From 1984 to 1991, Nintendo’s main product, the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, sold exceedingly well, and the company developed many excellent first-party titles, like “Super Mario Bros.” and “Donkey Kong.” Yet, the NES suffered a dearth of notable third-party games. Games not published by Nintendo often featured unresponsive controls, poor translation and questionable copyright status. As an homage to this period, two Americans have adapted F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” in the style of a third-party NES game. “The Great Gatsby for NES,” available for free online, provides solid entertainment and an experience “borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

“The Great Gatsby for NES” superimposes elements of the novel onto a traditional side-scrolling platformer. The player controls Nick Carraway as he runs and jumps through four levels of continuous action to find Gatsby. After completing a level, the game shows a short cutscene from the novel with hilarious, tinny 8-bit sound effects. To ward off enemies, which range from flappers to gangsters to the ghosts of doughboys, Nick throws a boomerang hat (like Oddjob from “Goldfinger”). Along the way, Nick can collect coins, drink martinis to replenish his health and don golden fedoras to transform into Golden Nick (akin to Super Mario). The game is easy, and the four levels are quite short.

The best part of the game is relating aspects of the gameplay to the novel. For example, coins, a staple in platformers like Mario, perhaps here signify the Jazz Age’s obsession with easy money. Several characters from the novel appear in small cameos, from Jordan Baker (twirling a tennis racket rather than a golf club) to Owl Eyes. Other references are less clear, and some choices by the developers seem strange. Exactly why a boomerang hat is Nick’s preferred weapon is a bit beyond my spotty and ad-hoc literary interpretation. Perhaps it refers to the theme of returning in the novel; Gatsby wants to return to the past, and Nick wants to return to the Midwest.

The greatest reward of the game arrives when the player beats all four levels without losing a life. The game depicts an adult Nick disembarking a snowy train at Christmastime. Though perhaps Nick’s ruminations of “That’s my Middle West” are not as famous as other quotes from the book, it certainly made me think differently about living in St. Louis.

While “The Great Gatsby” has been the subject of many adaptations in other media, none have ever captured the beauty and elegance of the original. Yet, “The Great Gatsby for NES” is so clearly a product of love that despite its faults, it is a lot of fun. I doubt Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming 3D rendition of “The Great Gatsby” will contain half of the spirit and energy behind this little game. So, if you have 20 minutes to spare, give “The Great Gatsby for NES” a chance. Hopefully, we’ll soon see an entry for “The Catcher in the Rye” as well.