Microsoft announced the Xbox Game Room at CES this year and for retro fans like myself it was some good news. But as details came about it quickly became less interesting for several reasons. Plus, I think there are a lot of things they could have done to make the experience better.

You can’t have too much retro

The Xbox Game Room is a yet-to-be released add-on for the Xbox that lets people create their own virtual arcade and fill it with classic arcade titles, like Pac-Man, Galaga, Frogger, the ones everyone knows. Of course the games aren’t free, that’d just be silly, so if you want to have Frogger in your virtual arcade you’ll have to fork over $3.00.

Sure, $3 isn’t a lot for a game when it’s one you’ll be playing a lot - in fact, that’s a steal - but that price tag is a lot when you consider anyone can play most of these games on-line for free, or even on their desktop with emulators. I can’t even tell you how many different versions of Pac-Man I have between my computer and consoles. Why do I want to pay $3 for yet another version?

Well Microsoft is hoping you’ll pay for one big reason - social gaming. You see one neat aspect of the Game Room is that your Xbox friends can visit your arcade and play. Of course, they’ll only be playing a demo. If they want to play full blown they’ll need to plunk down $3 too. But even with that, there’s a few things I’d like to see the Xbox Game Room that I doubt will be there.

Some ideas for a better arcade

Arcade spectating. One experience a real arcade offered was watching someone else play. You could stand over their shoulder and watch, cheering them on or even talking trash. Why not offer this with the Game Room? It’d be easy enough with the party talk and stuff. If I’m on-line at the same time as you and you’re playing Frogger, let me watch you.

High scores per arcade. A demo for the Game Room showed that each game will have the defacto leaderboards for high scores, and when you walk around your arcade the high score owner will be displayed prominently. This is great and all, but why not allow individual arcade champions. Lets say I have five friends that all have Frogger in their arcade. I’m assuming that as-is, the high scores are per game only. So if my friend Bob has high score on his Frogger game it shows up on my Frogger game that he has the high score.

Change this so each game per arcade can have a different high score champion. Again, just like the real arcades, you had champions per location, not overall. There wasn’t a city Frogger high score champion, there was an Aladdin’s Castle high score champion and even a Pizza Hut champion. If you wanted your greatest known beyond your local arcade you had to travel. Do the same thing here. If Bob has a high score on Frogger in his arcade that’s great, but then he may not have the high score in my arcade (and vice versa). Bob’s Frogger greatness will then only be verified if he has high score on his machine, my machine, and everyone else’s machine. And believe me, there’s nothing more insulting than having a friend walk into your house and lay down a high score.

One quarter please. If you’re not interested in laying out three bills to own the game, Microsoft says you can do a one-time play on any game for 50 cents. C’mon now, arcade games are only a quarter, everyone knows that. And just think how awesome it would be if you combined this with the high score suggestion. You walk into your friends arcade, play Pac-man and set a high score for his machine on one quarter. Ouch!

Let game owners earn credits. This idea from Don the Idea Guy is a good one, although I think it’s flawed in its natural state. If I spend $3 (or even $5) to add a game to my arcade, let me earn MS points when people come play on my machine. So if Bob comes to my arcade and wants to play Galaga, which he doesn’t own himself, he has to pay 25 cents and I, as owner, get the 25 cent credit. But if Bob owns the game too then he plays for “free” and I don’t see any pay off.

After all, it’s in Microsoft money so it’s not like we’ll be spending that earned money someplace else. Of course, there would have to be some rules created to prohibit people from just exchanging 25 cents back and fourth to play different games, but I think that’s do-able. Plus I think it would promote visiting other arcades to play one-off games in attempts to get high scores.

We want an arcade experience

All these ideas are assuming they won’t exist when the Xbox Game Room launches. I seriously doubt Microsoft though hard about what type of social experience happens with arcades and instead are just giving gamers a lame way to interact through XBL with their avatars while also making a quick buck. The arcades were about showing off in front of everyone that visited, whether it be live or in the for of your initials at the top of the leaderboard.

I think the Xbox Game Room is a good idea. It’s an easy idea that they should of had a long time ago. Sure, I’ll pay $3 for Ms. Pac-Man even though I have it on the PC because it’s convenient on the Xbox. But I’m not going to visit friend’s arcades unless I have a reason…and that reason is becoming a champion.

VIDEO: Check out a demo of the Game Room at GameSpot