A Quick Look at GameTap
February 1st, 2008 at 2:20 am
So I recently got a chance to take a look at the GameTap service. It’s been quite some time since I last encountered it. It’s been pretty easy to ignore while pay-per-game services devoted to reissuing classic games have sprung up on the console side. But after spending awhile digging through GameTap’s game list and seeing how the application itself has progressed, it certainly seems like a viable way to get your hands on some great games, both new and old.
The first time I saw GameTap was before the service launched. It seemed like a neat idea with some fairly serious flaws, like the inability to properly remap controllers. That made some games (like Robotron) unplayable, depending on what sort of controller you were trying to use. Also, some of the emulation for the old games seemed a bit off. Since I couldn’t properly play Robotron, GameTap was almost totally useless to me upon its launch. The service has come a long way since then.
If you’re unfamiliar with it, I’ll break GameTap down for you. It’s a PC-based service that lets you download and play old games for a variety of different machines, from arcade games, to 32X, Atari 2600, Dreamcast, Saturn, and even a handful of recent PC releases. Rather than having you fork over money each time you want to play something, like Steam or Xbox Live Arcade, GameTap runs on a subscription model where you drop $10/month or $60/year for access to the full library, which is up around 900 games.
The variety of games and publisher support is pretty decent on the classics side. You’ll find plenty of Capcom games, including most of the relevant Street Fighter releases, a ton of NeoGeo classics like Metal Slug and Samurai Shodown II, a bunch of Sega like Zaxxon and Chu Chu Rocket, and so on.
They also give you access to a bunch of recent releases, most notably Telltale’s Sam & Max games. Codemasters and Eidos are on board, too. Turning Point: Fall of Liberty will show up for subscribers on 2/26–the same day it’s scheduled to hit stores.
It’s not perfect, of course. The emulation on some of the old games isn’t quite right, specifically the sound, which is emulated incorrectly in spots. Also, the service has a leaderboard setup so you can compare your scores with other players, but there are plenty of games that don’t have leaderboard support right now, like Time Pilot. There’s online play for some games, which is great considering the number of fighting games that are available. But I found the player matching and challenging system to be more complex than it needs to be. Unless you’re playing with friends, you need to go into a chat lobby and challenge a specific player–but players can be in more than one challenge lobby, and they might be off playing another game, making them unavailable for your challenge. On top of that, the one time I managed to get into a game, the network performance was really bad, making the game pretty much unplayable.
It’s unfortunate that this stuff isn’t a bit more streamlined, because those are really the only issues with the gaming side of service. Rather than messing around with chat lobbies and challenging specific players, I should just be able to hit a button marked "I want to play this game against someone" or "I want to play this game against one of my friends" and the application should do the rest. While there are a bunch of little things that feel like they could be straightened out, you should probably visit the site and see what the service has to offer. Sure, emulation on the PC has been done better elsewhere, but I was pretty surprised by what they’ve got.
Considering that some of these GameTap games have made appearances on Xbox Live Arcade or the Wii Virtual Console, where you pay for each and every game, the subscription plan seems like a smarter way to go. But really, the star of the service has to be the Sam & Max series. If you haven’t played any of Telltale’s great, funny adventure games, you really should, and GameTap might be the most value-minded way to do it.
Of course, me being a game collector, I still feel weird about subscribing to games and knowing that they might not always be there. But it’s interesting to see a subscription model applied to a game library like this. Makes me think that if Nintendo had gone that route with the Virtual Console, I’d probably be playing my Wii non-stop.
(Disclosure: I used to work with a couple of the guys that work on GameTap’s editorial team and still occasionally talk about the legacy of "Macho Man" Randy Savage with one of them over AIM)
February 1st, 2008 at 2:40 am
I’ve seen it before but man, that Macho Man clip is a thing of beauty. If only he’d stuck with the crazy hobo schtick instead of evolving into some sort of crazy non-hobo.
Still haven’t played the new Sam & Max stuff. Held the season one box in my hand the other day at Best Buy and nearly walked out with it but then figured doing the whole GameTap thing might make more sense.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:54 am
Hey pal, I got your Gravatar. I got your Gravatar right here.
February 1st, 2008 at 4:23 am
I played around with GameTap when it first offered a limited service for free (with advertising). I was disappointed.
Having access to hundreds of video games without having to pay for them individually sounds like a good deal, but when you discover that most of the games are old, and that nostalgia is not what it used to be, you realize that GameTap is not such a deal after all.
Video games are an evolution. Most new games take what made older games good and improve upon them, making the older games feel dated. (Would you go back to the original Devil May Cry after playing Devil May Cry 3 or Ninja Gaiden?)
Because of this, I would start a game on GameTap, play it for a few minutes, say to myself, “I used to like this?,” and move on to another game on GameTap only to repeat the process.
