Retro Gaming Australia

I was just fishing around the GameGadget site, since I had remebered it was meant to be out on Friday, but hadn’t heard anything about it. Turns out it has been delayed until April 6. For the last week running up the release of the system, there’s a £20 discount and 30 free games if you use the code “gamegadget20” (sans the inverted commas) at the checkout.

Little had been said about what games would be available for the system, but they’ve announced at least those 30 that they’ll have on day one, which are Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, Alien Storm, Altered Beast, Bio-hazard Battle, Bonanza Bros., Columns III, Columns, Comix Zone, Crack Down, Decap Attack, Ecco the Dolphin, Ecco II: Tides of Time, Ecco Jr., ESWAT: City Under Siege, Eternal Champions, Fatal Labyrinth, Flicky, Gain Ground, Galaxy Force II, Golden Axe, Golden Axe II, Kid Chameleon, Ristar, Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master, Space Harrier II, Super Thunder Blade, Sword of Vermillion, Vectorman, Virtua Fighter 2, Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi, Sonic Spinball, Sonic 3D Blast and Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine.

What do these titles all have in common? They’re all Sega published Mega Drive games.

And the price? £4.99 a pop. Think of that what you will.

My personal favourite part of the Australian Gaming Database (which we launched yesterday) is the magazine section, where we focus on detailing the history of video game magazines in Australia.

Over the last couple of months, you may recall that we put out a call for anyone with collections of Australian magazines to provide cover scans for us to help us get as many covers together as we could. We’re over halfway towards having a full set (with a hundred or so sitting on my hard drive waiting to be uploaded), so I thought it’d be a good time to show off what we have so far, and publicly thank those who have contributed.

A special thanks goes out to Anthony Tran, Jason New, KiwiArcader and John K, who all took time out to provide scans.

Atomic MPC
Australian 360
Australian Commodore and Amiga Review
Australian GamePro
Australian Station
Cube Australia
Cut Throat Cheatz
Edge (Australian edition)
Games TM (Australian edition)
GameStar
Hyper
Megazone
N64 Gamer
Nintendo Gamer
Nintendo Magazine System
Nintendo: The Official Magazine
Official Australian PlayStation Magazine
Official Australian Xbox Magazine
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Australia (ACP Edition)
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Australia (Derwent Howard Edition)
Official PlayStation Magazine – Australia
Official Xbox 360 Magazine Australia
PC Games
PC Games Addict
PC Powerplay
PlayStation World
Ultimate Nintendo Magazine

There are still many covers out there which we do not have. If you wish to contribute to the cause, please do not hesistate to contact me.

Konami and Square Enix have teamed up to produce more Play Arts Kai toys in celebration of Metal Gear’s 25th anniversary, which will be celebrated this July.

The Cyborg Ninja was the first cab off the rank – now the second figure in the range, the MGS1 Themed Solid Snake is available. You can order it from AmiAmi for 4390 yen.

More MGS-themed Play Arts figures are planned for the year, including Meryl Silverburgh, Solidus Snake and the MGS4 Raiden.

Again, we apologise for the bad lighting, but we wanted to show the actual item off.

For this year’s April Fools’ Day joke, Google has put out a trailer showing off a version of its Google Maps service for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Watch the trailer above.

You can put also Google Maps into 8-bit mode to see your location in glorious 8-bit graphics.

Another quiet week.

Retail
Devil May Cry HD Collection (Xbox 360/PlayStation 3) – Asia and NTSC-J
Silent Hill HD Collection (Xbox 360/PlayStation 3) – Europe and Australia

Nintendo eShop – Europe

Virtual Console – 3DS
Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble (Game Gear)
Shinobi (Game Gear)
Dragon Crystal (Game Gear)

Virtual Console – Wii
Mega Man 5 (NES)

