Gametap: The review! 900+ games available

[Nadril]

So I recently bit the bullet and decided to give Gametap a try. They had an offer going around where I could get the first month for 1$ and, never turning down something that only costs a dollar, I went for it.

 

 

 

Immediately I downloaded the program and went to unsubscribe. This was so that I wouldn't get billed again after the first month if I found out I disliked it. Not seeing a simple unsubscribe button like so many MMORPG's had I went to help.

 

 

 

"Oh, great" you had to unsub by phone or chat. I decided to go ahead and do it by chat and entered the chatroom.

 

 

 

A person came by fairly quickly and asked me what I wanted. We went through the entire process and it was fairly painless. Still, I'd rather just be able to press a button to unsub.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally I decided to open up the program. I was treated to a nice looking UI and decided to scourge the game vault. Game tap hosts an impressive 960 games available for you to download, and I was about to see what every one of those were.

 

 

 

 

The GUI in question. It's really clean and easy to navigate

 

 

 

Some systems had more games than others. The Atari hosted 104 games while there were only 6 8-bit games. However one platform I always loved, the Sega Genesis, had 81 games.

 

 

 

Of course I decided to look for the big name games. I found classics such as the Sonic Series which had Sonic 1-3, Sonic 3D blast, Sonic and Knuckles 1-3 and Sonic spinball even.

 

 

 

Opening up Sonic 3 I decided to see how one of these games ran. Sometimes deals like this suffer from shoddy framerates because the developers didn't optimize it enough for the platform.

 

 

 

 

I never was that good at this game... #-o

 

 

 

 

 

Sonic 3 ran well. The sound was impressive and it felt very true to the original.

 

 

 

 

 

I than went to try out "bug" another game I played a ton on my Saturn. I was greeted to a full screen game, which was unfortunate because I use a widescreen monitor. It didn't look terribly bad however and was very playable.

 

 

 

 

Widescreen not shown here.

 

 

 

Finally I decided to try out a bit of a preformance test. I downloaded 3 games at once, Far Cry, Serious Sam II and Tomb Raider: Anniversary.

 

 

 

Gametap slowed down a bit but was still usable. Meanwhile the games downloaded from speeds ranging from 500-800kbs. Its good to know that they don't sacrafice downloading speeds, I was able to get all 3 full version games in less than an hour.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally I fired up serious sam II for some good old fun. I was treated to a general game UI we'd come to expect and the game ran well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, final thoughts? Well I found out that you can actually have more than one person on a gametap ID at once. Because of this I've let my little brother use one and I can actually create him his own profile later. This is extremely nice because if you have or know more than one person who wants this you can go in for a price, or simply share it.

 

 

 

Gametap is roughly $15 a month after the first month (which is $1). From what I have noticed they have been adding games and continue to add games at an incredibly fast rate.

 

 

 

 

 

Is it worth it? Well its no lie that the technology its self is still a bit new. It could use some tweaks (windowed mode for Saturn games and the like, for example) and could use some filling out of the game library in some portions. The great thing about gametap is it allows smaller game developers to get their game known as well. For example, Psychonauts. This game was hailed as an incredibly well thought of and fun game, but suffered from a lack of sales. On gametap the developers have had a second chance to really get their game recognized.

 

 

 

 

 

Right now I feel that gametap is worth it. However it all comes down to your preference, and what they have. I would strongly recommend giving the service a shot for a month, I mean, its a buck.

[stevepole]

What game systems does it have?

[Doughnut]

I would try seeing as it is only a dollar, but since its hard to un subscribe I don't think I will.

[Nadril]

What game systems does it have?

 

 

 

off the top of my head:

 

 

 

 

 

8-bit (NES), Atari, Windows, Sega Genesis, Game gear, Sega saturn, 32x, Intelvision, DOS and a few others.

 

 

 

I would try seeing as it is only a dollar, but since its hard to un subscribe I don't think I will.

 

 

 

It wasn't that hard. Took maybe 3mins.

[Nadril]

Bump a bit? I figured you guys would have been more interested in this.

[BlueTear]

Bump a bit? I figured you guys would have been more interested in this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the review sounded interesting, I've never heard of Gametap before. I'm guessing, by the way the review sounded, it's a bit like Steam except with a subscription, where you can dowload games much like you'd do video's in a video store?

[Nadril]

 

Bump a bit? I figured you guys would have been more interested in this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the review sounded interesting, I've never heard of Gametap before. I'm guessing, by the way the review sounded, it's a bit like Steam except with a subscription, where you can dowload games much like you'd do video's in a video store?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kind of. Its kind of like if you paid blockbuster $15 a month and got access to everything they have, whenever you want online.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I pretty much have some 900 games at my disposal to play whenever I want. This includes big name games as well as console games and lesser known games.

