UFO 50 is a wild little package bursting to the seams with bite-size discoveries. It has the potential to inspire different types of nostalgia depending on the player, and it?? also helped me totally reconsider how I approach my ever-growing backlog of games.

If you haven't played UFO 50 yet, the elevator pitch is simple. It's a collection of 50 games from a fictional '80s developer, and you can tackle it any way you see fit. You could play everything chronologically, essentially living in the meta-narrative to see how each game built upon the proposed tech of the time. You could also treat UFO 50 as the grab bag it is, dipping in and out of games like an all-you-????can-eat buffet. 

This is going to hit differently depending on the timeline of your nascent years of gaming. For some, UFO 50 will drum up memories of early 8-bit consoles and arcade cabinets, discovering gems hidden among the crowd and highlighting favorites you'll revisit time and time again. Others may recall some dusty old Hong Kong bootleg carts, which somehow squeezed a ton of titles of dubious origins into one? modest circuitboard. 

For those who came up later, UFO 50 might be more akin to old flash game sites like Newgrounds, or even a more modern digital storefront stuffed to the gills with indie delights. No matter what angle you approach from, the work of UFO Soft �from the very real folks at Mossmouth, including Spelunky creator Derek Yu and m??ore �might have you looking at? the rest of your collection in a new light. 

I can't speak for everyone, but I've always had a contentious relationship with my backlog of unfinished or unplayed games. Buying new games is just something that comes with the territory of loving this stuff so much, especially when it's also your job. But there's always that nagging sensation that you're doing your existing games dirty in the process. Should I really be playing Sonic x Shadow Generations when I never even got a third of the way through Star Wars Jedi: Survivor? Why am I even playing UFO 50 in the first place when I need to finish Silent Hill 2? 

Despite those nagging thoughts, I continued to prioritize UFO 50 above most everything else, and I'm glad I did. While dealing with decision paralysis in an isolated 50-game collection is far from the same as staring straight a??t 50 separate games in your Steam library, it's really just a microco??sm of game libraries writ large.

But in the halls of fictional UFO Soft history, I never had the same hesitations. I never once thought, "should I really move on to Bug Hunter when I haven't even solved the exploratory conundrum that is Barbuta?" Of course I should! There's a lot more fun to be had in this collection, and the very nature of it encourages dipping in and o??ut to see what really grabs you the most. You're not going to like everything. It might not sound like it, but life would?? be hell if you did.

As it turned out, there was a lot that grabbed me. I might not have had the same experience if I hadn't been playing along on a game-by-game basis while listening to the Eggplant: The Secret Lives of Games podcast. They've been going through UFO 50 in a book-club-style format, tackling each game in the fictionally chronological order they were "released" from the early to late '80s. That means playing a different game each week, starting with Barbuta and running through Bug Hunter, Ninpek, and on and on.

In that process, which is ongoing, I've discovered a few notable gems, including a couple I probably would have bounced off of sooner if it weren't for the book club format. Focusing on a game at a time has allowed m??e to tackle them on their own terms, exploring some genres I might otherwise not be that into in the process.?? 

This approach has had a profound impact on how I think about my backlog, too. By "taking my medicine" and extensively playing games I wouldn't normally spend more than a few minutes on, I realized I don't nee?d to do?? that in the greater context of video games as a whole. If something feels like a chore, it's no longer fun, and delaying joy shouldn't come into the equation when you're trying to escape. 

So, do I need to finish some of my older games before I start the new ones? Only if doing so is the most fun thing I can be doing at any given moment. I don't want to fee??l the need to slog through something just to tick it off a list so I can move on to something else. There will always be time for that later, if we're lucky. And if there isn't, then at least I got the fun out of the way first. 

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I’m still working my way through UFO 50. If you aren’t familiar, it’s a game that presents itself as a collection of 50 games from a lost platform (it looks like an old Microcomputer like the Apple II, but? feels like an NES). They’re not quite mini-games, even if some are quite simple and short, but rather, they’re full nouveau retro games that you get to dig through.

While fictional, the games are assigned a release date from 1983 to 1989 and are depicted with similar limitations to game development standards at the time. In this way, it provides a similar experience to actually digging through a real console, publisher, developer, or genre’s back catalog. It might not even be with video games; it can also happen with movies or music. I fall down those holes all the time. I’m still kind of going through one that has me delving into any game I can find involving Yoshiro Kimura and friends.

