Retro Gaming Australia

Xbox Live Arcade
Sega Model 2 Collection Volume 1 (400 MSP each):
Virtua Fighter 2
Fighting Vipers
Sonic The Fighters

Nintendo eShop (Australia, Europe)
Nada

Nintendo eShop (North America)

3DS Virtual Console
Pac-Man (NES) – $US4.99

PlayStation Store (Australia, Europe)

Discounts
Nights into Dreams – $AU10.25 ($AU8.71 with PSPlus)
Jet Set Radio – $AU10.25 ($8.71 with PSPlus)
Sonic Adventure – $AU6.25 ($4.38 with PSPlus)
Sonic Adventure 2 – $AU10.25 ($8.71 with PSPlus)
Space Channel 5: Part 2 – $AU8.71 ($8.71 with PSPlus)

PlayStation Store (North America)

New Releases
Sega Model 2 Collection Volume 1 ($US4.99 each):
Virtua Fighter 2
Fighting Vipers
Sonic The Fighters

Good Old Games

New Releases
Screamer 2 – $US5.99

Discounts
Weekend Sale – Nordic Games

Before he was the head honcho at Nintendo Co. Ltd, Satoru Iwata was the chief at HAL Laboratory, where he had climbed the ranks from programmer to manager. In the most recent Iwata Asks column (with Ubisoft regarding Wii U launch title ZombiU), the company president reveals the origin of his former company’s name.

And it’s not what you think. HAL Laboratory is not named after the infamous HAL 9000 computer from 2001: A Space Oddity, but rather an attempt to one up IBM. Iwata elaborates, saying “Ubisoft was named after Ubiquity because you wanted to be everywhere in the world and HAL was named as such because each letter put us one step ahead of IBM! (Laughs)”

Word has come through the grapevine that a number of Activision’s Atari VCS classics such as River Raid and Pitfall! can be found in Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and are fully playable.

The video above will show you all you need to know to get a taste of VCS goodness.

Via Retrospekt

Nintendo eShop (Australia, Europe)

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

Nintendo eShop (North America)

Wii Virtual Console
Ninja Master’s Haou Ninpou Chou (Neo Geo) – 900 points

3DS Virtual Console
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES) – $US4.99

PlayStation Store (Australia, Europe)

New Releases
Doom Classic Collection (The Ultimate Doom, Doom II: Hell on Earth, Master Levels for Doom II and Final Doom) – $AU23.95
Jet Set Radio (PSVita) – $AU12.95

PlayStation Store (North America)

New Releases
Doom Classic Collection (The Ultimate Doom, Doom II: Hell on Earth, Master Levels for Doom II and Final Doom) – $US14.99
Jet Set Radio (PS Vita) – $US9.99

Discounts
Classic Sonic Bundle (Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2) – $US4.99 (free on PSPlus)

Good Old Games

Discounts
Anuman Sale

There’s no retro news today, so enjoy this video of the opening sequence for Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.

One day we’ll get around to writing those in-depth features on video game cartoons.

We’ve seen some high profile withdrawls of games from the Wii’s Virtual Console about, but this one is perhaps the most surprising. Reports are coming in from the US that Nintendo has pulled Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie’s Double Trouble from the Virtual Console service. Nintendo has not provided a reason for the change. Word is that the games will be pulled from PAL region stores on the 25th of November – so if you want them, download them now.

Some folks are speculating that Nintendo might be upgrading the games to support the WiiU Game Pad, or be planning some kind of Donkey Kong collection disc, but these stories seem unlikely at this point – Donkey Kong‘s 30th anniversary was last year. There are no rights issues with Rare, as Nintendo always owned the rights to the games and characters Rare created for the franchise.

Nintendo eShop (Australia, Europe)

3DS Virtual Console
Mighty Bomb Jack (Game Boy) – $AU7.50

Nintendo eShop (North America)

Wii Virtual Console
Shock Troopers (Neo Geo) – 900 points

3DS Virtual Console
Ghosts ‘n Goblins (NES) – $US4.99
Castlevania: The Adventure (Game Boy) – $US3.99

PlayStation Store (Australia, Europe)

New Releases
Killzone HD – $AU23.95
Disney’s G-Force (PS2 Classics) – $AU14.95
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (PS2 Classics) – $AU14.95

Discounts

PlayStation Store (North America)

New Releases
Killzone HD – $US14.95
Winback: Covert Operations (PS2 Classics) – $US9.99

Discounts
Wonder Boy in Monster Land – $US1.00 (PS Plus only, limited time)

Good Old Games

New Releases
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Warchest – $US9.99

Retail
Doom 3 BFG Edition – available on PC, Xbox 360 and PC for $AU49.95

Nintendo eShop (Australia, Europe)

Wii Virtual Console
World Heroes Perfect (Neo Geo) – 900 points

3DS eShop
Mad Dog McCree – $AU7.50

3DS Virtual Console
Mega Man (NES) – $AU7.50

Nintendo eShop (North America)

3DS Virtual Console
Gradius (NES) – $US4.99

PlayStation Store (Australia, Europe)

New Releases
Warhawk (PSOne Classics) – $AU8.25

PlayStation Store (North America)

New Releases
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (PS2 Classics) – $US9.99

Discounts
Monster World IV – $US1.00 until Tuesday

Good Old Games

New Releases
BioForge – $US5.99

Discounts
Mac & PC Essentials – 50% off the following
SimCity 2000: Special Edition
Theme Hospital
Postal: Classic and Uncut
Little Big Adventure / Relentless: Twinsen’s Adventure
Crusader: No Remorse

Pay what you want – Interplay
Minimum payment ($US0.99) gets you:
Conquest of the New World
MAX + MAX 2
Jagged Alliance: Unfinished Business
Shattered Steel
Screamer
Evolva
Kingdom: The Far Reaches
VR Soccer ’96

Average payment (currently $US14.03) gets you the above, plus
Freespace + Silent Threat
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
Descent 3 + Mercenaries
Stonekeep
Castles & Castles 2
Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader
Messiah
Battle Chess Special Edition
Die By the Sword + Limb from Limb
EarthWorm Jim 3D
F/A-18E Super Hornet
Invictus: In the Shadow of Olympus

Pay $US35, get the whole Interplay catalogue, which includes all of the above, plus
Fallout
Fallout 2
Fallout Tactics
Freespace 2
Descent + Descent 2
Redneck Rampage Collection
Sacrifice
EarthWorm Jim 1 & 2
MDK
MDK 2
Shogo: Mobile Armor Division
Kingpin: Life of Crime

It’s not widely known, but Nintendo updated Donkey Kong Land III from the black & white (or pea soup green, depending on your system) Game Boy to the Game Boy Color when they brought the game to Japan. While the Japanese had to wait an extra two years to play the game, they got to do so with a superior version.

And now you can too, thanks to the hard work of Blaziken257, who has prepared an English translation patch for the Japanese version of the game, known as Donkey Kong GB: Dinky Kong and Dixie Kong.

You can get the translation patch here

Source: Romhacking via RetroCollect

In light of the recent announcement of Virtual On for PSN and Xbox Live Arcade, peripheral producer Hori has announced that they will be releasing a limited run of twin stick controllers for use with the game.

The twin sticks are designed to mimic the control scheme of the original arcade game. Sega released its own official version for the Saturn and Dreamcast in conjunction with their ports of Virtual On and Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram respectively.

Of course, authenticity doesn’t come cheap – Hori’s twin sticks will set you back 30,000 yen, or about $AU375.