[xXru1n3dXx]

Oh my god. I totally forgot about Bug, I loved that game so many years ago. Thanks for reminding me about it. :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Gametap looks like it may be worth a try.

[Nadril]

Oh my god. I totally forgot about Bug, I loved that game so many years ago. Thanks for reminding me about it. :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Gametap looks like it may be worth a try.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hah someone else played bug? Hell, someone else had a sega saturn? :lol:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And yeah its well worth it. I'm playing through Far cry finally on it. I've meant to pick up the game for 3 years and just never bothered, I have to say its a brilliant game now that I am playing it.

[Jaziek]

 

 

Bump a bit? I figured you guys would have been more interested in this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the review sounded interesting, I've never heard of Gametap before. I'm guessing, by the way the review sounded, it's a bit like Steam except with a subscription, where you can dowload games much like you'd do video's in a video store?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kind of. Its kind of like if you paid blockbuster $15 a month and got access to everything they have, whenever you want online.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I pretty much have some 900 games at my disposal to play whenever I want. This includes big name games as well as console games and lesser known games.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

legally?

[Nadril]

 

 

 

Bump a bit? I figured you guys would have been more interested in this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the review sounded interesting, I've never heard of Gametap before. I'm guessing, by the way the review sounded, it's a bit like Steam except with a subscription, where you can dowload games much like you'd do video's in a video store?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kind of. Its kind of like if you paid blockbuster $15 a month and got access to everything they have, whenever you want online.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I pretty much have some 900 games at my disposal to play whenever I want. This includes big name games as well as console games and lesser known games.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

legally?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, of course. No reason why I'd pay for something illegal.

[Doughnut]

I'm pretty sure if Nadril wanted to play this illegally he(or she) would use torrents. :-w

[Jaziek]

Bump a bit? I figured you guys would have been more interested in this.

 

 

 

While the review sounded interesting, I've never heard of Gametap before. I'm guessing, by the way the review sounded, it's a bit like Steam except with a subscription, where you can dowload games much like you'd do video's in a video store?

 

 

 

Kind of. Its kind of like if you paid blockbuster $15 a month and got access to everything they have, whenever you want online.

 

 

 

 

 

I pretty much have some 900 games at my disposal to play whenever I want. This includes big name games as well as console games and lesser known games.

 

 

 

legally?

 

 

 

Yes, of course. No reason why I'd pay for something illegal.

 

 

 

true true.. its just hard to see game companies agreeing to have all these titles available for such a small amount of money.

[Nadril]

true true.. its just hard to see game companies agreeing to have all these titles available for such a small amount of money.

 

 

 

A lot of games are older, and a lot of them also are games that probably have stopped really selling. There are new ones there too but they've struck deals with gametap.

[AgentBlond]

I've had gametap for about 6 months now, and I LOVE it!!

 

 

 

it let me finish a bunch of old games I'd only gotten to start (some of the Tomb Raiders, all of the Sonics, Sid Meyer's Civilization III) and introduced to what I believe to be one of the top 10 greatest games of all time, Deus Ex (note the avvy).

 

 

 

The game vault, while having maybe 85% ancient and unheard-of games, has a bunch of amazing titles. The ENTIRE Tomb Raider series (including anniversary), all of the Hitmans, Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Invisible War, even SPLINTER CELL AND SPLINTER CELL: PANDORA TOMORROW!! I enjoyed beating all of the Sonics, finally, and a few other great timekillers.

 

 

 

Like everything, it has a few downsides. I have a pretty slow computer, and it can't handle the fancy graphics and sound effects of the interface well. It has no Nintendo titles, which I find quite depressing. It's also hard to find the files for the individual games, to fix a bug in an older game or create backup files of your gamesaves if you need to reinstall it. The game files are well hidden and probably encrypted.

 

 

 

All in all, I would give GameTap at least a 9.6 ranking, and that's not earned easily. The thing I like most about GameTap is that it eliminates those days when you sit down at your computer for half an hour before realizing you're totaly bored. I think it's worth the $15 a month.

 

 

 

And by the way it IS legal, and it is well advertised. Yahoo! advertises it, and I've seen several commercials for it on TV.

[unknownmasterofnothing]

Yea its the alternative to the virtual console on nintendo wii. I wouldn't pay for gametap except for the saturn games like if they have virtual on.