
Ask HN: What is the marketshare of modern vintage games by system? - ibobev
I know that every year there are still at least a couple of new games for old systems like VIC-20, C64, Amiga, different ZX Spectrum and Amstrad variants, DOS, different games consoles, and so on, some of them even commercial. Is there any data about the market share of modern games for retro machines? Said with other words, for which vintage systems a new game will have the biggest audience?<p>This might be related to the total amount of units of each system sold, but I think that it is not mandatory to be in a such way. It is possible some systems produced in greater numbers to be not as suitable for games like other systems produced in lower numbers. The existence of emulators also may change the things, by making the numbers of the real system not so important as its actual capabilities. Another factor which I think that have to be considered is the eventual legal issues of distributing a game for an old system if the company which owns it still exists.
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ArtWomb
Interesting question! I don't have any hard data. You could try mining online
databases

[https://www.lemonamiga.com/games/](https://www.lemonamiga.com/games/)

[https://csdb.dk/](https://csdb.dk/)

I'd be surprised if the average is significantly greater than 1 release per
day. Retro styles are all the rage. But its much easier to develop on Pico-8.

A good proxy is probably community size and passion. And there I would say the
biggest market is undoubtedly Nintendo retro. Most are available via
emulation, re-release. But the install base of working vintage consoles must
be quite sizable still.

Best of Luck and please let us know what you uncover ;)

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zzo38computer
I don't know, but I do play some of the new games for NES/Famicom which are
available freely (and there are some good ones!). (I even wrote one game
myself, but never finished it, although you might be able to find it.) I also
write some new computer games for DOS. (These emulators (i.e. software
implementations) can be a VM, so that can be a VM to make your game, too. And
yet, it can also work on the actual older systems, too, is also good.)

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ibobev
Could you share links to your games? Did you try to sell some of them to the
retro community and if so could you share some sales statistics?

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zzo38computer
I have not try to sell any games. But, here is some links:

[http://zzo38computer.org/GAMES/MEGAPANE.ZIP](http://zzo38computer.org/GAMES/MEGAPANE.ZIP)

[http://zzo38computer.org/ZZT/xyzabcde.zip](http://zzo38computer.org/ZZT/xyzabcde.zip)
(you will also need ZZT)

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giantg2
I just want to say thanks for bring this up! I didn't know there were new
games being made. Just my 2 cents, but I think most people play the old games
for the nostalgia, which the new games might not provide.

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ibobev
I recently played a couple of new games for old systems. There exist really
good ones. You can check those links:

[https://www.protovision.games/](https://www.protovision.games/)

[https://zxonline.net/](https://zxonline.net/)

[https://doublesidedgames.com/](https://doublesidedgames.com/)

[http://www.retroworks.es/index_en.php](http://www.retroworks.es/index_en.php)

For me is very hard to determine what drives me to such games. It seems
completely irrational. Maybe it is really a nostalgia. My first machine was an
IBM XT PC in 1994 when I was 8 years old. It was more then 10 years behind the
state of the art. Indeed it has capabilities close to the 8-bit machines
despite being 16-bit.

