With some people, the names ZX Spectrum or Commodore 64 provoke a blank stare. The rest of us probably remember them with a certain dewy-eyed wistfulness.
Whichever group you belong to, harking back to the heyday of arcades and home computers by using emulators and downloading videogame classics such as Donkey Kong and Frogger may be illegal.
Emulators are programmes that can mimic the functions of legacy computers and consoles and run the game images. But emulating old hardware through software and providing the game software to run on them are two separate issues. Even if emulation of a machine is allowed, as is the case with the ZX Spectrum, this does not mean it is legal to distribute game software.
Despite this, there is a flourishing emulation culture on the internet, where you can download emulators for everything from the Apple II and Atari 2600 to the Gameboy Advance and PlayStation. The World of Spectrum games site claims 60,000 games are downloaded every day.
A quick search on the internet reveals thousands of emulation sites, from the slick EmuUnlim to specialist system sites like Lemon.
According to the European Leisure Software Association (Elspa), which protects and enforces software copyright, the UK videogame industry turned over about £1 billion last year. Unfortunately, it estimates software pirates cost it closer to £3 billion.
The phrase "software pirate" is used to describe people emulating classic computer games, not just people flogging copies of the latest PlayStation 2 games at car boot sales. Which does seem a bit unfair.
But at least deciphering the technicalities and legalities of retro-gaming is more interesting than counting how many polygons Microsoft's Xbox console can handle. Or how much faster its CPU is than the PlayStation 2.
The Xbox, which has just landed on Japanese soil three months after launching in the United States, is due in the UK on March 14. It is expected to retail for £299 and the games should cost £44.99.
Not everyone will be rushing to empty their piggy banks.
It's pretty safe to assume videogame fan Dan Holmes, for instrance, will be keeping the money in his pocket. Mr Holmes, who claims to own £7,000 worth of PlayStation games and plays them for four hours each day, has changed his name by deed poll to PlayStation 2.
www.void.jump.org (World of Spectrum)
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