Retro Gaming Australia

It’s time for what will likely be the final Retro Reading update of 2010. RGA has almost been around for a year now, and I’d be lying to you if I said that the site was anywhere near the state I wanted it to be in by the end of the year. The community is about a quarter of the size of my most conservative estimates, none of the major projects are anywhere near close to launching, and we’ve produced bugger all in the way of original content. The site looks like crap, nobody visits and nobody posts on the forums.

The good thing about this is we’re effectively working with a clean slate for 2011. My intention for the next year is to hire a designer to make the site far more aesthetically appealing and take care of technical things like a proper searchable form for the Mag Scores List and unified logins between the blog and the forums and another part of the site due to launch later. Original content is going to be more of a priority – more articles and more video content will be posted during the year. If the viewer numbers start to pick up, I’ll look at asking for contributions from other writers. Of course, all of the above is contingent on me finding a job to pump some money into the site, and things haven’t been looking rosy on that front.

Unfortunately, it looks like a lot of retro sites have abandoned updating for some time, so the number of articles I can link to has diminished greatly. If you know of any retro sources that are worth reading that are not being plugged here, please let me know. Also, Unseen64 is down at the time of writing, so no updates from them this time around.

Cho Aniki, Delphine Adventures and AKI Wrestling Games at Hardcore Gaming 101
HG101 has a few new articles up, but I’ve decided to just link to these three as they’re the most interesting. The AKI wrestling games article is particularly deep, even if it has a few minor inaccuracies. It’s sad that nothing has topped a series of wrestling games that are now more than a decade old.

Ancient Magic (SNES) translation released at Romhacking.net
It’s always good to see a translation project finished, and even better when it’s not the 5000th retranslation of something that was officially released in English.

Retrospective: FreeSpace 2 at Eurogamer Retro
Most of the recent EG retro pieces are tosh, but I picked this one since FreeSpace 2 is awesome and doesn’t get enough love.

Yu Suzuki interview at 1UP
I don’t think much of 1UP or “budding young games designer” James Mielke, but this interview sheds a lot of light on what Yu Suzuki has been doing, and more about the development of Shenmue, including some previously unknown info about Shenmue III.

Super Fighter Team announces Nightmare Busters
Super Fighting Team, the crew behind Beggar Prince, is releasing a SNES game as their next project.

Virtual Console releases
Faxanadu
Karnov’s Revenge
Super Bonk
Commando
Son Son

The job hunt continues, but I’ve still got time to keep updating this site haphazardly. Once a job has been obtained, there will probably need to be a more formalised updating schedule. Until then, enjoy your irregularly scheduled retro update.

Tidbits

• The weekend marked 20 years since the Super Famicom was released in Japan. No big celebrations like the Famicom received back in 2003 – Nintendo is too busy with Super Mario Bros.‘s 25th anniversary.
• Last week also marked the 25th anniversary of Microsoft Windows. Pity it’s only been good for 10.

Recommended Reading

Spellcasting, Data East’s Commando, LSD Dream Emulator, Psycho-Nics Oscar, No Escape at Hardcore Gaming 101
It looks like Kurt and his crew are dedicating more time to the site lately with a decent November update, not to mention the start of some major updates to previous articles (starting with Sin & Punishment). They’ve also put up a bounty board as incentive to cover some of the major series that aren’t on the site yet, so if you fancy yourself a decent writer, take a crack.

All Hail the BBC Micro at Eurogamer
Eurogamer’s Sunday retro bit has a fond look at the BBC Micro, one of those earlier microcomputers the Brits love.

Rewriting History: An Interview with Tristan Donovan at Eurogamer
Eurogamer sat down with the author of Replay: The History of Video Games. I thought his justification for producing the book was very sound – many books are too American in focus and overlook the PAL territories and their fondness for things such as Microcomputers and the Sega Master System. I’m hoping to get my grubby mits on a copy of the book soon.

Retrospective: Myst at Eurogamer
Bit of a tongue-in-cheek look at the slideshow that was once the #1 best selling PC game.

Retrospective: Red Baron at Eurogamer
Eurogamer also took a look at Dynamix’s famous WWI shooter – a kind of simulation that has rarely been attempted due to just how bloody hard those planes were to fly.