Of course some old games have aged well, but they are few and far between. Purchasing a few key vintage game compilations and/or downloading individual classic games from the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Marketplace, the Wii Virtual Console or Steam saves money in the long run.
Oh, and the GameTap apparently didn’t emulate arcade games’ “Start” button or coin insertion. I would stare at an attract or continue screen for some time before a game decided to start or continue itself on its own, or didn’t.
All that said, GameTap’s “read” section is the best video game-related editorial content on the Internet.
February 1st, 2008 at 5:07 am
Oh my god. I didn’t realize this until just now: Randy Savage looks exactly like Dan Deacon.
February 1st, 2008 at 5:09 am
Gametap is a good service and it’s pretty cheap. I love it, too bad they are missing most of the games I want to play. Haven’t playes season 2 of Sam & Max, but the first 6 episodes of Season 1 were bitchin’
February 1st, 2008 at 5:10 am
If I didn’t know Jeff better, I’d say it was him wearing a weird wig, hat and get-up in that video impersonating that wrestler guy!
February 1st, 2008 at 5:15 am
Their service looks interesting, but I can’t use it since they don’t have good support for 64-bit Windows. They need to hurry up and fix that, because in a few years most computers will be running 64-bit.
February 1st, 2008 at 5:35 am
I’ve never been able to bring myself to getting gametap because playing old games without the cartridges seems sort of weird and having the cartridges is always better. Especially if you’re talking about Taboo: The Sixth Sense.
February 1st, 2008 at 5:40 am
gametap doesnt sound to bad of an idea, but like you i also collect games and systems and i like having the media… but i think that it would make a great portable system though, subscribe and take a few games with you, but i guess they would need a system out like the ds or psp that is capable to do it and im sure it is hard to do.
February 1st, 2008 at 5:53 am
I’ve seen plenty of commercials for GameTap, but I have never had the will to go there. This blog entry however has peeked my interest. I just now got a Gold plan for a month because I found Homeworld and Homeworld 2 which were like my first PC RTS games.
Thanks for the Macho Man vid lmao. Macho Madness>Hulkimania
February 1st, 2008 at 5:57 am
I was hoping that when the VC was announced it would have been a subscription. Honestly it would have been a better way to go financially as well. Imagine if even a quarter of the current Wii base was subscribing that would be even more cash. Meanwhile we would not have to decide if some old game we never heard of is worth it or not.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:10 am
I first found GameTap around January ’06. The trial back then was 10 of their games, pre-selected by them, for a week. The games were fun and the marketing got to me. I picked up a subscription. I unsubscribed in April of ’06, because I was bored of the selection.
I refound it December. They’ve changed a lot, and I resubscribed. I was disappointed when a week later, over 150 games were removed because of contract renegotiations or whatever, mostly with EA. So my most favourite game, Worms Armageddon, was removed.
I still hope to this day it gets added again. :/
February 1st, 2008 at 7:02 am
I’ve got a few problems with GameTap. The weird non-user-friendly interface, the generally mediocre quality games available, and the impermanence of it. Unless I really love a game (and GameTap has not had a game I really love yet) it tends to take me a really long time to work my way through, I’m talking months and months. So GameTap is not really a cost efficient way for me to play games.
February 1st, 2008 at 7:07 am
Gametaps emulation seems to be going no where, its still pretty crappy.
February 1st, 2008 at 7:25 am
Hey Jeff! I was wondering if you knew how to find final fantasy music. Sadly I’m only able to find those that are linked to advent children, and i would like some of the 16-bit goodness brought from some of the greats.
February 1st, 2008 at 8:13 am
I think that a service like Gametap is probably better suited on consoles than on the PC. The closed hardware environment of the consoles would make it easier to optimize online game speed and streamline the lobbies. But it’s an interesting experiment on the PC as well. I hope it’s successful.
February 1st, 2008 at 8:53 am
Snap in to a Slim Jim! OH YEAH!
February 1st, 2008 at 9:17 am
I’d be more interested if I was able to play them on my television, like the Sega Channel except with more games. I think the Phantom was supposed to be something like that, but of course that was nothing more than a scam.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:47 am
This (the disclosure tag) is EXACTLY the type of F@#$%#G thing that video game sites need to adopt especially in light of “you-of-all-people-definitely-know-what” if they want to regain/maintain credibility.
It wasn’t huge, it didn’t detract from the story, but it said “hey, you should know this as you gauge the value of my opinion”.
I hope the powers that be in the “enthusiast press” are paying attention, they should learn from you and the whole flap even if they haven’t yet been able to woo you back into their fold.
Gumballs, ad spots, glorfied marketing labeled as previoew….”OOOH YEAH”. Fix it, disclose and become transparent and respect is likely to follow.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:00 am
I really like GameTap. I really only use it to play the new Sam and Max games though. I just save up my Coke Reward Points and get a 7 day trial the week a new S&M episode comes out.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:22 am
That is cheap, might have to extend my might £s or quids for a few good downloads.
