Master System Games On Virtual Console
Sega fans rejoice: Games from your so-called “Master System” are on their way to Virtual Console. Rolling out onto the Wii’s downloadable retrogames service next month will be two titles from the classic 8-bit console that, once upon a time, took history’s worst beatdown ever from the Nintendo Entertainment System.*Fantasy Zone* (right) and Fist Of […]
Smash Bros. Features Trial Versions Of Virtual Console Games
Will the Smash Bros. feature list ever stop growing? The latest in the saga of Nintendo’s oft-delayed all-star fighting game: Trial versions of classic Nintendo titles will be included in Brawl. Specifically, Super Smash Bros. Brawl will contain, at least, time-limited demo versions of Super Mario Bros., Ice Climbers, The Legend of Zelda,* Star Fox […]
MLK Day Thrifting: A Boy And His Scottie Pippen
Another thrifting post? So soon? Yes: Not content with my meager finds over the last couple of weekends, I headed back out, into drizzling rain. It was pretty much worth it. First, the oddball games. Slam City With Scottie Pippen for Sega CD is one of those Digital Pictures FMV games that defined the platform. […]
Weekend Thrifting: Odds & Ends
More random thrift store finds from San Francisco’s thriving secondhand market. This is actually two weekends’ worth of casual browsing — I haven’t really gone out with a mission in a while, just when I happened to be passing by. Having already been smiled upon by The Patron Saint Of Flea Markets last month, I […]
Virtual Consolation Prize: Virtual Consololo
From this week’s Virtual Console press release: “Are you the type of person who likes to solve problems by analyzing clues, collecting information and methodically reaching your goal? Or are you more the type to thrust a double-footed kick into someone’s face and follow it with a few body blows?” I don’t know what type […]
eBay Watch: Another Prototype Controller, This Time For M2
Hot on the heels of that SNES CD-ROM controller prototype we showed you earlier this month, another eBay auction has popped up for an M2 prototype controller. The M2 was 3DO’s abandoned successor to its eponymous console. Its controller would have looked quite a bit like the original 3DO’s except with a removable joystick attachment […]
Virtual Consolation Prize: Time To Riot
Another week, another reduced lineup for Virtual Console. Dear Nintendo: When I said all last year that I thought the U.S. and Japan release schedules should be closer together, I didn’t mean that you should bump both of them down to bare minimums. What gives? In the U.S. this week, we’re getting two $8 games: […]
Virtual Consolation Prize: StarTropics, King of Fighters
Just two releases on Virtual Console today. Hardly starting the new year off right! Maybe Nintendo’s resolution was to do less. At any rate, the two games are sure to please. StarTropics, if I’ve got my facts straight, is the first U.S.-only release to land on Virtual Console. Although it was developed by Nintendo’s Japanese […]
The Triumphant Return of American Gladiators
Last night marked the return of that testament to big hair and (probable) steroid abuse, American Gladiators, in which average Joes and Janes engage in pseudo-athletic events against competitors whose spandex costumes can scarcely contain their bulging biceps. This new crop of Gladiators isn’t quite as endearing as the originals (Toa’s shtick, in particular, is […]
Catching Up With The Ol’ Japan Wii
We here at the Game|Life home office have been away from our Wiis while we were with our family in Connecticut, and just decided to get online this afternoon and poke around and see what’s new. Over on the Everybody’s Nintendo Channel, it’s all decked out with Super Smash Bros. Brawl videos. That’s out this […]
Journey Escape Demo Cart: An Update
So after some begging and reaching out to the classic gaming community, we finally have some good intel on that Journey Escape Atari 2600 demonstration cartridgethat I picked up in my thrift store travels last month. I did take it by Jenn‘s place to try it out, and as it turns out, the contents of […]
Auction Watch: Own A Piece Of The Nintendo PlayStation
If you subscribe to the many-parallel-worlds theory, there’s some version of Earth where Nintendo and Sony joined forces to create the Nintendo PlayStation. The two companies got as far as producing development hardware on which games would be developed for the hybrid Super Nintendo/CD-ROM system, and even produced a controller that eventually became the PlayStation […]
Virtual Consolation Prize: Top Bubble Hunter