Retrospective: The Need for Speed at Eurogamer
It’s always a source of amusement to think that one of the mainstays of EA’s holiday line up was brewed on a failed console. Of course, the first game in the series is one of the best, so it should be no surprise that it lived on to see release on a multitude of other formats.

Unseen64 Updates
Super Star Wars Beta (SNES)
Dark Guns (PSX)
Warlock Beta (SNES/MD)
Aeroguage (N64)
Space Fantasy Zone (PCE)
Babylon 5: Into the Fire (PC)
Thrasher: Skate & Destroy Beta (PSX)
Tee Off Gold Beta (SS)
Pac-Man: Ghost Zone (PSX)
Hammer vs. Evil-D in Soulfire (MCD)
Starship Troopers Spectrum Holobyte Version (PC/PSX)
Aspect Warriors (SNES/MD)
CRY.SYS (PC)
Land of the Dead: The Road to Fiddler’s Green Beta (PC/Xbox)
D-Jump (DC/PS2)
Pinky (MD/GG)

The Unseen64 updates were getting a little out of hand – I hope you enjoy this more legible list format.

Virtual Console
Spin Master (Arcade)

Sticking to a decent update schedule this week. I am hoping to write a review of the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die over the next couple of days – expect something comprehensive and full of snippyness.

Rendering Ranger R2, Slap Happy Rhythm Busters, Frederick Pohl’s Gateway at Hardcore Gaming 101
Quick update from the HG101 group this month. It’s well worth taking a look at the Rendering Ranger article, since the game itself is probably the most expensive SFC cart around.

Japanese Artwork of Western Games at Hardcore Gaming 101
HG101 updated their gallery of western games that got a major box art overhaul when travelling to Japan. Many of these are newer, but they tend to illustrate the same point.

Rocket Rescue (SNES/MD/Amiga), Super Star Soldier 3D (PC-FX), The Incredible Shrinking Character (PSX/SS/PC), Velocity (PSX/SS), Airblade Beta (PS2), Super Dog Booby: Akachan Daibouken no Maki (FC/NES), System Shock 2 (DC), Monster Island (PS2/Xbox/GCN) at Unseen64
Another week’s worth of Unseen64 updates yields a few good little nuggets. Shame to see how little progress was made on System Shock 2 for the Dreamcast.

Retrospective: Skool Daze and Back to Skool at Eurogamer Retro
Eurogamer looks at a pair of Speccy games that are actually quite good.

Donkey Kong Country Competition Cart Prototype Found at SNES Central
The fellow who runs SNES Central managed to get his mits on the DKC CC proto and has dumped it for all to see.

Glover 2 Prototype Found at NES World
Glover was a somewhat decent N64 platformer that had a sequel planned which never saw the light of day. Turns out that development on said sequel did get a fair way along before the plug was pulled.

Been a while, hasn’t it? I’ve been swamped with moving interstate and taking what I hope is the last of my CPA exams, but now that most of that is out of the way, we can get back to business as usual (at least ’til I have to move house again in < 2 months). Work on RGA's big secret project has been continuing, though, and it might actually make its revised Q1 2011 launch. Tidbits
This Tuesday marked 10 years since the PlayStation 2 came out in North America. I originally had a feature on the best PS2 stuff planned, but it got shelved. That’s awesome RGA commitment for you.

The 25th Anniversary Super Mario All Stars pack is headed to the US and PAL regions. No love for Australia on that front, but the 25th Anniversary Red Wii we get has a special 25th Anniversary edition of Super Mario Bros. How many more times do I have to say 25th Anniversary in a post?

The X-Men arcade game is coming to Xbox Live Arcade and PSN after much whining and demanding. Look forward to this one getting shat on by terrible reviewers next year.

Retrogaming Times Monthly – October 2010 at Retrogaming Times
More newslettery goodness.

Retro Japanese Computers – Gaming’s Final Frontier at Hardcore Gaming 101
Damn fine article on Japan-only computer systems. Very enlightening.

Darkseed, Jim Power and Recettear at Hardcore Gaming 101
More HG101 in-depth articles, with substantially less adventure game coverage.

Interview with Al Lowe at Hardcore Gaming 101
HG101 also had a chat with legendary game designer Al Lowe. Doesn’t really cover much new ground though.

