Retro-Gaming

Expert Views on Terminology,

Trends, and Market

Master Thesis by

Fabian Graf © 2017 www .super-retro.de

Super Ret ro Executive Master of International Business Management at Hochschule Furtwangen University 1

“Games are a trigger for adults to again become primitive, primal, as a way of thinking and remembering. An adult is a child who has more ethics and morals, that’s all. I am not creating a game. I am in the game. The game is not for children, it is for me. It is for an adult who still has a character of a child.” -Shigeru Miyamoto-[Miy]

Primary Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Niels Behrmann Secondary Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Christoph Mergard 06. August 2017 Contents

Abstract1

1. Introduction2

2. Defining Retro for Computer-Games4 2.1. Retro in General...... 4 2.2. Retro in Consumer-Goods...... 5 2.3. Retro Computer-Games and Hardware...... 6

3. Defining The Market8 3.1. Gaming Today...... 8 3.2. A Short History of Computer-Gaming...... 9 3.3. Installed Basis Over Time...... 9 3.4. Products...... 11 3.4.1. Games...... 11 3.4.2. New “Vintage” Hardware...... 12 3.4.3. Media (Magazines, Books and Movies)...... 13 3.4.4. Conventions & Shows...... 14 3.4.5. Fashion and Merchandising...... 14 3.4.6. Marketplaces...... 15

4. Methodology 16 4.1. Interviewees...... 16 4.2. Questionnaire...... 16 4.2.1. The Personal Link...... 17 4.2.2. The Trend...... 18 4.2.3. The Market...... 19 4.3. Interview and Evaluation...... 20

5. Evaluation of the Interviews 21 5.1. Response-Rate...... 22 5.2. What is Retro?...... 22 5.3. The Retro-Trend...... 24 5.3.1. Distinction of Target-Groups...... 24

i 5.3.2. Causes for the Trend...... 25 5.4. The Market...... 26 5.4.1. Target Group...... 27 5.4.2. Pricing...... 27 5.5. Future...... 28

6. Conclusion 29 6.1. Retro-Gaming...... 29 6.2. Retro-Trend and Market...... 30 6.3. Outlook...... 33

Glossary 34

A. Example of an Interview Request 56

B. Interviews 57 B.1. Simon Quernhorst...... 57 B.2. Taron Millet...... 63 B.3. Dr. Stephan G. Humer...... 70 B.4. Chester Kollschen...... 74 B.5. Winnie Forster...... 79 B.6. Frank Erstling...... 83 B.7. Dr. phil. Stefan Höltgen...... 88 B.8. Kreso Valter...... 91

Bibliography 95 Abstract

Within the last years the interest in retro-gaming has grown continuously. From an academic point of view this development has received only little attention. This thesis addresses the term retro for the computer- and video-gaming market in an attempt to define the term and analyze potential trends, markets and user groups. It points out that the term retro is used differently in the gaming industry compared to other consumer goods and that it is not used in a distinct way, leading to a different understanding of the term depending on the people’s age and background. In focus is the term retro in general, its usage in conjunction with other consumer goods and also a brief overview on the market of computer- and video-games. In order to allow a distinct outline on the subject of retro-gaming, this thesis uses the academic approach of quality expert interviews. These interviews cover different aspects of retro gaming, allowing a deeper insight into the topic and the currently ongoing retro-trend.

1 1. Introduction

On the 11th of November 2016 Nintendo released a new gaming hardware called NES Classic Mini which is practically a re-release of its first financial successful home gaming system the NES. The NES was published in 1985 in the USA and 1986 in Europe. Until its end of production in April 2017 2.3 million units of the NES Classic Mini had been sold [Pec17]. During its short life-cycle the demand was much higher than its supply, making it a looked after consumer product. What are the reasons that a big player on the gaming market believes that investing in a new product that just plays 30 integrated three decade old games on new televisions will be a success? What is the cause to believe that a lot of people will be drawn to this old fashioned way of games, paying around €70 in Europe or $60 in the USA? And what happened that a lot of people were willing to pay much higher prices on alternative marketplaces due to the Nintendo’s short supply? Looking at the subject of old computer- and video-games1 there seems to be an increasing interest by consumers and the industry within the last years, which is shown for instance by the increasing number of released magazines, books and online-content like user-forums or the very popular Let’s Play Videos. Even in fashion this topic is treated, like shoe-manufacturer VAN released in 2016 its own retro-game collection based on old Nintendo games. Besides that, not only re-sellers of old games and hardware or merchandise serve this market, but more and more new soft- and hardware is being released by new companies, like Hyperkin, 8bitdo, Piko Interactive, Krikzz, NG:DEV.TEAM, Yacht Club Games. This thesis addresses the question, whether there is an increasing trend on retro- gaming and therefore is a potential market for new ventures. And if this market has to be seen as one or as several different markets which have to be treated differently. Rather than doing an empirical study or a detailed market analysis, the approach is to do several quality interviews with experts of the subject of old computer-gaming soft- and hardware (AppendixB) and comparing and evaluating the given answers (Chapter5). In order to be able to select the appropriate interviewees and the questions of the interview (Chapter4) the topic of retro-gaming has to be defined. First this is

1Hereinafter only referred to as computer-games.

2 Introduction Introduction done in Chapter2 by outlining the term retro and second in Chapter3 by giving an overview onto the retro-gaming market.

3 2. Defining Retro for Computer-Games

After conducting books and articles it seems like there isn’t a common definition on retro in concern of computer-gaming. Most usage of the term is ambiguous. For instance it may be used to describe a design-style of new games (i.e. using Pixel Art), new software or hardware for old systems, or vintage software and hardware. Viewing the term retro, in this context and with the scope of this work, a clear meaning, this chapter deals with an literature research approach. At first the term will be looked at in a general sense (2.1), then in the context of other consumer goods where retro has been used as a term for a longer time (2.2), and finally in the context of computer-gaming (2.3).

2.1. Retro in General

The origin of the expression retro is in the Latin language, as an adverb, its meaning is back or backwards. In a time based context its meaning is formerly.1 The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary [DHH15] has the following definition of the term retro and retrospective: retrospective (adjective) - thinking about or connected with something that hap- pened in the past. retro (adjective) - using styles or fashions from the recent past. Using this definition retro only describes the usage of a style from the recent past, which would legitimate the first definition from the example in section2. As an assumption, the other definitions from the example may have been triggered by the term retrospective. In literature the term retro is often linked to the term nostalgia (for example [Kie13; Krá12; Gar13], therefore its definition is useful for the further context.

1Source (2017-07-04): www.online-latin-dictionary.com

4 2.2 Retro in Consumer-Goods Defining Retro for Computer-Games nostalgia (noun) - A sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past. [DHH15]

2.2. Retro in Consumer-Goods

The term retro for consumer-goods is strongly linked to its design. The term is used as retro-design since the 1990’s [Erl08; Met05; Krá12] and describes “all designs, whose style purposely and as a whole reference a distinct style of design-history. Therefore transforming the linked historical reference to a reflecting part of the design concept.”[Erl08, p.348]. In an industrial context it offers the “[...] possibility to charge an everyday object up with history, emotions, and credibility, [... in order to] create an individuality and an unique characteristic.”[Erl08, p.349]. Retro-design can be found in a lot of different consumer good markets, for ex- ample the automobile market with the New Beetle by Volkswagen, the Mini by BMW [Erl08] and more recent the New Fiat 500 [Krá12], the fashion market with Nike’s retro sneaker [Krá12] and PUMA’s successful company relaunch in the 1990’s [Met05], the furniture market with designers like Jasper Morrison or André Du- breuil [Erl08],or the food market with the Czech drink Kofala [Krá12]. In fact retro-design or retro-branding, as its usage in industry is often called, can be found in most branches. A retro-design is meant to cause a tension between present and past, in order to raise the consumers association and affect his/her perception in a positive way [Erl08, p.349]. Or in other words it is used to cause a positive nostalgic feeling. In his article Nostalgic Branding in Central Europe [Krá12] Král provides a good definition and distinction of the term retro-branding: “Retro brands, on the other hand, are distinguishable from nostalgic brands by the element of updating. They are brand new, old-fashioned offerings”[BKS09]. Therefore despite from pure nostalgia, retro adds an update to an already positively charged user perception. In her dissertation Nostalgie und Retro-Trends als Marketingchance from 2013 [Kie13], Kießling gives a profound answer to the question on why people who are not personally linked to a nostalgic theme, like old sneakers, or old computer ga- mes, are still drawn to its vibes. She characterizes the terms of personal nostalgia and historical nostalgia, the last providing a reasonable answer to the question. Defining the motives for historical nostalgia as personal needs for an expression of identity, for knowledge, for emotions, and for economy.

5 2.3 Retro Computer-Games and Hardware Defining Retro for Computer-Games

2.3. Retro Computer-Games and Hardware

When the term retro came up in the 1990’s, computers and video-gaming systems had not a long history, yet. Therefore retro-branding couldn’t be used as a marke- ting instrument in that business. On the contrary up to the late 2000’s this industry was driven by new technology, old was perceived as out-fashioned. The market for computer-games is just discovering that it has a history and that maybe a market for that is existing. This may be the reason why the term retro-game is still used in an ambiguous way.

old old-on-new old-on-old Software new-on-new new-on-old

new old Hardware

Figure 2.1.: Categorizing different hard-and software combinations

Taking the definition of retro from other consumer goods as described in Section 2.2, a retro computer-game or -hardware should be a new or updated product, which refers in some way to an old game or hardware product. But this seems not to be the case. Figure 2.1 on page6 illustrates the different soft- and hardware which is called retro. new-on-new represent new games or hardware which use a retro-style in either look or game-mechanics to reminiscent of the past. new-on-old are new software or hardware for the old computer-systems. old-on-new are the old games which are made playable on new systems, either on dedicated new hardware or in an emulated environment on other current computer-systems. old-on-old are the old games being played on its original systems.

6 2.3 Retro Computer-Games and Hardware Defining Retro for Computer-Games

In the media the term retro in concerns of gaming refers most often to old games and hardware. This is for instance reflected by Let’s Play Video, print magazines like Retro and Retro Gamer, or books like [Ack17], [Ayc16], or [FF10]. “[...]playing games on old systems and emulators or writing games specifically for old hardware. This truly is a retro activity and should be treated as such.”[FF10]. The print magazine Retro published in its issue number 31 a series of articles on the topic What is Retro?2 [CWS14], showing the different opinions on retro-gaming and retro-computing with the confirmation that new hardware and software for old systems is to be called retro, too. In the conclusion the term retro-gaming seems to fit all but new-on-new products. But if old games and hardware have the meaning of retro, how should a new retro- styled game for up-to-date hardware be named? There seems not to be a uniform term, but a selection, for instance: post-retro [FF10], retro-style games [Gar13], or contemporary retro [KS11]. On the other side the biggest PC gaming platform Steam presents under the tag retro only new-on-new games. Taking the definition of retro from other consumer-goods ( 2.2 on page 5), the new-on-new category is fitting this definition. The other three categories may not. But by media and literature it is treated in the exact opposite way. This ambiguity of the term retro is being reflected by this thesis interviewees (ChapterB) and will be taken up again in the evaluation of the questionnaire (Chapter5). In summary the term retro in gaming and computing covers various subjects. One are old games and hardware starting from the beginnings of computer-gaming so- metimes up to the early 2000’s. But most focusing today on games that were made for machines with up to an 16 bit CPU architecture of the 1990’s. Another ones are new games and hardware to be used with the original gaming systems from the past. Third ones are new games on current systems using an art and/or gameplay style from the past. And last but not least new gaming systems which run the games from the past on new hardware.

2Original title: “Was ist Retro?”

7 3. Defining The Market

Within the last 45 years a vast number of gaming systems and games have been released. Some of them have been lost in time due to bad storage or due to electronic defects. But still there are millions of games in all kind of conditions stored and collected by a growing number of interested people. In order to outline the market this chapter gives an introduction to the gaming market today (Section 3.1 on the current page), presents a short overview on the computer-gaming history (Section 3.2 on the following page), illustrates the numbers of some of the most famous home user systems from 1972 until 2000 (Section 3.3 on the next page) and lists the today available products for the end users (Section 3.4 on page 11).

3.1. Gaming Today

In 2017, ultra high definition televisions are state of the art, video-consoles and home-computers offer almost photo realistic gameplay with incredible details. The virtual-reality is just starting to reach home users with the first payable and en- joyable hardware systems. Most of the processing power in every day smartphones outperform the mentioned NES by a factor of ~1000, providing free or cheap games to millions of people. From a technical viewpoint there is no need to play old out- dated games. From a demanding side there is no reason either, the computer-game market is expected to increase to a total of $108.9 billion in 2017, an increase of 6.2% to 2016 [McD17]. Never before so many games in total had been released, only on Steam in 2016 4691 games have been released. In 2015 it have been 2961 and in 2014 1767 [Gal17]. These numbers only represent the PC market, not the including the consoles or mobile-game market, which also presents an increase in released games. If there is no obvious reason, why do more and more people invest in old gaming hardware and games, in new systems which play old games or emulated versions of old games on new systems?

8 3.2 A Short History of Computer-Gaming Defining The Market

3.2. A Short History of Computer-Gaming

Starting in the 1950’s the first computer-games are created at universities or tech- labs, but the first successful commercial system is released in 1971 as arcade- machine Computer Space. Its inventor Nolan Bushnell soon replaces it with a game called Atari Pong and founds the company Atari. In 1972 the first home video-gaming system the Magnavox Odyssey is released. But it is Atari who domi- nates the market of video-gaming until 1984 when the market in the west collapses. Most western companies vanish after the collapse and there are Japanese companies, especially Nintendo and Sega who dominate the gaming market for video-gaming systems and arcade machines up until 2001 when Microsoft launches its system the Microsoft Xbox. ([For15; KW15]) From 1982 it had been probably the home-computers, which really started a gaming hype. Due to their small sizing, relative low costs and easy accessibility, those systems rapidly spread and established the basis for young people to interact with a new and programmable technology. This led to a flood of new games and software. And even though it wasn’t easy for the industry to protect their intellectual property form being pirated, the fact that the systems could be copied easily made them so popular. In the mid 1990’s home-computers were slowly but steadily replaced by the more popular and update-able PC-Systems. Since that time a lot of different more or less successful gaming systems have been released. Illustrating today’s importance of the pre-PC area the following section provides information on the sold systems. For further reading on the history of computer-gaming the English books of Steven L. Kent, for example The Ultimate History of Video Games [KW15], or the German books Spielekonsolen und Heim- computer by Winnie Forster [For15] and Resume by Stefan Höltgen [Höl+14] are a good point to start.

3.3. Installed Basis Over Time

In order to assess today’s market potential this section provides the information of sold popular gaming-systems up to the early 2000’s. The section consists of three tables, one for home-computers (table 3.1 on page 10), one for video-gaming systems (table 3.2 on page 10), and one for mobile-gaming devices, so-called handhelds (table 3.3 on page 11). The following tables present the number of sold systems and the number of sold official games for each system and the date of first release until production stop. Due to a lack of data in history the numbers are not precise.

9 3.3 Installed Basis Over Time Defining The Market

Still they represent a fairly accurate picture of sold systems and games. These lists are not complete, but present the most important systems in their time. Only systems with the capability to play separate sold games are mentioned. Systems with hard wired games, like the ones from Tiger Electronics or the Game & Watch series are not included. The numbers were taken from [For15], except the sold units for NES, Super NES, Nintendo Game Boy, Game Boy Advance[Nin17], the number of sold Atari 8-bit family units [Wik17a], and the units sold of the handheld NEC PC Engine GT also known as NEC Turbo Express [Sno07].

System Lifetime Sold units Games Apple II series 1977-91 5,000k 1,000 Atari 8-bit family 1979-1990 4,000 1,000 NEC PC-8001 1979-1992 unknown 2,000 Texas Instruments TI99/4a 1980-1985 2,500k 100 Commodore VC-20 1981-1984 2,500k 250 Sinclair ZX Spectrum 1982-1992 5,000k 2,000 Commodore 64 1982-1994 20,000k 2,000 MSX 1983-1992 5,000k 1,400 Amstrad CPC 464 1984-1992 2,500k 1,200 Atari ST 1985-1994 6,000k 1,000 Commodore Amiga 1985-1996 6,000k 1,500 Table 3.1.: Home-Computers

System Lifetime Sold units Games Magnavox Odyssey 1972 300k 16 Atari 2600 1977-1992 30,000k 500 Interton VC 4000 1978-1982 unknown 40 Mattel Intellivision 1980-1990 3,000k 125 CBS Colecovision 1982-1985 4,000k 100 GCE Vectrex 1982-1985 unknown 25 Sega Master System 1983-1995 10,000k 300 Nintendo NES / Famicom 1983-1994 61,910k 1,400 Atari 7800 1984-1992 3,500k 60 PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 1987-1996 7,000k 650 Sega Genesis / Mega Drive 1988-1997 30,000k 850 SNK Neo-Geo 1990-2002 1,000k 120 Nintendo Super NES 1990-2000 49,100 2,000 Super Famicom Table 3.2.: Vintage Video-Gaming Systems

10 3.4 Products Defining The Market

System Lifetime Sold units Games Nintendo Gameboy (& Color) 1989-2002 118,690k 1,200 Atari Lynx 1989-1994 2,000k 85 Sega Game Gear 1990-1996 10,620k 300 NEC PC-Engine GT 1990-1996 1,500k 650 TurboExpress Nintendo Virtual Boy 1995 770k 22 Neo-Geo Pocket (& Color) 1998-2001 2,000k 80 Bandai Wonderswan (& Color) 1999-2003 3,500k 200 Nintendo Gameboy Advance 2001-2007 81,510k 2,000 Table 3.3.: Vintage Handheld Systems

3.4. Products

Besides the vintage systems and games there is a wide variety of products for the retro-gaming interested consumer to choose. First of all there are all kinds of different games (3.4.1). Additionally there is new hardware to run the original old games to recreate the experience on new TVs (3.4.2), as well as new media like websites, print magazines, books or even full-length movies (3.4.3), different conventions and trade shows (3.4.4), merchandising and fashion accessories like T- Shirts, shoes, action figures or plush toys (3.4.5), and finally dedicated locations that offer these products (3.4.6).

3.4.1. Games

As presented in figure 2.1 on page6, there are the old games which can’t only be played on their original systems, but in emulated environments on current gaming- systems, too. Additionally there are new games using a retro-style in graphic and/or gameplay. And there are new games being made to run on the old systems.

Classic Games (old-on-old) Today collectors and gamers are still able to buy 45 year old games and systems from the beginning of gaming history. Those games can be found at second hand market places and sometimes dealers sell even sealed games. But as time passes by more and more games are rare to find. Some looked- after games are priced that high, so more and more fake versions of games appear on the market, being sold as original. Fortunately for gamers most of the old games can be emulated on current PCs.

Emulated Classic Games (old-on-new) The most popular platform to emulate old systems is the PC. Until around 2006 when Nintendo started its Virtual Console

11 3.4 Products Defining The Market service on the Nintendo Wii, games were only available as so-called ROM image, dumps of the software-code, on the internet. Those downloads were free and illegal, but it was the only way gamers could still get and play the old games without owning or setting up the old systems. With Nintendo’s service the players were now able to buy and play these games for comparatively little money. Today emulated originals can be bought from all kinds of online stores like GOG.com, Nintendo, Microsoft’s XBox Store, PlayStation Store and some are even sold as collection at retailers for the current hardware on its corresponding medium.

New Retro-Style Games for New Systems (new-on-new) Presently there is a wide variety of games available who use a retro-design like Pixel Art or a retro-style gameplay or a combination of both. Most of those games have been developed by indie developers, which are independent from big publishers smaller sized studios. The more “rough” style has the advantage that less people can create a game, but it is also used to often create more gameplay focused games. That may be the reason, why quite some of those games became highly successful, not only by older players but by the young ones, too. Some examples are Shovel Knight, Steam World Dig, Minecraft, and Völgarr the Viking.

New Games for Old Systems (new-on-old) Interestingly there are new games being released for the old systems. A big part of those are so called home-brew games, which are programmed by private individuals and published for free as downloadable files to be played in an emulator or with some effort on the original hardware. Some of those games are being released and sold in very small circulations as collectors editions on its original medium. Small publishers like Protovision-Online focus on selling games for home-computers, Piko Interactive is publishing new games for old video-gaming systems like NES or Super NES, Super Fighting Team is buying old licenses of old games from Korea and debugs and translates those to sell them as new game on the western market, and companies like NG:DEV.TEAM or Watermelon-Games develop and release impressive games for the old systems.