Another Monday, another ho-hum assortment of releases for the Virtual Console. Perhaps Nintendo figures it’s New Year’s Eve and you have better things to do than download old games. Quick aside: I wonder how many parties this evening will feature Rock Band? Bubble Bobble for the NES ($5) is always a fun choice, of course, […]
Retronauts Take On Grand Theft Auto
On this week’s Retronauts podcast, we jump into our stolen cars and speed off on the wrong side of the road into the wild world of Grand Theft Auto. Host Jeremy Parish has assembled a crack team of GTA experts and me. Scott Sharkey, Andrew Pfister, and Greg Ford get in on the action as […]
Cheer for Mario, Bowser Through Your Browser
TOKYO — In Japan, old gameplay footage is so admired, it gets people talking. I was at one of the campuses of Keio University today, working on my laptop in one of the cafeterias. As I was carrying my tray to put it away, I noticed someone sitting down, laptop open, with a video of […]
Game Porter: Retro Gaming On the Go
TOKYO — It may not be as cool as the Fami-Card mod, but the Game Porter portable Famicom player, spotted the other day in Akihabara, should make every retro-loving portable gamer happy. With the way the Nintendo DS is selling (both in terms of hardware and software), it’s obvious that gamers want to game on […]
The Tower of Druaga Gets Wide Screen Treatment
The Tower of Druaga‘s 60 levels of mayhem get the wide screen treatment on mobile phones. Druaga has re-appeared countless times on various consoles since its original arcade release back in 1984, but this new version was specially designed to fit the wide screen of a Japanese mobile phone once you flip it sideways. *The […]
Cult Classic Splatterhouse Goes Next-Gen
Dying to get back into the Splatterhouse? You’re about to get your wish. The next issue of *EGM *will have a world exclusive feature on the revival of Namco Bandai’s classic gruesome horror action series, last seen in 16-bit form. Well, you can download the original on Virtual Console, but that’s hardly a comeback. In […]
Hacker Crams Famicom Into an NES Cart
Finally, a use for all those copies of Super Mario Bros. A brilliant French hacker has come up with an elegant Nintendo mod that’s Escher-like in its recursive genius. It’s a Famicom clone crammed into a Super Mario Bros. cartridge. He’s even managed to cram the composite A/V outs onto the side. The only thing […]
No More Heroes Remix CD Launch Report
Over the weekend, we celebrated the release of the No More Heroes remix album with retrogaming flair. Friday night marked the official launch party for the No More Heroes Sound Tracks: Dark Side remix compilation. Held at the retrogaming-themed 8-bit Cafe in Shinjuku, the evening was a perfect mix of games, drinks, and music — […]
‘Infocom Drive’ Turns Up Long-Lost Hitchhiker Sequel
Remnants of the unreleased sequel to Infocom’s text adventure version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy have been made available to the public by Waxy.org. Playable prototypes, design docs, source code and a string of e-mails between Infocom designers and management provide a fascinating look at the game’s turbulent, if aborted, development process. “This […]
Art Directors Love Retro Gaming
When art directors at W+K Tokyo (the Tokyo office of advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy) put down the keyboard and mouse for a break, that means it’s time for a bit of retro gaming fun. At least for Phil. Not only does he play a mean game of horizontal-scrolling shooter Super Cobra — and we’re talking the […]
Cool Collectibles and Must-Have Merch at Nintendo NYC Store
NEW YORK CITY — After Mission: Miyamoto drew to a close this morning, I made the traditional pilgrimage to Rockefeller Center, where sits the Nintendo World Store. Formerly the Pokemon Center, this flagship retail location is Nintendo’s only one in the U.S. and the only place to buy some of its rarest and most collectible […]
Sega’s Classic Franchises on T-Shirts
Kyoto-based game t-shirt company The King of Games has started to sell designs from its Sega lineup on its international site. Previously only offered for sale in Japan, the designs are based on some of Sega’s classic game franchises: Fantasy Zone, Out Run, and After Burner. Each is available in either black or white versions, […]
Famulator Brings Retro Gaming Back
Gamers who prefer their retro gaming experience to include physical cartridges have something to smile about, thanks to Cyber Gadget’s Famulator, an emulator of the original NES (or Famicom, as it’s known in Japan). Even though enjoying old games has never been easier thanks to releases on Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade and Nintendo’s Virtual Console, […]
Virtual Consolation Prize: Let’s Shoot Some Things