War Monster (GBC), SWAT: Urban Justice (PC), Adventures of Pinocchio/Ottifanten (GBC), Wipeout Beta (PSX/SS/PC), Lobo (PS2/Xbox), Spearhead (SS), Ape Escape Beta (PSX), Agent (PS2/Xbox), Masters Tournament: Augusta (PCFX), The Witcher 1997 Version (PC), Ardy Lightfoot Beta (SNES), Roadsters 98 (GBC), Banjo-Tooie Beta (N64), FX Fighter (PCFX), Clockwork Knight Beta (SS), Black & White Beta (PC), Advent Rising Beta (PC/Xbox), Killzone Beta/Kin (PSX/PS2), Ultima IX Beta (PC), Angel (SS), Sunman (NES), Sato City (PSX/PC), Gremlins 2 Beta (GB), Rollcage Team 17 version (3DO/PSX/SS), Pterosaur (GCN/PS2/Xbox), The Mask Beta (SNES), Free Runner (SS), Splash Dive (PS2), Alien Intelligence (PC), Ragnarok (GB), Aero the Acrobat Beta (SNES/MD), Castaway Boy Keith (GB), Going Gnome (PS2), Master Slave (Xbox), Bloodust: International Karate 3 (Arcade/PSX), Cabbage (64DD), Ring Age (DC), Capcom vs SNK Beta (Arcade/DC), Leisure Suit Larry: Pocket Party (NGage), Breath of Fire III Concept (PSX), Mudkicker (SS/PSX/PC), Gekido (GBC), Matrix Runner (Sega VR), Brains in Planes (PSX/PC), Dinosaurs for Hire Beta (MD), Like Thunder Go (N64), X-COM Genesis (PC), and Jack and the Beanstalker (64DD) at Unseen64
7 weeks worth of Unseen64 updates. Some pretty good stuff in there on the 64DD, but most is crap that nobody will miss.

The PlayStation 2 Shmups Library at Racketboy
Even though the shmup has become marginalised in the last 15 years, the releases still flow pretty freely. This article basically goes through every one released on the PS2. You’ll probably want a JP PS2 after reading it.

Eurogamer Retrospectives:
The Battle of Olympus
American McGee’s Alice
Uplink
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
The Curse of Monkey Island
Deer Hunter

Virtual Console:
Samurai Shodown III (Neo Geo)
Mystic Quest Legend, aka Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest (SNES)
Rival Turf (SNES)
Street Hoops (Neo Geo)
Super Earth Defense Force (SNES)

It’s still all quiet on the retro front at the moment. I’ve been working on some article plans lately, and this morning discussed the merits of hiring someone to redesign the site and implement features since I’m a bit too lazy/incompetent to do it myself. My partner wants me to start a site with her that showcases our collection, promotes her Youtube videos and provides a ranting outlet, so something might happen on that front soon. We’re also moving next week, as mentioned earlier, so things are getting packed up and we’re both panicking about game boxes getting ruined, as they inevitably do when moving.

Tidbits

• Retronauts is ending. Not the biggest fan of what they do, particularly since they can be snarky, narrow-minded and have been known to not do the research (see the Master System episode), but a loss is a loss.

• The PlayStation celebrated 15 years in America this week. European anniversary is the 29th. I’m led to believe the Australian anniversary is November 15th. We might do something for that, but I feel that the PS2’s 10th anniversary is more important.

• Super Mario Bros. 25th anniversary celebrations are starting to ramp up. Recently leaked by retailers was a Japan-exclusive (at this stage) Wii re-release of Super Mario Collection (Super Mario All Stars to you and I). For Â¥2500, you get Super Mario Collection, a soundtrack of music from various Mario games and a series history book. Not sure if the game is on a disc or if it’s just a download code, but we’ll find out in late October.

Retrogaming Times Monthly #76 at Retrogaming Times
More newslettery fun.

Romhacking.net and Datacrystal merge at Romhacking.net
The two biggest names in rom hacking join forces.

In Memory of Rentals at 1Up Retro
Renting games was pretty much the only way we got to play stuff between birthdays and Christmas as kids. The PlayStation’s fragile disc media and skyrocketing rental prices pretty much killed it off here.

