snes

September 8, 2016

Interplay’s Library Of Characters Up For Sale

Peter Paltridge earthworm jim, genesis, interplay, mega drive, pc, playstation, snes 0

In the 1990’s the company known as Interplay gave us a wide variety of characters on 16-bit and 32-bit consoles. Earthworm Jim, Clay Fighter, The Lost Vikings, and this: Now it’s all up for sale. Interplay is dropping the proverbial cow on the whole enterprise. You would be forgiven for thinking Interplay went out of business already. They decided to cease game development a long time ago, choosing instead to offer its IPs to other game studios on license. There are some who have taken advantage of this: a new Descent was crowdfunded by an indie studio and released last year on Steam. But now the fate of all those classic IPs are up in the air. “Interplay has entertained millions of players with its well-recognized games, including Earthworm Jim, Freespace, Giants, Kingpin, Messiah, MDK, Run Like Hell, Sacrifice, Battlechess, Clayfighter, Dark Alliance, and Descent,” states Eric Caen, president of Interplay. “As game creators, we are proud of the entertainment these properties have provided over the years.” Caen didn’t say what

July 18, 2016

The Nintendo Playstation Is Broken! Can Ben Heck Fix It?

Peter Paltridge ben heck, Nintendo, nintendo, nintendo playstation, snes, Video 0

In 2015 the world’s only known prototype for the SNES-CD, or Nintendo Playstation, was discovered at last. Shortly afterward, the BIOS files were dumped and the homebrew community got to work making a belated game library. The largest effort to date, Super Boss Gaiden, was finished not too long ago. So why don’t the solitary owners of the prototype burn a CD-R and see if that game will run? Because they can’t. For unknown reasons, the SNES-CD ceased putting out a signal. No video, no sound, nothing. That’s when they called professional console modder Ben Heck and begged him to fix the machine. This means, thanks to the documented footage, we’ll be able to see the guts of the machine. But can Heck repair console innards no one has even seen before? Just so you know, this is only Part 1 and Part 2 has yet to be uploaded. Whoever Ben Heck is, he’s a dirty teaser. In this special episode of ‘The Ben Heck Show’ Terry and Dan Diebold

July 10, 2016

The SNES’s Lost Zelda Game Is Now Fully Restored

Peter Paltridge nintendo, Nintendo, snes, super nes, Videos, zelda 0

In the mid-90’s Nintendo tried a unique experiment with the Super Famicom in Japan: if customers signed up for a special service, they could download games via satellite. Unlike the Sega Channel (which came through your cable system and was mostly games already available through retail), Nintendo’s BS-X service consisted of new content. Mostly, though, this new content took the form of expansions or remakes. F-Zero got a Japan-exclusive expansion, and the original Legend of Zelda was remade with SNES graphics and enhanced sound. According to a brief story in Nintendo Power, the US branch of the company was considering bringing these games over in cartridge form, but nothing would become of it. Ever since it became possible to dump old games over the Net, the BS-X games have existed in ROM form, but the Zelda remake has never been available the way it originally appeared. This is because the month it was first broadcast (August 1995), it was coupled with a CD-quality streamed soundtrack and commentary by Japanese VAs.

August 15, 2015

Value Of Retro Games On The Rise

Peter Paltridge Atari, Games, genesis, NES, nintendo, retro games, sega, snes, video games 0

In 2003 I purchased a used Chrono Trigger in a mint condition box for $70. That’s it up there. If I had shown you this image and told you I just picked up the game today, you never would have believed me — a complete package like this is worth over $200 now. But that kind of price hike was expected. It’s the rise of just about everything else that’s caught collectors off-guard. CNN has published a report on the rapidly climbing value of retro games and the consoles they play on. What’s going on is that the generation that grew up with these games is looking for them again, and nothing but the genuine article will satisfy. All those people who sold their games at a garage sale, or gave them away in college, or had their mothers toss their collection while they were at summer camp, now have children of their own and want to share the same experiences with them. This has created a rising demand for a

July 16, 2015

Behind-The-Scenes Look At Retro Game Repair

Peter Paltridge dreamcast, gamestop, genesis, NES, nintendo 64, playstation, snes 0

A few months ago GameStop announced that it would begin taking in retro consoles and games as trade-ins once more. It’s been assumed by some that these ancient classics would be sold as-is, but as a new article and photo gallery on Mashable proves, they’re going the extra mile to make sure the games work. Mashable took a tour of a plant in Grapevine, Texas full of NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, Sony PlayStation and Sega Dreamcast consoles and the games that play on them. John Haes, senior director of pre-owned merchandise at GameStop, told the reporter that since consoles from twenty or thirty years ago were less complex than their contemporary cousins, they are easier for a well-trained technician to get to a state where they’re humming like new. Each console is thoroughly cleaned inside and out, and any faulty bits are replaced. The article doesn’t mention if save batteries are replaced, but presumably they are, as it’s a simple process (for someone who knows how to solder metal).