For better or worse, shooting things is perhaps the most fundamental building block of videogame design. Certainly there is something to be said for the attractions of violent entertainment, but shooting in a game is not all about destructive fantasies. Shooting is so popular in game design because it is so basic, so easily graspable. […]
Ikaruga Hits Xbox Live Arcade This Week
Microsoft wins the retrogame download war this week with* Ikaruga*, the classic arcade/Dreamcast/GameCube shooter by Treasure, masters of the genre. The notoriously difficult shooter hits Xbox Live Arcade on Wednesday at 1 AM Pacific time for $10. Sure took long enough! Nintendo’s two-games-per-week Virtual Console bottleneck seems positively generous next to Microsoft’s chokehold on Xbox […]
Virtual Consolation Prize: April No Better
Hopes that a new month would bring a new outlook for the Virtual Console schedule have once again been dashed. This morning’s update is just as mediocre as March ever was. Sure, Yoshi’s Cookie is a decent NES puzzle game, but it’s got to carry an entire week of releases by itself. There’s Bases Loaded, […]
Dracula X Hits Virtual Console In April
Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, the game that everyone was keeping their fingers tightly crossed for ever since PC Engine CD-ROM games were announced for Virtual Console, is on its way to Wii’s retro game download service in April. In Japan. Will it come to America? It would certainly go a long way towards making […]
Euro VC Gets Commodore 64 Games
Virtual Console’s lineup grows more diverse by the day. In other countries, I mean. Tomorrow, European Wii owners will be able to download games from the classic Commodore 64 computer, which was how quite a few Europeans and Americans alike first got into videogames. The first two releases, which will cost 500 Wii points each, […]
Sega Master System Comes To U.S. Virtual Console
We knew this was coming, but now it’s official: Sega said today that games from its classic 8-bit Master System console will soon land on Virtual Console in America. In a rare dose of generosity, Sega said that Master System games will only cost 400 Wii Points or $4 in the U.S., making them the […]
WiiWare Launch Means No Virtual Console Games
It’s another yawner of a week for Virtual Console, but it’s awesome compared to what next week will bring for Japan: Nothing. Yes, as it turns out, next week’s launch of WiiWare in Japan means that Virtual Console won’t get any updates. Oh well. I’m saving my Wii Points for My Life As A King, […]
Retronauts Fight Over Final Fantasy VII
In this week’s no-holds-barred episode of 1up.com’s Retronauts podcast, I step into an RPG minefield. EGM’s Shane Bettenhausen thinks that *Final Fantasy VII *is an absolutely wonderful videogame, maybe one of the best ever. 1up’s Jeremy Parish thinks it is a disastrous pile of crap. Or something like that. Wired.com’s me is somewhere in the […]
Fake Dreamcast Site Scams Users
What was thought to be a Sega-managed Dreamcast site has turned out to be a fraud designed to trick visitors out of personal information. Visitors to Dreamcast.com were prompted to answer the question “Do you still own a Dreamcast?” by entering personal information such as their console’s serial number. Their reward, after accepting a user […]
Weekend Thrifting: Sally Jumps The Shark
All good things must come to an end. I trekked down to the Salvation Army store today where I’d previously found NES games for $2 each, only to find this, kept under lock and key. Yep, they now believe they are sitting on a gold mine. That’s not that big of a deal except they […]
Japan’s Cult Retro-Gaming TV Show Debuts in English
We are big fans of Game Center CX here at Wired. It’s a popular Japanese TV show in which a comedian attempts to clear some of the wickedest classic videogames ever devised. Although it isn’t available in English yet, its producers are working to bring Game Center CX *to U.S. shores. As a first step, […]
The Making of Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game
This is old, but fascinating: One of the designers of the ridiculous Street Fighter: The Movie game has, on his personal blog, a bunch of behind-the-scenes snapshots of the movie’s actors being digitized for the game. You kids might not know this, but this isn’t a motion-capture session: They’re just taking digital stills of the […]
On Wii Storage, Nintendo Moves From Injury to Insult
It’s bad enough that Nintendo refuses to address the Wii console’s tiny amount of on-board storage for WiiWare downloads, but does it have to add insult to injury by smearing the people who buy the most of its products? Reporting from a WiiWare launch event in the U.K., Edge magazine quotes Nintendo of Europe marketing […]
Poll: Worst Movie-to-Game Conversions Ever?