3.4.2. New “Vintage” Hardware

Besides the NES Classic Mini mentioned in the introduction (Chapter1) and un- der the trademark of Sega released gaming systems with integrated old classics, other small companies are releasing new versions of old systems, too. For example the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, a recreation of the ZX Spectrum, the Atari Flashback in its now 7th generation which plays the old Atari VCS games or the from the

12 3.4 Products Defining The Market

Commodore 64 community highly anticipated The 64 a new and compatible ver- sion of the old system. There are new gaming systems which can run the old games from a lot of different systems in an emulated environment either with pre-installed licensed games (i.e. Retro Bit Generations), the possibility to play the original games (i.e. Retro-N, Super Retro Trio), or using ROM image to play the games (i.e. Ouya, GPD XD). Even new Hardware for the old systems is being released, new joysticks or modules to add extra memory or usability by companies like Individual Computer. Also cartridges which can run the ROM image of old games on the original hardware, making it possible to play rare games or home-brew games on the original hardware without emulation (i.e. Everdrive from Krikzz). Additionally there are companies like Neo Legend who manufacture new arcade cabinets to run the old arcade games for private users, but their machines can also be found for a greater audience at the Paris airport Charles-de-Gaulle (December 2016).

3.4.3. Media (Magazines, Books and Movies)

As measured by the media it seems like retro-gaming has become more and more popular in recent years.

Magazine Publisher Cyclus Circulation Countries Retro Gamer UK Imagine Publishing monthly 26,120 UK, Europe Retro Gamer eMedia GmbH quarterly 25,000 Germany, Austria Switzerland Return Frank Erstling quarterly 10,000 Germany, Austria Switzerland Table 3.4.: Example of print magazines in Europe.

As a traditionalist medium print magazines can be found at the kiosks, their cir- culation numbers (table 3.4 on page 13) reflect the interest in their topic, but they are highly outnumbered by the numbers online media like websites, forums and especially Let’s Play Video achieve high viewing rates. As an example table 3.5 on page 14 shows some of the highest ranked YouTube channels on the topic. YouTube serves here as an example and indicator, of course there are other platforms like Twitch Interactive which serve the same need for Let’s Play Video. In 2011 James Rolfe, who runs the Cinemassacre-channel on YouTube (see table 3.5), successfully raised $325,000 by crowdfunding to finance a full length feature film on his popular character The Angry Video Game Nerd. In 2015 the Hollywood- Movie Pixels with Adam Sandler and Chris Columbus was released, highly antici-

13 3.4 Products Defining The Market

Username Channel Started Subscribers Views in m Cinemassacre Cinemassacre 2006 2,322,000 1,050 JonTronShow JonTronShow 2010 3,213,000 428 Lord Karnage InecomCompany 2007 461,000 462 Pat the NES Punk patthenespunk 2008 223,000 89 Lazy Game Reviews phreakindee 2006 633,000 153 MetalJesusRocks MetalJesusRocks 2006 395,000 63 Gaming Historian mcfrosticles 2006 320,000 28 Table 3.5.: List of popular YouTube channels on retro-gaming. [Soc17] pated but the final movie itself was not well received. Much more successful was the 2012 retro-game based movie Wreck-It Ralph by Disney. Besides the books on history, like The Ultimate History of Video Games [KW15], An Illustrated History of 151 Video Games [Par15], 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die [Mot14], the Gameplan books [For08; For15; FF04], or the computerarchäologie books [Höl16; Kei17], there are even pulp fiction novels availa- ble on the topic of retro-gaming like the German Extraleben books from Constantin Gillies.

3.4.4. Conventions & Shows

Besides a growing number of special conventions on retro-gaming in different cities (i.e. the Retro Gaming Expo in Portland (USA), the Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo (Canada), the New & Retro Game Festival Valladolid (Spain), the Pixel Heaven (Poland), or the Retro-Börse (Germany)) even the biggest exhibitions on gaming, the E3 (USA) and the GamesCom (Germany), have their own areas dedicated to retro-gaming.

3.4.5. Fashion and Merchandising

Today’s consumers can find all kind of goods using the Pixel Art-style of old games. Not only T-Shirts, bags and action-figures, but also lights, curtains, cups, trousers or shoes are available. Companies like Elbenwald, CloseUp or Thinkgeek are not only selling it online or in local stores, but they do make some of their own de- signs, too. Even the famous leisure shoe maker VANS put up its own retro-gaming Nintendo collection.

14 3.4 Products Defining The Market

3.4.6. Marketplaces

Besides the local stores for new computer-games, the ones for used old games and the fashion and merchandising stores mentioned in section 3.4.5, most of the market takes place online. The biggest to mention are probably amazon, alibaba and ebay, which are places where everything legally available is being sold. Next to those three, there are hundreds of shops and re-sellers to be found online, and almost every company has its own marketplace, too. Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Apple and many more provide the possibility to buy and download their games directly on their devices, no matter if you use a smartphone, tablet, PC or console. One online store to mention, which is focused on old games and some merchandising, is Konsolenkost, another one, more focused on hardware, is DragonBox Shop.

15 4. Methodology

In order to get a profound sense of why today’s people are drawn to retro video games, experts of the products described in Chapter3 were asked to state their opinions in personal interviews (AppendixB). At first a selection of potential In- terviewees was set up (Section 4.1), next a questionnaire was developed (Section 4.2), and finally the evaluation process was designed (Section 4.3). In preparation the book “Interviews mit Experten” [BLM14] served as guideline.

4.1. Interviewees

In order to receive a broad but representative view on the retro market and its trends, the sampling was done on the premise of preferably different professions in that market. The aim was to get six up to ten interviews for this thesis. In summary sixteen individuals and companies were addressed, three of those are professional software developers, one is a private programmer and collector, one is a music composer of classic computer-games, four are re-sellers of games, hardware and merchandise, one is a hardware manufacturer, two are book authors, three print-magazine publishers, and one is a fashion manufacturer. In order to achieve a high response rate to the request of an interview, a personal email was written (AppendixA), which listed the objective of the thesis in the subject line and the text without understating the actual personal effort of the interviewee. Attemption was to establish a personal link between interviewer and interviewee by addressing a common interest.

4.2. Questionnaire

Using the basics of [BLM14] the expert interviews is the key component of this ana- lysis and are treated as sound interviews. The focus is on a qualitative information acquisition and therefore the questions seek to determine different interpretations

16 4.2 Questionnaire Methodology on the topic. The questions are following a thematic structuring and include some digressions on private views in order to receive additional interpretation knowledge. In order to compare the data a clear thematic structure is developed consisting of three parts. The first part includes questions concerning a personal link to the topic and tries to evaluate a definition on the term retro in gaming (Section 4.2.1 on the current page). The second part addresses the retro-trend (Section 4.2.2 on the following page) and targeting the potential causes. The last part embraces the product and market situation (Section 4.2.3 on page 19) from different professional view-points. In the following the questions and their intentions are being listed. Depending on the person’s profession and the course for the interview, the questions may slightly differ. The interview questions were set up for an interview duration of 45 up to 60 minutes. The thematic-controlling questions are built from story-generating questions, sta- tement and valuation questions, and explorations using [BLM14]. In addition to the uniformed questions, in the very beginning personal questions about the interviewee are asked in order to set up a relationship and get a feeling for the participants background. In order to loosen up the course of the interview, positive personal questions with little contextual meaning are asked, too.

4.2.1. The Personal Link

In general, what means retro to you? Showing the interviewees point of view on the core topic and reflecting his idea on what the term retro should represent. Used to differentiate the topic in general.

What is your personal link to retro-gaming? Helps to identify the persons connection to the topic. Used to establish a nostalgic feeling and to loosen up the interviews atmosphere.

When do you call a game retro? Revives the first question and further differentiates the subject. Is there only one definition or are there different views, as the research in Chapter2 may suggest?

Do you have a favorite retro-game and -system and why are those your favorites? Focuses again on the personal link to the topic and repeats to some degree the question on what is retro. For a gamer this may be a very personal question.

17 4.2 Questionnaire Methodology

Again its intention is to open up the interviewee.

If you are a game collector, what do you collect in particular? Tries to determine if there is an overall trend on collecting the games and in what form.

Do you play on current systems, like PC, video-gaming systems or mobile platforms? On one hand it differentiates the topic towards modern systems, on the other hand it presents the connection between the old and new hardware in terms of, where retro games are played on.

How do you decide what to play next? Shows the influence of a player’s decision what to play.

What are your personal aspects that make a good retro-game? In this question aspects to graphics, sound and music, and the gameplay should be focused. Furthermore the answers may point out, what causes the trend. This question serves as a link to the next part of questions about the trend.

4.2.2. The Trend

Do you think, that there is a trend towards retro gaming? A closed direct question to the main topic. Starting the second part of the interview.

Why do you think this is happening? Very open question on the causes for the potential trend.

Is nostalgia a main driver? From other consumer goods we know that nostalgia is one of the main reasons for a retro-trend 2.2. Therefore this question will or will not confirm the assumption that retro-gaming follows the same rule.

What about the increasing complexity of a game? Another assumption is that the complexity, here used an umbrella term for graphics, sound, physics, gameplay and size of a game, of today’s games is one cause for players preferring retro-style games.

18 4.2 Questionnaire Methodology

How do you feel about the sheer amount of new games, are there maybe too many to choose from? For the Commodore 64, one of the most successful home-computers, around 2,000 different commercial games have been released throughout its lifetime. In 2016 4,700 games were published on Steam for the PC. Could this high number of new games be a cause for playing old and well-known games?

Did the nonexistence of the internet influence the gaming experience? The absence of the internet is one big difference to the modern times. But did it affect the gaming experience and if so is it a cause for a retro-gaming trend?

4.2.3. The Market

What is missing on the market for passionated collectors? An open question used as starting point to the part about the market. May give a hint to what is to be expected in the future.

Why do you make this product? This question will be adopted to every single person’s business. It will show the personal intention behind the product.

How far does the complexity of the programming influence your decision to ...? This question addresses the closeness to the machine which a vintage-system has due to its more embedded approach of programming and handling. Today’s computers have reached a level of complexity which makes it almost impossible to completely understand its technical build up. It tries to establish a feeling if and how the machines complexity influences the choice of profession and how far it may be a driver for a potential trend.

What is your unique selling point? Invites the interviewee to talk about its own product and its distinction on the market.

Who are your customers? This question targets the customer profile, like age, gender, etc.

19 4.3 Interview and Evaluation Methodology

How sensitive to pricing are your customers and is the pricing stable? On the presumption that vintage video game products trigger some nostalgic feeling at the consumer, the consumer should care less about the pricing of the product. [LSV14]

How is the price tendency on retro-games? Determines the changes over the past years and may show if there is a common trend.

What is your company’s and the market’s situation? Reflects the interviewees feeling about the current market and his own business. And may already give an outlook to the future.

What is the future for retro games? Personal view on the future of retro gaming. This ending question tries to determine if the topic of retro-gaming is continuing.

4.3. Interview and Evaluation

The interviews consist of a short personal profile as well as the given answers of the interviewees. Information about profession and career are included in the profile. The questionnaires (AppendixB) are either done personally, by phone, in written form or in a mixture of all. All but one of the interviews were processed in German language and were translated. For the evaluation (Chapter5) categories concerning the research issues were set up. The interviews were filtered and the answers have been used to formulate quan- titative and qualitative results. The topic relevant answers to the side questions were used for the results, but are not separately listed in the evaluation. The complete interviews are included in the appendix (B) and provide an inside view to the topic of retro-gaming.

20 5. Evaluation of the Interviews

In this chapter the evaluation of the Interviews is in centre. In total it succeeded to interview: two full-time software developers, one designing new retro-style games (Taron Millet) and the other one programming a game for old hardware (Chester Kollschen), one print magazine publisher and editor (Frank Erstling), one professor in sociology and publisher of another retro-gaming print magazine (Dr. Stephan G. Humer), an author, freelance editor and owner of a publishing-house focusing on gaming and its history (Winnie Forster), another author on multiple books and lecturer at the University on the archaeology of early microcomputers (Dr. phil. Stefan Höltgen), one gamer, collector and home-brew software-developer (Simon Quernhorst), and one retailer who runs online and local stores (Kreso Valter). In the following below alphabetically listed abbreviations of the interviews names have been used. CK Chester Kollschen (Interview B.4 on page 74) FE Frank Erstling (Interview B.6 on page 83) KV Kreso Valter (Interview B.8 on page 91) SHo Dr. phil. Stefan Höltgen (Interview B.7 on page 88) SHu Dr. Stephan G. Humer (Interview B.3 on page 70) SQ Simon Quernhorst (Interview B.1 on page 57) TM Taron Millet (Interview B.2 on page 63) WF Winnie Forster (Interview B.5 on page 79) At first the response rate to the requests will be analyzed (Section 5.1), to some degree it indicates the importance of the topic to the interviewees and the need for an academic approach to this issue. Next the question on what the term retro - as shown in Section 2.3 - refers to in computer-gaming is parsed (Section 5.2). Third point is a look at whether there is a trend and the corresponding potential causes to it (Section 5.3). Finally the answers concerning the potential market are regarded (Section 5.4). The answers to the more personal questions, especially the favorite games and systems, are used for the listed topics, but not separately covered.

21 5.1 Response-Rate Evaluation of the Interviews

5.1. Response-Rate

The initial interview request via email (see appendixA) turned out to be a success with a high response-rate (Table 5.1 on page 22). Out of 16 requests 13 responded, resulting in an response-rate of 81.25%, a positive response-rate of 68.75% and a final success-rate of 50%. Unfortunately three of the eleven planned interviews had to be cancelled due to a high workload of the interviewees. The high response-rate is a possible indicator towards the importance of the topic and the participant’s interest to an academic approach to that question.

Requests 16 Responses 13 Negative Response 2 Positive Response 11 Finished Interviews 8 Table 5.1.: Response-Rate

5.2. What is Retro?

Regarding the questions on what the personal view on the term retro and retro- gaming is, there is a majority defining something from the more recent past, espe- cially from his or her own youth. This is becoming even more apparent with the answers to the favorite retro-game or -system where 6 out of 8 have their favori- tes from their youth and to the personal link to retro-gaming where 7 of 8 see a connection to their youth (Figures 5.1). Compared to the use of retro in other business branches as described in Section 2.2 the answers ofTM: “Of a style reminiscent of early versions of games” and SHo: “Retro is a figure of time, reaching from the present into the past and which confronts historical with contemporary aspects” get close to the definition made before. But the majority states in the context of gaming, retro describes old games on old systems (Figures 5.2). Looking at the different statements, 2 people claim, that they don’t (WF) or don’t like (FE) to use retro concerning games at all. Within the discussion on what is to be called retro (as stated in Chapter2), Figure 5.2 shows the different opinions. Whether it is applicable to old software and hardware old-on-old, new software or hardware for vintage systems new-on-old, or new games using a reminiscent style on new systems new-on-new. 6 participants see an applicability for old-on-old, still half see a proper usage for new-on-old, but only two opinions state a usage for new-on-new software or hardware.

22 5.2 What is Retro? Evaluation of the Interviews

Favorite System and Game Personal Link 8

6 6

4 4

2 2 # statements

0

other youth

extiiyouth abstention profession

Figure 5.1.: Favorite System or Game and the Personal Linkage

6 6

5 4 4

3

# statements 2 2 1 1

none

old-on-old new-on-old new-on-new

Figure 5.2.: What is Retro?

But today there seems not to be a proper designation for new-on-new soft- and hardware, if it is not simply called retro, for instance in literature it is titled retro- style, contemporary-retro or post-retro (Section 2.3), but the participants name it retro-inspired and intentional-retro (SQ) or pseudo-retro (CK).

23 5.3 The Retro-Trend Evaluation of the Interviews

In sum, the majority uses the term retro for old software which is being used on the original systems. To some degree new installations for the vintage systems are being called retro, too. But there is an uncertainty on how retro inspired soft- and hardware should be called and be classified. It is also interesting to point out that the category old-on-new was not mentioned by the interviewees. But it might be reasonable to assume, that it is treated similar to the old-on-old category, depending on the authenticity of the ported game or hardware.

5.3. The Retro-Trend

Seven participants answered the questions on a potential trend (Section 4.2.2), since SHo skipped those questions. Three of them are stating that there is a trend and four that there has been a trend. “[...] retro-games have become an inherent part of the computer-games market and therefore are no longer a trend” [SHu], or as TM put it, “[retro-games] became part of the overall tapestry of game-styles”. With the follow-up question on why this is happening, the statements are being qualified. WhenKV refers to a retro-trend, he refers to the market of old games for collectors in particular. Here he simply sees a saturation for the collector and therefore no longer an increasing trend.

5.3.1. Distinction of Target-Groups

Analyzing the answers to the questions of Section 4.2.2, it seems there are three target-groups in relation to that trend. One group is interested in old games either on the original system or on new platforms, “they want to recover the good times they used to have and share it with friends or family” [CK]. As pointed out by four participants, one has “a need for games from our youth” [SHu], which also corresponds to the term of personal nostalgia, as Kießling [Kie13] defines it. The second group consists of people who didn’t grow up with those gaming-systems, but who are interested in it, either “due to curiousness for the old systems [or due] to the drive to participate in the retro-trend” [SHu]. Those apply to the ones with an intention of historical nostalgia [Kie13]. The second group is probably the most interesting in concerns of market growth potential. The third group consists of persons who “really love their systems and [who] are interested not only in nostalgic things but in new innovations for the systems, too.” [CK], those might be assigned to “fandom” [CK]. This fandom can arbitrarily be expanded, some focusing on one system in particular, others on the idea of

24 5.3 The Retro-Trend Evaluation of the Interviews computer archaeology and therefore on different relevant systems and its software. In this group collectors of games and hardware are placed, too. Persons in that group might be driven by personal as well as historical nostalgia.

5.3.2. Causes for the Trend

7

6

4 3 # statements 2 2 1

nostalgia curiousity # of games dissatisfaction

Figure 5.3.: Causes for the Trend

When being asked for the causes for the trend, all stated nostalgia as a main driver. Additionally consumer dissatisfaction on new games was mentioned by three different persons (CK,TM,FE) and curiosity for the old technique and games was pointed out by two persons (SHu,FE). The high number of released games is seen as a possible cause by only one person (KV). Nostalgia or personal nostalgia is stated as an initial cause, but it seems like curio- sity or historical nostalgia and the dissatisfaction may be the driving factors now. Dissatisfaction is mainly caused by high complexity (CK,TM,FE) or the missing focus on gameplay of modern games. “Having a game that is easy to figure out how it works, yet difficult to master the actual challenges of the game, is in my opinion the ’holy grail’ of good game design, and something that many modern games completely fail at.” [TM]

25 5.4 The Market Evaluation of the Interviews

This is confirmed by five out of eight interviewees who state gameplay as the most important aspect of a game, rather than realistic graphics, movies or audio.

Internet The internet is not mentioned as a direct cause for a retro-trend, but it is a game changer. In concerns of the gaming experience, three main issues were mentioned. One is the information about new games and their quality. Before the internet era this was done either by print-magazines or word by mouth [FE]. Thanks to online-magazines, Let’s Play Videos, and other online sources information became much more easy to access. On the downside the solution to gaming experiences can easily be achieved by looking it up on the internet, spoiling a once self-made achievement [KV,CK,FE]. Another one is the multiplayer experience. The internet made it possible to easily play with others on a world-wide level, and created the genre of massive-online games. But today the positive interaction of so-called “couch multiplayer” [TM] where the players share the same room in front of the gaming-system seems to be missing. This is not only stated byTM andSQ, but is also one of the core characteristics of the recent gaming-system Nintendo Switch. A third issue is the patch-ability of new games [TM]. Before the era of Internet the games had to be playable and free of all major errors before their market release, today games can be changed by patches after their release. This often makes the gaming experience unsatisfying for the customer, since a game might change quite a bit after buying it and may be one cause for the above stated dissatisfaction of new games.

Control of the Machine Five of the participants state one aspect why they choose to work with retro-games and -systems is the feeling of the “complete control of the machine” [SQ] or the sensation of being close to its hard- and software. This feeling of control is one important aspect which draws users to vintage systems like home- computers. They offer an easy accessibility, but with their technical restrictions and possibilities they provide enough challenges to truly master them.

5.4. The Market

Concerning the market development statements on target groups and pricing could be evaluated from the answers. Both show an increasing interest and appreciation of retro-gaming.