Kagirinaki Tatakai, Brain Breaker, Hudson Soft Mario, Pirate Ship Higemaru, Rune Master, MegaTen series, Hugo series, Leather Goddesses of Phobos and Blazing Dragons at Hardcore Gaming 101
Biggish update from the HG101 crew. The MegaTen series entry got some much needed updates – let’s hope the trend continues on some of the other series features that are falling further and further out of date. Much of the rest is PC adventure game stuff, which has dominated their coverage this year.

Hiroshi Ishikawa profile at Hardcore Gaming 101
A profile on one of the forces involved in the Japanese computer scene in the 90s.

Aqua (SS), Pokemon Emerald Beta (GBA), IMSA Racing (M2), Crash Bash Beta (PSX), WWF Smackdown: Just Bring It Beta (PS2), Elite (MD/SNES/GB), Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow Beta (PS2/XB/GC), F-Zero GX Beta (GC), The 4th Unit: Merry-Go Round (MCD) at Unseen64
The Unseen64 crew is back from their summer break, so the updates are flowing once again. Nice to see a bit of M2 stuff.

Mother 3/EarthBound 64 Documentary at Unseen64
The first part of three looking at the troubled development of Mother 3.

Retrospectives: King’s Bounty (MD), Grand Theft Auto (PC) and Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (PSX) at Eurogamer Retro
Bunch of game-specific articles from Eurogamer. Not the most interesting subject matter, honestly.

Virtual Console
Wild Guns (SNES)
Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory (Neo Geo)
Samurai Shodown III (Neo Geo)

RGA’s latest secret project is in heavy development. Not announcing what it is at the moment due to the potential embarassment of not finishing yet another project, but needless to say, you should all really enjoy it when it does launch, which I am expecting to be late Q4 2010 or Q1 2011. In amongst the work on that project, I’ve started planning out some site rehauling, including unified logins for the boards and the comments section on the blog, new banners and headers for the blog and forum, and some new content.

