e immersed myself in the whole scene,鈥� he says.

But some people see fans who trade ROMS as little better than criminals. Most
game programs are copyright, and some companies have threatened to sue websites
and individuals if they distribute their ROMs鈥攅ven for free. A number of
big websites were shut down when individual companies and the Interactive
Digital Software Association, a body which represents computer games
manufacturers, threatened legal action. However, most of the ROMs remain freely
available from websites outside of the US.

The legal aspects of game emulation are a grey area, Dixon admits. 鈥淭here鈥檚
definitely a copyright issue. But a lot of these companies aren鈥檛 even in
business right now.鈥� McPhail agrees: 鈥淢any went bust and no one bothered to buy
the rights for the games. So why not make them available?鈥�

However, according to Whitta, game nostalgia can be a dangerous thing: 鈥淢any
of the games that you marvelled at in your youth come back and bite you in the
ass when you play them 20 years later and realise that they鈥檙e crap.鈥�

If you have great memories of those early games, let those memories rest in
peace, he says. 鈥淕oing back and playing them again can be a very risky
business鈥攜our fond recollections could be shattered in the cold light of
day. The games haven鈥檛 changed, but you sure as hell have.鈥