26 5.4 The Market Evaluation of the Interviews

5.4.1. Target Group

Concerning the old games most of the customers are male as stated by the majority of interviewees.SQ states that “their age differs from system to system”, which, in his opinion, “approves [...his] thesis, that the people buying today’s retro-games, are attached to the systems of their own youth”. Looking at new retro-style products the customer group is shifting to a younger and more gender mixed one. According toFE they first focused their magazine on a male and around 35 years old target group, but “as more as we changed to a younger target group as more we got female readers, too. Today’s readers are between 20 and 60 years old and fortunately an ever expanding part is female”. And TM confirms this reception by stating “a surprisingly diverse mix [...], including both young and old and both genders”, as customers to their retro-style game.

5.4.2. Pricing

“During the last ten years the prices for old games rose between 200% and 300%” [KV]. Normally “the price tendency is increasing independent from the system. The older and historically significant the more rare and looked after a game is” [WF]. The prices develop “with a focus on the systems which are in the trend” [CK] and “a flattening interest in one system may cause a decline of prices” [SQ]. As long as “the number of collectors is increasing, the prices of classical games increase, too” [FE]. Interested buyers, like collectors, might pay a lot, since they want a specific item and hardly have an influence on the price. But “especially collectors know the pricing situation for used games[...]” and “[...] are paying no more than the current market prices.” [KV]. And according toCK the sensibility to pricing differs from country to country. Today the prices for new games for old systems are “at a level, where I can make a living on it” [CK]. “Ten years ago the pricing of my games was considered as too much. At that time there was no retro trend in sight and the people were not willing to pay for a game on old (and cheap) hardware more than €10.” Still collectors of one system have been willing to pay extra money for a very limited edition of one game ten years ago, too [SQ]. But there were just not enough collectors to make a living on it. Prices for retro-style games rose from around $10 four years ago to around $15 today [TM]. According toFE andWF, books or magazines have a good and stable pricing and an increase in its sold circulation. “For example, the latest edition from 2015 of

27 5.5 Future Evaluation of the Interviews

Spielkonsolen & Heimcomputer [For15] sold twice as fast as the second (2005) or third (2009) edition, without any more effort on marketing or advertising”WF.

5.5. Future

Concerning vintage gaming-systems running old or new games the future may be restricted due to “the durability of the corresponding hardware” [FE] and to the nature of the trend being “like a wave” [SQ]. Therefore “the next generation of gamers will not have much of a connection to that topic. [...] I give the retro-gaming market another ten years, but not longer.” [KV]. And “it will be challenging to have a collectors market in the future for today’s games, when they are sold only as downloads or the game’s servers have been shut down in the meantime” [FE]. But concerning new gaming-systems and defining retro-gaming not as much of an nostalgic trend but rather as an own style or genre, its future might be a “very bright” one [SHu]. Today there is an increasing amount of “new and younger fans of retro-games” [SHu] and with games running on new hardware, the durability of the vintage systems is less relevant. The most important cause for an on-going market for today’s retro-games is that those “prioritize the fun and gameplay” [CK]. “[...] eventually the label retro will be going away or lose all meaning [...]”, so “[...] retro-style games and game mechanics have a bright future as being part of the rich tapestry of games as a whole rather than being seen as a separate niche containing nothing but outdated ideas that only appeal due to nostalgia, like they were seen as only a decade ago”. [TM] “Both the game and the retro-market are increasing, probably the next 20 to 25 years.” [WF]

28 6. Conclusion

Taking the high response-rate into account (Section 5.1), the topic on retro-gaming, its trend and the corresponding market seem to be a hotly disputed topic. Its rese- arch from an academic view point is highly anticipated, as stated from participants beforehand. In order to approach an outlook (Section 6.3) focused on retro-gaming (Section 6.1) as well as the concluding trends and markets (Section 6.2) the present chapter takes all facts and aspects into account.

6.1. Retro-Gaming

When analyzing the term retro in concerns of gaming it is apparent that it is used in a slightly different way than it is used with other consumer-goods. Retro-brands and retro-designs are meant to be “brand new, old fashioned offerings”[BKS09]. Derived from that definition, retro-games or retro-hardware should be used for new products which remind the consumer of the recent past. One conclusion of this work is the term retro in computer-games being used for several fields of products, which should be treated differently. Following the names given in figure 2.1 on page6, those are new-on-new, new-on-old, old-on-new, and old-on-old. First there are new games and products which remind of vintage games or systems by style or gameplay. Taking the other consumer goods as a role model, this segment would be the one which should be addressed as retro, like the car New Beetle. But taking the current discussions into account, this segment is actually the one that the community wants to describe by a different term. Still to be defined, but names like retro-style, contemporary-retro, post-retro, retro-inspired, intentional-retro or pseudo-retro can be found. Reflecting the gained knowledge, today‘s new products define their own genre, rather than being a trend. Calling them retro is the right way in its intention as well as in its definition. (new-on-new) Second there are new products, hard- and software for the old systems. Despite being new, those are made for their original systems to improve or to revive those. But just like new parts for a classic car, they are not retro. They serve not as a reminiscent to the past, but as a preserver for the old technology. (new-on-old)

29 6.2 Retro-Trend and Market Conclusion

Third there are vintage games for new computers or consoles. This seems to be a grey zone, since those games have either to be altered in order to run on a new system. Or the old programming-code has to be emulated on the new system. Both procedures can be seen as an update to the original product, but the game itself still represents not a “brand new, old fashioned offering”. But the new system which runs the vintage games, can be seen as a retro product if it is a reminiscent of the old. For instance the initially mentioned NES Classic Mini by Nintendo. (old-on-new) Fourth there are vintage games that are played on their intended systems. In comparison to other goods those should be named like classic cars, classic watches or antiques. But today, as the interviews (Section 5.2) and the media (section 2.3) are proving, in primary those are given the tag of retro. This may be caused by several aspects. First of all, computer-games do have a very young history. The first commercial products were released 45 years ago. And as Chester Kollschen said “[...] we are the first generation of people that have a history in playing computer- and video-games in our youth”. In addition, approximately during its first 25 years, computer-games were seen as toys not suitable for serious grown- ups or adults. Eventually this stigma started to vanish with the release of the Sony Playstation, when Sony ran major marketing activities to target adult buyers [GR15c]. Taking nostalgia as a main driver for the retro-trend, the classification for old games was made by adults, who wanted to name the computer-gaming history, without its former stigma. Therefore it seems reasonable, by naming its history the community chose the term retro, since it was already in use as a positive reminiscent of the recent past. Nevertheless there are indications, like the statements of Winnie Forster or Frank Erstling, that the usage of retro for that products will vanish over time and will probably being replaced by terms like classic or vintage.(old-on-old)

6.2. Retro-Trend and Market

Today’s presence of the internet may have not been a direct cause for the trend, but it certainly is a game changer, like it was and still is for the music industry. Both industries were used to sell none physical goods, like music or bits and bytes, on physical media, like Discs or tapes. And both industries hit similar problems by pirating. The prevalence of the internet made it more convenient for users to simply download a piece of music or software rather than to spend extra time going to a store or ordering it by mail. In the case of gaming it favored another trend: Spreading old, no longer distributed games. Especially for systems like the old proprietary home-computers and video-gaming systems. No longer available soft- ware on the market was spread via the internet as small sized ROM images. Since

30 6.2 Retro-Trend and Market Conclusion those ROM images of outdated games didn’t affect the publishers direct business, the files would easily spread often without any or little legal consequences. This enabled the fast development of user-group driven emulators, software which ena- bled to run the old game-code on new systems like PCs. Today this development is one basis for the copyright owners to re-release and sell their old games in an emulated environment, either on open platforms like PCs or on proprietary systems like consoles. One famous example is the upcoming game by Sega Sonic Mania, which uses techniques and material from the fandom, officially hiring people from the community [AA17]. Thanks to the internet today games are being distributed more and more as online downloads. They are more convenient for customers and much cheaper for publis- hers, also enabling the re-distribution of classic games to new systems for a low price, like Nintendo is doing with its Virtual Console. Furthermore the internet made it possible for enthusiasts from all over the world to establish user-groups, so called forums, about their favorite systems. Not only sharing games but valuable knowledge on technical details and coding tricks which heated up the interest on those classical systems. Sometimes this even induced a resurgence of those. Like it happened with the ZX Spectrum which was recently re-released as Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega1. And computer-archaeologists could continuously rediscover lost software, to preserve its code on servers, and to share it with the community, as the example of Evil Garden from the Interview withSQ shows. Taking the presence of the internet as a basis for the trend and the forums, emu- lators and ROM images as accelerants the question for the causes still remain. In order to give a satisfying answer we have to look at the trend from different points. As indicated in section 5.3 a distinction between three groups can be made. The first group consists of people interested in the games of its youth. Taking this group into account “the retro trend is like a wave, and under this condition every gaming generation will become retro at some point in the future” [SQ]. This group forms a sub-trend which is caused by nostalgia or to name it after Kießling personal nostalgia [Kie13]. This sub-trend of retro-gaming will most likely focus on the games of the majorities youth and will shift in time, always focusing on the games around 25 to 30 years old. From a marketing point of view this target-group is clearly defined by demographic means and sales figures from the past. The second group is made of users driven by historical nostalgia [Kie13]. This sub- trend is caused by curiosity for the old and dissatisfaction of the new games (5.3) and by “the drive to participate in the retro-trend” [SHu] caused by the first group.

1www.retrocomputerslimited.com

31 6.2 Retro-Trend and Market Conclusion

Therefore this sub-trend is a direct cause of the first one, but despite its parent which shifts its focus over time it establishes its own stable market. In the case of today’s new-on-new retro-games it developed into mainstream as stated by Fulton [FF10, p.473], Millet [TM] or Humer, “[...] retro-games have become an inherent part of the computer-games market and therefore are no longer a trend” [SHu]. From a marketing point of view the second group is the most interesting one, since it can expand the first one by multiples, but as of today it is not as easy to identify and to address. In order to awake interest and trigger this group Let’s Play Videos, print-magazines, remakes of major classic-games like Super Mario Maker (released in 2015) or new media production like the movies Pixels or Wreck-It Ralph or recent music-videos like Analogpunk 2.0 by Judith Holofernes are doing a good job. Furthermore universities continue to offer more and more courses on computer archaeology and on the beginnings of programming, like the Humboldt-University Berlin. The third group consists of people who admire a particular system, a computer- gaming brand, or an overall issue like vintage gaming and who target with a lot of energy and money on this. It is set up by people who always stuck to their topic since the first time, by people that came back driven by personal nostalgia and by people who discovered this old electronics by historical nostalgia. Either way it is the foundation of the trend, enabling vintage electronics and software still work today. Those people run the communities and forums on the internet and publish magazines, program the emulators and work on new systems which resurrect old systems like the Commodore 64 or ZX Spectrum. In this group the collectors of games and systems can be found, too. From a marketing point of view, those may make up only a small amount of potential buyers, but as a supporter of a product they are essential to its success on that market. After all, those people are the drivers behind the communities and the overall retro-trend. The existence of the second group may be the answer regarding the disaster in supplying the NES Classic Mini by Nintendo. Only little is known about the intentions of Nintendo releasing its remake of a thirty year old console. But we know that it was meant to be a one time 2016 holiday-season product [Pec17], with approximately one million units planned. For an experienced company like Nintendo it should be easy to estimate an accurate market volume of such product. Therefore it seems to be obvious that they only took the first group of personal nostalgia driven consumers and the third fandom group into account. It is probably the second group of potential customers, who turned this item to one of the most looked after products. In the end Nintendo produced and sold 2.3 million units, ending its production in April 2017 in order to ramp up the production for other systems. After several months, the product is still achieving double or the triple of its original pricing on second hand market places.

32 6.3 Outlook Conclusion

6.3. Outlook

Retro-trend in gaming does exist. Talking about old games its focus will shift from year to year depending on the age of the majority of consumers in their mid thirties. This first wave induced by nostalgia initiated a stable mainstream market for old games, new retro-styled games, hardware and accessories. This market may last, even with a shifting focus of the initial trend, due to the historical nostalgia. Today’s ambiguity in the use of the term retro will eventually go away, as old games will rather be called classical or vintage. Retro in gaming stands for gameplay prior to everything else (Section 5.2), it depends on the new retro-style games to keep those expectations up. The market for used retro-games will eventually vanish when the retro-trend shifts to today’s generation of games, which is almost only available and patch-able as long as the servers of its manufacturers and publishers exist. It is not foreseeable how long this will be. Looking at today’s vintage systems, it is not sure for how long its hardware and games still run. This will increase the importance of the computer archaeology and of the fandom within the next years, in order to maintain this part of history and art. The immediate future for retro-gaming looks “very bright”, as Humer stated, “Na- turally we are getting more and more games and therefore the community is getting more colorful. Even for the old games the community is getting more diversified, since we get new and younger fans of retro-games. That means a very positive development” [SHu]. Right now it seems like the retro-trend in gaming is speeding up. In June 2017 Nintendo announced the remake of its successful Super NES called SNES Classic Mini. The hardware concept seems to be the same as NES Classic Mini. Only hours after its announcement pre-orders of the products have been sold out.

33 Glossary

Hardware

Amiga 500 Official successor to the Commodore 64. Released in 1985 and supported until 1996. [For15] Amiga 2000 Amiga-Workstation released in 1987 by Commodore. Primarily used for video- and imageprocessing. [For15] Amstrad PCW Home-computer by Amstrad, released in 1985 as personal computer for word processing (PCW). In Germany released as Schneider Joyce.[Höl16] Apple II Released in 1977 by Apple it is one of the most important home-computers, especially in the USA. It is supported until 1991. [For15] Atari 8-bit family Atari’s 8-Bit home-computers starting with the Atari 400 and the Atari 800 released in 1979. [Höl16] Atari Pong Released in 1972 the Pong arcade-machine should be the start of the commercial succesful video-gaming market. The game itself was a simple yet fun to play interpretation of table tennis. [KW15] Atari VCS Atari’s first cartridge based video computer system (VCS), released in 1977, USA. Also known as Atari 2600. Supported until 1992. [For15] Commodore 64 Commodore’s most popular home-computer. Released in 1982, supported until 1994. [For15] Commodore 128 More powerful but not successful iteration of the Commodore 64. Released in 1984. [For15] Computer Space Not the very first commercial video-game, but the first with a high impact and the predecessor of Atari Pong. [Par15]

34 6.3 Conclusion

Game & Watch Hardwired LCD-Handheld games. Launched in 1980 and produced until 1985. More than 43 million sold Game & Watch devices should be the main driver for Nintendo to enter the video-gaming market. [GYD12] Intellivision Video-gaming system by Mattel. Published in 1980 and supported until 1990. [For15] Game Boy Advance Very successful handheld gaming system by Nintendo. Released in 2001 and supported until 2007 it was the successor to the Nintendo Game Boy.[For15] Magnavox Odyssey As the first video-gaming system the Odyssey was released in 1972 and the games were sold on cartridges. [For15] Microsoft Xbox First video-gaming system by Microsoft. Released in 2001 and supported until 2008. [For15] NEC PC-Engine Very popular gaming system released in 1987, Japan by NEC. In 1989 released as Turbo Grafx-16 in the USA. Supported untill 1996. [For15] NES The Nintendo Entertainment System was the first video-gaming system by Nintendo. Worldwide it was a major success. Released in 1983 and supported until 1994. In Japan also known as Famicom in Japan. [For15] Nintendo 64 Nintendo’s last cartridge based stationary gaming system up to the latest Nintendo Switch. Released in 1996 and supported until 2001. [For15] Nintendo 3DS The very successful successor to the Nintendo DS includes an stereoscopic upper screen. Released in 2011. [For15] Nintendo DS Nintendo’s successor to the Game Boy Advance. Portable gaming system with two screens and touchscreen control. Released in 2004 and supported until 2014. [For15] Nintendo Game Boy The first handheld system with seperate sold games by Nintendo. Released in 1989 and supported until 2002. More than 120 million units were sold. [For15] Nintendo Gamecube The successor to the Nintendo 64 is the company’s first

35 6.3 Conclusion

disc-media system. It was released in 2001 and supported until 2007. [For15] Nintendo Switch Latest video-gaming system by Nintendo, combining a stationary and mobile system into one unit. Published in 2017. Nintendo Wii Handmotion controlled video-gaming system by Nintendo. Published in 2006 and supported until 2014. [For15] Nintendo Wii U Successor to the very popular Nintendo Wii. Published in 2012. PS Vita Sony’s second mobile video-gaming system after the Sony PSP. Released in 2011. [For15] Sega Dreamcast Last gaming system by Sega. Released in 1998 and supported until 2004. [For15] Sega Genesis Very popular 16-Bit video-gaming system by Sega. Released in 1988, supported until 1997. [For15] Sega Mega Drive The European version of the Sega Genesis. Sega Saturn 32-Bit video-gaming system by Sega. Released in 1994, supported until 2000. [For15] SNK Neo Geo Very powerful gaming system, which used the same technic as the arcade-machines. Sold as premium system. Released in 1990 by SNK, supported until 2002. [For15] Sony Playstation The Playstation was the first video-gaming system by Sony. Published in 1994 and supported until 2004. [For15] Sony PS2 The second console by Sony was even more successful than its predecessor. Published in 2000 and supported until 2013. [For15] Sony PS3 The third home console by Sony. Published in 2006. [For15] Sony PS4 Today’s latest installment of a videogaming system by Sony. Released in 2013. Sony PSP Sony’s first handheld system uses Mini-DVD’S as medium. Released in 2004 and supported until 2013. [For15]

36 6.3 Conclusion

Super NES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System by Nintendo. Released in 1990, supported until 2000. [For15] TI 99/4A Home-computer by Texas Instruments. Published in 1980 and supported until 1985. [For15] TRS-80 The TRS-80 Model 1 was a computer by Tandy. Presented in 1977 it became an unexpected success and caused quite some internationalreproductions. [Höl16] Vectrex Innovative video-gaming system with integrated vector screen. Published in 1982 by GCE and supporte until 1985. [For15] ZX Spectrum Released in 1982 by Sinclair, UK. It is Britains most successful home-computer. Supported until 1992. [For15] ZX81 Predecessor to the ZX Spectrum. Released in 1981 by Sinclair it was a very inexpensive entry to home-computers. Supported until 1984. [For15]

37 6.3 Conclusion

Games

Actraiser A platformer! and city-building simulation for the Super NES by Quintet published in 1991. [Jih10] Advanced Daisenryaku Japanese strategy game released in 1991 on Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis by Sega. Daisenryaku is a popular strategy game series which is still getting new titles on current systems. [Wik17b] Ant Attack Originally published in 1983 by Quicksilva on the ZX Spectrum it is probably the first isometric game on a home-computer. [Whi17] Archon Archon: The Light and the Dark originaly published in 1983 by Electronic Arts on the Atari 8-bit family is a game similar to chess. [Med05] Axelay A Shoot-Em-Up released in 1992 on the Super NES, which was developed and published by Konami. [GR12] Beatmania Rythm video-game for the Sony Playstation initially released as arcade-machine in 1997 by Konami. [Mot14] Blood Money Shoot-Em-Up by DMA Design originally published for Amiga 500 in 1990. [Dai04] Bomberman A strategic maze-based multiplayer game for the NES. Released in 1983 by Hudson Soft[GR17]. Also known as Dyna Blaster in Europe. Bomb Jack Originally released in 1984 as an arcade-game by Tehkan. platformer about defusing bombs on a single screen. [Let11] Castle Crashers This first in 2008 by Behemoth on the Microsoft Xbox released game, mixes retro-style Beat’em up gameplay with new elements and modern graphics. [Ste10] Castlevania: SotN Castelvania: Symphony of the Night is a platformer and was released in 1997 on the Sony Playstation by Konami.[Boz07] Choplifter A side scrolling Shoot-Em-Up with a twist to rescue people by helicopter. Initially released in 1982 on the Apple II by Brøderbund.[Mot14]

38 6.3 Conclusion

Chrono Trigger Classic Japanese RPG released in 1995 by Squaresoft on the Super NES.[Mot14] Commando Shoot-Em-Up released in 1985 in the arcades by Capcom. It is a pioneer of its genre and a top-down run-and-gun game. [Mot14] Contra 3 A Shoot-Em-Up released in 1992 by Konami on the Super NES[Mot14]. It was called Super Probotector in PAL regions. Die Hard Arcade Ported in 1997 to the Sega Saturn by Sega it is basically a Beat’em up with 3D graphics [Rub97]. In Japan released as Deinamaito Deka. Diablo Released in 1997 Diablo is an action RPG on PC developed by Blizzard Entertainment.[Mot14] Denaris Due to legal restrains renamed version of Katakis, re-released in 1989. [GR14a] Donkey Kong When released in 1981 in the arcades, the platformer was a major success for Nintendo and layed the foundation of the company in the USA.[GR16a] Donkey Kong Country platformer by Rare for the Super NES released in 1994. Very good game with revolutionary graphics. [GR14c, p.172] Doom The probably most important First-Person-Shooter in its time. Programmed by id Software its first version was released in 1993 on PC. [GR15b] Earth Bound In Japan called Mother 2 was released in 1994 on the Super NES by HAL. It is a colorful classic and strange Japanese RPG.[Mot14] Elite When released in 1984 by Acornsoft it was revolutionary in gameplay and size. It is a 3D space simulation, where players can discover 8 procedural generated galaxies, each consisting of 256 planets. [Par15] Evil Garden Released in 1989 on Amiga 500 by Demonware, it is a simple Shoot-Em-Up. Its version for the Commodore 64 was discovered in the last years. [fga16]