The first bit of new content is a series of Let’s Play videos. Let’s Play videos are a concept that mostly developed on SomethingAwful – people record playthroughts of games and commentate over them – either in a funny (usually failing to be funny) or informative manner. You’ll see the first one, International Cricket for the NES on the site today, but it’s already on Youtube if you’re keen. I’m not intending to solely cover Australian-oriented and/or developed games, but there’s little information on the Internet about these games, so it helps draw people in. I’ve never seen anyone do an LP on a sports game before either – I guess because there’s technically no story to follow, but you could probably do a good series for a season or franchise mode. I also must apologise in advance for my dull commentary – I hope that will improve with time and practice.
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The Classic Gaming Expo 2010 is on right now – hopefully someone will have a nice report on the show that I can link you to in the future. Seems like they had a pretty good show lined up this year too.
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The Tetris World Championships are happening on August 8 in Los Angeles. The event is being organised by former Nintendo World Championships winner Robin Mihara. A documentary film about the championships called The Tetris Masters: Ecstasy of Order is in production.
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Phantasy Star text adventure translations released at MIJET
Sega released a load of Phantasy Star games that never made it to the West, including these two Game Gear games, which have now been translated to English. Joy.
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Retrospective: Duck Tales at Eurogamer Retro
Duck Tales is one of my favourite NES games, and the folks over at Eurogamer Retro have a bit of a spiel on it. Of course, we can’t have a mention of Duck Tales without linking to the awesome Moon level theme music.
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Retrospective: Mario Golf: Advance Tour at Eurogamer Retro
The portable versions of Mario sports titles are, in a matter of speaking, bloody brilliant. This article is not particularly good compared with other EG retro offerings, but it tells you what you need to know about the game.
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Spinny and Spike (MD), Prince of Persia: Two Thrones Beta (PS2/XB/GCN), ClayFighter Beta (SNES), The Lawnmower Man Beta (SNES/MD), Spyral Saga (PSX), Timmy Time (32X), Ultra Copter Tech Demo (N64), Guilty Gear Beta (PSX), Full Throttle 2: Payback (PC/PS2), Virus (PSX), Area 51 (PS2/Xbox), Hell’s Deep (PC/PS2), Terminus (SS/PSX/PC) at Unseen64
The Unseen64 crew have a mass of updates for the last fortnight, but they’re taking August off to enjoy part of Summer. Interesting to see that there was a direct sequel to the Area 51 arcade game in development that was not the FPS we ended up getting.
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Virtual Console Update: Aero the Acrobat (SNES)
Another mediocre game that, like many Sunsoft releases, punches above its weight on eBay.
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Was intending to go back to weekly updates, but it didn’t quite work out due to a lack of content – I personally prefer one large update to a couple of small ones. I’ve spent the last two weeks working on a pair of big projects for RGA. They’re not going to be ready for months, so I’m going to refrain from talking about them more in case it doesn’t work out. I’d really like to get a better design for the site too, as I hate this WordPress skin at least 10x more than you.
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Retrogaming Times Monthly July 2010 at Retrogaming Times
More monthly newsletter fun.
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The History of Korean Games at Hardcore Gaming 101
A little something different from our friends at HG101 this month – an in-depth look into the history of games developed in Korea.
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The History of Fan Translation at Hardcore Gaming 101
HG101’s also got a look at the history of fan translation projects. Keep in mind that this is a reprint of a Retro Gamer article, so you may have read part of it before if you’re an RG reader.
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Myst series, Front Mission series, Mercenary Force, , Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller and Starship Titanic at Hardcore Gaming 101
HG101 has also put together their usual selection of monthly game articles. This month, some game articles have received some much needed updates, while other obscure PC adventure games are remembered, like the Hell, which starred the late Dennis Hopper as the Devil.
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Sonic 2 XL at Sonic Stadium
I don’t normally post links to rom hacks, but this one is pretty funny, and extraordinarily well-executed. Sonic 2 XL replaces Sonic’s standard rings with onion rings – as you collect rings, he gets fatter. Collect too many and he stops from exhaustion and dies. Really nice new sprites and adjusted physics to match.
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Roman Bloodsport (Xbox), Outrun 2 Beta (Arcade), Split Realities (PSX/SS), Bug Busters: The Exterminators (MCD), Kasumi Ninja Beta (JAG), Sonic Battle Beta (GBA), Street Fighter II Concept (Arcade), Hirelings (PC/PS2), Brett Hull Hockey (JAG), Citizen X (MCD), Ultimate Brain Games (JAG), Primal Rage 2 (Arcade), Tarzan (SNES), Tekken “Rave War” Beta (Arcade), Super Burn Out (JAG), Savage Heroes (MD), Jack Nicklaus Cyber Golf (JAGCD), The Big One (PS2), Rayman (SNES), King of Fighters 99 Beta (Arcade), Screwballs Superleague (NES), Super Mario Land 2 Beta (GB), Titan Warriors (NES) and Thunder in Paradise (SNES) at Unseen64
Another big month at Unseen64, pretty heavy on the Jaguar stuff if that tickles your fancy. I thought the Melbourne House PS2 game sounded pretty cool, though – shame Atari/Infogrames really mismanaged that studio.
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Looking Back on Acclaim with Greg Fischbach at 1UP Retro
1UP tracked down former Acclaim founder Greg Fischbach to have a chat about the company’s glory days and eventual demise.
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Mario Figure Alternatives from the Past at 1UP Retro
The 1UP crew also took a look at some obscure old Mario figures in “celebration” of the Mario crew statuette sent to NOA Club Nintendo platinum members.
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The Rarest and Most Valuable Turbografix/PC Engine Games at Racketboy
Racketboy has done another roundup of rare and expensive games, this time for the PC Engine. Most PCE fans will probably know what to expect, but if you’re new to the machine, it’s a good read.
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Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge Retrospective at Eurogamer Retro
The special edition of Monkey Island 2 with (horrible) tarted up graphics and (not horrible) voice work was released on XBLA, PSN and Steam recently, so Eurogamer went back and looked at the original. As you do.
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Nintendoage June Newsletter at Nintendo Age (reg required)
More monthly newsletter fun from the NA crew.
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Recent Virtual Console releases: Ufouria: The Saga (NES, 500 points), Shadow of the Ninja (NES, 600 points)
Two quality new releases for the VC – hopefully this will cause a major drop in the price of a copy of Ufouria.
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Poor RGA got ignored while I had a guest-editing stint over at GamePron that covered the nutso E3 week and a couple of days after. Now that’s all done with, I can get back to retro fun.

