A little retro gaming for OSX

While the rapid march of technology has afforded gamers some incredibly powerful gear capable of some amazing feats, video games have a rich legacy of titles and platforms that haven’t lost their shine over time. A game doesn’t have to match the graphics of Crysis to be enjoyable, and sometimes the combination of simplicity and nostalgia can offer even more than cutting edge software.

For years my go-to source for older games was MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator). I was a child of the arcade, spending a good bit of my formative years trading quarters or tokens for a few minutes of electronic joy. While I and my friends loved arcade games, they weren’t the only means of interactive electronic entertainment’ that crown went to the titan of the day in home gaming Nintendo. Now, thanks to a recent article at OSX Daily we get news of a way to relive the games that made Nintendo a household name.

BSNES Emulator does for the SNES what MAME did for arcade games- provide a virtual environment for the original game software to run on your Mac. The emulator is a replacement for the older SNES9x emulator that works only on older versions of OSX. Per the authors BSNES focuses on accurate reproduction of the games rather than performance, and lacks the hacks and optimizations that some emulators offer.

The OSX Daily article offers some tips on how to get the best appearance and a diagram showing the keyboard control layout. If you really want to get the most out of the emulator you’re far better served by a USB game controller than the keyboard controls.

If you have fond memories of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, BSNES is your ticket to nostalgic joy. Even those that didn’t grow up with eight bit graphics and MIDI music may discover why it so loved.

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More retro gaming on iOS? Yes, please!

Casual games were the first big wave of gaming on iOS; there were numerous simple but addictive apps that have made small indie developers a great deal of money. Angry Birds, Doodle Jump, and Fruit Ninja were huge hits. This explosion was soon matched by the second wave: more complex casual PC games like Plants Versus Zombies. Soon thereafter iOS gaming began to show an identity of its own with perennial complex hits like Infinity Blade.

During this cascade of gaming another, quieter movement was spawned by an April Fool’s Joke. The iCade may have been a prank, but consumer interest caught fire and it soon became a reality. This opened the door for one of my favorite categories: classic games. While some like MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, a software emulator allowing the user to run the software behind their favorite classic arcade games) were short lived, many more found life in iOS. Many of Atari’s hits have found their way back to the hearts of gamers via the Atari’s Greatest Hits app. Final Fantasy, Street Fighter, and Duke Nukem are just a sampling of the games revived by nostalgic iOS users.

For those that crave something even closer to your old school gaming days I have good news (courtesy of TUAW) in the form of a soon-to-be-funded Kickstarter campaign. The GameDock turns your iOS device into an old-school console game system, but unlike the iCade it goes the full Monty by making your device a defacto cartridge. The GameDock consists of a small docking station for your device with USB ports in front for classic rectangular Nintendo Entertainment System game pads and a video out on the back to connect to your TV.  Just drop your iOS device into the dock and enjoy some of your favorites all over again, and this time you can sit as close to the TV as you like. Those without a TV (or those that would rather not tie up their set) can opt to using the screen on your device instead via built-in Bluetooth connectivity. The GameDock is compatible with all iCade games or any other dock-ready game that supports two players and the GameDock’s 1080p video output.

The makers have upped the ante even further by including a dashboard function allowing you to change your game via the controller. Had I been able to do so with my childhood’s game console I might have lost the ability to walk altogether as I wasted away in gaming bliss. While I love the concept of the iCade, the GameDock is a welcome addition to the ranks of gaming accessories.

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