But ma?ybe this is the first time you’ve had that feeling. It makes you feel like a sponge absorbing every possible piece of information like dirty dishwater. It’s satisfying because it’s something you’re experiencing in a complete and meaningful way. If you know what dark alley to wander down, you can download a console’s entire library these days, but if you’re only interacting with the games on a superficial level, it’s hard to stay engaged. So, if you’re looking for more catalogs with context, then I’ve got some suggestions for you.

Capcom Arcade Stadium 1 and 2

Coming up with 50 unique game concepts is a pretty amazing flex. No notes, as they say. But you can also get that sort of variety from real game compilations. Have you tried Capcom Arcade Stadium? Have you tried Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium? Together, they provide you with 60 games (30 a piece, roughly) from Capcom’s prolific arcade output. Maybe you know of Final Fight and Street Fighter, but have you tried The Speed Rumbler or Black Tiger?

While the Capcom Arcade Stadium games are largely just standard compilations and don’t do much to provide context to make it easier to dive into, it has additional features to make it feel like a real arcade. There are not only CRT filters to make it look like the games are being played on an old monitor. You can even set it so that it’s displayed on the 3D mod?el of the arcade cabinet, giving you the feeling of playing in an arcade. For extra credit (and I recommend this for playing arcade titles from any collection), get an arcade/fight stick. Arcade games have a degree of physicality to them, and it’s sometimes lost when using a joypad.

Nintendo Switch Online

A Ninten??do Switch Online subscription gives you access to NES, SNES, and Game Boy titles, and if you spring for the Expansion Pack subscription, you also get ?Game Boy Advance, N64, and Sega Genesis titles. While a lot of the titles are just Nintendo’s own back catalog, you also get access to a lot of terrific hidden gems and titles that were only released in Japan (and are still in Japanese; just a warning).

There’s no real cu?ration or context given to the games. You can’t even read their instruction manual without looking them up on?? sites that Nintendo would probably prefer didn’t exist. However, it’s at least limited and focused in a way that downloading every single ROM in the universe isn’t, which makes it much easier to get invested in delving into each title.

Antstream Arcade

Speaking of getting access to a lot of games at once, Antstream Arcade is still the place to go to get access to a tonne of arcade titles that you can’t get easy access to elsewhere. It’s advertised as having over 1400 games, which includes titles across classic consoles and m?icrocomputers. More importantly, each game has challenges that you can undertake, giving you new way to interact with them. There are also constantly changing online competitions to take part in and test your skills against others. It’s a great way to get into ??something new.

Antstream Arcade is a streaming service, meaning you don’t play the games locally on your device, but rather through the internet. This results in some visual artifacts, especially in moments of high speed, but I found everything rather responsive. It also has the downside that sometimes games get delisted. Antstream was once one of the only places to play Midway and Atari Games�old titles like Smash TV and Tapper, but after the contract expired with Warner Bros, they disappeared. I can’t say I’m a fan of the ??ephemeral nature, but it’s relatively cheap and gives you access to a huge library with added context.

Atari 50

Compilations of old Atari games are nothing new, even recently. Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, however, is no mere compilation.?? Assembled by Digital Eclipse (who Atari later acquired), it’s set up as more of an interactive documentary. All the games are placed on a timeline that guides you through the history of their release. ?Many of them are supplemented with additional material, such as behind-the-scenes documents and interviews.

An Atari 2600 game on its own is?? not that impressive anymore. The console could only handle very basic designs, and?? they can get old pretty quickly. However, with the added context, you can earn a new appreciation for them that you wouldn’t get in a normal compilation.

Hi Score Girl

Hi Score Girl isn’t a collection, nor is it an individual video game. It’s instead a manga by Rensuke Oshikiri which was later turned into an anime series. It is a slice-of-life, bittersweet romance, but more importantly, it’s set in the �0s and heavily centers around video games. And this isn’t the mere hobby of playing video games; specific games are mentioned frequently. Loads of real-world video games from different developers and publishers. While it is particularly focused on the fighting games of the decade, it alw?ays takes time to take a tour around the arcade.

Even if you aren’t big on the romance part of Hi Score Girl, the games will keep you distracted. Video games are the central pillar in protagonist Haruo Yaguchi’s l?ife as he grows up and learns to balance them with other developing priorities. It’s hard not to find the dep??th of his passion infectious, and it can lead to some introspection on the way you approach the hobby.

