I Brought Retro Games Back to Life the AI Way, Thanks to Gemini Vibe Coding

No one was surprised when Google announced its latest version of Gemini is capable of doing much more than its predecessor. However, to what extent this surprised me. In general, I’m not particularly excited about new AI model releases, but after playing with it Gemini 3 a little, I corrected myself.

Yet that excitement only came after learning that my publisher had recreated the classic Minesweeper game with a simple prompt in Gemini 3. My interest was piqued. And after successfully creating my first simple game in one go, my gaming brain started firing on all cylinders.

I already had some some experience with vibecoding in Gemini and came away satisfied with the results, but the project itself was practical and more of a proof of concept than of real interest. Adding games into the mix, especially old-school games from my childhood, changes things.

I decided to delve into the mood-coding powers of Gemini, and I couldn’t have had a better time. I wasn’t expecting gold, and that’s not what I received. But it was enough to satisfy my retro gaming desires. Better yet, everything it spit out was playable in a web browser. From a reworked Chip’s Challenge to an 8-bit Tomba! and a very basic 3D concept from the first Silent Hill game, this may be the most fun I’ve ever had with AI – and I’ve barely scratched the surface.

Below I’ll go over what I did, including how easy it was to code and make changes just by chatting with Gemini.

Gemini 3 feels more capable and more thorough

Having a conversation with Gemini 3 is different. The chatbot seems more context aware and is able to answer some issues you might have right away as follow-up questions. Previous versions of Gemini could do this as well, but Gemini 3 just seems to be more thorough in its responses. And that’s just about having a regular conversation about a particular topic. For my experiences, Gemini went above and beyond my expectations in not only explaining the technical stuff (over my head), but also breaking it down into easier to understand pieces when creating a game for me.

For example, in the middle of my testing, I asked if it could package one of these games into an Android Package Kit file format, so I could download it to my phone. Gemini told me it wasn’t possible, but asked if I wanted some steps to do it, and I said yes. After generating the game I requested, he created a separate document outlining the steps to convert the HTML file he provided to me into an APK using a variety of tools, broken down into levels of effort. I didn’t go any further; I always felt like this was a Gemini I’d never talked to before.

The price of nostalgia

If you’ve ever wanted to relive old video games from your past and you’ve visited a store specializing in retro games, a disturbing reality has dawned on you. Old games can be incredibly expensive. While visiting several stores in search of original Silent Hill titles, I discovered that I would have to spend almost $500 just to purchase two of them – and that’s if I was lucky enough to find them in stock. And if you don’t have the console to play it on, expect to pay even more, or accept that the titles are part of a collection and nothing more.

Trying to grasp the tendrils of a younger self’s past joy comes at a price, and it will be out of reach for many people. This is where AI could help preserve these games – or at least their memory – as they become harder to find and more expensive as they age. There’s a reason why Gemini and other LLMs are so good at remaking old games: they’re trained on large amounts of text and code, almost certainly including the source code for those games.

For the purposes of my testing, I intentionally asked Gemini to create “demakes” of older games: stripped-down, simplified versions that are essentially playable proofs of concepts.

Gemini channeled my childhood with several “demakes”

Once I saw exactly what Gemini could do, the game began. I immediately took advantage of the old school games that came pre-installed on Windows. For the most part, the end result with a single pass was short and playable, but the AI ​​needed more instructions to create something worth everyone’s time. Nonetheless, I was impressed with many of Gemini’s early drafts and knew they would only improve with refinement.

Chip’s Challenge

One game that I’ve never seen get any kind of remake in the App Store or Google Play is Chip’s Challenge. If you were a Windows 3.1 user, you probably know this game, even if you don’t think you know it.

Run to get keys to next level, avoid enemies, end. Gemini created something reminiscent of this game on its first try, and I’m pretty confident they’d be able to give it a full remake with enough instruction.

Jezzball

Jezzball is the perfect time killer and is as fun today as it was decades ago. Try to capture at least 75% of the space by building walls with lines without getting hit by one of the balls constantly bouncing around the space.

Fallen 8 bits!

One of my favorite PlayStation 1 games of all time is Tomba! I had first played the first level on a demo collector disc for the first PlayStation and was hooked. I imitated Tomba! on my phone and tablet over the years, but in 2024, a remake – officially called Special Edition – was released and is now available on PC, PS5 and Switch. In Tomba!, you play as the titular pink-haired hero on a quest to save the world from evil pigs.

Gemini has channeled the essence of what an 8-bit version of Tomba is! would be on its first try. It was very stripped down, but the level name, Tomba’s abilities, and the little collectibles were all there.

silent Hill

Gemini has given me so many fun and easy demakes, so I wanted to up the ante. I asked him to redo the first one silent Hill — in essence. I wasn’t expecting a full-fledged game here, but I wanted it to be something better than the previous games he had made, and in 3D this time.

Gemini understood the mission and told me: “To do silent Hill justice, we can’t just make a game; we need to create a atmosphere“.

Gemini created the game in three iterations and seemed to divide it into stages. First of all, the atmosphere. The demake channels the original by adding a layer of fog to deliberately create a barrier from what you can see in front of you. What was a technical limitation of the original Silent Hill still has a great effect today. Add to that the snowfall and a few structures resembling buildings and trees, and we were well on our way to a demake of this nature.

Next come more important aspects of the Silent Hill series. The radio filled with static electricity, the ability to swing a steel pipe, and an enemy to fight. Gemini already had it in their queue, but wanted to check with me to be sure it was what I wanted – and I couldn’t have agreed more. The only part that needed adjustment was the enemy. On first pass, it was just a cube-shaped blob, hardly looking like something intimidating enough to swing a pipe at. Gemini modified it to look a bit more like a creature, although it still looked like something much less scary than anything in the original games.

Then came the finishing touches. Silent Hill wouldn’t be the show it is without its music, and Gemini knew it. He created two audio files: a low-frequency file that he dubbed “the drone” and a high-frequency file that he dubbed “the scratch.” The music is unsettling enough to keep you slightly on edge. Another essential piece of the series are its puzzles, but Gemini didn’t go too complex here and simply added a key that could be found while walking.

Finally, the transition to “the other world”. Gemini made it a manual option that turns the fog red and rusts the walls – all with a siren blaring in the background.

Here’s How to Try This for Yourself (And Why You Should)

If you want to ask Gemini to recreate an old video game – or any other type of game (I asked it to create a touchscreen version of Hungry Hungry Hippos) – you’ll need to make sure your settings are configured correctly.

Next to the text field where you talk to Gemini, you’ll want to look at the template you’re using. You can choose between the “Fast” and “Reflective” models, but for creating games you’ll probably prefer to choose the latter. The “Thought” model (Gemini 3) will provide more detailed information and go deeper into creating what you want. The Fast model, Gemini 2.5 Flash, will not spend as much time on this task.

When you ask Gemini to create a game playable on your phone or in a web browser, you’ll probably want to ask the AI ​​to provide you with an HTML file.

I also tried ChatGPT

In an incredibly unfair test, I asked ChatGPT (the free version) to recreate Tomba! In 8 bits, it quickly delivered a simple, raw but playable game. It lacked all the style of the game that Gemini got right the first time, as well as the ability to use his weapon, and more.

When I asked ChatGPT to improve the appearance of the level and characters, instead of updating the code, it generated an image. After fixing it with my intentions, he got to work updating the style and colors of the game. This version was better in terms of style but lacked any sort of polish added by Gemini when I asked the exact same question for the second iteration. I’d be curious to see how much better the latest ChatGPT models would fare in this test.