Retro Gaming Australia

Warner Bros. has decided to make the most of their acqusition of Midway’s back catalogue by throwing 31 of Midway’s arcade classics into a new package called Midway Arcade Origins for release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 later this year.

The games are: 720°, A.P.B., Arch Rivals, Bubbles, Championship Sprint, Cyberball 2072, Defender, Defender II, Gauntlet, Gauntlet II, Joust, Joust 2, Marble Madness, Pit-Fighter, Rampage, Rampart, Robotron 2084, Root Beer Tapper, Satan’s Hollow, Sinistar, Smash TV, Spy Hunter, Spy Hunter II, Super Off Road, Super Sprint, Toobin’, Total Carnage, Vindicators Part II, Wizard of Wor, Xenophobe, and Xybots.

Sound familiar? Almost all of these games can be found on the three Midway Arcade Treasures packages released on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube and PC. Backbone is still listed as the developer of the new collection, so don’t go in expecting new and improved emulation.

Xbox Live Arcade
Jet Set Radio HD – 800 Microsoft Points

PlayStation Store (Australia, Europe)

New Releases
Jet Set Radio HD – $AU12.95
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (PSOne Classics) – $AU8.45
Tall Unlimited (PSOne Classics) – $AU8.45

PlayStation Store (North America)

New Releases
Jet Set Radio HD – $US9.99
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition (PS2 Classics) – $US9.99
River King (PS2 Classics) – $US9.99

Good Old Games

New Releases
Warlords Battlecry – $US5.99
Battle Realms + Winter of the Wolf – $US5.99

Discounts
Atari All Stars Promo – 60% off the following:
Alone in the Dark 1+2+3
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare
B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty 8th
Blood (One Unit Whole Blood)
Blood 2: The Chosen + Expansion
Chris Sawyer’s Locomotion
Darklands
Desperados 2: Cooper’s Revenge
Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive
Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos
Independence War Deluxe
Master of Magic
Master of Orion 1+2
Master of Orion 3
Outcast
Pirates! Gold Plus
RollerCoaster Tycoon 2: Triple Thrill Pack
Rollercoaster Tycoon 3: Platinum!
RollerCoaster Tycoon: Deluxe
Sid Meier’s Colonization
Silver
Star Control 1+2
Star Control 3
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
Total Annihilation: Commander Pack
Total Annihilation: Kingdoms + Expansion

One of video games’ greatest ongoing paternity issues has been settled. At least until Miyamoto changes his mind again.

In the latest issue of Game Informer, the magazine’s staff had the opportunity to ask Shigeru Miyamoto candid questions about the Super Mario Bros. series. One such question asked was regarding the relationship between the Koopalings and Bowser. They asked; “In Super Mario Bros. 3, the Koopalings were suppose to be Bowser’s children. But there’s also Bowser Jr. Are they all his kids, and are they all from different mothers? Is Bowser Jr. a Koopaling?”

Miyamoto’s response: “Our current story is that the seven Koopalings are not Bowser’s children. Bower’s only child is Bowser Jr. and we don’t know who the the mother is.”

First person to make an animated gif of Bowser dancing on The Maury Povich Show gets my eternal thanks.

Nintendo eShop (Australia, Europe)

Wii Virtual Console
Metal Slug X (Neo Geo) – 900 points

3DS Virtual Console
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link – $AU6.99

Nintendo eShop (North America)

3DS Virtual Console
Mystical Ninja starring Goemon (Game Boy) – $US2.99

PlayStation Store (Australia, Europe)

New Releases
Jet Set Radio HD – $AU12.95 (PSPlus early access only)

PlayStation Store (North America)

New Releases
Double Dragon Neon – $US9.99
Jet Set Radio HD – $US8.99 (PSPlus early access only, released to non-PSPlus users next week for $US9.99)

Discounts
La Pucelle Tactics (PS2 Classics) – $US9.99

Good Old Games

New Releases
KKND Xtreme – $US5.99
Gangsters: Organised Crime – $US5.99
Urban Chaos – $US5.99

Discounts
Diamonds of D&D Promo – Up to 65% off the following or $30 for the lot:
Baldur’s Gate: The Original Saga
Baldur’s Gate 2 Complete
Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition
Icewind Dale Complete
Icewind Dale 2 Complete
The Temple of Elemental Evil
Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard
Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone
Planescape: Torment

I’ll be appearing as part of a panel on video game collecting called the Game Collectors Roadshow as part of the Game Masters exhibition at ACMI on the 9th of September.

The panel will be hosted by Adrian Franklin of the ABC show The Collectors and will feature myself and two other collectors showcasing some of our prize possessions and discussing the hobby of collecting old video games.

