Recently, Atari made a large library of their classic games available for download on the iPad and iPhone. Now your cutting edge technology can play blasts from the past like Missle Command, Yars' Revenge, and even Pong. For nostalgic gamers, this is an awesome development that allows us to return to the games of our youth, although (as usual) the reception to the release has been mixed. The games don't quite play the way we remember them, or the controls are difficult, or the actual game display is too small. There's always something when it comes to new presentations of beloved classics.

While these specific complaints are directly related to the Atari's Greatest Hits collection, the reality is these kinds of complaints are pretty common when older games are made available on new platforms. I've watched as similar complaints have sprung up to previous adaptations, whether it's seeing these kinds of classics on the iPhone or the Playstation One. The truth is, developers are taking very old technology and adapting it for something much more advanced. Changes are going to occur and 8-bit (or older) games just aren't going to look and feel the same on more advanced systems. That's not going to stop players from complaining though.

To aid developers in the process of bringing classic games back for modern players, here are five suggestions focused on bringing players what they want, and therefore reducing the complaints spawned by bad adaptations. Following these tips won't guarantee success, but they will certainly eliminate some of the common problems brought about by porting old games to new mediums:

Recreate the original experience: I know new technology can do all sorts of flashy things, but adapting classic games means looking past all the dazzle of modern technology and remaining true to what players fell in love with in the first place. If the original game had 8-bit graphics, than players are looking for an 8-bit graphic experience. If you update that with new graphics or a new look, you aren't actually adapting the original game. Players fell in love with the original game, despite a bad soundtrack, poor graphics, and quirky game play. That's the same experience they are looking for when they buy the same game on a new system, regardless of how advanced that system is.

Don't feel the need to recreate all of the original experience: Developers have found some interesting ways to deal with the fact that displays are a different shape and size than classic games used. The most popular choice is to attempt to recreate part of the game cabinet (if the classic game was an arcade title) or to put a TV within your TV screen in order to mask off the unused portion of the screen. While this can be done well, it can also be distracting. Old arcade cabinets would light up and blink, but players filtered that out by focusing on the screen within the cabinet. By recreating that experience on the screen, what developers are doing is creating a distraction. I keep waiting for someone to really try to offer an authentic arcade experience by inserting sound-effects of an annoying second player who bad-mouths your playstyle and then having a "power outage" occur just as you reach a crucial high-score. Some things weren't meant to be recreated.

No "updates" or "improvements": When I want to play Pac-Man I want to play the classic game. I don't want to suddenly have lasers I can shoot at ghosts or have the ability to play as a ghost. I want the classic game, especially if that's what's being offered. If developers "update" the game with better graphics or new game elements, they aren't offering the original game and need to clarify that. I'm all for new twists on classic games (as I wrote about here), but if the original classic is what is being offered, that's what I (and other players) am looking for.

Control is key: This is the biggest complaint I see about game ports. It's actually funny if you think about it. The old Atari 2600 and Colecovision systems had controls that were clunky and awkward compared to today's machines, and yet adapting controls designed for those systems seems to be the hardest part of adapting games for new mediums. I had a classic game collection on my old Playstation that was practically unplayable because the speed of contemporary controllers was so fast compared to the older systems. The result were controls that were too fast, removing any nuance and skill out of the game entirely. The bottom line is that we can't play a game if we can't control it. If the controls don't work, all of the rest of the adaptation process is for naught, so this is the one part of a port that must work flawlessly.

Grow a thick skin, but be receptive to feedback: Porting games is dealing in nostalgia. If these games weren't much-beloved classics, nobody would be interested in still playing the game. When nostalgia comes into play, a lot of common sense tends to go out the window (you'll rarely find players who admit the original game had bugs that caused game play issues as well). Developers need to be prepared for the notion that nothing is going to be good enough, short of the original game in the original console (or original arcade cabinet). Be prepared for grumblings, complaining, and nothing being good enough, and grow a thick skin towards it. At the same time, don't make that skin so think that valid complaints about the game go ignored. If you mess something up, be prepared to acknowledge it (and hopefully even fix it!). After all, you want these beloved games to still be loved after the new port is released.