Retro Gaming Australia

Steam sale saves the day.

Nintendo eShop (North America)

Wii Virtual Console
King of Fighters 96 (Neo Geo) – 900 points

3DS Virtual Console
Kirby’s Pinball Land (Game Boy) – $US3.99
The Sword of Hope II (Game Boy) – $US2.99

PlayStation Store (Australia, Europe)

New Releases
Frogger Hyper Arcade Edition – $AU15.95

PlayStation Store (North America)

New Releases
Frogger Hyper Arcade Edition – $US9.99
Hannspree Ten Kate Honda SBK (PS2 Classics) – $US9.99

Discounts
God of War HD Collection – 30% off ($US14.69 for Plus, $US20.99 for everyone else)

Steam
Summer Sale – new deals every day, see Steam for details

Good Old Games

New Releases
Uplink: Hacker Elite – $US2.99 (on sale, regularly $5.99)

Discounts
Ubisoft Strategy & Sim Sale – 50% off the following
The Settlers 2: Gold Edition
Panzer General 2
Panzer General 3D Assault
Batlte Isle Platinum
Battle Isle the Andosia War
Chessmaster 9000
Heritage of Kings: The Settlers
Silent Hunter 2

On the 7th of July, 1987, Metal Gear for the MSX2 was released in Japan. The game wasn’t actually all that successful until Konami ported it to the NES and released it in North America later that year, where it went on to sell a million units.

Metal Gear was originally a straight up shooter until Hideo Kojima was assigned to the project to sort out development difficulties. Inspired by The Great Escape, he decided to abandon the game’s focus on action and emphasise stealth.

Konami decided to make a NES sequel, Snake’s Revenge, without Kojima’s involvement. Kojima was allegedly persuaded into making the sequel, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake by a co-worker who was on the Snake’s Revenge project, who wanted a true Metal Gear sequel.

Neither game did especially well, leaving the series dormant for 6 years until the release of Metal Gear Solid, which turned the series into the powerhouse franchise it is today.

Konami does not appear to have planned any special releases or events for the actual date of the anniversary, though we’ve seen a series of Uniqlo t-shirts and Play Arts Kai figures released over the past 6 months. The next Metal Gear game, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, is due out in early 2013.

Busier week than most.

Xbox Live Arcade

Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition – 800 MSP

Nintendo eShop (Australia, Europe)

3DS Virtual Console
Castlevania: The Adventure (Game Boy) – $AU4.50

Nintendo eShop (North America)

3DS Virtual Console
The Legend of Zelda (NES) – $US4.99
NES Open Tournament Golf (NES) – $US4.99

PlayStation Store (Australia, Europe)

New Releases
Disney’s Donald Duck PK (PS2 Classics) – $AU15.95
Pool Shark 2 (PS2 Classics) – $AU4.25
Play It Pinball (PS2 Classics) – $AU8.45

Not available in Australia or New Zealand:
Crazy Golf World Tour (PS2 Classics) – £2.99
Euro Rally Champion (PS2 Classics) – £2.99
Formula Challenge (PS2 Classics) – £2.99
PDC World Championship Darts 2008 (PS2 Classics) – £2.99
Chess Challenger (PS2 Classics) – £3.99
Room Zoom: Race for Impact (PS2 Classics) – £1.99

PlayStation Store (North America)

New Releases
BloodRayne 2 (PS2 Classics) – $US9.99

Good Old Games

New Releases
Deus Ex: Invisible War – $US9.99

Discounts
Strategy First Global Sale – 50% off the following:
Apache vs Havoc
Comanche vs Hokum
Combat Chess
Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord
Darkstar One
Disciples 2 Gold
Disciples: Sacred Lands Gold
Flatout
Ghost Master
Jagged Alliance
Jagged Alliance 2
Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games
Patrician 3
Port Royale 2
Pro Pinball: Big Race USA
Pro Pinball: Fantastic Journey
Pro Pinball: Timeshock
Sacred Gold
Strategic Command: European Theater

The latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine UK has reported a rumour that 343 Industries is working away at a HD remake of Halo 2, following on from the success of last year’s release of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition.

Given that the 10th anniversary of Halo 2 isn’t until 2014, I wouldn’t expect to hear much for now. One would hope that the game’s multiplayer comes across intact, rather than merely being a map pack for Halo Reach since Halo 2‘s single player is arguably the weakest in the series.

Got a spare million Euros? You could purchase this guy’s collection which is up for sale on eBay.

The collection contains full software sets for 22 systems (all Japanese except where noted) – Famicom, Famicom Disk System, Virtual Boy, Super Famicom, Nintendo 64, Nintendo 64DD, GameCube, Master System (EU), Mark III, Game Gear, Mega Drive, 32X, Mega CD, Saturn, PC Engine, PC Engine CD, Supergrafx, PC Engine Super CD, PC-FX and Pioneer LaserActive – many of which are still sealed. He’s willing to sell systems separately, but not titles separately.

Frankly, you’d be taking all of the fun out of collecting, but it’d make a nice conversation piece.

Edit: And it sold. Let’s wait and see if it was a legitimate sale, or if someone was pissfarting around.

A couple of years back, id Software released the source code to Doom, and a bunch of source ports popped up to enhance the game. One of the most popular of these was ZDoom. ZDoom added all kinds of enhancements to Doom, including those brought to the table by other Doom engine games like Hexen and Strife.

It’s been quiet on the ZDoom front for the last two years, but last weekend, the long awaited version 2.6.0 was released.

The new version adds a long list of new features, which you can read here.

Capcom is going to be bringing two more of its Vs. Series fighters to Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network this September.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Origins is a compilation that includes Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes. You’ll be treated to the usual gaggle of features like online play, leaderboards, dynamic challenges, replay saving and “HD enhanced graphics” that will make fans of sprite art weep.

The US price is $US15.99 for the PSN version, so add your usual PAL PSN premium to that. The Xbox 360 version will probably be 1200 MSP.

Sega appears to have discovered the Saturn’s back catalogue with the announcement that NiGHTS into Dreams HD will be coming to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC later this year.

The HD version of the game will include 16:9 support, trophies/achievements, leaderboards and Saturn Mode, which allows you to play the game in its original glory. One has to wonder if the prettier HD version is based on the PlayStation 2 release that was exclusive to Japan.

Whatever version it is, you’ll get the opportunity to see that NiGHTs is totally overrated later this year.

Namco Bandai has announced that they will be bringing Dragon Ball Z Budokai HD Collection to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in time for Christmas.

The HD collection will include Dragon Ball Z Budokai and Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3. Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2 is strangely absent, probably due to its bizarre Mario Party-esque single player game that nobody liked, but the sheer radness of Budokai 3 more than makes up for it.

No details on which version of Budokai 3 will be featured, but one would assume it would be based on the later Director’s Cut/Greatest Hits version, which included extra costumes and Japanese dialogue options.

So if you’re big into Dragon Ball and want to get stuck into the best game in the series (and you didn’t just buy it last week like I did), get your wallets ready.

For a limited time, Red Rooster is offering a host of Sonic the Hedgehog toys with their kids meals.

There are seven toys in all – three “3D” cups (featuring Sonic, Tails and Amy), an expandable flyer, a pencil case, a bouncy ball and a pack of cards for memory.

So if you’re after some Sonic merch and are unafraid of being judged by spotty teenagers for ordering a meal meant for children, this should be right down your alley.