Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Swedish Airports Have Arcade Charity Machines
This is a incredibly creative way to raise money for charity that will hopefully catch on in other countries. Working with the Red Cross arcade machines of Space Invaders, Galaga, and Ms. Pac-Man have been installed to accept multiple types of currency with all the proceeds going to charity. So you can enjoy your favourite retro games while you wait for that plane ride knowing it all goes to a good cause. If this catches on maybe well see other games brought back into the fray. If I could choose I would sink plenty of money into a Bubble Bobble or Rainbow Islands cabinet.
Apogee Software and GoG Are Giving Away Rise of the Triad
Today at 4:00 PM GMT (that’s 12:00 PM EDT and 9:00 AM PDT for those who need it easy) game distribution site Good Old Games is giving away Rise of the Triad for the first 30,000 people who request it. Now what’s funny to me is that the press release says they’re giving away the 2013 version of Rise of the Triad whereas I would have assumed it would be the original The Dark War version from 1994 but who knows, for now I would trust it’s the newer (and better) game. After the first 30,000 go it’s still going to be available at 80 percent off, which is a steal for that game. As my review in the link will explain, if you want the 90s brought back to life with modern controls and graphics, this long 20+ hour FPS with a campaign and frag-fest multiplayer is a gem. If you want to be prepared, you may want to zip over to the site, make a username if you don’t have one already, and be signed in and ready to refresh your browser at the golden hour. It’s free, what have you got to lose. Also if you’re curious to read up on what started life as the sequel to Wolfenstein 3-D, feel free to check out our historical context article on the development of the original.
Targa, Spiritual Successor to Turrican, English Prototype Releases
Long lost to the annuls of history, the spiritual successor to the Turrican series, Targa, has had its North American unreleased prototype dug up and released for all to enjoy.
I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with Turrican if you live in the United States because, well, it’s more of a microcomputer and Mega Drive title. Still, run-and-gun shooter with great graphics from 1990 found many homes in America with a Commodore 64 (C64) release, a Turbografx-16 release, a Genesis release, and of course the SNES (and oddly enough it had a Europe only release on the NES as well). Developed by Manfred Trenz, who’s games are of cult legend and include The Great Giana Sisters and the stellar C64 port of R-Type, Turrican led a double life on both the Genesis/Mega Drive and SNES with a series of titles that play to each system’s strengths. While 3 titles released on the Genesis/Mega Drive (Turrican, Turrican II: The Final Fight, and Mega Turrican), only two of the planned 3 titles released on SNES (Super Turrican and Super Turrican II, both of which are on the US Virtual Console as well) and the third being a Japan-only game known as Rendering Ranger R². Released in holiday 1995 in Japan, this spiritual successor programmed by Trenz himself featured many of the tricks the SNES had mastered in its time including, much to Trenz’s dismay, pre-rendered graphics like those seen in Donkey Kong Country. It didn’t sell well, had a super limited release (approx. 5,000 copies), and fetches about a couple thousand dollars anytime it appears online. With the late release, low sales, and cost of localization, this almost completely in English release never graced the light of day until now, and thanks to a tip from Retro Collect, notable NintendoAge member MrMark0673 has found and released the North American prototype for all to enjoy. It even works on a flash cart in a real SNES.
Break Final Fantasy IV (II in US) on SNES With Newest Patch
One of the most fun things to do in the 16-bit era of JRPGs – although not exclusive to this time period – is break the basic system and do all kinds of ridiculous overpowered feats. Of those, Final Fantasy IV (Final Fantasy II in the US on SNES) had a featured known as the “break damage limit” that forced the game to allow you to dole no more than 9999 points of damage (sounds like a lot of you aren’t a consistent re-player of the game) regardless of combos, leveling, and parties. ROM hacker “chillyfeez” found a hexidecimal code in Final Fantasy II (specifically the North American ROM) that allowed the cap to be raised to 16383 damage. While this is probably no big deal to many of us, Final Fantasy hardcore fans are probably overjoyed with the ability to increase damage and possibly even result in faster speedruns of the game. Either way, if you want the ROM hack, which will work on any emulated or flash cart copy of the original untouched ROM, you can download it here. Thank you Retro Collect for the story.
Someone Made A Mario Timeline
Mario has never had the most complex tale. With the majority of the games involving Princess Peach being captured and Mario having to go on a obligatory expedition to rescue her. Well if you ever wondered how could all those Mario titles possibly link together then fear not a hard working YouTuber has placed the majority of the Mario series (including some spin offs) into a rather convincing chronological order. Who knows maybe Nintendo will take note of this effort and allow another official historia like Zelda. It’s just a shame they didn’t go one step beyond and include some of the more uncommon Japanese titles. Still, this is a fantastic video worth watching for any fan of the Mario games. Let’s face it guys there is a couple of games in this video you know you love.
Someone Got Netflix Running on an NES
Hackers these days don’t necessarily do things because they should, they just see if they can. That’s definitely the case in this post on Gamespot where a handful of hackers got the Netflix streaming service running on an NES via a specialized cart but on an unmodified NES. You can watch House of Cards running on it in the video below in all its streaming text and 256 color glory. Netflix on NES, now I’ve seen it all.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yn-rNdYZAY]Dino Crisis Was Going to be on Gameboy Color
According to the incredible web site Unseen 64, which is dedicated to revealing and discussing unreleased, canceled, and beta titles, Dino Crisis, much like other Capcom PS1 title Resident Evil, was going to be ported to the Gameboy Color. You can see in the posting that there were some impressive screenshots but I fear that much like the playable Resident Evil game, it falls quite short in terms of gameplay. Still very interesting, follow the link to check it out.
F-Zero Races onto the Genesis/Mega Drive in New Homebrew
Huzero, F-Zero on the Turbografx-16
F-Zero‘s unofficial port for the Turbografx-16 is called HuZero and it is quite an impressive port as the screenshot above hints to. Well potentially the larger feat is getting the completely incapable of mode 7 graphics Sega Genesis/Mega Drive to play the same game. Aptly named G-Zero, the homebrew port of this popular SNES racer is an equally impressive playable tech demo in its current state. You can download the ROM here and thanks to the boys and girls at Retro Collect for the story.
Jam is Going to Play Blackpool, Are You?
Fresh on the cusp of Fred attending the Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee, WI on April 11-12 (and having a panel), Jam is also attending a retro gaming convention across the pond in the UK, Play Blackpool. It will be at the beginning of May in Norbreck Castle in Blackpool and he even created a handy video to introduce it. Check it out and hit up Jam if you are planning to attend.
Podcast: Pixelated Pints Episode 26 – Wait, There’s News?
Pixelated Pints is a new podcast started just over half a year ago with Fred and his old friend from high school Heffe. The topic of the show is news and industry discussions for video games and other forms of entertainment, but side tangents and memories of the past always creep their way in. Please note that this show is a bit more vulgar and involves two guys drinking as part of the concept, so it’s a bit more adult than the random moments of content found on the Gaming History 101 podcast. This week there was a lot of discussion on mobile gaming, GDC, Oculus Rift and other VR/AR devices, and more. Feel free to check it out.
Gaming History 101 