As I said, Hi Score Girl isn’t a collection of games, but it can help act as a guide. Not all of the titles mentioned are readily available on storefronts, but the majority of them are, either through other collections (like the aforementioned Capcom Arcade Stadium) or Hamster’s Arcade Archives releases.

Pico-8

Are you looking for something less old but still made in the spirit of UFO 50? Try Pico-8 which, I know how that looks, but it’s not a collection of eight games. The 8 refers to 8-bit, because Pico-8 is essentially a modernized 8-bit platform. That is to say, it’s a new platform, but it’s restricted in a lot of ways that an 8-bit computer would be, so developers who work on it have to create games around those limitations, much as they would if they were programming on a Commodore 64. And when you impose those limitations on creators, they have to get more creative to work around t??hem.

Better yet, it’s free. You can play games made for it in your web browser. If you want more than that, you can play it on a variety of devices. There’s even an FPGA core for the Analogue Pocket. Then, if you’re feeling inspired, it’s not a bad way to learn to design your own games. At that point, you’ll have to pay for Pico-8, but it gives you all th??e tools you need to program your own game for it.

Game Center CX

Game Center CX also isn’t a video game. Kind of. We’ll get to that. It’s a long-running (since 2003!) Japanese TV show about a guy who plays through retro games. They aren’t Let’s Plays or longplays, though. They’re condensed into roughly an hour and include a narrator who talks about the events like it’s an extremely dramatic situation. In some of the early seasons, he also visits arcades, giving a look?? at that corner of the hobby. It’s a great way to learn about video games from a Japanese perspective and can introduce you to some titles that may not have been released over here.

There are a couple of problems here. The first is that Game Center CX never really aired in North America (aside from a rather disappointing attempt at loc?alization). However, there’s a fan community around the show that releases English-subtitled versions. I can’t tell you where these are because this is a good, upstanding website, but you should be able to find them if you browse the high seas, me hearties.

Retro Game Challenge/Game Center CX 1+2 Replay

Game Center CX even got its own series of games. The first of which was released over here as Retro Game Challenge in 2009 on DS. If anything is similar to UFO 50 in this list, it’s Retro Game Challenge. Like UFO 50, it presents a set of nouveau retro games. In this case, they’re somewhat obviously supposed to be Famicom games. There are eight in total, and while you are initially given simple goals to complete within them, you’re eventually let loose to play through them in their entirety. Also, like UFO 50, these are essentially full games.

But more importantly, all?? the games are set within the context of the real world. You’re transported back to the �0s to be a kid again, and proceed through the games as they’re released. New magazines drop every so often, so you can read about tricks and secrets. It’s pretty authentic, even if it’s pretty Japan-focused.

The follow-up, Game Center CX: Arino no Chōsenjō 2 is largely the same concept but expanded to more games and consoles. It’s even better. However, the less we talk about Game Center CX: 3-chōme no Arino the better because, by many accounts, it’s not anywhere near as good, having been handed off to a new developer. Unfortunately, neither game was localized, so if you’re a monolinguistic anglophone, then you’ll have to rely on a fan tran??slation.

To rub salt in the wound, the first two games were ported to Switch as Game Center CX 1+2 Replay. This, too, was not localized, and it looks like it isn’t going to be. That sucks. ??It really, really sucks.

Itch dot io

We’ve reached a point where there is no conceivable way to play every? game that gets released. As such, even the most determined game spelunkers like myself have only seen a small sliver of what’s out there. Do you know what separates a popular game from an unknown one? Quality? Fuck no. It’s a big part marketing budget, and the rest of it is luck.

You can’t rely on someone to bring you your next favorite game, not even me! It’s better to try and seek it out yourself. And while you can plumb the depths of Steam, a better option is to dig through itch.io. Itch is a favorite of indie (actual indie, not just alternative) developers due in part to its open revenue split and ??marketplace. This means that a lot of devs who are starting into game design for t?he first time will market their games through Itch.

An uncurated, boundaryless, open market can lead to a lot of garbage. And indeed, it has. And with garbage, it can be daunting to try and reach in and pull out something of value. However, itch is also a community. The devs collaborate and participate in jams together. They follow each other’s work, and throug?h one, you can find other similar creators, and through those, you can find more and more. Usually, the games are cheap. So??metimes, a developer will use a pay-what-you-want structure and that means, yes, you can get games for free.

Video games are art, and like art, not all of it is good. But I’d argue that it’s the big marketable games like the latest Ubisoft sandbox title or free-to-play gacha title that are the soulless dregs.&?nbs??p;

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