It's a resurgence in the retro gaming field, and some companies are capitalizing on the boom.

"We certainly recognize certain nostalgia values," said Nintendo spokes woman Beth Llewelyn. "There's a whole generation of kids who weren't born when these games came out, so we're kind of introducing them."

Llewelyn said Nintendo continues to expose new gamers to its classic titles. Revamps of classic games such as Metroid Prime (which also includes the original Metroid game) and the Mario series stock shelves, Gameboy Advance continues to release old titles and games such as Nintendo Gamecube's Animal Crossing feature numerous classic titles as bonuses.

B & C ComputerVisions operates a Web site called myatari.com. B & C has been around since 1978, and owner Bruce Carso said it has found a niche with Atari, where it has sold everything Atari since 1984. The company has more than 5,000 products in stock.

"There is nostalgia to it," Carso said. "I had a guy call who is 35, and he called to order some Atari stuff. With Atari, there are a lot of good memories."

Carso said the recent revival in older games and game systems comes as part of the nostalgia boom from kids who grew up in the 1970s and early '80s.

When Atari stopped making game systems and went belly up, Carso said he bought truckload after truckload of the company's products and accessories. He said the reason the game system went out of business was that too many people remembered the old 8-bit games of the 1970s when the company had, in fact, built a far superior game system to those being offered by Nintendo.

Since then, the company has been bought and sold, going through some name changes but eventually going back to the old Atari name.

"We get people calling up and saying, 'I wrote that game for Atari when I was 16; now I'm a millionaire. Can I finish it?,'" he said.

But people don't have to go online anymore for older systems, such as Atari, NES, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega and Sega Genesis systems.

Game Hits game store, located at 4324 W. Saginaw Highway in Delta Township, has hundreds of games for the aforementioned systems, as its collection spans from ColecoVision to Xbox.

"I think it's the nostalgia thing for the older gamer who likes to remind themselves of what it was like," Game Hits owner Shawn Sodman said, adding he would like to open a video game museum some day. "Even though it's a ball or a stick-figure man, sometimes it's fun to pick up and play it."

Sodman's store sells Atari 2600 and NES for $49. SNES and Sega Genesis systems are $29 and $19, respectively. All of his products come from people wanting to get rid of their old systems and games. Atari games average about $2.95 to $4.95 per cartridge.

And Sodman realizes his chief competition is the online auction house eBay.

"There are people who get screwed on eBay," he said. "There's a lot less hassles (here), in terms of guarantees. If it breaks, you can come back here. You can see it firsthand - you don't have to judge a picture."

History sophomore Lance Phillips just bought a Nintendo with two controllers on eBay for $25. Phillips said he has great memories playing "Contra," "RC Pro-Am" and "Bubble Bobble." He describes the chance to play these classic games as "pure Nintendo bliss."

"People grow up with those games," he said. "The thing is, today's systems are always breaking down, and these Nintendos are still here, and it's been 15 years."

Avid retro gamers don't even have to buy a system or game. They can get it for free online by downloading an emulator. An emulator essentially recreates the system on one's computer and oftentimes comes with the entire catalog of the system's video games.

One telecommunication, information studies and media sophomore has an SNES emulator on his computer. He's currently playing a role-playing game called "Chrono Trigger" and said he does not feel bad for illegally downloading games.

"It's almost like games are getting complex, and you want to get back to the way things were," he said. "The reason's also because we're broke college students, so we need an outlet."

The student's emulator has more than 300 games. Nintendo officials said they do not support emulators, noting copyright issues.

For those who don't mind spending a few quarters on their retro gaming experience, there's Pinball Pete's, 220 Albert Ave. The arcade has a handful of old-school games to quench retro players' thirsts.

"Everyone who grew up from the '80s forward still remembers Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man and how much fun they were," Pinball Pete's owner Ted Arnold said. "A good design is a good design."

Arnold said, even though most of his '80s games are newer, there always will be a spot in his arcade for older games.

"They just re-released Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga in a combined unit to celebrate 20 years," he said. "If kids will just give it a chance, they'll see why it's still popular after 20 years."

A.P. Kryza contributed to this report.