So I signed up for the “free trial” of GameTap, the Turner games on demand service. I put “free trial” in quotes because it’s one of that crap deals where you need to give a credit card number, and you automatically start getting charged for a subscription once your free trial ends. You have to actively cancel during the free period not to be charged. I hate when companies do that.
Overall though, it’s pretty cool. Yes, the interface is annoyingly “hip.” And it runs at 800x600 and can’t be changed nor run in a window (boo!). But the service itself ain’t half bad. It’s a great way to get a bunch of old retro games, old arcade classics and especially old Sega Master System, Genesis, 32X titles. There are Windows games as well, and though they aren’t exactly brand new, there are some good ones there. Rayman 3, Beyond G&E, HOMM 4, Warlords Battlecry 1 and 2, Pharaoh, Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow, Space Colony…
It works rather well. Once you pick a game it just downloads and you play. If it’s a big game, you can go play an already downloaded one while you wait for it to download in the background. The emulation for old games is pretty well flawless - no mucking around with frame skips or anything like that. All those old games just run right, at the right speed, with spot-on graphics and sound.
Yeah, I know if you’re into retro games you probably have a handful of emulators and you’re good to go with your ROMs. Of course, that’s illegal. And with all the retro packs that get sold these days, the old “these are dead games nobody makes money off anymore anyway” argument doesn’t fly so well.
I wouldn’t keep on for $15 a month with the lineup they have now. But it wouldn’t take a LOT more to make it worth it. $15 a month is less than a single budget title, and I think I could get more out of this every month than a single budget title, if they bump up the library a bit.
It’s worth checking out. Anyone else try it?
BTW - They have Phantasy Star 1 and 2, and I almost got caught up in retro glee playing PS1 for the Master System for like an hour. If only they’d add PS4! Man, Phantasy Star was SO FAR ahead of it’s time. Compared to the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest titles of the day, it embarasses them.
Edit: supposedly Turner has over 1,000 games licensed. There are 212 available now. They’re supposed to add games every week. I wonder if they’ll ever get old NES games on there? Probably not. :(