Retro Gaming Australia

I was once an achievement whore which is why the announcement that RetroAchievements.org will be bringing modern achievement systems to classic consoles is a rather enticing bit of news.

How is this possible? RetroAchievements have produced a modified version of the Gens Mega Drive/Genesis emulator which supports achievements for a select list of games. It’ll connect to a profile you create on their website, which will track your achievements and high scores with other users.

Of course, achievement support is limited to a select list of games while the system and emulator undergo further testing. The list of currently supported games includes The Addams Family, Aero The Acrobat 2, Alex Kidd In The Enchanted Castle, Alien 3, Aladdin, Altered Beast, Batman Returns, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, Chakan: The Forever Man, Cool Spot, Desert Strike: Return To The Gulf, Earthworm Jim, Ecco The Dolphin, Fantastic Dizzy, Ghostbusters, Golden Axe, Gunstar Heroes, James Pond II: Codename Robocod, Castle Of Illusion, Mighty Mighty Missile, NHLPA Hockey ’93, New Zealand Story, Sonic Spinball, Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Sonic The Hedgehog 3, Streets Of Rage 2, Super Hang-On, ToeJam & Earl, Vectorman and Zero Tolerance. More games are being added daily.

Their next planned project is a plugin for Project 64, the popular Nintendo 64 emulator, which will add similar functionality.

F-Zero AX was the arcade equivalent of F-Zero GX, released by Nintendo and Sega for the not-widely-used Triforce arcade system, which was based on GameCube hardware. Players of F-Zero GX could take their GameCube memory cards to an arcade with an F-Zero AX arcade machine and download a save file that would unlock the AX Cup, letting them race on the F-Zero AX tracks on the home version of the game. Those not fortunate enough to have access to an AX arcade machine had to beat story mode on hard to unlock the AX Cup, which is a legendary feat few can accomplish.

It turns out that the entirety of F-Zero AX was actually sitting unaccessible on the F-Zero GX disc. Some industruous hackers armed with copies of the GameCube Action Replay have dug into the depths of the disc and found the arcade game nestled within.

If you have an Action Replay or Gameshark, you can find the code necessary to make GX boot into AX here.

5th Avenue Frogger is a new Frogger hack that aims to have players dodging real time traffic from New York’s 5th Avenue.

The project is the brainchild of Tyler DeAngelo, who started the project in celebration of “Frogger‘s 30th(ish) anniversary”

You can follow the project’s development here.