Over the last few years, retro re-releases have become an increasingly common practice. Unfortunately, some are done better than others, and it feels like there are companies out there using them as mere cash grabs to take advantage of the retro revolution. Out of all of the companies producing these types of releases, Retro-Bit has been consistently at the top of my list for quality and overall bang for the buck. While the company’s initial efforts might not have been spectacular, their improvements show in each of their subsequent releases, making them an ideal measuring stick for what all companies should strive for. With the release of Retro-Bit’s latest offering, the Toaplan Shooter Collection, arriving in the hands of gamers around the world, it felt like a good time to talk about why collections like these for original hardware are so important in the first place!

Price

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

As time continues to march on, the prices for older games can increase to the point of absurdity. Some of these games could easily land outside of a price range we are comfortable paying, save for the most diehard collectors. I know a number of people who have scooped up poorly made repros of games just to have something similar to the original without paying the high price. The original cartridges of the 4 games included in the Toaplan Shooter Collection are getting up there in price making this new bundle from Retro-Bit a cost-effective way for fans to own them. Other publishing efforts from Retro-Bit, like their recent re-release of Metal Storm, have been equally high priced.

With North American copies of the game going for well over $100, an officially licensed reprint going for as low as $44.99 was a steal in comparison! For big fans of the game and lovers of shelf swag, even the collector’s edition was a reasonable $69.99. Another great example is Retro-Bit’s upcoming release of Undercover Cops, set to release at $54.99 for a standard edition or $69.99 for a collectors edition. To import the original Japanese cartridge you are looking at ~$400 to add it to your collection! Put this into direct contrast with efforts from places like Iam8bit, where they are frequently putting out reprints of $5-$20 games at $100 or more a pop, and the value begins to speak for itself. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my re-releases of Mega Man with their high-quality boxes, but I can objectively say I overpaid for a shelf talker.

This is also a problem I have had with Limited Run Games’ retro re-releases to an extent, as their game selection isn’t usually expensive for an original; looking at you, Episode One Racer. On the other hand, their recent Shantae re-release for Game Boy Color is a perfect example of what I like to see from these types of collections: an expensive game being made available for far, far less. I also must admit that I think Limited Run Games makes awesome collectors editions for these retro games. I am happy standard editions are available as an option as well to keep costs lower for those not interested in the extras!

Availability

Tying into the price is the availability of the original releases. Like I have already talked about, re-releases of games like Episode One Racer and The Lion King really don’t make much sense considering how common and easy to find originals for them are. Games like Holy Diver or Undercover Cops on the other hand never saw an official release outside of Japan! Thanks to a retro re-release, a whole new audience is able to finally experience these games without resorting to high-priced imports or shoddy repros.

The games also have an official English translation, but we will touch on this more in a bit. The original asking price for Retro-Bit’s Holy Diver release was also very reasonable at a mere $35 for the standard edition! This is also a good time to throw some more praise on Limited Run Game’s re-release of Shantae. Since the game had an exceptionally low production run for its original release it is both rare and expensive these days.

On top of regional unavailability, there are games like Mega Man: The Wily Wars whose North American release is literally unavailable on an original Genesis cart thanks to it being released on the Sega Channel hardware. Retro-Bit has announced that this once-lost gem is getting a physical re-release for all of us to once again enjoy on our original Sega hardware! Sure, you could get it on a Genesis Mini in an official capacity, but that just isn’t the same as having a cartridge in hand that I can slap into my Genesis. No more crappy repros of dubious quality for this one!

Due to the very nature of this business, these reprints tend to only last one run, which in turn makes them become just as rare or more so than the originals. Thankfully with digital distribution options becoming more feasible for the retro scene, having digital versions of these collections might become an option for users to place them on devices like Everdrives or use in emulation. I know that Piko Interactive has had some success with this option over the last few years but if they don’t pick up other aspects of their business I’m not sure it will matter…

Translations/Fixes/Restored Content

Another benefit of re-releases is that it gives us a chance to have the best possible version of a game for original hardware even if it wasn’t available to us back in the day. Did you know that Zero Wing in Japan had over 30 different endings? If you only played the original European release this may surprise you as this version only had 3! With the Retro-Bit re-release of the game, each of these endings has been restored and officially translated into English for the first time. I am fond of the fact that Retro-Bit is respecting the meme intro though and kept “all your base are belong to us” for a whole new generation to experience!

This has been a fairly regular part of Retro-Bit’s re-releases which is why I find them more favorable to the work of other companies. We got a translated official release of Holy Diver. We got the original, harder version of Metal Storm with its intro scenes and original color palette restored. The aforementioned Zero Wing content restoration. And in the pipeline are translated versions of Undercover Cops and Hammerin’ Harry, both of which have never been officially released in North America at all! On top of the content restoration and translation, some of these releases are seeing game-breaking bugs patched so they will play better than ever.

Quality

One of the biggest pitfalls of retro re-releases and repros is crappy quality for the PCB, which could damage your original hardware either through improper voltage requirements or unbeveled cartridge connectors. If you decide you want to pick up a cheap repro from eBay you will always run the risk of getting a potentially flawed cart. With officially licensed and produced re-releases, the chances of these problems are significantly reduced. I won’t say the risks are completely gone, as again, some companies put more effort in than others. I still can’t get the fire warning from the Iam8bit release of Street Fighter 2 out of my mind even after all these years… For Retro-Bit and Limited Run Games releases you shouldn’t have any cause for concern though as I have seen the process they put their retro cartridges through first hand!

Conclusion

As retro gaming continues its upward trend, we are bound to see even more re-releases of classic games coming to the original hardware. It is my hope that each of these companies can learn from each other to deliver re-releases of meaning and value, while also making them as accessible as possible. As long as a retro re-release can pull that off, I think it is hugely beneficial to the community as a whole. In the here and now though I have been extremely fond of the way Retro-Bit has been doing things and I am excited for every release to come down the pipeline.