Kirby starred in four games for the Super NES: Kirby’s Dream Land 3, Kirby Super Star, Kirby’s Avalanche, and Kirby’s Dream Course. But the latter game didn’t start out as a Kirby-related property. In an alternate history, the game would have released under the title “Special Tee Shot,” and would’ve had nothing to do with the puffball at all.
It’s true, apparently: in 1994 someone was developing a Western video game that used the Akira license. Anime was growing in popularity, to be sure, but it wasn’t nearly as popular in the mid-90’s as it was going to get in the following decade.
The original Rayman was one of the most solid platformers of the 90’s and put designer Michel Ancel on the video game map. The game would make its debut on Jaguar and later appear on Playstation and Saturn (Playstation was where everyone discovered it, natch). But it was originally intended for the Super NES — and the reason it didn’t come out was because the SNES CD add-on didn’t happen.
Arcade preservationist Frank Cifaldi recently acquired a number of prototype NES ROM boards from an eBay seller. One particular board contained what may be one of the best finds of his career: an early version of NES Joust. Cifaldi explains why:
Earlier this month the prototype for an unreleased Nintendo 64 game, Viewpoint 2064, was finally discovered and footage was posted online. Now, twice in the same month, it’s happened again, this time in the UK. The alpha cart turned up at a flea market in the town of Guileford, and was spotted by an anonymous fan of the website Unseen 64, who recognized the name “Freak Boy” written on the prototype in marker. He immediately purchased it, filmed footage of the game running with his cell, and sent nine little short video clips to Unseen 64. They can all be viewed at this link instead. You can check out some of the footage that was revealed in the player below.
Every review I’ve read of the new Nintendo 3DS and its head-tracking technology has been impressed with how it improves the 3D effect, but scientists in Vienna are working on a new approach to glasses free-3D that might make Nintendo’s device seem as the magic lantern is to today’s HD movies.