The company that helped revive old films is hoping to bring classic video games out of the vault.
Turner Broadcasting System Inc., operator of Turner Classic Movies and other cable channels, will let game aficionados get their fix on hundreds of mostly older games, including classics like "Pac-Man" and "Sonic the Hedgehog."
The GameTap service will also have such newer titles as "Tony Hawk" and "Splinter Cell," but not games from the current lineup of titles for GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles.
The on-demand service will require high-speed Internet connections and Windows PCs with at least 256 megabytes of memory and a 3D video card. The system will not work on consoles or Macintosh computers.
Players can use a keyboard, mouse or a USB joystick.
Gamers will likely pay monthly subscriptions of $10 to $20 to download an unlimited number of games, said Blake Lewin, vice president of product invention at TBS. The games will stop working once the subscription expires.
TBS says it already has licensing agreements with 17 publishers, covering about 1,000 games. The plan is to have 300 games available when GameTap launches in the fall, with five to 10 games added weekly.
TBS, a unit of Time Warner Inc., said it was creating GameTap to get in on the increasing popularity of video games.