39 6.3 Conclusion

E.V.O.:Search for Eden Released in 1995 by Enix for the Super NES it is an action RPG. Final Fantasy 4(2) Released in the USA in 1991 as Final Fantasy 2 and in Japan as number 4. The game is a classic Japanese RPG.[Dil10] Final Fantasy 6(3) Released in 1994 by Squaresoft on the Super NES as Final Fantasy 6 in Japan and later as Final Fantasy 3 in the USA the game is a good Japanese RPG. [Mot14] Final Fantasy Tactics The first title of the popular tactic RPG-series was released in 1997 on Sony Playstation by Squaresoft. [Par15] Flappy Bird Created by Dong Nguyen and released in 2014 for smartphones Flappy Bird is seen as an addictive retro-sytled game which became a phenomenon in a very short time. [Kus14] Flintstones - V.R.V. Flintstones - Viva Rock Vegas is a finished but never released racing game for the Sega Dreamcast. Versions for Sony PS2 and Nintendo Gamecube were released in 2001. F-Zero Released in 1990 by Nintendo on its Super NES it is a fast racing game set in a fictious future. [GR14c, p.172] Galaga Very successful Shoot-Em-Up by Namco. Released in 1989 in the arcades and ported to many different systems. [GR15a] Giana Sisters Released in 1987 by Rainbow Arts for the Amiga 500 and Commodore 64 it is an excellent copy of Super Mario Bros. and was therefore taken from the market shortly after release. But due to illegal copies the game still became very popular. [GR16d] Golden Axe Released in 1989 in the arcades and ported to many home-computers and consoles the Beat’em up from Sega was a big success. [GR14b] Gran Turismo Released on the Sony Playstation in 1997 by Sony it is a racing car game wich claimed a realistic gameplay and became a system seller. [Par15]

40 6.3 Conclusion

GTA 5 Latest game of the open-world series Grand Theft Auto, released in 2015 on various systems by Rockstar.[Sta15] Killer 7 Released in 2005 on Nintendo Gamecube by Grasshoper Manufacturer, it is "a shizophrenic game" [Par15, p.207]. It experiences with gameplay and graphics and became a cult. Katakis Published in 1988 by Rainbow Arts on Amiga 500 and Commodore 64 it is a good Shoot-Em-Up.[GR14a] Langrisser Released in Japan in 1990 by NCS it is a tactical Japanese RPG for the Sega Mega Drive.[GR16c] The Last Ninja Developed by System 3 and released in 1987 on the Commodore 64 it is an isometric action game. [GR15c] Lemmings Published in 1991 for Amiga 500 by Psygnosis Lemmings was a mayor success for its developer DMA Design. It is an addictive combination of platformer and strategic puzzle game [GR15d, p.252ff.] Lode Runner A platformer which was the first game to introduce a level editor. Released in 1983 on various platforms and developed by Douglas E.Smith. [Mot14] Lords of Midnight A strategy and adventure game developed by Mike Singleton and released in 1984 on various platforms. [Mot14] The Lost Vikings Released in 1992 on various systems. This puzzle action game made the later company Blizzard Entertainment famous. [GR14c] Maniac Mansion One of the earliest Point-and-Click adventure game by Lucasfilm Games released in 1987 . [Par15] Manic Miner Released on various systems in 1983 and developed by Matthew Smith. It is a platformer.[Mot14] Metal Gear Solid Released in 1998 on the Sony Playstation by Konami. The game provides a hide-and-seek gameplay with a thrilling story and 3D graphics. [Par15]

41 6.3 Conclusion

Metroid Released in 1986 for the NES by Nintendo it is a platformer and the first title in the long lasting series. [GR12] Minecraft Released in 2009 on PC by Mojang the game is often compared with playing LEGO on the computer. Minecraft provides an unique exploring gameplay and is still a major success and surpassed 20 million sold units by 2012. [Par15] Monkey Island The Secret of Monkey Island was released in 1990 by Lucasfilm Games on PC and is a Point-and-Click adventure game. It solidified Lucasfilm Games’s position at the forefront of that genre. [Par15] Ms. Pac-Man Successor to Pac Man, released in 1981 by Namco. It had the same gameplay, but introduced the first female game character in history. [Kei17] Odama This experimental mixture of a voice-controlled tactical pinball game was released in 2006 on the Nintendo Gamecube and was developed by Vivarium. [GR16c] Out Run The racing game released in 1986 was the most successful arcade-machine for Sega in the 80’s [GR16b, p.160ff.]. Pac Man Pac Man introduced the first character to computer-games [Kei17]. It was released in 1980 in the arcades by Namco.[GR14a] Panzer Dragoon The game is a 3D Shoot-Em-Up released in 1995 on Sega Saturn by Sega. Letting the player ride on the back of a dragon. [Mot14] Pong The game which started a whole industry. Pong was the first commercial successful computer-game. It is an electronic version of table tennis is simple and intuitive. [Mot14] Pooyan Released in the arcades in 1982 by Konami it is an addictive action game which was ported to various systems. [SCO16] Populous Released in 1989 on various systems Populous is an innovative strategy game developed by Bullfrog Production.[Mot14]

42 6.3 Conclusion

Punch Out!! (Wii) The successor to Super Punch-Out!! was released in 2009 by Nintendo on its Nintendo Wii.[Mot14] Quake A very influencial First-Person-Shooter by id Software, published on PC in 1996. [GR16b] RAM-Pong Released in 2017 by Thomas Jentzsch on the Atari VCS this game shows how the limits of an old system can be pushed. As the name says, it runs Pong in the systems ram. [Jen17] R-Type Released in 1987 in the arcades by Irem it is sad to be one of the most enduring Shoot-Em-Up made. [Par15] R-Type Delta Released on the Sony Playstation in 1998 by Irem is a good successor to the initial R-Type.[Mot14] Rainbow Islands Released in 1987 by Taito on several systems, it is a classical platformer.[Mot14] Resident Evil Released by Capcom in 1996 for the Sony Playstation. It is a 3D survival horror game which influenced many contemporary games. [Par15] REZ 3D Shoot-Em-Up and rythm-game with psychedelic graphics. Released in 2001 by Sega for the Sega Dreamcast.[Kei17] Samba de Amigo Being released in 1999 for the arcades and on the Sega Dreamcast by Sega the game features a music rythm game using unique maracas shaped controllers. [Mot14] Sam’s Journey Retro platformer in development by Knights of Bytes to be released in 2017 for the Commodore 64. [Now16] Secret of Mana Very famous action RPG for the Super NES. Released in 1993 by Square.[Kar16] Secret of Evermore Action RPG for the Super NES. Released in 1995 by Square.[GR15c, p.81] Shenmue Released in 1999 by Sega for its Sega Dreamcast it was a commercial flop but a creative success. The game combined a thrilling story with the reality of everyday life in a Japanese city of the 1980’s. [Par15]

43 6.3 Conclusion

Shinobi X platformer for the Sega Saturn released in 1995 by Sega.[Sch95] Shovel Knight Released in 2014 by Yacht Club Games on various systems. It is a retro-style platformer.[Mor14] Star Fox Released in 1993 by Nintendo for the Super NES, it is a 3D Shoot-Em-Up.[GR13b] Steam World Dig Released in 2013 on various systems and developed by Image & Form the game represents a platformer with a mixture of retro gameplay aspects. [Bur13] Space Invaders Rating as the most popular Shoot-Em-Up it was released as arcade-machine in 1978 by Taito and inspired countless copies and successors. [GR15a] Super Ghouls ’N Ghosts Released in 1992 by Capcom on the Super NES is a challenging platformer.[Bir07] Super Mario Bros. Released in 1985 in the arcades by Nintendo it became a system seller to the NES. Today it is probably the most famous game. [Par15] Super Mario Bros. 3 Very successful game in the Mario-series. It was released in 1990 by Nintendo on the NES.[Mot14] Super Mario Kart Successfully starting the subgenre of fun racers the game was released in 1992 by Nintendo on the Super NES.[Par15] Super Mario World Released in 1990 by Nintendo for its Super NES it is a good and influencial platformer.[Par15] Super Metroid The successor to Metroid was released in 1994 on the Super NES by Nintendo and ranks as the best title of the series. [GR12] Super Punch-Out!! Released in 1994 by Nintendo on the Super NES it is a successful fighting game with cartoon graphics. [Mot14] Tetris Developed in 1984 by Alexey Pajitnov, it is a puzzle game. In 1989 it was released for the Nintendo Game Boy and became a system seller with over 33 million copies sold. [Par15] TMNT IV The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time was released in 1992 and is a Beat’em up by Konami for the Super NES.

44 6.3 Conclusion

Thunder Blade Released in 1987 in the arcades by Sega it is a Shoot-Em-Up. Tomb Raider Developed by Core Design and released in 1996 by Eidos on the Sega Saturn it is a 3D action game. Tomb Raider became "an inexhaustible icon both in terms of her athleticism and marketing clout." [Par15, p.130] Tunnel B1 Released in 1996 for various systems it is a kind of First-Person-Shooter. Turrican Released in 1990 by Rainbow Arts for various systems, it is an action platformer which pushed the systems boundaries and features a great soundtrack. [GR13a] Ultima IV Released in 1986 by Origin for various systems it is a classical RPG.[GR16c] Völgarr the Viking Released in 2013 on PC and developed by Crazy-Viking Studios. It is a retro-style action platformer comparable to Super Ghouls ’N Ghosts. [Pon13] Windjammers Released on the SNK Neo Geo in 1994 by Data East it is a competetive frisbee fighting game. [GR16c] Xenon II Released in 1989 on various systems and developed by The Bitmap Brothers it is a Shoot-Em-Up. Zelda: ALttP The third installment of the popular action RPG was released in 1991 as Zelda: A Link to the Past for the Super NES by Nintendo.[Par15] Zelda: BotW The latest game of the Zelda-series by Nintendo. Released in 2017 as Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the Nintendo Wii U and Nintendo Switch. Zero Tolerance Released in 1994 for the Sega Mega Drive and developed by Technopop, it is one of the few First-Person-Shooter for that system. [Rei17]

45 6.3 Conclusion

Companies

8bitdo Hardwarecompany developing and selling retro-styled game controllers and adapters for various systems: http://www.8bitdo.com/ Amstrad Founded in 1969 by Alan Shugar in Great Britain. At first it specialzied on importing unexpensive consumer electronics. Starting its own developed CPC464 in 1984 the company entered the home-computer market. In 1986 Amstrad bought Sinclair’s computer sector and became the biggest home-computer company in Great Britain. In 2007 Amstrad was sold to the media company Sky.[Höl16] Atari The company startet in 1972 in the USA with its popular Atari Pong and succeeded with its Atari VCS released in 1977. The company became the worlds biggest computer-gaming publisher, but never recovered after the gaming-crisis in 1983. Since than the company and its intellectual property changed its owners quite often and released some more or less successful home-computers and video-gaming systems. Today the French company Atari SA is selling the old gaming concepts and trademarks to new systems. [Höl16] Apple Founded in 1976 in the USA it started to manufacture and sell home-computers. The first computer was replaced in 1977 by the popular Apple II. Today the company is present in numerous areas of digital media hard- and software and is the financialy strongest company in the world. [Höl16] Blizzard Entertainment Founded in 1994 from the former company Silicon & Synapse it foucuses mainly on PC gaming. In 2007 it merged under Vivendi to Activision Blizzard.[For08] Capcom Founded in 1979 the Japanese company starts to develop games and produces its own arcade-machines. Over time Capcom manages to release some of the best computer-games. [GR14a, p.18] Commodore Founded in 1954 as producer of type-writers and office devices in the USA, it started in the 1970’s to

46 6.3 Conclusion

produce digital devices like calculators or chess-computers. In 1977 Commodore entered with the PET 2001 the home-computer market and began its successtory, which ended with the end of the home-computer era. The Company was closed down in 1994. [Höl16] CloseUp German company founded in 1987 as mail-order business. Today it offers all kind of fan-based merchandising which is sold online by mail-order or in its stores: www.closeup.de Crazy-Viking Studios Small studio founded by Kris Durrschmidt and Taron Millet in 2012. Known for its game Völgarr the Viking: www.crazyvikingstudios.com Deadalic Entertainment Founded 2007 in Germany, it is a successful developer and publisher of computer-games which focuses on Point-and-Click: www.daedalic.de DMA Design Founded in 1989 was a British video-game developer that was acquired in 1999 and later renamed to Rockstar North Limited.[GR12] DragonBox Shop German online store specialized on new hard- and software for old systems: www.dragonbox.de Eidos Founded in 1990 the company focused early on an acquisiton strategy and eventually became one of the biggest western gaming companies. Its success was mainly based on its gaming series Tomb Raider, since they couldn’t compensate a decline in interest in it, the company struggles from 2000 on. Today Eidos belongs to SCi.[For08] Electronic Arts Founded in 1982 Electronic Arts Inc. (short EA) is one of the most successful and the biggest computer-game company today. The company focused early on marketing and an acquistion strategy with high success. [For08] Elbenwald Founded in 2000 in Germany the company offers online and in retail stores merchandising to movies and games: www.elbenwald.de Enix Formed in 1982 from the Eidansha Boshu Service Center it develops to one of the best known Japanes

47 6.3 Conclusion

gaming companies. Known for its best selling series Dragon Quest. In 2003 the company merged with its rival Squaresoft to form as Square-Enix the market leader for RPG games. [For08] Hasbro Founded in 1923 the company is one of the best known brand for toys today. In 1984 the company started an attempt as gaming system manufacturer, but stopped it in 1988. At the end of the 1990’s it became the biggest computer-game company of the western world, but sold this branch to Infogrames in the end of 2000. [For08] Hyperkin USA based comopany which designs, develops, and distributes hardware for old and new gaming-systems. Famous for their systems which run and emulate old games: www.hyperkin.com Hudson Soft Founded in 1973 the Japanese copmany started to program the first Japanese software. In the late 1970’s it got the largest games-publisher in Japan throughout the 1980’s. The company was taken over by Konami in 2011. [GR14a, p.19] id Software Founded in 1991 in the USA the company gains popularity with their First-Person-Shooters Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake. Today the company focuses on the development and marketing of its 3D-engine. [For08] Individual Computer An online store offering all kinds of new hardware for old systems: www.icomp.de Krikzz Founded in 2009 it produces and sells new hardware for old systems, known for their product EverDrive which offers SD-card support to old consoles: www.krikzz.com Kickstarter Founded in 2009 it is today’s most popular crowdfunding site on the internet: www.kickstarter.com Konami Founded in 1969 as producer of jukeboxes. In the 1980’s the Japanese company became one of the leaders in games development. [GR14c, p.13]

48 6.3 Conclusion

Konsolenkost One of the largest German online-stores selling all about gaming: www.konsolenkost.de Lucasfilm Games Founded in 1982 in the USA as a devision of the company of filmmaker George Lucas. In the 1990’s renamed to LucasArts. It became legendary for its Point-and-Click from the mid 1980’s to the mid 1990’s and for its Star Wars games [For08]. In 2012 the company was acquired by The Walt Disney Company. Today it serves no longer as developer, but as a licensor. Watermelon-Games Founded in 2004 it is an international company which develops and publishes new games for old systems under the trademark Magical Game Factory: www.magicalgamefactory.com Microsoft Founded in 1975 in the USA as a developer for software. The company started its business in Japan in 1978 and entered the home-computer market in the 1980’s with its MSX, which was only successful in Japan. But it established standards for operating systems with MS-DOS and later with Windows. Throughout the years it released some popular games for its operating systems. In 2001 it entered the video-gaming market with its console Microsoft Xbox, which is in its third installment one of the most popular systems today. [For08] Namco The Japanese Nakamura Amusement Machine Manufacturing Company was founded in 1955. It produced many different arcade-machines and -games, the most well known being Pac Man.[GR14c, p.12] NEC Founded in 1899 it is a Japanese company and is one of the key firms in the Japanese information and communication industry. It dominated the Japanese computer market in the early 1990 and released several home-computers and video-gaming systems. [Fra95] Neo Legend Founded in 2007 it is based in France and produces old-style arcade-cabinets which run old as well new games: www.neo-legend.de

49 6.3 Conclusion

NG:DEV.TEAM The company was founded in 2001 by the brothers Timm Hellwig and René Hellwig and is located in Germany. It is a game developer which specialized on new games for old systems such as SNK Neo Geo and Sega Dreamcast: www.ngdevteam.com Nintendo A Japanese company established in 1889 as manufacturer of playing cards. Throughout its history it developed all kinds of toys and entered the video-gaming market with its own Pong-console in 1977. Today Nintendo is a leading video-game and -system manufacturer responsible for some of the most known gaming-series. [For08] Origin Founded in 1983 in the USA the company developed and published computer-games. The company was very successful throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s and was bought by Electronic Arts in 1992. Origin was closed down in 2004. [GR15b] Piko Interactive The company was founded in 2013 and is based in the USA. It is a game development and publishing company that concentrates on the development of new games for old consoles: www.pikointeractive.com Protovision-Online Founded in 1996 in Germany it develops and publishes new games and accessories for old systems like the Commodore 64: www.protovision-online.com Rare Founded in 1986 in Great Britain. Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s it became an important and exclusive studio to Nintendo. In 2002 the company became an exclusive partner to Microsoft, but with less success. [For08] Sega Founded in 1940 on Honolulu and today a Japanese company started with coin operated music boxes and its service. Throughout the 1980’s up to the early 2000’s the company was a big competitor in the gaming industry, selling computer-games and gaming-systems. In 2001 Sega stopped its flopping hardware business and became a multi-platform computer-game developer and publisher. [For08] Sinclair Founded in 1962 in Great Britain. It focused on the miniaturization of digital products, like TV’s, Radios

50 6.3 Conclusion

or calculators. It entered the home-computer market in 1978 and became famous for its model ZX Spectrum and its predecessor the ZX81. Giving up the computer business in 1986 to Amstrad and focused on the development of small vehicles like bicycles. In 2015 Sinclair returned to the computer-gaming market with its retro-gaming product Vega.[Höl16] SNK Founded in 1978 as Shin-Nihon Kikaku Inc. in Japan, it released high quality video-gaming hardware and software for the arcades and for its home-systems. In 2000 the company was liquidated and refounded as SNKPlaymore in 2001. [For08] Sony Sony Corp was founded in 1946 in Japan as producer of audio-devices. Today it is one of the leading multimedia and high-tech companies. In 1993 the Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) was founded as one part of Sony Corp. SCE is responsible for the success of its video-gaming systems and its games and consits of 1200 employees in 11 different countries. [For08] Steam Established in 2003 by Valve Corporation, it is today’s biggest online gaming market and platform on PC: www.store.steampowered.com Super Fighting Team Established in 2000 by Brandon Cobb the U.S. company develops, produces and publishes new, translated and updated versions of old games for its original hardware: www.superfighter.com Squaresoft The Japanes company was founded in 1986 and developed computer-games since the early 1990’s. In 2003 it merged with its rival Enix. Today Square-Enix is after Nintendo the largest game developer of Japan. [GR14a, p.20] Taito Founded in 1953 by a Russian.In 1973 the Japanese company started to produce the copies of the Atari arcade-machines, as the first ones in Japan. It became the market leader in arcade-machines during the mid 1980’s, but lot that leadership in the early 1990’s. Today they are part of Square-Enix.[GR14c, p.11]