However on a completely different topic, how did your almight face of with Justin Calvert go on Sensible Soccer (X360)? Just wondering need to settle a bet with one of my mates
February 1st, 2008 at 11:30 am
GameTap’s service is slowly becoming one of the best things to happen to PC gaming in a while. Both Steam and Gametap together will bury Microsoft’s lackluster Games for Windows platform.
P.S. I don’t know how you feel about the upcoming TNA wrestling game Jeff, but there will be a wrestler in the game call “Black Machismo” who completely rips off the “Macho Man” Randy Savage gimmick.
P.S.S. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage at Wrestlemania III
February 1st, 2008 at 11:31 am
bah, I hit submit to early. The Steamboat vs. Savage match is the greatest of all time.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:32 am
Had Gametap for a while now, but like other’s pointed out, I like owning the game not just subscribing to it. The interface also kind of annoys me and I’ve found I don’t use it as much as I used to. I’d play one or two games I missed a couple years back, then leave it be for months on end.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:50 am
I still have not bought anything from virtual console I rather go buy the real games on the real hardware if possible. nintendo has not got any games on virtual console that a ultra RARE games that had so few made they can not be found or cost like $100.
somebody gave me a wii point card too I have not found anythign worth to spend it on either i got them in my collection or I rather buy the real thing since I love the game so much.
If nintendo put out a pay to play plan like xbox live $50 a year you can play a few games amonth as long as you want or all the games, i would do it. If microsoft let you play xbox live games liek gametap I would do that too.
It is also like the sega channel on genesis that ruled i did the sega channel and i loved it if nintendo or icrosoft or sony did something like that with there Old titles totaly I am there.
IF sony let youp lay a bunch of ps1 games a month on PSN(rare ones too like suikoden 2) I would be there eas well I have not played all ps1 games I would like to try some more of them for a monthly fee.
the problem with game tap is they lack big name titles from major console/game makers like SEGA nintendo/sony.
But what is there on gametap is very good I like it i play my friends avvount all the time and just go to town trying stuff I have never seen.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:53 am
Ohh and japanese only titles too in there monthly pay service that would be a good value for me.
who ever does it first nintendo, sony microsoft or gametap.
February 1st, 2008 at 12:14 pm
I’ve had Gametap for about a year now.
One thing I’ve noticed, is that every game I’ve ever played online multiplayer on in Gametap, was laggy and unplayable. And I know it isn’t me because my connection isn’t slow.
February 1st, 2008 at 12:33 pm
I just installed GameTap yesterday because of Alex’s blog yesterday and I have to say it was ok when I first played it. I’m a cheap bastard so I’m not going to pay for it as I have steam for that but I have very excited to find one game for free:
PSYCHONAUTS!
I never played that game before and I was pumped to see it on there as a free one, I’m loving it. That one game has made it worth it.
February 1st, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Last time I checked, the thing was US only… and that sucks <.<
February 1st, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Yeah, just checked again:
“We apologize but the GameTap service is currently only available in the United States and Canada. The GameTap service will be expanding into additional countries in 2007 but no release dates are available at this time.”
IT’S 2008 ALREADY!! Do we in Europe live in the future or something? Oo??
February 1st, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Glad to see someone sees eye to eye with me on the Macho Man, for my money the greatest wrestler of all time (though Ric Flair comes close). No one can touch him on the mic and he was a much better in-ring entertainer than walking statues like Hogan (oh, look, he booted someone again…now he’s Hulkin’ up….yawn). It’s a shame his legacy has been buried in the past when he deserves to be on the Mount Rushmore of wrestlers.
Why hasn’t anyone tapped Mach to be the voice of some video game protagonist? I think Dante from Devil May Cry could use a change…
February 1st, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Why were they wrestling infront of six people in that clip? I’ve seen more fans in backyard wrestling videos.
February 1st, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Nice Service. Thanks for the tip
February 1st, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Hey Jeff nice post. What site did you use to make your site. Just email me with an answer. Please of course
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Jeff, you should tell GameTap about their flaws they might listen you and fix them.
February 4th, 2008 at 6:36 am
Yeah, when I first got on Gametap (I haven’t subscribed yet), I tried to play a game of Street Fighter 2 with a friend and the online play was pretty much a slideshow. Not long ago I tried to play Bubble Bobble over it with another friend and it was the same deal.
I’m wondering if non-emulation titles would be smoother online – makes sense. But what doesn’t make sense is that you can use Mame32++ or whatever and get nearly lag-free online play over Kalliera.
Either way, I have to give Gametap a major thanks for letting me play and beat Psychonauts, completely without any money changing hands on my part. That alone earns it major props from me.
February 4th, 2008 at 8:52 am
We’re all real serious in the danger zone!