Daydream Relivers

Old-school video games come out of retirement.

Gone is the hype of owning the latest Sega Dreamcast or Sony Playstation. Back are the beelines to the track-balls of antiques like Asteroids and Centipede. The search for video arcade classics, as well as obscure home-system cartridges, is the latest fad for collectors, and such items are soaring in value these days.

Generating an ever-increasing demand, the simplistic yet skill-sharpening games of yesteryear are out-doing their high-tech, vividly gory contemporaries, with numerous arcade owners and former aficionados buying them up at inflated prices. With a cocktail-table-sized Dig Dug starting at $595, for example, there's certainly new life for bad graphics.

So a well-kept, out-of-print game lingering in the basement--or a classic Frogger game table in your place of business--will surely attract fans looking for a screen on which to display their high-score initials.

This article was originally published in the November 1999 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Daydream Relivers.