The iPad, for instance, allows users to send e-mails, watch movies, even play gyroscope-enhanced games.

Retro gaming, including simulators of classic game consoles that run on modern PCs, is a growing phenomenon driven by the nostalgia of the first joystick generation.

While those quality restrictions apply mostly to demakes, remakes suffer from their own limitations, as Dr. Bogost points out in his 2009 book "Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System."