Can’t find an original, port it!

Players who want to be taken back to the glory days of gaming (16-bit and back) have a couple options to get their retro gaming fix. For one, they can dust off the old console or buy one of the many clone console available today. Or, if they, like me, took their NES apart so many times just for fun it doesn’t work anymore, there’s always the option of ports.

The concept of ports, or “imports,” is simple: take an old game and release it for newer hardware. All systems today release “collections” that feature games from yesteryear, and in most cases they’re pretty affordable.

But it wasn’t until I bought the Game Boy Player peripheral for my Nintendo GameCube that I really got into collecting ported titles. That’s because there are literally dozens of ported titles available in Game Boy Advance format, many of which can be found in the bargain bin of your local video game or department store. I’ve since collected titles ranging from arcades (Defender and Spy Hunter), Atari 2600 (Yars’ Revenge) and NES (Super Mario Bros.), among others. One of my favorite finds is a Japanese Nintendo Famicom cart version of the original Legend of Zelda, part of the Famicom Mini series (same as the Classic NES Series in the U.S., but with many more titles).

Purists beware: One of the issues people have with ports is sometimes things get changed during conversion. For example, the Super Mario Advance port of Super Mario Bros. 3 has updated graphics that makes Mario look more like he dis in Super Mario World for the SNES. Other parts of the game might be tweaked, too. If you want to be sure you’re getting a solid, direct port of a game, check out one of the numerous video game Web sites and message boards before making a purchase. And if you want the actual game, in its untouched original form, it may be more worthwhile to just find a secondhand console or a clone.

But for people like me, who in the end just want the retro gaming experience, even with its little quirks, ports are a viable option. And at the prices that some carts sell for secondhand these days, they may be a more affordable option, too.