51 6.3 Conclusion

Tandy Founded in 1921 in the USA the company is better known for its later name RadioShack, a name Tandy used for its stores right from the beginning. In 1977 the company entered the home-computer market with its own home-computer the TRS-80 series. [Höl16]. Tiger Electronics Founded in 1978 in the USA. Since 1998 part of Hasbro. Tiger Electronics was known for its hardwired LCD-Handhelds. [Car09] Texas Instruments Founded in 1930 as Geophysical Service Incorporated in the USA. In 1951 it finally changes its name to Texas Instruments. In 1958 it invented the integrated circuit (IC) and released its first CPU in 1969. The company sold the main components to lots of electronic manufacturers and entered the computer market in 1970. But it wasn’t successful and left that business in 1979, refocusing back on the IC and CPU/MCU business. [Höl16] Thinkgeek Founded in 1999 it is a retailer based in the USA which caters merchandise to computer enthusiasts: www.thinkgeek.com Twitch Interactive Founded in 2011 in the USA. It runs a live streaming video platform of the same name. It shows several channels with retro-gaming Let’s Play Video content: www.twitch.tv VANS Founded in 1966 the company is a shoe manufacturer, which is based in the USA. It released a collection based on classical Nintendo games in 2016. (www.vans.com) Yacht Club Games Founded in 2011 the U.S. company develops and publishes games on new systems, most known for its retro-style game Shovel Knight: www.yachtclubgames.com YouTube Founded in 2005 it is is the worlds largest video-sharing website. Today it part of the Alphabet Inc. group and hosts many Let’s Play Video with retro-gaming content: www.youtube.com

52 6.3 Conclusion

Other Terms

Point-and-Click Point-and-Click Adventures tell a story by showing graphics Adventure and letting the player interact with it by using a pointer on screen. Most favourable input device is the computer-mouse. The genre replaced the popular Textadventures and was most popular between 1987 and 2000. [GR15d] arcade Concerning video-gaming, the arcades are a place where many coin-operated games and systems are set up. An arcade game is a video-game that is programmed to run on a coin operated basis. Those games run on hardware built in a cabinet with monitor and input devices. BASIC Designed in 1964 BASIC became one of the most influencial programming languages for home-computers in the 1980’s. It is an acronym for Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. Its inventors didn’t file a copyright, which lead to a widespread implementation. [Höl16] Beat’em up A popular genre with its origin in 1976 as an arcade-game made by Sega. Also referred to as brawler or fighting-game. The player controls an on-screen character who needs to fight either computer or other player controlled enemies. [Spe08] DOS An abbrevation for Disk Operating System. It is used to operate computer systems, which use a file system, like CBM DOS on the Commodore 64. The most popular DOS system is probably MS-DOS by Microsoft. Its first version was released in 1981. First-Person-Shooter FPS or Ego-Shooters take the concept of Shoot-Em-Up to a first-person view. In doing that, it is possible to create a much more realistic feeling to the often fast action games. [GR15b] Let’s Play Video A fairly new phenomenon from 2006 were players play a computer-game while letting others watch and comment it. This can happen live, using platforms like Twitch Interactive, or as recorded video on platforms like

53 6.3 Conclusion

YouTube. Today it is a new field for media which is generating millions of viewings. [Ack17] Lotek64 Online magazine on retro-gaming: www.lotek64.com. Pixel Art The computer graphics in the beginning of the computer-game era were of low resolution and of limited colors. On this limitation an art style derived. Today Pixel Art is used as a design-style that triggers nostalgia at the observer and leaves room for interpretation. [Cot10] platformer One of the earliest gameplay principles from the early 1980’s. It lets the player control a character which needs to run and jump in order to avoid or defeat enemies. Also known as platform game or Jump’n’Run. RPG An Abbreviation for role-playing game. A game where participants play a role, most common are fantasy or science-fiction settings. Adapted to computers in the 1970’s as Textadventures, they were soon being replaced by their graphical counterparts. Today, one can either play alone or together with hundreds of others in online multiplayer games. ROM image Also called ROM file, is a computer file which contains a copy of a read-only memory, like a video-systems cartridge. This data can be emulated or re-burned onto a new medium. Shigeru Miyamoto Born in 1952 in Kyoto. In 1977 he started to work at Nintendo as designer of graphics and casings for arcade-machines. He invented and worked on todays best known gaming-series and -characters, such as Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., and The Legend of Zelda. He still works at Nintendo and ranks as one of the most influencial game designers in history. [For08] Shoot-Em-Up Probably the most early gaming concept from 1962. In its basics, it lets the player shoot obstacles from a 2D bird’s-eye view. Its most popular example is probably Space Invaders.[GR15a] Textadventures Before the computer graphics became detailed enough, text was the medium to tell interactive stories on computers. Textadventures were popular from the early

54 6.3 Conclusion

1980’s up to the early 1990’s and were replaced by Point-and-Click adventure games. Virtual Console Gaming service by Nintendo. First on Nintendo Wii the service offers a platform, where old games from different classic systems can be purchased and played. Supported up to date on almost all new Nintendo gaming systems.

55 A. Example of an Interview Request

Subject: Interview on Retro-Gaming Madame, Monsieur, I am presently writing a Master Thesis for an executive MBA at the University of Furtwangen, Germany. I am investigating the trend to retro video and computer games. Focus of the work is the cause of the trend, the tendency and its resulting market potential. In order to achieve a perfect result and overview, I am doing quality interviews with experts on the topics. To my person shortly: I am 37 years old, having a master in software engineering and I have worked for over 6 years as CEO at a mid-sized company. Today I am absolving a postgraduate course on Economy and Management. In private I am a passionate collector and gamer of old games and systems. In my thesis, I am striving to combine my profession and passion in one. Last November during a business trip I visited the airport Charles de Gaulle, and at my terminal there were some arcade stations from your company. I was positively surprised and keen on finding out who made those cabinets. Due to this reason, it would be a pleasure and a great help, if you could take some of your time for an interview. The master thesis will be later published in English language. The interview will take about 45-60 minutes and will be done via Skype, phone or similar technology. If it is more convenient to you to answer the question in written form, I can send you a questionnaire as alternative. If you have any further questions, you can contact me by either email or phone ([...]). I’m looking forward to hear from you. Best regards, Fabian Graf

56 B. Interviews

B.1. Simon Quernhorst

“The game collection of today is the modern equivalent of yesterday’s stamp collection.”

Profile Name Simon Quernhorst Year of Birth 1975 Location Germany Occupation IT Consultant Website http://www.quernhorst.de/atari/ Collector yes Programmer yes Gamer yes All time favorite Game Out Run (Arcade-Version) Platform Commodore 64 Simon Quernhorst is a gamer, collector and programmer of retro-games. He is working as IT consultant, in his spare time he shares his hobby of games with his son and his brother. Simon has developed and published over 10 games and demos for the Atari VCS and the Commodore 64. Besides the physical limited editions his games can be downloaded from his homepage.

In general, what means retro to you? In general retro is something from the past, which has been substituted by a newer product, but you could say it still has its own unique appeal. Everyone will perceive things from his own youth as retro. For some those are vinyl records or tapes, for others books or comic books, and for some it is board-games or video-games.

What is your personal link to retro-gaming? I’m interested in video- and computer- systems since my father’s very first TV pong console at the end of the 1970’s and an Atari VCS around 1984. What really hooked me, was my cousins Commodore 64 and a friends Amstrad PCW. That was around 1986. But back then it was not called ”retro” of course, but rather the ”future”. In 1987 I got my very own

57 B.1 Simon Quernhorst Interviews

Commodore 64 and thanks to its keyboard I started to do some programming on my own. At first in BASIC, later on using assembler and machine language of the CPU. Next to my passion for collecting old games, I still develop my very own demos and games for my two most favorite platforms, the Atari VCS and the Commodore 64. I offer the results as free downloads on the internet and also pro- duce limited editions of real game cartridges or disks, completely with manual, box and bonus items.

When do you call a game retro? For me a game is defined by the fact that it is running on the original hardware. If a game is running on an emulator, for example on a modern PC, it is running on newer technology as it was originally intended to. And it will never run in an emulator in the exact same way as it does on the original system. I think that the main difference is, that the real retro-systems and games have been the latest technology back in their days, and only the time let them become "retro". From my point of view, a modern game on a modern system, which uses Pixel Art as graphic style, may look retro, but it still is a brand new game and not a retro- game. In this sense it may be called “retro-inspired” or ”intentional-retro”.

What is your favorite retro-game and why? My favorite retro-games are Out Run and Thunder Blade in the arcades and Commando on the Commodore 64. Most of my favorite games were published between 1985 and 1992. Concerning gaming that was the time that had influenced me most. It may be an interesting fact, that most of the games that I played through, I can not sell. Somehow there is a bond to those titles, due to the time spend playing the games, which I want to be able to recreate again whenever I want. Just like favorite movies or books, it is a pleasure to revisit the familiar worlds of Super Mario World, Golden Axe or Maniac Mansion, to fly again through the levels of R-Type, Xenon II or Denaris, or just to enjoy a multiplayer game of Commando, Windjammers, Bomberman or Zero Tolerance with other players .

Do you have a favorite retro-gaming platform and why is it your favorite? My favorite gaming systems are the Atari VCS, the Commodore 64, the SNK Neo Geo and the NEC PC-Engine. In my eyes, the gaming experience on the last two is perfect, since I love playing their entertaining action games.

You already told me that you are a collector, what do you collect in particular? I collect only the things and games I could not afford or find in my youth. Therefore I am not looking for a complete collection of a particular system, instead I look out for all the games that influenced me back then. This means that I have several

58 B.1 Simon Quernhorst Interviews copies of Out Run for different systems for example. Additionally I am interested in exceptional things like games where the game producers have proved innovation or games that commercially failed. I am writing about such things in my column in the free Austrian magazine Lotek64.

Do you play on current systems, like PC, video-gaming systems or mobile platforms? I mainly stopped playing on the PC after Doom and Quake, as the consoles catched up technically by then. Nevertheless I play a lot of games on mobile platforms like smartphones or tablets. If a game fetches my interest and can be played for a few minutes in between, I actually do not care about the platform.

How do you decide what to play next? If I spot a game on the shelves that I am interested in, I just play it. Sometimes I get interested in a gaming system again, set it up and play through the my games collection for that system. Some weeks ago that happened on the Sega Saturn and I enjoyed playing great games like Die Hard Arcade, Shinobi X, Rainbow Islands and Tunnel B1. As a side note: the Sega Saturn was the first system on which the original Tomb Raider appeared - several weeks before the Sony Playstation. Furthermore I am sharing this hobby with my son and my brother, and we influence each other a lot on which game is worthwhile playing.

Do you think, that there is a trend towards retro-gaming? Yes.

Why do you think that is happening? I believe that everyone wants to rediscover some part of his/her youth. After the years of apprenticeship or studying people have a bigger financial scope to afford and intensify some of their old hobbies. Most people have a bigger living place and therefore more space and eventually more time to collect and play games. This is the reason why the trend of retro things runs like a time shifted wave. In my opinion the market of the first cartridge based video-game systems like Atari VCS, Intellivision and Vectrex is flattening by now. Instead there is a higher demand for Sega Mega Drive, Super NES and similar systems now. For me it looks like the focus of so-called retro-games is about 25 years in the past. And of course the retro market will grow with every modern system released, too.

You are saying nostalgia is a main driver? Sure. The game collection of today is the modern equivalent of yesterday’s stamp collection.

What about the increasing complexity of a game? I do not believe that mo- dern and more complex products are a problem for customers. The market is so diversified, so that everyone can pick his own favorites. I am pretty sure, that

59 B.1 Simon Quernhorst Interviews many people love to play games, where you have to learn complex manuals and the keyboard layout by heart in order to enjoy the game - a lot of retro-games are made that way.

How do you feel about the sheer amount of new games? Of course the amount increases with every single game being released. What is new today is the retro- game of the future. I think, that a good game will always stay a good game. Therefore I rather buy price reduced or used games from the years before instead of brand new ones.

What are your personal aspects that make a good retro-game? The most important aspect of every game should be the gameplay. A good and intuitive title neither needs the best graphics nor bombastic sound. Otherwise Tetris would have never been that successful. Wicked optics or weird gameplay like in Killer 7 or Odama always pay off, if you want to expand your horizons on gaming, but a title will never be a great game just because of great graphics or the opulent sound. For example, I think that REZ is a very good technical demo. Graphics and sound are extraordinary, but the gameplay is an ordinary copy of the earlier Panzer Dragoon game.

Did the nonexistence of the internet influence the gaming experience? The own horizon was much smaller back then, as you only knew the games from your direct surroundings, like friends and family. Today’s gamers can interact and play with others from all around the world, back then you could only talk about your hobby at the school or at home with friends. Still I remember a more intense playing experience sitting physically together with friends in front of the screen, as it is online today.

What is missing on the market for passionated collectors? Definitely the chance to get your hands on every game that you would like to purchase. Some games I have been searching for decades by now, but in fact there are games that no longer exist in a complete and good condition, as they were never considered as being a collectible back then. Especially for the Commodore 64, some friends and I are very keen on looking for forgotten or lost games. If found, we restore them and put them on the internet to let them be enjoyed. It is incredible how many games have been published only on that particular platform, some completely forgotten by time and now recovered. For example, in 2016 the game Evil Garden on was found for theCommodore 64. The game itself was described in the manual of the Amiga 500 version in 1988 already, but back then the Commodore 64 version never got published. Finding and rescuing those lost games from old storage disks or tapes is very exciting to

60 B.1 Simon Quernhorst Interviews me.

Why do you program on vintage video- and computer-systems? It is a chal- lenge. On old devices it is very hard to actually finish programming a game, because of the limitations of that old technology. For example the Atari VCS has only got 128 Bytes of RAM1, no dedicated video RAM, no extra ROM and no operating system, no integrated text font, and so on. The programmer is responsible for every single pixel and graphics line. Therefore my first game for that system was more of a challenge to see if I could actually finish developing a game, rather than providing a great gaming experience... I hope that it changed on the following titles.

How far does the complexity of the programming influence your decision to program on those platforms? For sure, one thing why I love programming on those vintage platforms is the complete control of the machine. It is exciting to find a new or shorter way to solve a programming problem, and you always get that special kick, when pushing the boundaries of the hardware a little further.

What distinguishes your games from others? I do not believe, that my games have something in common. As mentioned before, I prefer games with a novel game concept. Therefore most times I try to create something new and unique for those old gaming systems. For instance, my game KITE! for the Atari VCS was the very first stunt kite simulator on a video-game console. It is played using two joysticks to simulate the two kite strings. Next to the gameplay I always try to create good graphics and sound, too. In order to do so, I am very thankful for any support I get from others, the music for the game A-VCS-tec challenge needs to be mentioned as it was a great addition to the game. First of all I am making the games for myself, but it is great if other people like them, too.

Who is playing your games? For the binary downloads, which I am all offering free of charge, I do not know who is downloading and playing them. I only know the numbers and they have been downloaded several thousand times. As far it may concern the purchasing customers of the limited editions, their age differs from system to system. People buying the Atari VCS games are mainly in their forties or fifties. This approves my thesis, that the people buying today’s retro-games, are attached to the systems of their own youth. There are only very few younger people, who actually buy copies my limited editions. I produce up to 100 copies on real cartridges or disks.

1Current smartphones have around 2 GB of RAM. That is around 15 million times more than an Atari VCS.

61 B.1 Simon Quernhorst Interviews

How sensitive to pricing are your customers? The collectors who buy my games do hardly care about the actual pricing. For those, the experience of receiving a physical copy with manual and box might probably be even more important than playing the gameplay itself.

Are the prices stable? Yes, I believe that the prices of so called home-brew games are stable. Most of the time there is only a very limited edition of one game available and the games are sold out almost in an instance. That is the reason why the pricing is only a side issue.

How is the price tendency on old retro-games? There is no clear answer to that. In the past some games have been handled as rare items and the pricing was high. Later on it turned out there were many more units still available and prices decreased. Also a flattening interest in one system may cause a decline of prices. Other games will always raise in price, either because they have been in focus all the time or they became sort of a myth, like Giana Sisters. More rare and therefore also increasing in prices are limited editions like the big box of Samba de Amigo for the Sega Dreamcast, unpopular and rarely sold games or games that have never been officially published like Flintstones - V.R.V. for the Sega Dreamcast. On the other side very popular games which sold many units, will hardly ever achieve a collectors value. Of course it will be challenging to have a collectors market in the future for today’s games, when they are sold only as downloads or the game’s server have been shut down in the meantime.

Is there a future for retro-games? As mentioned, in my opinion the retro-trend is like a wave, and under this condition every gaming generation will become retro at some point in the future.

62 B.2 Taron Millet Interviews

B.2. Taron Millet

“[...] if it was made before the rise of polygons it’s automatically retro.”

Profile Name Taron Millet Year of Birth 1977 Location USA Occupation Game Developer Website http://www.crazyvikingstudios.com/ Collector No Programmer Yes Gamer Yes All time favorites Game Super Metroid Platform Super NES Taron Millet is a self-taught hobbyist programmer since age 8, starting with BASIC on a TI 99/4A. After dropping out of college he worked odd jobs and then eventually for Atari tech support answering phone calls from people having problems running computer-games, while working on hobby games in my spare time. Eventually he landed a job at Griptonite Games making licensed handheld games, until they got bought out by a freemium/mobile company, at which point he quit and formed his own 2-person indie game development company with a co-worker from Griptonite, where he now acts as programmer, designer, and game director.

In general, what means retro to you? Of a style reminiscent of early versions of games.

What is your personal link to retro-gaming? Honestly it probably mostly is just the fact that I’m old and my formative years were spent playing video-games which would now be considered retro, and I still consider anything starting with the Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64 era to be a new trend.

When do you call a game retro? Well if it was made before the rise of polygons it’s automatically retro, but if you mean a game made in the modern age, it’s when it focuses on gameplay and challenge rather than an engrossing cinematic experience. However, I admit my own bias makes me far more likely to label a game retro if it uses 2D sprites rather than polygons, even though I acknowledge that’s not really a fair distinction.

What is your favorite retro-game and why? Oh man, so hard to choose! If you mean actual old games, probably Super Metroid because of it’s perfect sy- nergy of challenge, atmosphere, and freedom. If you mean modern games done in

63 B.2 Taron Millet Interviews a retro-style, I would say Castle Crashers, or if it counts, Punch Out!! (Wii) for Nintendo Wii. Castle Crashers probably just for nostalgia’s sake for bringing back a dead genre I loved in the past, and Punch Out!! (Wii) for capturing everything that made the original games so great and, dare i say it, even surpassing it in many ways.

Do you have a favorite retro-gaming platform and why is it your favorite? The Super NES is hands down, no question, the best platform ever for how many amazing classic games originally came out for it - Zelda: ALttP, Super Metroid, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 4(2)& Final Fantasy 6(3), Super Mario World, Super Ghouls ’N Ghosts, Earth Bound, Secret of Mana, Contra 3, Super Punch-Out!!, Actraiser, Star Fox, F-Zero, The Lost Vikings, E.V.O.:Search for Eden, TMNT IV, the list just keeps going. That said, if you don’t care about what platform the games were origi- nally for... since almost all of those are now available on Virtual Console alongs- ide games from other great platforms like the Sega Genesis, I think technically the Nintendo Wii/Nintendo Wii U might be the best current platform for retro-gaming, followed by Steam.

If you are a game collector, what do you collect in particular? Not really a game collector, I just own thousands of games just because I’ve been a gamer for so long, but I only get games because I want to play them, not to have them. I fully embraced the age of digital distribution out of laziness, I like being able to turn on a gaming machine and just pick what game I want to play from a list rather than dealing with physical copies, so unlike many of my friends I don’t keep shelves of games just to have them.

Do you play on current systems, like PC, video-gaming systems or mobile platforms? Yes, but I mostly play retro-style games on them, though there are a few modern-style games now and then that catch my attention. I do not, however, play on mobile platforms at all, I honestly despise any platform that doesn’t have real buttons and I don’t even own a smartphone.

How do you decide what to play next? This is a constant struggle for me. Often it just ends up being that something comes up that reminds me of a game I want to play again, or a new game comes out that catches my attention, though I rarely actually complete modern games before I get bored of them.

Do you think, that there is a trend towards retro-gaming? Actually, not any more. I think there was an increasing trend toward retro-gaming up until a year or two ago, but I think it’s actually leveled out now and became part of the overall tapestry of game-styles. For example, if you talk to young gamers of today, they

64 B.2 Taron Millet Interviews don’t differentiate between retro and modern any more, they are just different, equally valid styles to them. They don’t think 2D sprites = old and 3D polygons = new like older gamers do, they just think they are both perfectly acceptable, legitimate art styles. You are also seeing more and more a trend of retro-game designs creeping back into modern AAA titles.

Why do you think is that happening? I think the increase in popularity in retro-games started due to dissatisfaction with what modern games had become, as they tended to focus mostly on presentation and giving a movie-like experience with interaction, whereas in the past games were mostly focused on being games - presenting gameplay and challenge to overcome in much the same way as non-video- games like board games or bowling or whatever. Older gamers began to realize that they missed playing a game because they wanted to feel a sense of accomplishment for overcoming a challenge, rather than all games focusing on trying to engross the player in some virtual world.

