Why go retro?

WHY MAKE RETRO GAMES?

The problem with technology constantly advancing is you have to keep up with it. Modern hardware comes with software and all software has updates these days. Every update to software a game touches has the potential to require the developer to the game’s code in order to keep it running for the players.

Who hasn’t had an experience where something doesn’t work after an update?

How game developers solve that today is they constantly update their game, and fix things that break as soon as they can. That just isn’t practical in the long term though.  Are you going to maintain your game for 20 years?

Sean was very frustrated with the complete disregard for maintaining compatibility.  How can you have any faith a game made today will run 20 years from now? The fact is, you can’t, and it likely will break much earlier than that.

One day it finally dawned on him – the retro community has already solved this problem with emulation. If you target an old retro system, then you only need to find an emulator that works on your operating system – the game doesn’t have to be rebuilt. This is how to keep a game working for decades without having to maintain it.

Emulators are software that allow one computer system to function like another one. They pretend to be the system the game was created for so that the game doesn’t have to be compatible with the system. For example, mGBA is an emulator that allows people to play Game Boy Advance games on the PC.

If you target an old retro system, then you only need to find an emulator that works on your operating system – the game doesn’t have to be rebuilt. This is how to keep a game working for decades without having to maintain it.

And thanks to the retro community, free emulators aren’t hard to find.

We have more to thank the retro community for than just emulators. Their efforts to preserve games have made it easy to get into retro gaming and retro game development. You can find source code, support docs, tutorials, Discord servers, YouTube channels, and tons of other resources for just about every console that’s existed. 

The retro community has not only made it easier to make games for retro systems, they have also made it easier to play retro games. Modern devices like the Analogue Pocket and Raspberry Pi give the retro gaming experience of multiple consoles in one device. They have also many excellent, and often free, emulators to allow gamers to play retro console games on a PC and other devices. 

WHY THE GAME BOY ADVANCE?

Being able to make a game for the GBA is something Sean dreamed about as a teenager, but didn’t have the skill or patience to make that happen. Thanks to the GBA dev community he was able to make that dream come true as an adult today. 

The GBA dev community has kept the platform alive for all these years by sharing their knowledge and encouraging others to make their own homebrew games. Thanks to them the system is really well understood, and emulators are really accurate.