The history of videogames based on movies is a sad and tortured one. You know this. Ever since E.T. on the Atari 2600, the videogame tie-ins for hit movies have been almost universally awful, created in a rush by B-list designers. What’s worse, they often sell incredibly well on the strength of the parent property. […]
LucasArts: ‘Classic Adventure Games Don’t Fit on DS’
Maniac Mansion, above: Just too damned big for the Nintendo DS. In an interview with Eurogamer, Jeffrey Gullett, assistant producer on LucasArts’ Fracture, explains that the reason those classic LucasArts graphic adventure titles haven’t been ported over to the DS — an absolute no-brainer, considering those games’ point-and-click nature — is because of the size […]
Virtual Console & Wii Ware: Toki Tori, Ninja Combat
Three games combined for Wii Ware and Virtual Console today. The most interesting-looking of them all is Toki Tori, a puzzle game starring a pear-shaped chicken and a bunch of boxes and stuff. I’ll clean out the fridge later this week and download it, although you’ll have to wait a little while for my impressions. […]
Japan Virtual Console: Super Mario RPG in June
Curious to see what Virtual Console game releases Japanese users are getting this month? Nintendo has revealed the full list, and fans of the Super Nintendo Super Mario RPG will be happy to see it included. The game, developed by Square, was the final Mario game on the console. Another interesting addition to the service […]
Whoops: Japan VC Gets MSX Games After All
My bad! When Nintendo left any and all games for the MSX computer off of their recent release calendar for Virtual Console in Japan, I interpreted that to mean what it has always meant: That the games had been delayed. But as it happens, Nintendo shoved the MSX game *Aleste *onto Virtual Console at the […]
Weekend Thrifting: Just So Much Genesis
This is actually the haul from two consecutive weekends of prowling for cheap used games, but still: My Sega collection has grown by leaps and bounds since moving out here. As I’m sure I’ve postulated before, San Francisco is a Sega town. Hometown pride? Perhaps. Maybe they like plastic boxes. Today’s stack of new acquisitions […]
Virtual Consolation Prize: Dr. Mario, Metal Slug
Not a bad week for Virtual Console and WiiWare, overall. Two of the better Japanese WiiWare launch titles — Dr. Mario Online Rx and Family Table Tennis — are available today. On Virtual Console, we have City Connection for NES and Metal Slug for Neo Geo. If you like motion-controlled Ping-Pong, Family Table Tennis (pictured) […]
Browser Game: Ginormo Sword Brings Back 8-Bit Adventure
Do you have the courage to take control of the Ginormo Sword? This Flash game is a fantasy action-adventure that comes off as a cross between the old Intellivision Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game and Zelda (although more of the former). It was created by a one-man team: Japanese indie dev Babarageo. He translates all […]
MSX Games On Virtual Console: Delayed Again
In a move which should surprise absolutely no one, the debut of MSX games on Virtual Console has been pushed back. Again. Nintendo announced way back in February 2007 that games from the retro Japanese personal computer line would be available on its retro game download service. The two launch titles — Eggy and* Aleste* […]
Retronauts Take On Indiana Jones, Ninja Gaiden
Yes, we’re still doing Retronauts podcasts every once in a great while. In today’s episode of 1up.com’s classic games talkfest, Jeremy Parish, Ryan Scott, Sean Molloy, and Scott Sharkey find it in their hearts to include me (and by extension you) in a discussion of the long, sordid history of *Indiana Jones *games. From Howard […]
Virtual Consolation Prize: The Drought Begins
If you thought things were bad in the land of Virtual Console, you ain’t seen nothing yet. If today’s release is any indication, our worst fears are true: Nintendo’s probably going to use the launch of WiiWare as the perfect excuse to ratchet back the retrogame releases permanently. So while WiiWare gets Critter Round-Up and […]