Is nostalgia a main driver? I think nostalgia was definitely a driver originally, but I don’t think it’s as big of a factor any more. There are enough modern games done in a retro-style that it is no longer novel like it was when retro-games first started making a comeback. Now, I think it’s because players and developers have acknowledged that retro-style games offered something unique and just as valid and enjoyable of an experience as a modern AAA2 game, and for some of us, a preferable game play style.

What about the increasing complexity of a game? I definitely feel that the increasing complexity of games was a driving factor for the comeback of retro- games. People used to mistakenly associate complexity with challenge, but then realized that the old, simple games were actually often much more challenging. Having a game that is easy to figure out how it works, yet difficult to master the actual challenges of the game, is in my opinion the “holy grail” of good game design, and something that many modern games completely fail at. I’m certain some gamers stopped playing games when they became overly complex, and others that might have been interested in starting to play games may have balked when the only ones around were super complex, but when retro-games started to become available these gamers now had a way to join in the fun.

How do you feel about the sheer amount of new games? It’s both a good and bad thing. I do personally find it completely overwhelming, but on the other

2A/N: The term AAA in the video-gaming industry is used for games with the highest budgets in development and marketing.

65 B.2 Taron Millet Interviews hand, there has never been a better time to be a gamer with a huge variety of game experiences out there, and almost every niche having many games to choose from, as well as lots of genre cross-overs. The downside being of course that there’s also way too many terrible, terrible games, and it’s a continuous challenge to figure how to find games you will like and how good games let their target audience know they exist!

Did the nonexistence of the internet influence the gaming experience? Well I don’t actually think it was that big of an influence compared to limitations of memory, graphics capabilities, etc, but two big ways it made a difference is in game polish on initial release (due to lack of ability to just patch a game later) and of course on multiplayer (all multiplayer games were what is now known as “couch multiplayer”). I originally embraced internet gaming as a convenient way to play with people around the world, but in recent years have found myself completely avoiding internet online play in favor of couch multiplayer instead when I want to play games with others.

What are your personal aspects that make a good (retro) game? Gameplay is king, of course. Retro-games need gameplay to be the primary focus, and I see some games marketed as retro via graphics, etc. that are actually just modern games wrapped in nostalgia packaging. For me, a true retro-game needs to play like an older game - not entirely avoiding some modern design elements, but at it’s core, it needs to be about overcoming challenges and mastering the controls and so on to truly be a retro-game. As for the other aspects, I personally prefer 2D art over 3D art but I will acknowledge 3D games can be retro-style too. I think for visuals the key is to make sure everything is very clean and clear, because the graphics are there to serve the gameplay rather than the other way around in a retro-style game. In fact, I don’t prefer 2D art (or use it in my own games as a developer) for nostalgia reasons, I use it because I find it often better serves the gameplay by making the elements of play clearer to the player. The important thing is how the graphics serve the gameplay. Finally, for sound and music, I like retro-style audio the same as anyone else, but I think using modern audio is just fine for a retro-style game because, again, gameplay is king!

What is missing on the market for passionate collectors? I have no idea, there are so many games out there, I have to imagine anything that is missing is probably out there but just the collectors haven’t found it yet...

Why did you make a retro-style game for a current gaming machine? Well I honestly didn’t really look at it that way, I looked at it as making a game I wanted to play myself that didn’t exist, and it of course being much, much easier to make

66 B.2 Taron Millet Interviews said game for modern systems than trying to release it on old hardware. I see the style of game we made as just a different choice of gameplay rather than being an “old” game that should have been on an “old” platform. I think the games it was inspired by had merits to their design that had been largely forgotten in modern game design and thought that there must be other players like me who liked these elements but would like to play a game with new content rather than re-playing the classics over and over again where they’ve already memorized everything.

Will you do another one? If I can manage it, I’m working on several at the moment to see if any ideas pan out.

How far does the complexity of the programming influence your decision to program on the new platforms? I’m not really sure it’s a huge factor, since I’ve programmed on older and newer hardware before, I think it’s more about the convenience of distribution. Modern systems support digital distribution which is one of the big reasons why small studios like ours can actually get out to market.

What distinguishes your games from others? Probably the fact that it doesn’t “give in” at all in terms of modern design ideals that most everyone accepts as being automatically “better”. I just don’t buy that newer design norms are automatically better than older ones. Almost every design element has merit, and every thing you “improve” has a cost with it. People say, for example, that giving players lots of options for how to play is purely an improvement, but I disagree. Too many options can cause players to feel overwhelmed trying to make decisions. Some options might actually be compelling for players to explore and yet ruin the game for them. An example I often give is to imagine an RPG that allowed the player to kick every barrel in the game, with a very rare chance that a barrel might contain a treasure, and thousands of barrels to kick. Well, technically that feature is “optional”, but many player will insist on kicking every barrel in the game, which becomes incredibly tedious and boring, thus making the optional feature actually drag down the experience of the game as a whole. Just because it was optional doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to include it! Another example directly related to our game is having more frequent checkpoints and more leniency in saving progress, which people think is automatically a good thing because why should you play through content multiple times you’ve already completed? But I say, there is very real difference between completing a challenge and completing a whole string of challenges in a row without messing up, and in fact legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto once explained that infrequent checkpoints allow players a chance to rebuild their confidence as they go back through content they’ve already mastered on the way to the part that they got stuck on, rather than beating their head against the difficult part over and over again with no reprieve. Some

67 B.2 Taron Millet Interviews other specific USP’s for our game include direct support for speed runners and multiple paths through the game including a “1-credit-clear” style of play which is almost completely unheard of in the modern day.

Who is playing your games? I honestly have no idea and don’t know how to get that information, but it seems to be a surprisingly diverse mix from what I can tell from reading posts on message boards about it, including both young and old and both genders. We even had a 5-year-old fan on YouTube!

How sensitive to pricing are your customers? We do see sales bumps when going on sale but I can’t say that I’ve done any data analysis to determine this.

Are the prices stable? When we released Völgarr the Viking we were told that all 2D retro-style games needed to be $10 or less, but we released initially at $12.99 because we figured that we could always drop the price later or put it on sale, but we can’t really get away with raising the price later. However, I’ve noticed that games have started to go back up in price after the huge dip from when iPhone games started coming out, and I’d say $15 is much more common now for a game like ours.

Can you tell me a little more about your company and market situation? We are a small 2-man studio that works out of our homes, and our marketing has mostly been through social media, our Kickstarter campaign, and word of mouth, though we also had Adult Swim Games help market the first Steam version of the game through a television commercial, but we aren’t sure how much difference that made.

How is the price tendency on old retro-games? To be honest I haven’t really paid attention to this since I’m not really a collector, but it is my understanding that the price tends to drop initially and then as the game gets older the price starts to go back up. Of course, this largely depends on the game’s rarity. I believe that the endless availability of digital copies may prevent physical copies from really gaining great value as they age, but I could be wrong.

What is the future for retro-games? I honestly think that eventually the label retro will be going away or lose all meaning, as it has become less and less well- defined over time as younger gamers get older and start thinking games they grew up with our “retro” while older gamers think those games are still technically “modern”. Besides that, the technology for games is such that people can make pretty much any gaming experience they can imagine, given the time and money, and recently it seems the tendency to go more and more towards photo realistic games has waned,

68 B.2 Taron Millet Interviews with developers going back to exploring a variety of styles. The lines are blurring so much now, that I feel that retro-style games and game mechanics have a bright future as being part of the rich tapestry of games as a whole rather than being seen as a separate niche containing nothing but outdated ideas that only appeal due to nostalgia, like they were seen as only a decade ago.

69 B.3 Dr. Stephan G. Humer Interviews

B.3. Dr. Stephan G. Humer

“I believe that retro-games have become an inherent part to the computer-games market[...]”

Profile Name Dr. Stephan G. Humer Year of Birth 1977 Location Germany Occupation Sociologist and computer scientist Website http://www.retromagazine.eu/retro/ http://www.internetsoziologie.at/de/ Collector no Programmer no Gamer yes All time favorites Game Tetris Platform Commodore 64 Dr. Stephan G. Humer is a postdoctoral sociologist and computer scientist and founder of the so called internet sociology. He works as the research director of the internet sociology department at the Fresenius University, as the director of the laboratory of digitization at the University of Potsdam and honory as senior fellow for the digital classes at the University of Arts in Berlin. Additionally, he is the publisher and editor of the magazine Retro, which examines vintage hard-and software from the last 40 years.

In general, what means retro to you? Primarily to me it is a computer trend, defining especially the systems from the 70’s up to the systems at least 10 years old.

What is your personal link to retro-gaming? My very own experience was as a youngster. I started in 1987 playing games on a Commodore 64. But, in the long run, this was too monotonous to me. As a result I started to write my own software and in 1992 I used an Amiga 2000 to go online. Since that time I only play very seldom. In 2003 I made a reentry into the scene [of home-computing] by my collaboration with the magazine GO64, the predecessor of the Retro magazine.

When do you call a game retro? In general, when it is older than 10 years. More concrete and maybe more correct: As soon as a game grants various substantial criteria, which are specific to game and context. Those depend on numerous factors. For example, when talking about the computer- and video-games of the 80’s, we talk about the most common devices like Commodore 64, Amiga 500, Atari 8-bit family, and some others. Of course you can also mention old DOS-games, but the scene

70 B.3 Dr. Stephan G. Humer Interviews focuses mainly on the so called home-computers, the high runners from the 80’s. Memories, emotions and playing passion of the scene culture are strongly linked to those systems. But, on another level, during this time it was a lot about the technical progress respectively its absenteeism: On the one hand the people longed for every hardware expansion, due to the fascination for technical progress. On the other hand espe- cially computers like the Commodore 64 had very little expansions and therefore some users developed a caring connection to their systems. At this point gamers separated. On the one side the ones looking for technical improvement and progress and on the other side loyal gamers who loved their games on their system. Consequently the term retro depends on a person’s point of view. An 80’s Commodore 64 gamer fits probably more to the term than an 80’s DOS gamer. Some of one scene would call an 80’s video-game retro, another like the Commodore 64 scene proba- bly not. Therefore a single definition is not possible. Except the lowest common denominator like “older than ...”.

What is your favorite retro-game and why? Tetris. This has always been my favorite, since I just got stuck to its gameplay principle.

Do you have a favorite retro-gaming platform and why is it your favorite? Our very own magazines web-platform [smiles].

I’m sorry, the question was misunderstood, do you have a favorite gaming system? The Commodore 64, because it was my first and is in my opinion best home-computer. For me it represents the beginning of the mass circulation of the digitization, games, fun and joint experiences of my youth. Afterwards no other system could catch up. Maybe a little the Amiga 2000.

If you are a game collector, what do you collect in particular? I’m not col- lecting any games.

Do you play on current systems, like PC, video-gaming systems or mobile platforms? Yes, but only on rare occasions.

How do you decide what to play next? Spontaneous and without any strategy.

What are your personal aspects that make a good (retro) game? It is always the total experience.

Do you think, that there is a trend towards retro-gaming? I believe that retro- games have become an inherent part of the computer-games market and therefore are no longer a trend. In my impression the retro scene is in a stable condition.

71 B.3 Dr. Stephan G. Humer Interviews

Why do you think is that happening? Because there is a need for the games back from our youth; especially when you are older. Since younger people play retro-games, too, there have to be other reasons. Mainly due to curiousness for the old systems, for the very first computer- and video-games (a lot has been copied since than), and for their “myths”. But it is also because of the drive to participate in the retro trend.

Is nostalgia a main driver? As said before, I believe so.

What about the increasing complexity of a game? Current games trigger dif- ferent aspects as retro-games do. High complexity requires special technologies, which were not available in the past. Therefore complexity is a logical consequence to the technical progress.

How do you feel about the sheer amount of new games? I do not think that there are too many games available.

Did the nonexistence of the internet influence the gaming experience? A lot, as I mentioned in my answer to the complexity.

What is missing on the market for passionate collectors? More professionalism.

Why do you publish a magazine about retro-games and hardware? We do like working in that environment and due to the personal touch we have a lot of joy doing that.

How far is the complexity and the machine-oriented hardware important to that decision ? It’s one aspect of many.

What distinguishes your magazine from others? We have been the first and of course are the best [smiles]. Seriously, we have been engaged for a very long time and in a deep way with its community, that makes us extraordinary.

Who is reading your magazine? A lot of real fans of retro-gaming, in general male and living in Germany.

How sensitive to pricing are your customers? I actually do not know. Such details are the responsibility of my colleague Enno Coners.

How is the price tendency on old retro-games? Since I’m not an collector, I do not care.

72 B.3 Dr. Stephan G. Humer Interviews

What is the future for retro-games? Very bright. Naturally we are getting more and more games and therefore the community is getting more colorful. Even for the old games the community is getting more diversified, since we get new and younger fans of retro-games. That means a very positive development.

73 B.4 Chester Kollschen Interviews

B.4. Chester Kollschen

“[...] actually we are the first generation of people that have a history in playing computer- and video-games in our youth.”

Profile Name Chester Kollschen Year of Birth 1975 Location Germany Occupation IT Freelancer & Game Developer Website http://www.knightsofbytes.games/ Collector no Programmer yes Gamer yes All time favorites Game Super Mario Bros. 3 Platform NES Being a certified software engineer Chester Kollschen has developed some games on the Commodore 64 right at the end of the machines lifecylce. Afterwards he worked on games for feature phones until 2006. Today he is an IT freelancer. Additionally he is working on a new game Sam’s Journey for the Commodore 64 which will be released in 2017. In future he wants to focus on developing games for old systems as his main profession.

In general, what means retro to you? At first it is something from the past, in particular all the things I remember from my youth. When you look at retro- gaming, actually we are the first generation of people that have a history in playing computer- and video-games in our youth. Therefore we are the first ones using the term retro concerning this topic.

What is your personal link to retro-gaming? I am, what you might call, the generation C64. Around 1985 the Commodore 64 was my very first home-computer. Right from the beginning I rather was interested in programming than in playing. I had my first video-consoles in the early 90’s. Back than those systems were of course not retro, but besides all the later working systems like PCs and MACs, those systems stayed with me. The home-computers and video-consoles do have an unchangeable charm, unlike a PC, which consists of a bunch of replaceable parts.

When do you call a game retro? To me games that run on the original old hardware are retro. New games imitating the old style, but running on current systems are not really retro to me, but rather “pseudo-retro”. But Steam runs its own category called retro which contains only new games with a retro-style to it. I believe that we need more accurate terms instead of retro.

74 B.4 Chester Kollschen Interviews

What is your favorite retro-game and why? On the Commodore 64, I en- joyed The Last Ninja series for its great soundtrack and the Turrican series for its technical achievements. In general, I like games that defined their genre like Metroid on the NES, Maniac Mansion on the Commodore 64 or Shenmue on the Sega Dreamcast . But if I had to name one all time favorite, it would be Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES . It‘s a great platformer with an incredible num- ber of features.

Do you have a favorite retro-gaming platform and why is it your favorite? The Super NES. I spend a lot of time playing on that system. There were a huge amount of games being released for the Super NES and it still has a very big and active community which is still developing new games. Furthermore from a professional point of view it is a very important platform to develop and release new games on.

If you are a game collector, what do you collect in particular? I used to collect some games, but not anymore.

Do you play on current systems, like PC, video-gaming systems or mobile platforms? Yes, I use to play Point-and-Click adventure games on PC together with my wife. But I do not play on tablets or smartphones.

How do you decide what to play next? Right now I’m playing games on the Super NES which I had skipped for one or another reason before. On the one hand I do this for fun but on the other as a research for my profession.

What are your personal aspects that make a good (retro) game? I actually do not distinguish between retro or not when it comes to good games. The core of a game is its gameplay. I consider the music and sound effects as very important, too. But in my eyes the graphics are overrated and not significant. Most retro-games impress, because they had to focus on their essentials, like game- play and fun, due to the hardware limitations.

Do you think, that there is a trend towards retro-gaming? Definitive. Today a lot of people talk about retro and the retro trend. Actually I tend to say that there is not only one trend but at least two retro trends.

Why do you think is that happening? You have to split the community in two groups. The first ones are interested in old games on the old systems, the second ones are interested in new games for the old hardware. The first group is mainly triggered by nostalgic feelings, they want to recover the good times they used to

75 B.4 Chester Kollschen Interviews have and share it with friends or family. The second group are the ones I would assign to the fandom. They really love their systems and they are interested not only in nostalgic things but in new innovations for the systems, too.

Is nostalgia a main driver? For the first group, yes. For the second group it is maybe one aspect.

What about the increasing complexity of a game? This could be a cause, too. On today’s gaming machines developers can do a lot, but it is not always conducive to the gameplay. Photo-realistic graphics, long movies and cut-scenes may impress, but may hinder the game flow. But while the technical complexity may increase, the complexity in gameplay rather decreases.

How do you feel about the sheer amount of new games? There are a lot of games being released, but since the huge amount targets the casual gamer, I do not think it has an influence on a trend towards retro-gaming. It may be like with music or movies, there are the ones you still have to experience and so ones you already did.

Did the nonexistence of the internet influence the gaming experience? Yes, actually quite a huge one. Thanks to the internet it is much more easy to get information on new games or a system, reviews and videos are accessible for free to anyone. Long-play videos and walk-throughs are not only entertaining, but also spoil the gaming experience. Before the internet the gamer was forced to be eager and experience with the games mechanics or directly communicate with his/her friends in order to find a solution. For most gamer the experience of solving a game on them-self no longer exist. The internet with its easy access is too tempting. Then there are new gaming experiences like massive online player games, playing with others has never been so easy.

What is missing on the market for passionate collectors? The collectors of old games either have already all the games or are still looking. The fandom scene is always looking forward to new software for the old hardware.

Why do you develop new games for older gaming machines? Formulated that way, it may sound ridiculous. But as my father always told me: “Do something in what you are really good at” and I’m good in programming the old systems. I’m a software engineer for embedded systems. My personal interest is in the old computers and video-consoles and I really enjoy developing on those systems. Since the increase in the retro sub trend of fandom I mentioned before, I decided to shift my work focus towards my interests.

76 B.4 Chester Kollschen Interviews

Will you do another one? Yes. Somehow I will do other games on different hardware. I’m not stuck to the Commodore 64.

How far does the complexity of the programming influence your decision? Of course a big one. It has a high attractiveness to be able to program on the hardware, rather than using a high-level language. I do enjoy the challenge to push the limits of a restricted hardware in order to achieve the desired results.

What distinguishes your games from others? Sam’s Journey will be my first game for an old system in ten years. Compared to other products being released on old hardware today, my game measures up in gameplay and scale to former full fare titles. As a game for a home-computer it has a list of features that match up with games from video-consoles of the 90’s. It will be a game that is new and unique on the Commodore 64.

Who will be playing your games? Thanks to the analytic of the Facebook page I can tell that most of the signed up fans are male and from the generation C64. Besides the ones planning on buying and playing the games for them-self, some of them want to enjoy the game with their children. Others are collectors who “just” collect every game, but those are not in my target group. The target group consists of fans for the Commodore 64 who want to play a new platformer.

How sensitive to pricing are your customers? For collectors the price may not to be too important, but gamers care about the price. Today customers are willing to pay for quality, but it differs from country to country. For instance, in Spain a price of around € 25 is considered reasonable, in Germany people are willing to pay between €50 and €60 for the game. Sam’s Journey will be released in different versions with a price of approximately €50.

Are the prices stable? Ten years ago the pricing of my games was considered as too much. At that time there was no retro trend in sight and the people were not willing to pay for a game on old (and cheap) hardware more than €10. Today the pricing is at a level, where I can make a living on it.

Can you tell me a little more about your company and market situation? I still earn my living as an IT freelancer. The project Sam’s Journey serves as a proof of concept, if we as Knights of Bytes can make a living on new games for old hardware. Since the game is about to be released, the time after Sam’s Journey is already planned. We are looking forward to finance the next project, this time a game on a video-console, by crowdfunding.

77 B.4 Chester Kollschen Interviews

How is the price tendency on old retro-games? It is rising, but with a focus on the systems which are in the trend, like the Super NES. For instance, a friend of mine is a collector of that system and by now he has every single game that had been released for the PAL region. About five to seven years ago it was relatively easy to get the games he was looking for, but in more recent times he had to pay a lot for the last ones missing. Today we have a shortage due to the rising amount of interest and collectors. The Commodore 64 raised in price, too.

What is the future for retro-games? There will be a future for retro-games. Due to its limitations of the hardware those games are more focused on the game- play. Without the possibility for videos or detailed graphics the game’s fun is most important. What I called “pseudo-retro”, retro-style games on new hardware, gives up on the latest graphics in order to prioritize the fun and gameplay.

