While it hardly counts as a major international talking point, gamers in the UK may have been a little surprised to see a couple of ten year-old games sneak back onto the shelves in recent weeks. Lucasarts have re-released The Dig and Full Throttle, two good(ish) point-and-clickers from their mid-90's heyday, for a tenner apiece. It's an interesting development, and one that raises more than a few issues for fans of oldies everywhere.

Firstly, the price tag may raise a few eyebrows. When these games first secured a budget release (on Virgin's White Label) they were available in a double pack for fifteen quid, making the current asking price seem a little on the steep side. Lucasarts aren't exactly known for their generosity when it comes to their own budget label, but when you consider that they offer the marginally-superior Sam & Max and Day of the Tentacle in the same box for between ten and fifteen quid, it just seems a little, well, wrong.

Marketing strategies aside, the sight of The Dig and Full Throttle on the shelves may rankle with some simply because they are old games. As discussed elsewhere on this site, the PC budget market generally offers gamers a pretty good deal, with a whole range of not-very-old and still-pretty-good titles available for a very reasonable price. Why should we pay the same amount for an archaic adventure as we would for a glossy 3D shooter, an intelligent strategy game or last year's range of sports games?

There is a long-accepted maxim in the gaming world that games should get cheaper as they get older. This is, perhaps, fair enough given the frequency of advances in gaming technology and also the grossly inflated price at which new releases retail. But if an old title manages to stand up among its newer counterparts, it seems perfectly reasonable to ask a decent price for it. And while many of us are happy to pay for 'classic' albums, videos or DVDs, this desire to part with our cash does not seem to extend to games so readily.

Comparisons between games, films and music are often tenuous, and to try and draw a parallel between the White Album or Citizen Kane and Space Invaders would clearly be ridiculous. However, some games, like albums and films, age better than others, for a variety of reasons. Time has not been kind to certain graphical techniques, for example. 2D adventures have a certain style about them that means they stand up well today, whereas pre-acceleration 3D games now look horribly dated. To take the games in question here as an example, the graphics in The Dig and Full Throttle now look a little chunky, but they remain stylish and do not detract from the game in any way. Compare this with, say, Jedi Knight (actually post-3D acceleration, not that you can tell), where you know you're playing a very old game throughout. Because of this, some games remain stylistically superior to their sequels - Syndicate now looks better than Syndicate Wars, for example. Contrary to what you might think (especially if you've been playing Unreal Tournament 2004 on your 4 terrahertz PC) a little bit of 2D VGA isn't all that bad. So games featuring it have as much right to be on the shelves as any others.

In fact, as members of the gaming oldies scene, we should be championing this cause, even if it does hit us in the pocket. We aren't exactly moral crusaders here at FFG, but we do always point out that when a game is still in the shops you should buy it. After all, to recommend an old game on the one hand and to get disgruntled about shelling out ten quid for it on the other is a little hypocritical to say the least. In addition, we should want to see more old games in the shops, because the situation is pretty dire at the moment, with even fairly recent titles disappearing from the shelves to make room for more copies of the latest FIFA. So when you come across Sam and Max, Day of the Tentacle and other favourites from yesteryear in the local HMV, resist the consumer's temptation to feel like you're being ripped off and try and view it as something encouraging.