PlayStation Store – SCEE Regions
New Releases
Metal Slug 2 (Neo Geo Store) – $AU14.45
King of Fighters 96 (Neo Geo Store) – $14.45
Shock Troopers (Neo Geo Store) – $14.45
Burger Time: World Tour – $AU18.95
Full Spectrum Warrior (PS2 Classics) – $AU15.95
Arc the Lad II (PSOne Classics) – $AU6.25

Discounts
From April 4 to May 2:
Silent Hill (PSOne Classics) – Free for PSPlus users

PlayStation Store – SCEA Regions
Discounts
PS Plus Only
Splinter Cell HD – 50% off
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Classic Trilogy HD – 50% off
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory HD – 50% off
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow HD – 50% off
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six – 75% off

Good Old Games
Activision Treasures sale
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura – $US2.99
Caesar III – $US2.99
Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption – $US2.99
Zork Anthology – $US2.99
Return to Zork – $US2.99
Zork: Grand Inquisitor – $US2.99
Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands – $US2.99

Just when you thought you knew every little secret hidden inside GoldenEye 007.

ROM Hackers recently discovered that the game houses a ZX Spectrum emulator and several of Rare’s classics for the system – Atic Atac, Sabre Wulf, Jetpac and Knight Lore.

One can assume that the emulator was a test for what would become the Jetpac segment of Donkey Kong 64, and that it simply wasn’t scrubbed from the code before the game was finished. Still, it’s a pretty cool homage to the company’s origins.

You may have previously heard about the fan made HD remake of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 that’s been in production for eons – but now you can actually play it.

An alpha version of the game has been released by the team, giving players a sample of what the game has to offer in the game’s first level, Emerald Hill Zone.

It’s short, but sweet and you can get it here.

It’s a sad reflection on the state of knowledge preservation when you don’t know exactly when an important event happened. That just happens to be the case with the release of Super Mario Bros. as Frank Cifaldi points out in his investigation into the matter over at Gamasutra. The article is well worth your time.

In case you were wondering, Super Mario Bros. was available for the 1987 launch of the NES in Australia – except we currently do not know that exact date either (and not through lack of trying, let me assure you).

Hot on the heels of the Monster Land Collection, Sega has announced that M2 will also be developing another 3 in 1 release called Alex Kidd & Co.

The collection will include Alex Kidd in Miracle World, The Revenge of Shinobi and Super Hang-On.

No release date or pricing details at this stage, but expect to hear about it soon.

It’s been a quiet week for gaming news – retro or new stuff – and the same has been the case for new releases.

Xbox Live Arcade
Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc HD

Xbox 360
Silent Hill HD Collection (NTSC-U/C)

PlayStation 3
Silent Hill HD Collection (NTSC-U/C)

PlayStation Network – Europe/Australia
New Releases
Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc HD (PS3) – $AU15.95

PlayStation Network – North America
New Releases
Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc HD (PS3) – $US9.99 (additional 20% off for PS Plus subscribers)
Resident Evil HD Bundle (Code Veronica X HD/Resident Evil 4 HD) (PS3) – $US29.99

On sale
Final Fantasy Origins (50% off)
Final Fantasy Tactics (50% off)
Final Fantasy V (50% off)
Final Fantasy VI (50% off)
Final Fantasy VII (50% off)
Final Fantasy VIII (50% off)
Final Fantasy IX (50% off)

Good Old Games
New Releases
Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time

On sale
All 50% off
Total Annihilation Commander Pack
Total Annihilation: Kingdoms
Star Control 1+2
Star Control 3
Rollercoaster Tycoon Deluxe
Rollercoaster Tycoon II: Triple Thrill Pack
One Unit Whole Blood
Blood II: The Chosen
Outcast
Master of Orion 1+2
Master of Orion 3
Master of Magic
Alone in the Dark 1-2-3
Alone in the Dark: New Nightmare
B-17 Flying Fortress
Darklands
Desperadoes: Wanted Dead or Alive
Desperadoes 2: Cooper’s Revenge
Independence War Deluxe
Independence War II: Edge of Chaos
Chris Sawyer’s Locomotion