Retrogaming Times Monthly June 2010 issue at Retrogaming Times
Latest issue of the long-running newsletter is out, majority of the issue appears to be Pac-Man related articles in celebration of the character’s 30th anniversary.
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Atari 2600 pause kit now available at AtariAge
Fancy the ability to pause your VCS? For $US20 (plus shipping) and a bit of soldering fun, you can. Alternatively, if you’re totally incompetent with tools like me, you can send it to them to for installation for $US25 (plus shipping).
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Jackie Chan video games, Aquales, Laura Bow Mysteries, Mission Critical at Hardcore Gaming 101
HG101’s June update has a particularly good article on Jackie Chan’s numerous video games. The rest is more PC adventure game stuff, which seems to have dominated their coverage lately.
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The Life and Times of Jeremy Blaustein at Hardcore Gaming 101
Jeremy Blaustein is one of those pioneers in game translation, becoming a name amongst gaming fans for going above and beyond the call of duty in his translations. His credits include Snatcher, Metal Gear Solid, Suikoden II, Valkyrie Profile, Silent Hill 2, Shenmue, Dragon Warrior VII, Shadow Hearts and Dark Cloud 2/Dark Chronicle. This interview discusses Blaustein’s career, from humble beginnings to running his own companies.
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Opposite Lock/Wrecking Crew Beta (SS/PSX), God of War II Beta (PS2), Marble Man: Marble Madness 2 (Arcade), Chrono Cross Beta (PSX), Phase Zero (Jag), Popeye (MD), Guardians: Agents of Justice (PC), Test Drive Cycles (PSX), Banjo Pilot Beta (GBA), Mega Man 8 Beta (SS/PSX), Alien vs. Predator: Nightmare on Ryushi (PC), Chuck Yeager’s Fighter Combat (NES), I:5 (PS2), Extreme Wakeboarding (PS2), Burning Fists (MCD), Converse Hardcore Hoops (MD/SNES/SS/PSX), Airs Adventure (SS), Silent Space (Xbox/PS2/PC), SimCopter 64 (N64DD), Gumshoe (Xbox/PC) and Zombie High (MD) at Unseen64
Miss a couple of weeks and these Unseen64 entries pile up – all the more reason why you should visit their site regularly. Nothing particularly grand this month, but it’s always nice when someone unearths more cancelled N64DD stuff.
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Interview: Grant Kirkhope at Unseen64
Legendary Rareware musician Grant Kirkhope was interviewed by Unseen64 earlier in the month. They try to drill him for information about cancelled Rare games.
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EGM’s first screenshots of Sonic the Hedgehog at 1UP Retro
1UP seems to be spending all of its updates on Spectrum games, which I tend to prefer not to cover on RGA (since the Spectrum gets so much coverage elsewhere), but they broke their coverage of three colour games to post some screens from the first reveal of Sonic the Hedgehog from a 1990 issue of EGM.
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Games and Franchises that defined the Fighting genre at Racketboy
Racketboy contributor Ack has put together a list of the games he believes defined the fighting genre – you should be able to guess most of them before reading the article.
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Armed & Dangerous Retrospective at Eurogamer Retro
Eurogamer’s John Walker has written up a piece on the riotously funny but largely overlooked Planet Moon shooter Armed & Dangerous. Landsharks for all!
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This week’s Virtual Console release: Mario Tennis (N64)
One of the finest multiplayer games for the Nintendo 64 is now available on the Wii for 1000 Nintendo Points. Beats the $50+ you’d have to shell out for a cart-only copy on eBay, and arguably better than Mario Power Tennis.
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With new projects in progress all over the place, I admittedly haven’t been keeping up with the latest retro news – for that I apologise. We’ll try to get back to weekly Retro Readings again soon, but in the mean time, this double edition will have to do.

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Interview: Frank Trzcinski at Sega-16

You may remember a couple of E3s ago that Sega announced they were reviving Vectorman for the PlayStation 2. It was an announcement seemingly out of the blue, but the project appeared to be troubled early, and ended up on the chopping block quite quickly. Lead production designer Frank Trzcinksi sheds some light on the development of the game in this interview.