June 28, 2015

Tips On Super Mario Kart From The Nation’s Top Player

Peter Paltridge competitive gaming, consoles, Mario Kart, Nintendo, nintendo, snes, super mario kart 0

By day, 31-year-old Drew Blumfeld repairs and sells used iPhones. By night, he’s one of the best Super Mario Kart players in the world and the best in the country, coming in ninth in the latest Super Mario Kart Championships and representing #1 for America. Vox asked him what the best strategy is to finish first in both Battle Mode and Race Mode, and he was fully willing to spill his secrets….. In Battle Mode, Bumfeld advises players to always pick Koopa Troopa or Toad. Their acceleration is low, but their steering controls are the sharpest, and that difference is key when you’re dealing with a field full of obstacles. Use the red shell whenever you can, as it’s the easiest weapon to operate — you just fire it and let it do its thing. Don’t go out of your way to get stars, and if you do get one, ramming opponents is a mistake for newbies because they could risk a crash. Blumfeld’s winning percentage for items to seek

May 26, 2015

The Truth About Star Fox 2

Peter Paltridge consoles, nintendo, snes, star fox, star fox 2, starfox, super nes 71

In the waning years of the Super NES, Nintendo went into production on a sequel to Star Fox, with bigger and grander ambitions than the original, powered by the Super FX2 chip. But the game never came out, being cancelled at the eleventh hour. Now the website Nintendo Life has scored an exclusive interview with Dylan Cuthbert, programmer for Argonaut Software, which made the original Star Fox and its original sequel. Here are the most interesting revelations gathered from that conversation…. Star Fox 2 would have changed the direction of the series Instead of running on rails, Star Fox 2 would have been a completely open-world shooter, and not only that, enemies and other elements would be randomly generated, making every playthrough different. There was even experimentation with platform stages at one point. “The series was never intended to be limited to linear 3D scrolling stages, and [Miyamoto] will often say that the only reason they did that was to get the best speed and performance out of the Super

April 24, 2015

Pocky And Rocky Will Never Ever Come To Virtual Console

Peter Paltridge natsume, nintendo, pocky & rocky, pocky and rocky, snes, Virtual Console 0

Natsume is the game localization company that brought Harvest Moon to America. Their community manager, who calls herself CeeCee, requested questions for a Twitter Q&A earlier this year. Now she’s just beginning to post the answers people wanted, and one of them suggests Natsume is unlikely to rerelease any more of its classic SNES titles on Wii U Virtual Console than what it already has up. Pocky and Rocky is a top-down SNES shooter starring a Japanese girl and her raccoon sidekick who hurl monster-destroying cards endlessly through the streets and bridges of medieval Japan. It got a sequel on the same console and has a cult following to this day. Pocky and Rocky was never rereleased on the Wii Virtual Console, and according to Natsume, it is unlikely to ever be rereleased on Wii U’s version either. Will the two Pocky & Rocky SNES games ever be re-released on the Virtual Console? – @ominiq (Twitter) At this point, it’s unlikely we’ll see any other Natsume SNES games coming to

April 16, 2015

GameStop Will Test Retro Trade-In Program

Peter Paltridge consoles, dreamcast, gamestop, genesis, N64, NES, playstation, Retro Gaming, snes, trade-in 0

For the longest time GameStop was of the opinion that anything older than PS2 was worthless. Now they seem to rapidly be reversing their thinking. First they reinstated trade-ins for PS2 hardware, and now they’ve re-opened the floodgates to accept machines and games they haven’t taken since the days when they weren’t a monopoly (wow, that was a long time ago). In 250 stores centered around New York City and Birmingham, Alabama, GameStop will begin testing the new policy, and if it bears fruit they will expand it nationwide. We can only guess why they’re doing this. One theory is simply that the PS2 reversal increased sales, but another is that they’ve begun to appreciate how older consoles don’t take DLC or threaten to go all-digital and leave them with empty shelves. Funny how that works. It may not work out as well as the company and some game buyers hope, now that a larger amount of retro consoles and cartridges out there are owned by collectors who would never

October 9, 2014

Massive game collection on sale for $164,000

Nathan Gibson Atari, ebay, game collection, gamecube, NES, nintendo, nintendo 64, playstation, reel.big.fish, sega, snes, video game collection, Wii, xbox 0

An eBay seller, known as reel.big.fish, is selling a huge video game collection for $164,000. That might sound steep at first but it’s important to realize this is not your typical collection of video games, in fact it is probably one of the most complete ever assembled by a single person. The listing on eBay states that there are over 5700 titles in the collection spanning across 50 different systems. The video above shows off the collection in its full glory but you can read on for more details on what exactly is included – just in case you have the spare money to buy it. Titles included span the 80s, 90s and even into the 2000s, although the vast majority of the games are from what is considered the ‘Golden Age’ of gaming. The seller claims to have virtually complete collections of every Nintendo console from 1985 to 2000, with 835 NES games, 744 SNES games and 319 Nintendo 64 games. Combined with the rest of the consoles from

October 3, 2014

Zelda fans recreating Ocarina of Time in 2D

Nathan Gibson 2D, a link between worlds, a link to the past, link, nintendo, ocarina of time, snes, the legend of zelda, zelda 0

Ask Nintendo fans what their favorite Zelda game is and there is a very strong chance that they will plump for either the Nintendo 64 classic Ocarina of Time or the older SNES hit A Link To The Past. Both are considered some of the best examples of adventure games ever made and are cherished by millions as important gaming experiences. Considering all of that it should come as no surprise that someone has finally decided to combine the two into one game. The remake, dubbed OOT 2D by its creators, is a new version of Ocarina of Time in the style of A Link To The Past. The video above shows off the work that the 10 developers have done so far. As you can see, the game world has been recreated in the top-down 2D view associated with earlier Legend of Zelda games. The team behind OOT 2D say that they are redrawing all the cutscenes from the original Nintendo 64 title, programming all the enemy A.I. to