Vidya Game News – October 15, 2015
This week’s news is from Russia with FUN!
– Some guy named Steve Colebert had the Zelda orchestra on. You’ve probably heard about it already, but if not, it’s totally on Youtube.
– From Kotaku, Brian Ashcraft has a re-post of a popular old post that has a tour of Nintendo’s original headquarters in Japan.
– A hardcore Japanese gamer has kept his SNES on for 20 years because he’s worried that his save game data for obscure game Umihara Kawase might be at-risk. Preston Phro of Rocket News 24 has a good write-up here.
– If you’re in the Portland, Oregon area, then you still have time to check out the annual Classic Tetris World Championship! It takes place this weekend, Oct. 17 and Oct. 18, at their own yearly Portland Retro Gaming Expo. There are prizes ranging from $125 to $1,000 for top-four finishes.
– Uproxx and plenty of other sites had this item on someone mashing up Kendrick Lamar and Super Mario Bros.
– Per the official Natsume Twitter account and some other sources on the Internets, Nintendo is moving on from re-releasing older games (SNES, Game Boy, NES) on the Virtual Console. Along similar lines, hackers discovered a list of about 70 future online releases by Nintendo.
– Gamasutra’s Christian Nutt has a really good Q&A with producers who have worked with Nintendo before about the process of creating games in conjunction with the company.
– CinemaBlend has a write-up of a nifty YouTube video that re-imagines Star Wars Battlefront as a SNES game, Super Star Wars Battlefront.
– WHO’S A GOOD DOG? Atari is a good dog, and he’s available for adoption!
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver came out 15 years ago for the Game Boy Color. These were the first proper, full sequels to the original blue and red installments, and solidified Pokémon as a phenomenon.
– Wild Arms 3 came out in 2002 for the Playstation 2. It’s a niche RPG series with a sort of Western feel and theme, and worth checking, especially the later games that iron out some of the kinks of the first installment.
– The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released 13 years ago for the Playstation 2. While it received mediocre to bad reviews, this was still way better than the SNES installment that was a past YPB game.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – July 9, 2015
Holy crap, a Nintendo Playstation!
First, some important show-related news! You can now support us whenever you’re making a purchase on Amazon. Got something to buy? Do it via this link, and we’ll get a cut of your sale, at no extra cost to you. It can be for any goods, even non-vidya game stuff, and we’d definitely appreciate it! (Let us know if you make a purchase, and you’ll get a shout-out on the show. ❤ )
Surprisingly, even though we’re now in the dog days of summer, it was a great week for news. The biggest of which…
– A prototype of the 1991 collaboration between Nintendo and Sony on a CD-based system has been unearthed [right]. Polygon’s Brian Crecente had a good interview with the guy who found it, and that’s also where the picture comes from. That system eventually became the Playstation. (And to hype that Amazon thingy once again, there is an awesome breakdown of the rise and fall of Sega, and how Sony’s Playstation factored in, via Console Wars.) Some folks online aren’t convinced the prototype is real, but no one official has come out strongly to refute it.
– Speaking of failed Nintendo projects, Jon Fingas from Engadget details how Project H.A.M.M.E.R. became vaporware over the course of six years of painful development.
– Have you ever played Missile Command, Centipede or Asteroids and thought, “Man, wouldn’t this be cooler as a graphic novel???” … Okay, me neither. But hey, Dynamite Entertainment has you covered, via an article from UK Wired’s Matt Kamen.
– A neat feature, if you like readin’, from Matt Gander at Games Asylum. In “We’ve Got Issues,” he covers the Dreamcast magazine wars of the United Kingdom.
– I must begrudgingly give credit to Food and Wine’s millennial section for featuring “the ultimate bar setup for Nintendo nerds.” It includes Mario pipe shot glasses, Legend of Zelda ice cube trays and NES Zapper bottle openers.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– The Wizard’s Castle was released in 1980. Like many other games “featured” in this here blog in July, well, there really wasn’t much to choose from in terms of releases. However, the awesome CRPG Addict has an exhaustive review of the game available. It should not be confused with the wonderful Home Movies episode “The Wizard’s Baker.”
– Cryptic Studios was incorporated in 2000. They’re the makers of popular online multiplayer games City of Heroes and spinoff City of Villains.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games.
Vidya Game News – June 18, 2015
Box art, from FF6 (top) and FF3 (bottom).
Tons of new news, with the yearly E3 conference happening in Los Angeles this week! Scouring the web and Google Alert for some of the noticeable reboots, retreads and re-releases, along with the usual odds and ends…
– Square might not be done with just the announced Final Fantasy VII remake. According to the director of that PS4 remake, he’s also interested in redoing the fifth and sixth installments. (The box art in this post comes from a review of the games here.)
– Piggybacking on the interest from our last show, clearly, Nintendo has announced that Star Fox Zero will be out this holiday season for the Wii U. Game Informer has an interview with Miyamoto, and like some other interviews from the past month, he says it’s unlikely Star Fox 2 ever gets a proper release. Per most reviews of Nintendo’s E3 performance, they’re paring back on their Wii U offerings, expanding their 3DS array, and not talking about their console-after-Wii.
– From CNET, a gamer proposes to his girlfriend by hacking The Legend of Zelda.
– Also from CNET and their E3 coverage, Shenmue 3 looks to be a reality after a successful Kickstarter campaign. The series debuted in 1999, and the sequel came out in 2001.
– And yet another interesting CNET article, this one from Danny Gallagher on AI programs playing Super Mario World.
– Atlus says Persona 5 is still scheduled for a 2015 North American release, despite widespread layoffs at parent company Sega.
– From Super Compressor, 14 things in your parents’ basement worth serious money.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
… Actually, not much happened, unless you have deep, resounding love for games like Cruise Ship Tycoon and Zoo Tycoon Complete Collection, which came out in 2003. The most “significant” game release is probably Neverwinter Nights in 2002.
Game history info from Moby Games.
Your Parents Basement 