Test Driving Linux

Trying Out Game Emulators for Classic Games

The 1980s to early 1990s were the heyday of the arcade game. Classics such as Pac-Man and Asteroids gave way to visually stunning games like Dragon's Lair, which were in turn eclipsed by one-on-one combat games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. Arcade games flourished at a time when personal home computers and consoles such as Atari and Nintendo didn't have enough processing or graphic power to deliver fast-paced, visually appealing games.

This situation began to change by the mid-1990s. Consoles such as Nintendo 64 and Playstation were capable of delivering a gaming experience similar to or even better than that of an arcade game. And with the release of Intel's Pentium processor, the PC also became a more capable gaming platform. These days, the classic video arcade is all but gone, and the forefront of gaming technology is on advanced consoles such as the Playstation 2, Xbox, and 64-bit processor PCs with 256 MB of video RAM.

Computer advances have made games such as Doom 3, Halo, and Final Fantasy X possible, but along the way, something has been lost. The new-generation games certainly offer breathtaking graphics and voiceovers from somewhat famous actors, but you often have to wade through 100-page instruction manuals and learn complex key combinations to perform actions. Most new games lack the easy playability of great arcade games of the past such as Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, and Super Mario Brothers, or of classic old PC games ...