As a follow-up to this piece, I'd just like to point out what amounts to the opposite idea, that with careful and clever programming, these classic systems could/can actually support amazing arcade translations from the equivalent era. With the benefit of past knowledge, "unlimited" time, cheap cartridge memory and no budget or target market constraints, special things are possible. For instance, check out http://www.opcodegames.com/ , where you can get more information on the forthcoming "Pac-Man Collection" for the ColecoVision and MSX2 systems. This work obviously blows away what AtariSoft had done on the first conversion of Pac-Man for the ColecoVision from the classic era and is practically an emulation, though of course is pure simulation. The added bonus is that you get several Pac games. While I personally own what seems like a million different versions of Pac-Man and related games, and have an arcade MAME machine and even access to the recently released Pac-Man on Xbox Live Arcade, this is one of those achievements that would just be nice to own from both a collection standpoint and an appreciation of great work.

Now, let's hope some of these guys - like the one(s) above - who accomplish these amazing programming achievments turn their attention to more original creations rather than ports of prior games available from countless other sources. Imagine how excited we could get then!

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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
[ My collection ]
[ http://www.MythCore.com ]