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Sonic Heroes Beta (GCN/PS2/Xbox), Phantom Dust Beta (Xbox), Virtua Boy Tech demos featuring Virtual Boy Mario Land (VB), Devilman Beta (NES), Rip Squad (Arcade), Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge (GBA), Tarantula (PSX/SAT/PC), Gex Beta (3DO/PSX/SAT), Vette: San Francisco Thrills (PSX), Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner Beta (PS2), Fear Factor Unleashed (PS2/Xbox), Video Kid (SNES), Halloween Capsule (MD), Kyle Petty’s No Fear Racing (N64), Trigun: The Planet Gunsmoke (PS2), Offensive (PSX/SAT), Conker’s Bad Fur Day Beta (N64) and Melty Blood: Actress Again Beta (PS2/Arcade) at Unseen64

A solid fortnight’s worth of reading from Unseen64. I always die a little inside when I am reminded of the cancellation of the Trigun game for PS2. It’s a shame Virtual Boy Mario Land never came out – might have helped the system live a little longer. The Conker’s Bad Fur Day beta information is quite interesting – I wonder if anyone will ever snag the elusive Twelve Tales beta?

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Adam West, Video game journalist at 1Up Retro

Frank Cifaldi over at 1Up dug up this little piece Adam West wrote about video games in the July 1983 issue of Videogaming and Computergaming Illustrated magazine. It’s quite a refreshing view too, especially given that Mr West would have been in his 50s at the time.

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Super Nintendo Light Gun games and First Person Shooters at Racketboy

Contributor Ack presents a guide to the SNES’s limited range of light gun and FPS games. There’s a few more of the former than I had realised. A good starting point if you’re looking to find out more, but like most Racketboy articles, you’ll have to continue researching to get the full picture.

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Survival Horror 101 at Racketboy

Ack presents a beginner’s guide to the survival horror genre. Once again, a good starting point, but if you’re looking for a thorough history of the genre, look elsewhere. The article barely touches the more significant games in the genre, mostly name-dropping the big titles, though there is a nice list of the things that make a good survival horror game.

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Zone of the Enders 2 Retrospective at Eurogamer Retro

While it pushes the boundaries of what many would consider to be “retro” at this point in time, ZOE2 is arguably one of the best games on the PlayStation 2, so you should check out this article to find out why you need this game.

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Fahrenheit Retrospective at Eurogamer Retro

Eurogamer takes a look at Quantic Dream’s last gaming outing, doing a rather good job of mocking the title’s late gaming insane streak.

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SSX 3 Retrospective at Eurogamer Retro

Few will look on the “evil empire” era of Electronic Arts with fondness, but the odd good game did come out of the mega-publisher in the earlier half of this decade. SSX 3 was one such title.

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Nintendo Age May e-Zine at Nintendo Age (Registration requried)

This month’s Nintendo Age e-Zine has a particularly good in-depth look at what constitutes a sealed PAL NES game, which is a must-read if you’re into the whole sealed collecting thing. I guarantee that it will surprise you (guarantee not valid – RGA Legal).

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Dr Franken Reproduction now available at The NES Dump (via NES World)

Dr. Franken was a fairly decent Game Boy title which was meant to also come out on the NES (I understand the game was almost complete), but never did. For $US50, you can now buy a reproduction version of the game, complete with box, dust cover, manual and a protective slick.

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Recent Virtual Console Releases: Kirby’s Fun Pak (SNES) for 800 points

I just played through Kirby’s Fun Pak last week – it’s really quite good. Certainly one of the better Kirby outings.

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Apologies for the long time between articles and the lack of notice. It had been three years since I had taken an exam and had to focus on something that wasn’t related to the video games industry, so the amount of study required was somewhat ludicrous by my own standards. With a month having past since the last Retro Reading column, there’s actually things to post about!

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ICOM MacVenture series, Codename: ICEMAN and Toonstruck at Hardcore Gaming 101

HG101’s last couple of updates have been fixated on classic PC adventure games, and this one is no different. Would be nice to see them update some of their other content this month – I tried reading through everything on the site recently, and a large number of entries are slowly but steadily becoming outdated.

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Interview: Matt Furniss at Sega 16

I’d never heard of Matt Furniss before reading this, but it turns out he was quite prolific in producing soundtracks for a number of British-developed games throughout the 90s. There’s some insight here into what it was like to work with the Mega Drive sound chip, and what makes for good game music.

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Top Rider at 1Up Retro

Sometimes non-arcade stick third party accessories aren’t just junk – they’re frightfully obscure as well. This one is some kind of mix between an inflatable punching bag and a set of handle bars designed for controlling a racing game of the same name.

