Gaime brings that arcade feeling to our homes

Philipp Rüegg

12.11.2025

Translation: Elicia Payne

Pictures: Philipp Rüegg

Gaime’s a mini console with a gun controller that I can use to play the 30-year-old arcade classic, Time Crisis, at home. This takes me back to my beach holidays in the 90s.

My brother and I stand in front of huge, red arcade games in our swimming shorts. To the side of us is a picture of the protagonist in a black leather jacket, striking a cool action pose. That doesn’t really excite us in the moment. We’re in a restaurant on a French campsite and have just thrown in the last franc of our pocket money.

All our attention is on Time Crisis. We take turns holding the blue plastic gun with sweaty hands and fire it wildly at the screen. The action game moves rapidly from scene to scene. We have to shoot down all the opponents before the time runs out and, if possible, without being hit ourselves.

We finally reach the boss. The guy with a mask is particularly nasty. It jumps back and forth like a monkey and attacks us with a huge claw. I come out of cover and fire my entire magazine, but only hit him once. I reload, want to shoot again, but the rogue beats me to it. His claw leaves a red scratch on the screen. That was our last life. The «Continue» display slowly counts down and we have to watch idly as the game starts all over again.

Gaime consists of a small black box that can be connected to any modern TV via HDMI. The associated Gaime Gun is connected via a four-metre USB-C cable and quick to calibrate. To do this, I aim the plastic gun at various targets until the sensor in the controller’s aligned with the TV.

Then I land in the main menu. Depending on the version, a second Gaime gun, a foot pedal and three additional games are included. Point Blank, Steel Gunner 1 and 2 are designed for two players, unlike the original Time Crisis.

Of course I had to start with the anniversary title, and I was immediately transported back to my 90s summer holidays. I was greeted with angular 3D faces, muddy textures and a monotonous voice that constantly shouts «Action!». Ah, those were the good old times.

Time Crisis still plays exactly like it did back then. It’s incredibly difficult, absolutely unfair, but simply great. If you haven’t learnt by heart which enemies will appear when and where, it’s impossible to hit them in time without being hit yourself. My three puny lives melt faster than a Calippo in midsummer. And that’s when the gluttonous machine would crave the next coin. But that’s not the case with Gaime. Here, I just press the dedicated coin button on the controller and I have one more credit.

I finally manage to defeat the clawed, nasty creep. But wait, the game goes on? Oh yes, I vaguely remember a museum level, a knife-throwing boss, and a helicopter I can bring down. I certainly never held the gun myself in those moments. I was probably looking enviously over the shoulders of other children who had thrown in so many coins that their parents had to cut their vacations short due to lack of money.

All the more reason for me to enjoy finally completing all three chapters myself and experiencing the super short story. It takes me just under 30 minutes. Terrible, when I look at the existing high scores – but incredibly fast, when I consider that I didn’t get past the first level in three weeks of summer vacation.

Point Blank consists of a collection of mini-games. Sometimes I have to shoot red ducklings on a lake, sometimes I have to hit as many targets as possible, sometimes I have to hit octopuses jumping out of pots on the seabed. Point Blank is very hectic, very difficult and a typical arcade game that’s designed to devour huge amounts of coins.

Steel Gunner is a classic 2D action game series. I play a cop duo who hunt down robots and drones in combat suits. Just like in Time Crisis, the game moves on its own accord. I just concentrate on shooting all the enemies and not hitting any civilians. This is somewhat easier than Time Crisis, at least in the first levels, simply because I can see the target cross. Here too, the credits start rolling after half an hour.

I use the foot pedal to move out of cover in Time Crisis like at the arcade machine, or hide to reload. Or I press the button on the barrel of the gun. Like the coin button, it’s available on both sides so both left- and right-handed users can play with it. I usually only use the foot pedal when I need to change posture and want to put one hand down. I definitely miss the slot machine setting, which in the past could only be broken by missing coins.

Gaime’s not the first home console version of Time Crisis. As early as 1997, two years after the launch of the arcade machine, Namco (now Bandai Namco) released a port for the first PlayStation. There were also the Guncon controllers, which worked with CRT monitors – just like the Zapper for the NES. Later, Time Crisis sequels were released for PS2 and PS3. The controllers for Time Crisis 4 work like the Gaime with modern TVs.

Tassei Denki provided me with the Gaime system for testing purposes. The three versions can be pre-ordered directly via the website. We don’t know yet if and when we’ll have the system on our shop. The release of the gun’s planned for December.

Philipp Rüegg

Senior Editor

Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.ch

As a child, I wasn't allowed to have any consoles. It was only with the arrival of the family's 486 PC that the magical world of gaming opened up to me. Today, I'm overcompensating accordingly. Only a lack of time and money prevents me from trying out every game there is and decorating my shelf with rare retro consoles. more

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