Kojima’s Policenauts Out on PlayStation Store in Japan
Those of you who are hyped for the upcoming release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots may be interested to know that an earlier game from creator Hideo Kojima, Policenauts, is now available on the Japanese PlayStation Store. This early work from Kojima, released in 1994 (originally on the NEC PC-9801, if […]
Virtual Consolation Prize: Nothin’
Well, they finally did it. After shaving back Virtual Console’s release schedule bit by bit, Nintendo of America finally has a release week of zero games. Yes, of course it’s because WiiWare launched today, but you know it’s more of a convenient excuse than anything. Nintendo says Virtual Console will be “back to its regular […]
Virtual Consolation Prize: Renegade’s Five-Minute Tale of Death
Today’s offerings on Virtual Console: Renegade for the NES, Pokemon Puzzle League for Nintendo 64. Renegade was a brilliant experimental game very much like The Graveyard. Whereas The Graveyard was a 10-minute game about an old woman who visits a cemetery and dies in her sleep on a park bench, Renegade is a 5-minute game […]
EarthBound, WiiWare Games Get ESRB Rating
Sure, Virtual Console has sucked lately, but at least it looks like Nintendo of America is going to release EarthBound. The cult classic Super Nintendo role-playing game was given a rating by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board this week. This means that it’s ready to be released in the U.S. The only question now is […]
Virtual Consolation Prize: Double Dragon
The gang assault on Virtual Console continues with another one-game week. Hope you like the NES version of Double Dragon! Actually, I kind of do, even if it doesn’t have multiplayer and got absolutely ridiculous towards the end with platforming puzzles, falling stalactites, and other assorted ill-advised “improvements” to the classic beat-em-up gameplay. We were […]
Front Mission, Fatal Fury 2 to Japan Virtual Console
Square Enix’s side-scrolling mech RPG Front Mission: Gun Hazard (pictured above) and the Neo Geo classic fighting game Fatal Fury 2 are two of the games scheduled to arrive on Japan’s Virtual Console in May. The Wii’s retro games download service will play host to 16 games total in Japan, roughly double what the U.S. […]
Buy SD Cards, Get Space Invaders Games
A clever new promotion in Japan gives away free trials of mobile phone games when you buy SD cards. Taito certainly loves showing off its prized Space Invaders IP, especially in this 30th anniversary year of the classic game, and its latest promotional efforts sees the company partnering up with memory card maker Hagiwara. Purchase […]
Portal, Retrofitted for Atari 2600
You may have seen the 2-D Flash version of Portal, but have you seen the Atari version? This “demake” — the art of taking a current game and creating a retro version — not only looks like it was made for the classic console, it actually runs by using an Atari 2600 emulator. Technically, that […]
Audio: ‘Retronauts’ Goes To PAX
Fans of Retronauts, 1up’s podcast about all things old, will surely weep with joy over today’s installment, which clocks in at well over two hours long. Why so absurdly lengthy? It’s actually a three-part epic. First, five series mainstays — Jeremy Parish, Scott Sharkey, Shane Bettenhausen, Ray Barnholt, and me — discuss the week’s news […]
Retronauts: 25 Years of Famicom History
On this week’s installment of 1up.com’s classic games podcast Retronauts, the cast discusses the Famicom, the game system that caused home games to explode in Japan and, later, the U.S. 1up’s Jeremy Parish, Shane Bettenhausen, and Ray Barnholt invited two special guests onto the show: Gamasutra’s Christian Nutt and Wired.com’s me. We discussed, mostly, games […]
Get Your Sealed Games Professionally Graded
Want to let the world know that your collectible games really are in minty-mint condition? Pay the Collectible Grading Authority a bunch of money and they’ll verify it for you. Via Kevin Gifford’s latest GameSetWatch post, we learn that the CGA has spun off a new division called the Video Game Authority, and they’re now […]