Ron Mobido remembers playing chirpy old video games on his 16-bit Super Famicom game console like it was yesterday.

Come to think of it, it very nearly was.

"I just played Donkey Kong all day long," says Mobido, 35.

Mobido still buys games for his Super Famicom, which is the Japanese version of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System from the early '90s. He also covets his Mega Man games from decades past for the original Nintendo Entertainment System from 1985.

Mobido is just one of many gamers who enjoy the way-back fun of retro gaming, a thriving movement where video games of old get an extra life.

Retro gaming mainly covers games from the 1980s and '90s, from cartridges that clicked into an Atari 2600 or NES to discs that dropped into a Dreamcast or the first PlayStation. Games for old computers such as the Commodore 64 also get thrown into the retro-gaming mix.

And like they did so many years ago, retro gamers still gather to get their game on - be it at special conventions such as the Classic Gaming Expo in Las Vegas or specialty stores such as Game Over Videogames, a Texas-based chain where regulars like Mobido buy, sell and trade their old electronic adventures.

"There's always that place and time where it takes you back to when you were a kid," says Game Over CEO and president David Kaelin. "In a bigger sense, I would say that retro gaming in general has gotten a lot bigger."

It's certainly grown for Kaelin. Since he opened his first Game Over in Austin in October 2005, he has expanded his mini empire to a store in Round Rock, Sunset Valley, San Antonio and a new location he opened in Houston in October.

Houston store manager Brandon Boucher sees everyone from hard-core gamers in search of import titles to casual passers-by who saw the Atari joystick logo outside and had to poke their heads in to see the real thing.

More Information Game consoles through the years Magnavox Odyssey (1972): The first-ever video game console had white, boxy controllers with knobs and even boxier Pong-like graphics without sound or color. At least it tried to offset such shortcomings with color overlays for the TV screen and whimsical accessories such as dice and play money. Atari 2600 (1977): Originally called the Atari VCS for Video Computer System, Atari's breakout 2600 console broke into millions of wood-paneled living rooms with its signature single-button joystick and multi-warfare game Combat. It also helped burst the first game console bubble with way too many lousy games, most notably 1982's out-of-this-world-bad E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Intellivision (1979): George Plimpton famously hawked this Mattel Electronics game console as a sophisticated alternative to Atari with sleeker but still boxy graphics and smarter but more cumbersome keypad controllers. ColecoVision (1982): Coleco's console boasted near-arcade quality graphics and titles right out of the box such as the super-popular Donkey Kong. Then the gaming console market crashed a year later, and ColecoVision went down with it. Nintendo Entertainment System (1985): The NES revitalized the home video game market with snazzier 8-bit graphics and the rise of a certain Donkey Kong plumber to franchise status with the hit game Super Mario Bros. Sega Genesis (1989): Sega really threw down the gaming gauntlet against Nintendo with this 16-bit system that gave gamers the rapid-running Sonic the Hedgehog and the six-button controller that benefited the fast-fingered. Sony PlayStation (1994): The game console wars turned from cartridges to compact discs when the PlayStation made its United States debut in 1995. Besides games, the PS1 also played music CDs. Such multifunctionality would no doubt inspire the DVD-playing PlayStation 2 in 2000 and Blu-ray disc-playing PlayStation 3 in 2006. Nintendo 64 (1996): Even though it has an odd trident-head controller and still used cartridges, the N64 offered awesome games such Super Mario 64 and GoldenEye 007 Sega Dreamcast (1998): The Dreamcast was ahead of its time with online play and World Wide Web surfing in a game console - so far ahead that Sega dropped the Dreamcast and console making altogether in 2001. Microsoft Xbox (2001): Bill Gates called "Next!" with a true computer gaming system - in this case a console with a hard disk drive to save game content and ripped CDs. Its launch title Halo: Combat Evolved and online Xbox Live service solidified its longevity. Nintendo Wii (2006): The Wii got you and your grandparents off the couch with its wireless motion-sensitive controllers, which use body movement instead of complex button mashing. Microsoft and Sony jumped up to motion gaming last year with the Kinect and PlayStation Move, respectively. See More Collapse

"It's actually been people from the entire spectrum," Boucher says.

A walk through Game Over is like a stroll through video-game Valhalla, or at least an older gamer's garage. Cartridges abound with the likes of Super Mario Bros., the '85 hit that made Mario a video-game icon, along with the 1982 jungle treasure hunt Pitfall! and more titles that beeped and booped to life on the family TV back in the day.

"Every time there's a new platform, you inevitably see versions of these games on it," says Bill Loguidice, managing director of the video game and computer history website Armchair Arcade. "There's just something timeless about these games."

While nostalgia certainly plays a big role in retro gaming, you can't beat the price either. Unlike today's games, which usually retail for $60, classic console titles at Game Over run as little as $2, with many original consoles on sale for $50 to $70.

"That's the best part of the retro scene - now you can afford all that stuff you missed," Mobido says.

And unlike today's video game opuses such as Batman: Arkham City and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 with their dazzling graphics and sprawling environments, retro titles still entertain with far less eye candy and far more straightforward gameplay.

Not that straightforward translates to easy.

"A lot of the older games are brutal," says gamer Eddie Minter, 32, who works for the state in the environmental sector.

Minter says the newer games bore him with unnecessary complexity and information overload. He prefers older games for their "simple formula."

Still, that simplicity also plays well with today's game systems.

Repurposing old console games into new packaging is nothing new. For instance, JAKKS Pacific offers Yars' Revenge and nine other Atari classics all in one replica joystick you plug straight into your TV, no cartridges or console required.

Then there's the return of Intellivision games from the early '80s to today's PlayStations and Xboxes, PCs and Macs.

Keith Robinson, a former game designer for Intellivision during its '80s heyday, created an Intellivision history website in 1995 that led to Intellivision Productions a few years later. He's since brought the Intellivision experience from the TV screen to the touchscreen with an iPhone and iPad app, plus more than 60 Intellivision games in one for the Nintendo DS and PC.

"It's just exciting," Robinson says. "Like I say, originally it was nostalgia. But a new generation, we find, loves these games. ... The kids pick it up, and they want to play these games. We have more people playing (Intellivision) today than they played then."

Yes, that includes these gamers today with their high-def consoles, wireless headsets and downloadable content.

Boucher at the Houston Game Over recalls a dad at his store showing his 5-year-old son the games he played when he was that age. If parents can share their first thimble ride on a Monopoly board, why not also their first jaunt with Mario through the Mushroom Kingdom?

"We definitely see some of each," Kaelin says of retro gamers young and old. "It's a fun, family-friendly gaming community."

rguzman@express-news.net