The holiday season is well and truly upon us and, before we know it, we’ll all be falling asleep after stuffing our faces with too much turkey and trimmings.
Of course, overindulging on rich foods is just one of many traditions that happen during the holidays. We’ll also find ourselves scrambling to get the best presents for friends and loved ones, decorating our trees, and enjoying new or existing hobbies.
During this time of the year, many of us enjoy playing games more than at any other time. This is down to two key factors: the first being that most of us will be spending more time indoors during the winter months and gaming is a great indoor activity.
The second reason is that many of us will be gifted new devices on which to play games, such as consoles like the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, computers, smartphones, tablets, and virtual reality headsets.
Many of the people receiving these machines will likely turn to recent releases when deciding which games to download and play, but a large group of gamers will prefer to try some older titles for a retro experience.
If you’re one of these players with a penchant for the past, then here’s how you can enjoy retro games from yesteryear.
Card and Table Games
Card games and table games are traditional holiday favourites and they are, arguably, the ultimate retro games.
The majority of these games that we play today are centuries old, often evolving several times over their lifespan. For example, roulette was originally created by a French inventor in the 18th century and has since evolved into multiple variants, like European and American versions as well as games for high rollers.
Others, like blackjack and Go Fish, have followed similar patterns over the years. For example, Go Fish can be dated back to the Middle Ages and can be played with a standard 52-card deck or with packs specially created for this game.
If you’re a fan of these retro games, you can find almost all of them online through your web browser or a mobile app for your smartphone or tablet. Alternatively, you can purchase a deck of cards for less than the price of a coffee and then play one of these games in person.
Remasters
If you prefer retro video games, then one of the easiest ways to play them is to simply find a recent rerelease of your favourite.
Developers have been returning old content back to the shelves in recent years, though these games are usually given a fresh lick of paint to bring their graphics closer to modern standards. Some may also be tweaked here and there to offer better input support.
Remasters are simple to play since you can just purchase them through the normal channels, either by purchasing a physical disc or by downloading it from a marketplace.
They are, however, more expensive than some other options and it may also be that you already own the game but have to purchase it again.
Emulation
If you do already own a game and are prepared to spend a little bit of time making it work, you may be able to enjoy the original version in its full glory.
This works through a process called emulation and involves using a piece of software that tricks the game into thinking it’s running on an older piece of hardware. The coding behind this software is incredibly complicated, especially for those that emulate games consoles like the Nintendo 64 or PlayStation 2 which use very different hardware architecture to a standard PC.
The easiest emulator to use is DOSBox. It can be installed for free on any modern computer and will simulate an older DOS-based machine so that you can run PC games from the 1980s and 1990s.
You will need to still have (or rebuy) a copy of any game you want to play, but DOSBox does support thousands of popular and obscure titles, so it’s likely you’ll then be able to run it.