Retro Gaming Australia

It’s been a busy week around these parts, as I swept the remnants of my gaming media career under the rug and picked up where I left off in public accounting. The work isn’t as fun, but oh, the money – money which will be used to buy more retro games (and pay the hosting bill here, of course). There’s been a bit happening around the retro world this week too, so let’s get to it!

Discontinuation of Xbox Live for Original Xbox Games at Gamerscoreblog

Microsoft is pulling the plug on the original Xbox Live service in April. It’s going to render quite a few games useless, and put an end to the only way to play Street Fighter III online outside of Japan. Hopefully it’ll fix the friend list cap issue that some experience on the Xbox 360, which was previously said to be a limitation imposed by the legacy Xbox Live system.

Clear Classic USB Joystick at Reflex Audio Systems (via AtariAge)

A lot of folks I know like to play their emulators using the original controller, or something similar. Here’s another solution for you dedicated 2600 players – an original style A2600 USB joystick with a fancy clear case. Perfect if you love the stiff-as-hell sticks of a bygone era.

The History of the Virtua Fighter Series at Sega-16

The folks at Sega-16 have put together an article looking back at the history of Sega’s most successful fighting franchise. It’s probably not going to tell you anything you don’t already know, but it’s a good read nonetheless.

Oh No! More Zombies Ate My Neighbours at Romhacking.net

An unofficial fan sequel to the beloved Zombies Ate My Neighbours. This project, almost ten years in the making, features new weapons, enemies and 55 new levels. I haven’t looked at it yet, but it can’t really be any worse than Ghoul Patrol, right?

Moon (GBC), Starsky & Hutch 2 (PS2/Xbox), The Road to Sunday (PS2), Ratchet & Clank Beta (PS2), Black Beta (PS2/Xbox), The Magical Ninja: Jiraiya Kenzan (PS2), Dealer: Chronic, Pills and Coke (PS2/Xbox/PC), Denjin Makai (SFC) at Unseen64

A variety of articles from Unseen64 this week highlight a few cancelled PS2 games, beta versions of some really good PS2 games, and an interesting story about the game Moon, which changed from a GBC based sidescroller to a technically impressive Nintendo DS first person shooter over the course of its development.

Death Gate (PC), Loom (Amiga/PC/Atari ST/Mac/FM Towns/TurboGrafix CD), Kid Niki Series (Various), Arslan Senki (Mega CD) at Hardcore Gamer 101

HG101 did their monthly update this week, bringing us in-depth articles on a number of cultish titles. I’m pretty sure Loom is one of maybe three golden-age LucasArts adventure games that I’ve yet to play.

Interview: Zyron at C64.com

C64.com catches up with former writer and scene guy Zyron. More interesting insight into the demo/copying scene of the late 80s and early 90s.

This week’s Virtual Console release: Final Fight 3 (SNES) for 800 Nintendo Points.

Depending on who you ask, the SNES based Final Fight sequels are either solid beat ’em ups or genuine tosh. Both parties can agree that they’re better than Final Fight Streetwise, though.

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