Vidya Game News – September 24, 2015
Would you kindly read these news stories?
– The U.S. never got the SNES game The Amazing Spider-Man: Lethal Foes. Until now! A translation patch is out for the Japanese ROM, which is said to be one of the few 16-bit licensed games that didn’t suck. It was done by kepeb.
– Jacob Kauffman of an Arkansas NPR station has a cool interview with Dona Bailey, one of the few female programmers for the Atari 2600 and the creator of Centipede.
– From Sonic Retro and other sites, a lost arcade game, Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car, is going to be preserved soon via backup means. The game itself isn’t all that good, but hey, it’s a neat bit of history.
– Amanda Bell of MTV.com has a collection of modern songs done by the ole Game Boy.
– The Local Voice of North Mississippi has a piece on Daniel Lee Perea, who’s an expert NBA Jam player and who holds 72 different video game records. You can read it here.
– Jonesing for a modern day version of Myst? Then the long-developed The Witness might be up your alley. It finally has a release date of January 26.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
-Hey, speaking of Myst… It was released on this day in 1993. If you didn’t catch our episode on it, along with special guest Jovial Jackee, check it out here.
– In an actual bit of history, on that day in 2002 Rare was purchased by Microsoft for a reported $375 million. Thus began an “interesting” phase for the company, as games have generally slid in quality and sales since that time, instead of being a killer first-party developer for Microsoft.
– Speaking of weird departures from established standards and practices… Star Fox Adventures came out 13 years ago for the GameCube, between Sept. 22 and Sept. 27, depending on the country. It took Star Fox into the area of Zelda games, and away from traditional space shootin’. And another shameless plug! Check out our Star Fox and Star Fox 64 episode here.
– Ico, a well-respected, unique puzzle platformer, came out 14 years ago for the Playstation 2. It was considered one of the games of the year.
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 – June 26, 2015
I remember where I was that fateful day.
It’s the last week of June! By this time next week, we’ll be close to celebrating America’s birthday. Because freedom. And Merrica. And burgers and hot dogs and good times.
– As reported by pretty much every blog about vidya games on the Internet, GameStop now has a classic games section. For the most part, their prices seem on par with eBay and Amazon, so feel free to scoop up some games the next time you get a gift card from a relative. The “PowerUp Rewards” discount does apply, and you do get points for buying used games.
– Andrew Schartmann at Slate has a cool article on how Koji Kondo composed the first true video game score, the “Game Over” theme from Super Mario Bros.
– Some people like to mod their NES with skins. Here is one with an apocalyptic theme.
– On Digg, the very first Japanese commercial for Super Mario Bros. (Speaking of Mario’s creator, he’s interested in designing theme parks.)
– And on MTV.com, they have nine things you can throw away after graduating college, instead of keeping in your parents basement. (They’re totally wrong on that Bluto from Animal House poster though, that’s gonna be a babe magnet.)
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– In 2000, Kirby 64 and Crystalis for Game Boy Color were released. The latter is a cool cult classic that originally came out for the NES in July 1990. Unfortunately, the GBC version is a bit inferior overall, changing some elements of the game, but it or the original are still worth hunting down and playing in some sort. The game also somewhat famously predicted that the Earth’s axis would shift and cause mutations in 1997, which we’re a little bit past at this time…
– Astrotit came out in 1987 for the PC computer. I never played it, and apparently, it’s a topdown arcade adult shooter. And it has a silly name.
Your Parents Basement 