The second part of the show is an Antiques Roadshow-inspired bit where you can bring along your gaming items and have them appraised by us and get a bit of an explanation about their place in video gaming history. Bringing an item along will get you an entry in the draw to win a PlayStation Vita.

Finally, there will be a chiptune performance from Melbourne based artists Dot.AY and Derris-Khalan.

The event starts at 11, and entry is free.

Nintendo eShop (Australia, Europe)

Wii Virtual Console
Real Bout: Fatal Fury Special (Neo Geo) – 900 points

Nintendo eShop (North America)

Wii Virtual Console
Prince of Persia (SNES) – 800 points

PlayStation Store (Australia, Europe)

New Releases
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty HD – $AU23.95 (also on Vita for the same price)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater HD – $AU23.95 (also on Vita for the same price)
Twisted Metal: Black (PS2 Classics) – $AU12.95

PlayStation Store (North America)

New Releases
Suzuki TT Superbikes Real Road Racing Championship (PS2 Classics) – $US9.99

Discounts
Daytona USA – 40% off for PS Plus users, now $US2.99

Good Old Games

New Releases
Worms 2 – $US5.99
Startopia – $US5.99
Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2 – $US5.99

It was a heartbreaking moment for RPG fans last generation when the plug was pulled on official translation plans for the SEGA AGES releases of Phantasy Star: Generation 1 and Phantasy Star: Generation 2 on the PlayStation 2. The remakes were considered to be the only good thing to come out of the SEGA AGES project under the 3D AGES venture.

Thanks to the hard work of a young lady by the name of Kyence, you can now enjoy Phantasy Star: Generation 1 on the PlayStation 2 in English (on a modded system or emulator, at least).

Two versions of the patch are available – one using the Japanese character names, and one using the English character names. You can get the patches here.

Kyence plans to tackle Phantasy Star: Generation 2 next.

Want to know everything there is to know about the Punch Out!! series? Melburnian Daniel Lanciana has launched a Kickstarter campaign to create a 240 page encyclopedia on Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!!.

The book is complete – the campaign is intended to help the team raise money to get copyright clearance from Nintendo and cover the cost of printing the books – vanity publishing doesn’t come cheap!

Chipping in $US10 will get you a high quality eBook version of the guide. If you want a physical copy of the book, you’ll need to up your pledge to $US125. I’m a sucker for these high quality coffee style books, so I hope this campaign succeeds.

If you thought Command & Conquer: The First Decade was a good deal, wait til you get a load of Command & Conquer: The Ultimate Collection, due to hit stores and EA’s Origin service in October.

For $US49.99 or £24.99 (no AU price yet), you get the following Command & Conquer games:
Command & Conquer
Command & Conquer: The Covert Operations
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Command & Conquer: Red Alert – Counterstrike
Command & Conquer: Red Alert – The Aftermath
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun – Firestorm
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
Command & Conquer: Red Alert – Yuri’s Revenge
Command & Conquer: Renegade
Command & Conquer: Generals
Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Uprising
Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight

That’s a lot of Command & Conquer – no Sole Survivor, though!

Nintendo eShop (Australia, Europe)

3DS Virtual Console
Kirby’s Star Stacker (Game Boy) – $AU4.95

Nintendo eShop (North America)

3DS Virtual Console
Toki Tori (Game Boy Color) – $US3.99

PlayStation Store (Australia, Europe)

New Releases
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD – $AU23.95

PlayStation Store (North America)

New Releases
Ratchet & Clank HD – $US14.99
Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando HD – $US14.99
Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal HD – $US14.99
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD – $US14.99
Psychonauts (PS2 Classics) – $US9.99

Discounts
Space Channel 5 Part 2 – $US2.99 (PSPlus only)
Neo Geo Station – 50% off the following (or all together for $US39.99)
Alpha Mission II
Art of Fighting
Baseball Stars Professional
Baseball Stars 2
Fatal Fury
League Bowling
Magician Lord
Metal Slug
Metal Slug 2
Samurai Shodown
Shock Troopers
Super Sidekicks
The King of Fighters ’94
The King of Fighters ’95
The King of Fighters ’96
World Heroes

Good Old Games

Discounts
Strategy Weekend – 50% off the following:
Age of Wonders
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic
Age of Wonders 2: The Wizard’s Throne
Capitalism 2
Master of Magic
Pharaoh + Cleopatra
Total Annihilation: Commander Pack
Total Annihilation Kingdoms + Expansion
Warlords Battlecry 3
Zeus + Poseidon