By Steve Haske

January 14, 2010 - I've got to hand it to Microsoft: they've found a way to monetize just about every aspect of a gamer's collective experiences. Getting a head start against the PS3 was easy with a bigger and more efficient online component in Xbox LIVE, the success of which soon bloomed outward exponentially and gave birth to Xbox LIVE Arcade. Although XBLA has more than its fair share of favorites from yesteryear, now we can add the classics of the classics-retro titles from the era of Tempest and Asteroids-to the 360's ever-burgeoning historical gaming presence.

I'm talking about Microsoft's Game Room, a virtual arcade for both Xbox LIVE and PC, unveiled last week at CES in Las Vegas. The conceit behind Game Room is an arcade for you and your XBL friends' avatars to play classic arcade games in. The space itself is vaguely reminiscent of Sony's Home for the PlayStation Network, in that it's customizable and is populated with LIVE avatars, although you won't be physically navigating through it during the time you spend there. Instead, choosing which arcade cabinet you want to play is done by simply choosing which of the up-to-three floors you want to visit and selecting the game you want to play.

After you download your virtual gaming space, customization for your game room is a matter of taste (as well as the more obvious choice of what games you choose to buy for it). The particular room set up that I checked out at CES had all three floors of arcade space filled. Rooms lined with arcade cabinets were tailored to themes which ranged from generic to console or publisher specific-I saw jungle and haunted house themed spaces as well as Konami, Intellivision, and Atari rooms (featuring games from said companies) when I was browsing through the available games. Live avatars were milling around in the rooms, and some were actually playing them. Each floor was round, with the rooms connected by a main circular hallway, leaving an open space in the middle (something like a design in line with an old movie or opera house). There were also a number of wire-frame tanks and other iconic retro elements floating around the space playfully, although it's unknown if you'll be able to customize the appearance and placement of these digital critters.

After sufficient browsing of the virtual arcade space, it was time to test drive a few of the 30 classic games that'll be available for Game Room's launch. First up was Road Fighter, a 1984 Konami racer that's a bit like Spy Hunter, minus any real violence or secret agent intrigue. You could drop "quarters" into the game at the start screen at the press of a shoulder button. Game Room's developer, Krome, is also handling the audio and visual emulation for every game that's to be available for the retro game service, and Road Fighter didn't so much as hitch during gameplay. The same could be said for Asteroids, Centipede, and Tempest, although not playing the classic tube-shooter in an actual arcade cabinet was a little bit of a letdown. All Game Room titles also run at up to 1080p, just for the sake of playing retro titles in the highest possible definition. The games showcased here also had achievements that could be unlocked and options that could be tweaked, although they unfortunately did not have a visual mode like the fantastic old-school monitor look seen in Capcom's newly announced Final Fight Double Impact.

Pricing games for your virtual space will depend on whether or not you want to run them on your 360 or PC, or both. If you plan on sticking with either Xbox LIVE or Games for Windows exclusively, each game will run you 240 MS points, or about $3 each. Should you want access to your Game Room titles on both platforms, the cost will be 400 MS points ($5). If other players come to visit your arcade, they can test out any of your cabinets for free (one time only) and can earn tokens depending on the number of games you have. They can also choose to play any of your games for 40 MS points (50 cents) per play.

Sadly, Microsoft has decided not to include any sort of head-to-head multiplayer component for the arcade space (presumably to preserve the integrity of the arcade feel) although players will be able to take turns competing against each other for scores on leaderboards, challenge friends to various competitions, and will be able to play two-player games locally.

Each week past launch, seven games will be added to Game Room's available roster, with Microsoft pledging to release 1000-plus games over the next few years. It's unclear whether or not Game Room's digital timeline will eventually extend beyond gaming's formative years, but for the service's launch games seem to range strictly from the late seventies to the early-eighties era. Look for Game Room on XBL and PCs this Spring.

By Steve Haske
CCC Freelance Writer