78 B.5 Winnie Forster Interviews

B.5. Winnie Forster

“A term retro-game is as useless as terms like retro-movie, retro- literature or retro-jazz would be.”

Profile Name Winnie Forster Year of Birth 1969 Location Germany Occupation Author and editor Website http://www.Gameplan.de/ Collector Yes Programmer No Gamer Yes All time favorite Game none Platform none One of the most active author on the history of computer- and video-gaming in Germany today, Winnie Forster started as a journalist on media and video-games in 1990 at the IT- publishing house Markt & Technik AG. He worked as the senior editor at Germany’s biggest gaming magazine of the 90s, Power Play and co-founded the magazine Video Games. In the mid 90s he and his colleague Martin Gaksch founded the publishing house Cybermedia GmbH, known for Man!ac, M!Games and AudioVision. Since 2000 he focuses on specialist books on computer- and video-gaming.

In general, what means retro to you? Not much, I do not use or think about the term retro, neither do I separate the computer- and video-games of the last four centuries in old or new, modern or vintage. Just as little as I would do with books or other entertainment media. A term retro-game is as useless as terms like retro-movie, retro-literature or retro-jazz would be.

What is your personal link to retro-gaming? In my work I consider the latest, outdated, and quite old games all the same. I do not care if a game, a movie or a piece of literature was made in 2014, 2004 or 1994, but if it is good or not and why.

When do you call a game retro? I do not call any game retro.

What is your favorite retro-game and why? There is not such a thing as a single favorite - within the last four centuries too many good games have been made. But I have some favorites, in the 80’s those were the arcade machines of Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Pooyan, Bomb Jack and R-Type. A lot of the first British games are masterpieces, like Manic Miner, Ant Attack, or Lords of Midnight on ZX Spectrum, Elite on Commodore 64, as some of the 8-Bit classics from the USA

79 B.5 Winnie Forster Interviews like Choplifter, Lode Runner, Archon and Ultima IV. On the 16-Bit Hardware I’m amazed from DMA Design titles like Blood Money and Lemmings. Still unmatched is the genius pixel art and humor of Monkey Island or the brutal straightforwardness of Doom. I love sprite-action but also strategy games on consoles like Langrisser, Advanced Daisenryaku and Final Fantasy Tactics. For the first Sony Playstation there have been many almost perfect games, like R-Type Delta, Gran Turismo, Beatmania, Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania: SotN, Resident Evil, and many more.

Do you have a favorite retro-gaming platform and why is it your favorite? Not in particular. But of course will there be always a special place in my heart for my very first own computer; a 1983 British ZX Spectrum. A small, pragma- tic, and in Germany unfortunately underestimated 8-Bit computer. Despite to the Commodore 64 with no support for sprites, hardware-scrolling or an extra sound chip it encouraged the game engineers to come up with original concepts and techni- cal innovation, due to the fact, that the programmer was in charge of every single pixel drawn.

If you are a game collector, what do you collect in particular? I’m not a classical collector, more a collector due to my occupation. For my work, the Ga- meplan-books and articles I write, I somehow collect software for every platform, starting from the late 70s up to today. Therefore I do have a big Gameplan-archive. Right now I try to get hands on the first 50 games of Electronic Arts, which had been published between 1983 and 1987 and had a special folding cover. Both the enclosure and the game tell us a contemporary history.

Do you play on current systems, like PC, video-gaming systems or mobile plat- forms? Yes. Right now especially on Sony PS3 and Sony PS4, Nintendo Wii U and Nintendo Switch, and from time to time on Nintendo 3DS, PS Vita or PC. I hardly play on a smartphone.

How do you decide what to play next? Most of the time this is determined by the jobs I get from magazines, online-media and the work on my own books. Despite that, I play what I’m interested in from a job point of view (today: Crime or detective games), or from a private point of view (today: Zelda: BotW).

Do you think, that there is a trend towards retro-gaming? Not right now. The gaming market has seen every trend you can think of by now. Of course there is always something “old” coming back to the mainstream. But trends are most of the time rather brief and therefore are only as an exception of interest to me.

Is nostalgia a main driver? Sure does the games market know nostalgia. Just like the movie market draws on proven concepts, sometimes with a 1 on 1 copy,

80 B.5 Winnie Forster Interviews sometimes with a modification or a follow-up, like Mad Max or Star Wars. Conse- quently there are a lot of games that try to be nostalgic by content, sound, music or gameplay. The same way as there are games, movies and other media which try to be progressive or avantgarde.

What about the increasing complexity of a game? What you call complexity of a game has its reactive response with the so called light games or casual games. Those have on purpose very light content and primitive game mechanics. Ideally they are easy to learn, very uncomplicated, and free of violence, technical details or the militarism of the so called hardcore games. Not to mention that 90% of casual games are crap, like lots of hardcore games, too. Anyway, the spectrum of the complexity of games has been enlarged a lot during the last years. Today, in 2017, we can choose from very simple one finger control- led casual puzzles up to highly complex 3D-Simulations, where a lot of training, concentration and preferably three hands are needed.

How do you feel about the sheer amount of new games? It is a known fact, that there are too many media and entertainment things of the always same kind, thanks to the internet. The number of published media by Steam or any app store is just ludicrous. There is no need for that, and it will maybe be regulated by itself within the next years.

What are your personal aspects that make a good (retro) game? In my opi- nion, one of the basics is, that a game is easy and intelligibly to understand, it has to be economic, including lots of interaction, but as little as possible unnecessary elements. Of course there are exceptions, totally overfraught but still good games. The game’s ideas and flow should be straightforward, but simultaneously rich in va- riety and variants, not monotonous. The best games accomplish this not by setting up lots of rules and extras, but by setting up intrinsic dynamics using only a few rules or elements. Some examples are Tetris, Bomberman, Lemmings, Populous. Interaction is the most important aspect: Elements like graphics, animation, sound and story are only secondary, even if lots of gamers, me included, are very pleased by audiovisual excellence or by a good background story.

What is missing on the market for passionate collectors? Besides the next good game or future Gameplan-books? I can’t think of anything.

Why do you write and publish books on computer- and video-gaming systems? I wrote the book Spielekonsolen & Heimcomputer [For15], to serve a gap on the German book market. There was no complete and system comprehensive book on the last 40 years of gaming hardware, and no good hardware photography.

81 B.5 Winnie Forster Interviews

Personally I wanted to bring the topic for myself to a close. I’m not planning on doing another book on hardware right now.

What distinguishes your games from others? In general I want to serve gaps on the German book market with specialist books like Spielekonsolen & Heimcomputer [For15], Joysticks [FF04] and Spielmacher [For08]. Gameplan publishes specialized literature which is from my point of view missing on the current media-, and hobby- market.

Who is reading your books? The target group of the books are all who are passionated digital gamers and who therefore want to know more about their hobby and media. 95% of all readers I have met are between 12 and 52 years old and male. Woman who buy the books are mainly looking for a present for her man or son.

How sensitive to pricing are your customers? They are sensitive to pricing. But there are hardly any alternatives on the German market on that topics.

Are the prices stable? Yes. I would call it an inflation-adjusted stable price from edition to edition.

Can you tell me a little more about your company and market situation? Both the game and the retro-market are increasing, probably the next 20 to 25 years. This is reflected to me as publisher. For example, the latest edition from 2015 of Spielkonsolen & Heimcomputer [For15] sold twice as fast as the second (2005) or third (2009) edition, without any more effort on marketing or advertising. I personally believe that the demand on good, reliable and organized literature on the technology, aesthetics and history of the latest entertainment medium will rather increase.

How is the price tendency on old retro-games? Chaotic and not easy to describe in short. But the price tendency is increasing independent from the system. The older and historically significant the more rare and looked after a game is.

82 B.6 Frank Erstling Interviews

B.6. Frank Erstling

“[..] retro is something I put away a long time ago and now I happily rediscover again.”

Profile Name Frank Erstling Year of Birth 1968 Location Germany Occupation Publisher Website http://www.return-magazin.de/ Collector Yes Programmer No Gamer Yes All time favorites Game R-Type (C64) Platform C-64 Classical games and in particular the hardware where they are running on are Frank Erstlings passion. Originally an apprenticed electronics engineer, he switched after 8 years to beeing a freelance media designer. Today he is publishing one of the most successful German magazines on classical gaming systems, the Return magazine.

In general, what means retro to you? In general the answer is not a simple one, but it maybe something positive back from ones youth or childhood. For our magazine we had to set up an easy rule on what topics are covered as being retro. So for the magazine everything older than 20 years is considered as being retro.

What is your personal link to retro-gaming? Next to my profession it was a ZX81 of a friend of mine when I was about thirteen years old. That home-computer fascinated me. Later I got hands on a Commodore 64 which should become the most important home-computer to me. Back than we used to play, to discuss and to try a lot on those computers together with friends. For example in the magazines with listings of programs we typed out on the computer in order to see those programs running. The following personal computers (PCs) were only just for work.

When do you call a game retro? Actually I prefer the term classical game. I try not to use the term retro. Personally for me retro is something I put away a long time ago and now I happily rediscover again.

What is your favorite retro-game and why? There are too many good games to choose from. I do have a favorite genre, the shooters from back than, like R-Type

83 B.6 Frank Erstling Interviews or Katakis on the Commodore 64. If I really had to choose one than it would be R-Type,with its fast gameplay and almost arcade like feeling on a home-computer. In addition arcade games like Pac Man and Donkey Kong influenced me a lot.

Do you have a favorite retro-gaming platform and why is it your favorite? For sure the Commodore 64, it had the widest variety of soft- and hardware. It had the most of hobby programmers, too. Especially I like the fact that it still gets new things on a regular basis. Not only games and software, but hardware and technical demos, too. Actually that is the most fascinating part about the retro culture and scene, that there are that many people actually releasing new things for that old systems.

If you are a game collector, what do you collect in particular? I’m not really a game collector. But I do collect the hardware. I really enjoy to buy a old home- computer or video-console in order to make it new again. Sometimes it takes me weeks in order to renovate an old system, but after that work it looks like out of the box. Thanks to my profession I now have around 40 different systems in my collection.

Do you play on current systems, like PC, video-gaming systems or mobile platforms? Yes, indeed. But I rather play on video-consoles. On PC I hardly play, sometimes Diablo or Point-and-Click adventure games. I don’t use tablets or smart phones to play games.

How do you decide what to play next? On the new systems I prefer to play so called free roaming games like GTA 5. I do enjoy being able to switch between the action and the possibility to discover the game in a relaxed way. On the classical gaming systems I prefer to play new games, which we also support in our magazine.

What are your personal aspects that make a good (retro) game? Considering new games on old hardware, I favor current or new game concepts being used. One aspect for me is the correct physical implementation of in game objects, like a bouncing ball. There is one particular project that impresses me a lot, Chester Kollschen’s (B.4) Sam’s Journey on the Commodore 64, which is said to be released in 2017.

Do you think, that there is a trend towards retro-gaming? There is definitive a trend towards old school games. The release of more and more retro-style pixel art games on new systems does confirm that trend.

Why do you think is that happening? The gaming industry wants to strive further and further, pushing realism. Without doubt there is a demand. But a lot of

84 B.6 Frank Erstling Interviews gamers do miss something today. And the gaming industry reacts to this increasing demand. For instance Deadalic Entertainment is very successful in developing and publishing games using a more classical drawn art style for their old school inspired Point-and-Click adventure games.

Is nostalgia a main driver? Certainly for the older generation, but younger people are interested in pixel art, too. Maybe it is the slow movement rather than the overstated action of modern games that appeals to the most of them.

What about the increasing complexity of a game? Of course the games, which are drawn to high realism, have a relative high complexity, too. This is one reason why gamers prefer a simple Shoot-Em-Up or platformer in contrast.

How do you feel about the sheer amount of new games? Online you find for example at Steam a lot of classics and games which you can not buy at a retailer. I think the amount of games shows a high variety the gamer can choose from today. Of course the amount may be confusing, but the gamer has the advantage of a huge selection to choose from.

Did the nonexistence of the internet influence the gaming experience? Back than, printed magazines were the only sources for the gamers. We used to exchange our knowledge and the magazines on the schoolyard, every one had a different magazine of choice. The opinion of the review writer influenced the buying decision, though. Unfortunately those were not always an objective one. If you couldn’t find a game’s solution on your own, you had to wait for a printed walk through.

What is missing on the market for passionate collectors? Actually something essential is missing: supplies on new hardware of old systems. Yes, today most of the old games can be emulated on the new systems, but somehow this is not the same. Not uncommonly we get asked by young people where they can buy a new Commodore 64. It seems like even younger ones appreciate the original. That is the reason why I do believe that it would be a good idea to remake an old home-computer or video-console. It implies that the big retailers have an interest.

Why do you publish a print magazine which focus is on retro-games and their corresponding hardware? On the one hand I felt sometime a melancholy for the home-computers. After I had worked with the PCs for quite some time I realized that playing games on the home-computers was much more easy, it was more colorful, there were better music and sound, in total there was a higher variety. On the other hand it is a mixture from my self chosen profession as a media designer and my contact to Boris Kretzinger, whom I met online in the German forum

85 B.6 Frank Erstling Interviews

Forum64 and who used to publish the free online PDF-magazine CeVi-aktuell. He was looking for someone to help with the lay-outing. This magazine was the predecessor of the Return.

In what way is the complexity of programming and the affinity to the hardware an issue? It is quite one part of the fascination to our readers, that a more than 30 years old hardware is still running. But if new games are developed or new hardware accessories are being released for this systems it is notable. To use the old hardware to make something new with or for it is certainly an issue.

What distinguishes your games from others? The core topics of the CeVi-aktuell were the latest subjects, games and hardware which were available at that time for the Commodore 64. This is the core topic of the Return, too. About 50% out of the 116 pages deal about new hard- and software for home-computers and old video-consoles.

Who is reading your magazine? In the beginning of the Return our target group was male and had their youth in the 80’s, respective our topics focused on subject from that time. Over the intervening issues that focus was more and more criticized, as too narrow. In this way we learned that a lot of the potential readers were younger than our initial target group and we included systems of the 90’s as well. As more as we changed to a younger target group as more we got female readers, too. Today our readers are between 20 and 60 years old and fortunately an ever- expanding part is female.

How sensitive to pricing are your customers? The topic retro-gaming is a col- lectors topic. The number of retro collectors exchanges is increasing every year and with those the prices paid for classical systems and their games. Of course we do have readers who draw on the ROM sources on the internet, but I believe that the majority is investing money in their collection. Especially this can be observed with new games for old systems. Those are being released in a limited edition in a pricing range between € 75,00 and € 130,00, which are sold out in a very short time.

Are the prices stable? The Return magazine is due to its low circulation number (10.000 per quarter) and its premium production (elaborate layout, glossy print) not that cheap. In the beginning the 52 pages magazine cost €4,90, today the 116 pages cost €7,50. We are aware, that quite some readers would be willing to pay more for a magazine like that, but we still endeavor a fair and suitable pricing.

Can you tell me a little more about your company and market situation? The Return started with only 5 editors. By now 10 steady editors and 16 freelancers

86 B.6 Frank Erstling Interviews work on every issue. At first we had no experience what circulation the market would accept. Therefore the first issue started with 1.000 pieces, but with the next issue the circulation grew to 2.000 pieces. Switching from direct selling to selling by newsstands the circulation was drastically increased to 10.000 pieces per issue in order to be able to cover all of Germany.

How is the price tendency on old retro-games? Since the number of collectors is increasing, the prices of classical games increase, too. You can get old games, which have been released in high numbers,for a bargain, but there are some gems a collector has to pay a three-digit number of Euros for.

What is the future for retro-games? This highly depends on the durability of the corresponding hardware. As long as the hardware still runs, there will be users dealing with it. Today there are already signs, that some systems will no longer work after all the decades due to its limited durability. But since more and more studios release new games for the classic systems, the interest will further increase. The news on new hard- and software serves as a high stimulus to the market.

87 B.7 Dr. phil. Stefan Höltgen Interviews

B.7. Dr. phil. Stefan Höltgen

“Retro is a figure of time, reaching from the present into the past and which confronts historical with contemporary aspects.”

Profile Name Dr. phil. Stefan Höltgen Year of Birth 1971 Location Germany Occupation Author and research assistance Website http://www.about.me/hoeltgen Collector yes Programmer no Gamer no All time favorites Game RAM-Pong Platform no Since 2011 Stefan Höltgen is working at the Humboldt-University Berlin as a research assistant at the professorship of media theory at the institute of music and media science. There he curates the collection of the media archeological fundus and runs a research project on the archeology of early microcomputers and its coding. Additionally he runs guest-professorships at the University of Paderborn at the institute of media science. Furthermore he works as an author of movie and computer-game critics, reviews and articles and since 2015 co-publisher of the book series Computerarchäologie. Since 2014 he organizes the Vintage Computing Festival Berlin.

In general, what means retro to you? Retro is a figure of time, reaching from the present into the past and which confronts historical with contemporary aspects. Retro is not necessarily conservative, but modifying, too - for example by hacking historical machines and code in order to make them usable for contemporary pur- poses.

What is or what was your personal link to retro-systems? At the beginning of the 1980’s our father acquired a computer-gaming console, which we were allowed to play, if we behaved well. It played simple shooting and racing games, but also mathematical or logical games. Later, during the home-computer era, when I visited my father, I was allowed to use his TRS-80 compatible computer. In doing so I taught myself BASIC. Later on the computers I possessed were mainly programming systems, even if games were available for those. After my doctoral thesis I received a job offer as media scientist, where I was asked to establish a research project close to technology. At that time I remembered my interest in computer hardware and programming and since than I research the questioning, what historical value a computer has and could have today. Especially in the

88 B.7 Dr. phil. Stefan Höltgen Interviews

fields of didactic, the technological self empowerment and on the question how the technical history of working artifacts could be written down.

When do you call a game retro? If it is programmed and published, since the hardware it is meant for is no longer distributed. For instance a Flappy Bird-Clone on the Commodore 64.

What is your favorite retro-game and why? RAM-Pong for the Atari VCS, because the hacker managed to surpass all obstacles and restrictions of the systems hardware to program a game, which not only fits into the 127 Byte variable buffer of the Atari VCS, but also is being executed in there. As far as I know, this is the first and only game which runs without plugged in cartridge on the Atari VCS.

Do you have a favorite retro-gaming platform and why is it your favorite? All platforms, which are a challenge and a “creative obstacle” to the software and hardware engineers and therefore destined to become an epistemic toy.

Do you collect games and which one do you collect? For our pool of systems I collect all kind of software, hence games, too. It is a benefit to me, that for a lot of systems a modern storage solution exists (i.e. SD-cards, IDE-controllers, ...). Therefore I’m able to access “virtual media” on those systems.

Do you play on current systems, like PC, video-gaming systems or mobile platforms? I kind of play Minecraft on Sony PS3 or on Apple Macintosh from time to time, because I use the in game constructions for my lectures to show logic, fractals, and other elements.

How do you decide what to play next? This depends on the project I’m actually working on. Currently I use to play Pong, as I’m preparing a history of perception of the Pong-code on different platforms. However I rather prefer to play on the underground, the code, than on the surface.

What are your personal aspects that make a good (retro) game? The degree of explorative energy of a development. Did the developer of the game tease a function out of the platform, which was unknown or unused before, in order to program the game? This is more interesting to me, than a new content in old clothing.

What is missing on the market for a passionate retro-game player or collector? I don’t know.

89 B.7 Dr. phil. Stefan Höltgen Interviews

Why do you focus in your work on vintage video- and computer-systems? I’m researching the question of the possibility or impossibility of media historiography on the example of computers. Up to the fact, that today historical platforms are still usable with contemporary applications, ideas or peripheries and thus contradict its only usage for museumization and historicisation.

How far does the complexity of the programming influence your decision? This is a crucial factor to me, as the hardware I’m dealing with, hardly allow any high-languages for programming, but BASIC or at a maximum C, due to its specifications and idiosyncrasies. To truly explore a machines possibilities,one needs the knowledge of embedded programming. Using this kind of programming one gets to know a computer from a different perspective.

What distinguishes your work (book, lectures) from others? The connection of technical with philosophical and epistemological questions on my subjects. The pure aesthetics, history, or impact of an artifact is as uninteresting to me as its pure technical specification. Only the linkage of these questions provide an added value, which can also stimulate the interdisciplinary dialog between the arts and the engineering/physical science. The knowledge of programming languages, physics, mathematics, electronics and other disciplines for my teaching field is as important as the ability to hermeneutically penetrate historical and theoretical sources and being well versed in the history of theory.

Who is your target group? Bachelor and master students of media science.

How sensitive to pricing are your customers? Since they are students, not very price sensitive [smiles].