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Remembering the Videogames Rating Council at 1Up Retro

Before the ESRB, Sega of America attempted to establish its own ratings system, largely as a response to the fact they were getting the lion’s share of the blame at the senate committee hearings. It was a simple system with three classes of ratings – GA, MA-13 and MA-17. It’s similar today, but what was once one rating for GA is now three – EC, E and E-10. Locally we’ve always had the same – G, PG, M, MA, though that may soon change.

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3DO Interactive Multiplayer 101: A Beginner’s Guide at Racketboy

Racketboy’s 101 articles are always a good place to start if you need to know more about a console. However, if you read them with pre-existing knowledge of a console, you might find his insights lacking or possibly even wrong.

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The Best Undiscovered 2D Fighting Games at Racketboy

Like most Racketboy articles, your mileage may vary on this one. If you’ve never looked into the Saturn or PSX importing scenes, you’ll probably find a wealth of new information on fighters you’d never heard of. If you have a JP Saturn or PSX, chances are the vast majority of these games will be known to you, and some of their merits may be debatable.

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Retrospective: Max Payne at Eurogamer Retro

Alan Wake is being released this week after some 6 years of hype, so Eurogamer’s taken the opportunity to revisit the game that put Remedy on the map (for most people – for me it was Death Rally).

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Final Fantasy Orb at GameSniped

This odd little competition prize from 1990 popped up recently, though like anything Final Fantasy, the seller wants an arm and a leg for it.

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The Ryo Hazuki Forklift Racer at Sega Memories

I am so goddamn jealous.

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A Crazy Taxi Toy at Sega Memories

Living in regional Queensland, I’m not privvy to the merchandise that comes out with most popular games, which is why I’m highly amused by this Crazy Taxi toy.

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Tiger’s R-Zone at Sega Memories

Hey, nothing could be worse than the Virtual Boy, right? WRONG!

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32 Xtreme (32X), Hell on Wheels (PS2/Xbox), Neo Geo Battle Coliseum Beta (ARC/PS2), Mech Arena (PC/Xbox), Untitled 2015 Shooter (circa 2004, PC/Xbox), Dragon Sword 64 (N64), Last Action Hero (MCD), Pulseman Beta (MD), Wild Justice (PS2/Xbox), Stackers (GCN/PC), Allegiance (3DO/SAT/PSX), MDK2 Beta (PC/DC), Campire (PS2/Xbox), Dragon Quest VIII Beta (PSX), Zero Tolerance Beta (MD), DNAction: The New Breed (SNES/MD), Mega Man X Command Mission Beta (PS2/GCN), Spellcraft (SNES), Cold Winter Beta (PS2), Sorcery (PSX), Rocketboy (SAT), Alien Breed: Conflict (PC/DC), The Fallen (PC/PSX), Kamikaze Comics (MCD), Jester (MD), Warhammer: Dark Crusaders (PC), Darkside (SAT), Star Fox Beta (SNES), Big Guns / Exodus (PSX), Shattered Nations (PC), Runebird (Xbox), Shell Shock (32X), Abraxas (PC), Nero Zero (Hasbro VR), Environmental Detective (MD/SNES), Crusader: No Pity Tech Demo, Flying Nightmares 2 (PC/PSX/SAT), Metal Head Beta (32X), Jet Ski Rage (32X), Joe the Wall (SNES), Lady Sia 3D (PS2/GC), Lady Sia 2 (GBA), Bean Ball Benny (MD), Fahrenheit Beta (PC/PS2/Xbox) at Unseen64

And here’s the downside of not updating for a month – catching up on sites that update daily. As you can see, Unseen64 has posted a ton of stuff recently, particularly in the way of cancelled 32X games and last-gen beta stuff.

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Last Month’s Virtual Console Releases: Mega Man 4 (NES, 500 Points), Indiana Jones’ Greatest Adventures (SNES, 800 Points), The King of Fighters 95 (Neo Geo, ? Points), Final Fantasy (NES, 500 Points) and Ghoul Patrol (SNES, 800 Points)

Nintendo appears to have taken to hiding the cost of games on their online VC catalogue again, so I’m without prices on most of these (I figure they’re mostly standard anyway). Wide range of titles over the last month – a number of key NES classics in particular.

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