Retrogaming

Here are my top five MSX games - rated according to the amount of time I used to spend playing them during the 1980's. They may not be regarded by others as particularly ground-breaking, but at the time they gave me hours of enjoyment - and started an interest in computer games and programming which has lasted to this day...

Konami means "small wave". The MSX is probably best known for its Konami games.

I realized the other day that I've finally read my last "Best 10 arcade games of all time" list. They're very limited, and they tend to have the same games, listed over and over. Usually I don't agree with the choices, either. The games that I've been most passionate about over the years are generally ones that don't make it onto such lists. So here, without further ado, is an off-the-cuff list of the Best Arcade Games Ever. These are the games that, had I room, I would purchase and rebuild for a home arcade, as I wouldn't get tired of playing any of them.

MAME Database: Search for game info by name, year, manufacturer, category, status, etc... This site contains screen shots, cabinet images, control panel images and technical specs for all games emulated by MAME. If you can't find the game here then it isn't emulated by MAME.

This is the current home of rankings.ini, a MAMEUI support file that categorizes all original MAME games according to how much FUN they are to play.

Generally, these games are those which once left a mark on the community but have been long forgotten or are now unavailable for download for whatever reason. I've included my irreverent reasons for hosting each of them. Enjoy!

Some people say that the Game Boy is just like your old Aunt Ethel - it just refuses to go away and die (but these people should be pitied because the Game Boy is the coolest thing ever made!). Now that the Game Boy Color is in town, it's a good chance to go digging through the thousands of old games in your local software store, and we've given you a shopping list of the best ones you can still get (as well as some to put on your shopping list).

Long before there was a Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii, there was the Magnavox Odyssey, the world's first home videogame console. But the story of videogames predates the Odyssey by six years. It begins in 1966 when a television engineer named Ralph H. Baer sat down at a New York bus station and entered history.

Reviews of the greatest video games of all time, from classic to modern games.

Chuck Peddle is an inventor, engineer and entrepreneur of highest class. His rich early history mirrors that of Commodore; hugely important successes through the 60's 70's and early 80's, followed by late 80's and 90's turmoil.  Today he, like Commodore, is in an exciting new phase developing fresh technology concepts.

Three decades after the debut of Milton Bradley's Microvision, here's a look at how handheld video game systems evolved, from early flops like the Atari Lynx to the gaming innovations of the iPhone.

These reviews are only my personal opinion. Yours may vary depending on taste, expectations, and other criteria. Mine is not the absolute, only what I like. These reviews are here for your enjoyment and to help give you an idea of what games are good and what games to avoid (again based on my personal opinion, worth about two cents, give or take a penny). All games are rated with the simple school grading method (with an "A+" being the best and an "F" being the worst). All games are rated in comparison to other games of the same era. In other words, a game on the 2600 may get a great rating compared to other 2600 games and comparable systems (Odyssey II, Emerson Arcadia, etc..) and may not be as highly rated if compared to a Nintendo game. So keep this in mind. Look for more reviews to be added in the future. Please e-mail your favorite games, reviews you agree or disagree with, or reviews of your own. Thanks and enjoy!

We've all been video-game junkies at some point in our lives and some of us may still be addicted. Since about 7 years old, I've been playing almost every video game imaginable, some great and some that were just horrible. I decided to compile a list of my top ten greatest video games of all-time. Whether, the console was Atari, Nintendo, Genesis, Xbox, or Playstation, I'm sure there are a lot of you that will agree on some of these classic games.

Below is a list of my favorite Atari 2600 games. Some are current favorites and others I liked better when they were new back in the 1980s. There are many games I haven't had a chance to play, so this list will probably change as I discover new favorites. Each game is linked to the appropriate AtariAge.com page in case you want instruction manuals, screenshots, scans, or ROMs.

Most people don't realize that I didn't get my start at the San Francisco Chronicle as the universally beloved pop culture critic that you know today. I was actually a Chronicle paperboy in the early-to-mid 1980s.

The funny thing is that half of the folks who read this node have never played, let alone seen, an Atari 2600.