90 B.8 Kreso Valter Interviews

B.8. Kreso Valter

“I give the retro-gaming market another ten years.”

Profile Name Kreso Valter Year of Birth 1968 Location Germany Occupation Merchant Website http://www.flohhaus24.de/ Collector no Programmer no Gamer no All time favorites Game Super Mario Bros. Platform Super NES Kreso Valter dropped his job as an skilled heating installer in 1992 to become an independent merchant. At first selling antiques and other second-hand things on flea markets, he later in 1995 set up a store for new and used movies and computer and video-games. Today he is running two physical stores and one online shop.

In general, what means retro to you? It is something from the past, at least 20 to 30 years old or something that looks a like from that time. Then something new made in a retro-style.

What is your personal link to retro-gaming? As a child I played some of those old TV games like Pong and with fifteen I played games on the Commodore 64 or NES. Later, after I became an independent merchant, it turned to be my daily work.

When do you call a game retro? If it is no longer in production and no longer available on the retail market. But I wouldn’t call every single old game a retro- game, only well known classic computer- or video-games, like a Mario game or Sonic.

What is your favorite retro-game and why? That would be Super Mario Bros. on the NES. Because it was something new, the gameplay was perfect, it was fun to play and it was always a new challenge to start a new game.

Do you have a favorite retro-gaming platform and why is it your favorite? The Super NES. It had everything, RPG’s, like Secret of Mana and Secret of Evermore, platformer like Super Mario Bros. or Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario Kart many other today cult classics.

91 B.8 Kreso Valter Interviews

Are you collecting games? No, I’m not a collector of games.

Do you play on current systems, like PC, video-gaming systems or mobile platforms? No. Since it is my daily work to deal with games, I just do not want to play anything in my spare time. I rather love watching a good movie.

What are your personal aspects that make a good (retro) game? It is a mixture of gameplay and the sound effects. For example I loved the gameplay and sound of Axelay. The graphics are not that important. I don’t believe that a new high resolution game is more fun than an old school retro-game.

Do you think, that there is a trend towards retro-gaming? Not any longer. There has been an increasing trend during the last 3 years. But since the end of 2016 it is declining. At least at the local store. At the online stores the demand is stable but no longer as big as it used to be.

Why do you think is that happening? In my opinion, this is due to the fact, that most collectors from the surrounding area already have the not too rare things they wanted. Now they are only looking for very rare items, the not too rare games are therefore stable or dropping in price.

Was nostalgia a main driver for the retro trend? Yes. Most people buy old games, because they want to recreate the feeling from the past or they want to share it with their kids.

What about the increasing complexity of a game? No, I don’t think,that the complexity has anything to do with it.

How do you feel about the sheer amount of new games? Yes, seems possible. The market today is flooded by new games. For instance, in autumn every month up to 50 new games are being released on the retail market. For most gamers who are buying one or two new games a month the decision which to pick is hard and not transparent. Due to that huge amount, the games are no longer valuable on a log run. Prices for new games drop already after one month. Fifteen years ago a lot of games kept selling for the starting price up to one or two years.

Did the nonexistence of the internet influence the gaming experience? Wit- hout the internet you had to communicate with friends or try a lot to solve most of the games. Today a lot of people are no longer trying, but rather looking for the solution on the internet.

92 B.8 Kreso Valter Interviews

What is missing on the market for passionate collectors? A place where you can play the old arcade machines, home-computers and video-consoles. And a trading show for retro-games like in the bigger cities. But Villingen-Schwenningen is probably too small for things like that.

Why do you sell old games, consoles and accessories? I do like selling those products and you can earn money with it. But it is a tough job and besides the stores we need to handle the online business with ebay, amazon and our own store Flohhaus24 and we are attending flea markets at the weekends.

How big is the share of retro-games to your business? It used to be 30%, but today it is around 10% to 15%.

What distinguishes your offerings from others? We are the number one for used games in Villingen-Schwenningen. I believe we have the bigger selection, fair prices and the better service. Online we are just another store, offering the same as others.

Who are your customers for retro-games? They are 99% male and between 20 and 50 years old. Most of them are in their mid thirties.

How sensitive to pricing are your customers? They are sensitive to prices, the customers are very well informed today. They are paying no more than the current market prices. Especially collectors know the pricing situation for used games better than me. So they are paying what the market dictates. Depending on the condition and rarity of a game this can be notably more than €100.

Are the prices stable? During the last ten years the prices for old games rose between 200% and 300%. But in my opinion today we are at the zenith. Right now it is stable.

Can you tell me a little more about your company and market situation? Our turnover has been stable over the last years. We used to sell more new games a few years ago, but the market is changing to downloadable games and today you earn hardly anything with a new retail game. Therefore today we are selling more used games and consoles.

What will be the future for retro-games? Very uncertain. Actually I believe that the next generation of gamers will not have much of a connection to that topic. It will be like with antiques ten years ago, the current generation is not buying antiques as the ones before, they rather buy some furniture from IKEA or others, they do not have the connection to that topic. Or stamps and figures of

93 B.8 Kreso Valter Interviews

Kinder-Überraschung; the current generation of buyers are no longer interested in that. I give the retro-gaming market another ten years, but not longer.

94 Bibliography

[AA17] Amr Al-Aaser. The Hackers and Modders Behind the Next Official Sonic Game. Ed. by Kotaku.com. 2017. url: kotaku.com/the-hackers-and- modders-behind-the-next-official-sonic-1797537901 (visited on 08/05/2017). [Ack17] Judith Ackermann, ed. Phänomen Let’s Play-Video: Entstehung, Ästhe- tik, Aneignung und Faszination aufgezeichneten Computerspielhandelns. Neue Perspektiven der Medienästhetik. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2017. isbn: 9783658129354. doi: 10.1007/978-3-658-12936-1. url: http: //dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-12936-1. [Ayc16] John Aycock. Retrogame Archeology: Exploring Old Computer Games. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2016. isbn: 9783319300023. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-30004-7. url: http://gbv.eblib.com/ patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=4526243. [Bir07] Mark Birnbaum. Super Ghouls ’N Ghosts VC Review. Ed. by IGN. 2007. url: http://www.ign.com/articles/2007/03/06/super-ghouls-n- ghosts-vc-review (visited on 06/26/2017). [BKS09] Stephen Brown, Robert V. Kozinets, and John F. Sherry. “Teaching old brands new tricks: Retro braning and the revivel of brand meaning”. In: Brands and brand management : from signals of quality to storehouses of trust (2009), pp. 443–478. [BLM14] Alexander Bogner, Beate Littig, and Wolfgang Menz. Interviews mit Experten: Eine praxisorientierte Einführung. Lehrbuch. Wiesbaden and Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2014. isbn: 353119416X. [Boz07] Mark Bozon. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Review. Ed. by IGN. 2007. url: http://www.ign.com/articles/2007/03/22/castlevania- symphony-of-the-night-review (visited on 06/23/2017). [Bur13] Michael Burns. SteamWorld Dig: A Fistful of Dirt Review. Ed. by IGN. 2013. url: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/18/steamworld- dig-a-fistful-of-dirt-review (visited on 06/25/2017). [Car09] Rodney P. Carlisle. Encyclopedia of play in today’s society. Los Angeles [Calif.]: SAGE, 2009. isbn: 1849727783.

95 Bibliography Bibliography

[Cot10] Simon Cottee. Pixel: A Pixel Art Documentary. Ed. by Simon Cottee. 2010. url: http://www.simoncottee.com/2010/05/pixel-pixel- art- documentary.htmlhttp://www.simoncottee.com/2010/05/ pixel-pixel-art-documentary.html (visited on 07/04/2017). [Dai04] Mike Dailly. The Complete History of DMA Design: Chapter 2 1989. Ed. by Mike Dailly. 2004. url: http://www.javalemmings.com/DMA/ DMA2_1.htm (visited on 06/23/2017). [DHH15] Margaret Deuter, Leonie Hey, and Albert Sydney Hornby, eds. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Ninth edition. Ox- ford: Oxford University Press, 2015. isbn: 9780194799553. [Dil10] Corbie Dillard. Review: Final Fantasy II: Still a timeless RPG classic. Ed. by Nintendo Life. 2010. url: http://www.nintendolife.com/ reviews/2010/03/final_fantasy_ii_virtual_console (visited on 06/26/2016). [Erl08] Michael Erlhoff. Wörterbuch Design: Begriffliche Perspektiven des De- sign. Basel: Birkhäuser, 2008. isbn: 9783764377380. [FF04] Stephan Freundorfer and Winnie Forster. Joysticks: Eine illustrierte Geschichte der Game-Controller 1972-2004. Vol. 2. Gameplan. Utting: Gameplan, 2004. isbn: 9783000121838. [FF10] Jeff Fulton and Steve Fulton. The Essential Guide to Flash Games: Building Interactive Entertainment with ActionScript 3.0. Berkeley, CA: Apress, 2010. isbn: 9781430226147. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4302-2615- 4. url: http://www.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=571287. [fga16] fgasking. Evil Garden. Ed. by GTW64. 2016. url: http://www.gamesthatwerent. com/gtw64/evil-garden/ (visited on 06/26/2017). [For08] Winnie Forster. Computer- und Video-Spielmacher: [das Lexikon der Spieldesigner und Programmierer, internationalen Teams und Verlage: über 1850 Personen, 4500 Spiele, 1300 Firmenporträts]. Utting: Game- plan, 2008. isbn: 9783000215841. [For15] Winnie Forster. Spielkonsolen und Heimcomputer 1972-2015: Game- plan 1. Vol. 1. Gameplan. Utting am Ammersee: Gameplan, 2015. isbn: 3000481427. [Fra95] Martin Fransman. Japan’s computer and communications industry: The evolution of industrial giants and global competitiveness. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1995. isbn: 0198233337. [Gal17] Sergey Galyonkin. SteamSpy. Ed. by steamspy. 2017. url: http:// www.steamspy.com/ (visited on 06/23/2017).

96 Bibliography Bibliography

[Gar13] Maria B. Garda. Nostalgia in Retro Game Design. Ed. by Digital Games Research Association DiGRA. 2013. [GR12] Retro Gamer-Redaktion. Retro Gamer 1/2012. Retro Gamer. Hannover: Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, 2012. isbn: 3957880076. [GR13a] Retro Gamer-Redaktion. Retro Gamer 2/2013. Retro Gamer. Hannover: Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, 2013. isbn: 3957880084. [GR13b] Retro Gamer-Redaktion. Retro Gamer 3/2013. Retro Gamer. Hannover: Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, 2013. isbn: 3957880092. [GR14a] Retro Gamer-Redaktion. Retro Gamer 1/2015. Retro Gamer. Hannover: Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, 2014. isbn: 3957880211. [GR14b] Retro Gamer-Redaktion. Retro Gamer 3/2014. Retro Gamer. Hannover: Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, 2014. isbn: 3957880130. [GR14c] Retro Gamer-Redaktion. Retro Gamer 4/2014. Retro Gamer. Hannover: Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, 2014. isbn: 3957880149. [GR15a] Retro Gamer-Redaktion. Retro Gamer 1/2016. 1. Aufl. Retro Gamer. s.l.: Heinz Heise Verlag, 2015. isbn: 9783957880642. url: http://gbv. eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=4343774. [GR15b] Retro Gamer-Redaktion. Retro Gamer 2/2015. Retro Gamer. Hannover: Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, 2015. isbn: 3957880327. [GR15c] Retro Gamer-Redaktion. Retro Gamer 4/2015. 1. Aufl. Retro Gamer. s.l.: Heinz Heise Verlag, 2015. isbn: 9783957880475. url: http://gbv. eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=4571875. [GR15d] Retro Gamer-Redaktion. Retro Gamer Spezial 1/2016: DAS ERSTE JAHRBUCH. 1. Aufl. Retro Gamer. s.l.: Heinz Heise Verlag, 2015. isbn: 9783957880680. url: http://gbv.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord. aspx?p=4352657. [GR16a] Retro Gamer-Redaktion. Retro Gamer 1/2017. Retro Gamer. Hannover: Heise Medien, 2016. isbn: 9783957881540. url: http://gbv.eblib. com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=4742288. [GR16b] Retro Gamer-Redaktion. Retro Gamer 2/2016. 1. Aufl. Retro Gamer. s.l.: Heinz Heise Verlag, 2016. isbn: 9783957880703. url: http://gbv. eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=4405538. [GR16c] Retro Gamer-Redaktion. Retro Gamer 4/2016. Retro Gamer. Hannover: Heise Medien, 2016. isbn: 3957880920. [GR16d] Retro Gamer-Redaktion. Retro Gamer Sonderheft 2/2016: Die beste Retro-Spiele-Hardware. Retro Gamer. Hannover: Heise Medien, 2016. isbn: 3957880750.

97 Bibliography Bibliography

[GR17] Retro Gamer-Redaktion. Retro Gamer 3/2017. Retro Gamer. Hannover: Heise Media, 2017. isbn: 3957881676. [GYD12] Florent Gorges, Isao Yamazaki, and Benjamin Daniel. The History of Nintendo: Volume 2 : 1980-1991. [Paris]: Pix’N Love, 2012. isbn: 2918272353. [Höl+14] Stefan Höltgen et al. “Was ist Retro?” In: Retro 31 (2014), pp. 10–13. [Höl16] Stefan Höltgen. Resume: Hands-on Retrocomputing. Vol. 1. Computer- archäologie. Bochum and Freiburg: Projektverlag, 2016. isbn: 3897333961. [Jen17] Thomas Jentzsch. RAM Pong: (Atari 2600 game). Ed. by Thomas Jent- zsch. 2017. url: https://hackaday.io/project/19239-ram-pong- atari-2600-game (visited on 06/23/2016). [Jih10] Andy Jih. Actraiser. Ed. by ETC Press. 2010. url: http://press. etc.cmu.edu/content/actraiser-andy-jih (visited on 06/23/2017). [Kar16] Denis Karimani. “Secret of Mana”. In: Return 26 (2016), pp. 14–17. [Kei17] Christian Keichel. Stark Verpixelt: Was vom Spiel(en) übrig blieb. Vol. 2. Computerarchäologie. Bochum and Freiburg: Projektverlag, 2017. isbn: 978-3-89733-410-6. [Kie13] Tina Kießling. Nostalgie und Retro-Trends als Marketingchance: Eine Analyse der Ursachen für die Nachfrage nach vergangenheitsbezogenen Konsumangeboten: Zugl.: Chemnitz, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2012. Marken- kommunikation und Beziehungsmarketing. Wiesbaden: Springer, 2013. isbn: 9783834943545. doi: 10.1007/978-3-8349-4355-2. url: http: //site.ebrary.com/lib/alltitles/docDetail.action?docID= 10603534. [Krá12] Petr Král. “Nostalgic Branding in Central Europe”. In: Diversity in European Marketing. Ed. by Thomas Rudolph et al. Wiesbaden: Gabler Verlag, 2012, pp. 113–130. isbn: 9783834914200. [KS11] Fares Kayali and Josef Schuh. Retro Evolved: Level Design Practice ex- emplified by the Contemporary Retro Game. Ed. by Digital Games Re- search Association DiGRA. Wien, 2011. [Kus14] David Kushner. The Flight of the Birdman: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out. Ed. by Rolling Stone. 2014. url: http://www. rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-flight-of-the-birdman- flappy-bird-creator-dong-nguyen-speaks-out-20140311. [KW15] Steve L. Kent and Dan Woren. The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon, the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world. Unabridged. [United States]: Author’s Republic and Made available through hoopla, 2015. isbn: 1943499217.

98 Bibliography Bibliography

[Let11] Simon Lethbridge. Bomb Jack. Ed. by Obsolete Gamer. 2011. url: http://obsoletegamer.com/bomb-jack/ (visited on 06/23/2017). [LSV14] Jannine D. Lasaleta, Constantine Sedikides, and Kathleen D. Vohs. “Nostalgia Weakens The Desire for Money”. In: Journal of consumer research : JCR ; an interdisciplinary bimonthly 41.3 (2014), pp. 713– 729. [McD17] Emma McDonald. The Global Games Market Will Reach $108.9 Billion in 2017 With Mobile Taking 42%. Ed. by Newzoo. 2017. url: https: //newzoo.com/insights/articles/the- global- games- market- will-reach-108-9-billion-in-2017-with-mobile-taking-42/ (visited on 06/23/2017). [Med05] Medarch. The Secrets of Archon: A detailed look into one of the best games of all time. Ed. by Vintage Computing and Gaming. 2005. url: http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/44 (visi- ted on 06/23/2017). [Met05] Ralf Metzenmacher. “Mit Retro-Design und neuen Kunden auf Erfolgs- kurs: Image, Marke und Trend”. In: Handbuch Kundenzufriedenheit : Strategie und Umsetzung in der Praxis. Ed. by Hansjörg Künzel. Berlin [u.a.]: Springer, 2005, pp. 227–254. isbn: 978-3-540-21144-0. [Miy] Shigeru Miyamoto. Shigeru Miyamoto Quotes. Ed. by AZQuotes.com. url: http://www.azquotes.com/author/10225-Shigeru_Miyamoto (visited on 12/11/2016). [Mor14] Colin Moriarty. Shovel Knight Review. Ed. by IGN. 2014. url: http: //www.ign.com/articles/2014/06/26/shovel- knight- review (visited on 06/25/2017). [Mot14] Tony Mott. 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die (1001 series). Rev/Updated ed. Southam, UK: In Easy Steps, 2014. isbn: 1743369107. [Nin17] Nintendo. Hardware and Software Sales Unit. Ed. by Nintendo. 2017. url: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/ (visited on 06/27/2017). [Now16] Stefan Nowak. “Sam’s Journey”. In: Return 2016.24 (2016), pp. 16–21. [Par15] Simon Parkin. An Illustrated History of 151 Video Games. Anness Pu- blishing Ltd, 2015. isbn: 978-0-7548-2390-2. [Pec17] Matt Peckham. Nintendo Says it Sold Over 2 Million NES Classics. Ed. by Time Inc. 2017. url: http://time.com/4759594/nes-classic- millions-sales/ (visited on 07/16/2017).

99 Bibliography

[Pon13] Tony Ponce. Review: Volgarr the Viking. Ed. by Destructoid. 2013. url: https : / / www . destructoid . com / review - volgarr - the - viking - 262298.phtml (visited on 06/25/2017). [Rei17] Randel Reiss. Technopop Home Page: Zero Tolerance. Ed. by Randel Reiss. 2017. url: http://www.technopop.net/ (visited on 06/25/2017). [Rub97] Glenn Rubenstein. Die Hard Arcade Review. Ed. by Gamespot. 1997. url: https : / / www . gamespot . com / reviews / die - hard - arcade - review/1900-2533889/ (visited on 06/26/2017). [Sch95] Ulf Schneider. “Shinobi X”. In: Mega Fun 1995.10/95 (1995). [SCO16] SCORP.IUS. “Pooyan”. In: Return 2016.26 (2016), pp. 106–113. [Sno07] Blake Snow. Feature: The 10 Worst-Selling Handhelds of All Time. Ed. by GamePro. web.archive.org, 2007. url: https://web.archive.org/ web / 20071012194600 / http : / / gamepro . com / gamepro / domestic / games/features/125748.shtml (visited on 06/27/2017). [Spe08] Spanner Spencer. The Tao of Beat-’em-ups. Ed. by Eurogamer.net. 2008. url: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/the- tao- of- beat-em-ups-article (visited on 07/04/2017). [Sta15] Dan Stapleton. GTA 5 PC Review. Ed. by IGN. 2015. url: http : //www.ign.com/articles/2015/04/14/gta-5-pc-review (visited on 06/26/2017). [Ste10] Kristine Steimer. Castle Crashers Review. Ed. by IGN. 2010. url: http: //www.ign.com/articles/2010/09/03/castle-crashers-review (visited on 06/23/2017). [Whi17] Sandy White. An Ant Attack Homepage. 2017. url: http://sandywhite. co.uk/fun/ants/ (visited on 05/02/2017). [Wik17a] Wikipedia. Atari 8-bit family: Revision history. Ed. by Wikipedia. 2017. url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_8-bit_family (visited on 06/27/2017). [Wik17b] Wikipedia. Daisenryaku: Advanced Daisenryaku. Ed. by Wikipedia. 2017. url: https : / / en . wikipedia . org / wiki / Daisenryaku (visited on 06/23/2017). [CWS14] CWS Verlag, ed. Retro: Was ist Retro? Vol. 31. CWS Verlag, 2014. isbn: 1862-2348. [Soc17] Social Blade. Social Blade. Ed. by Social Blade LLC. 2017. url: https: //socialblade.com/ (visited on 06/15/2017).

100