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Mad Catz to unveil Xbox Live Arcade Stick for Xbox 360
If you're one of the few hardcore folks that have been getting by with a hacked Street Fighter joystick on your Xbox 360, Mad Catz is (hopefully) coming to the rescue. All signs are currently pointing towards the impending release of a retro-styled Xbox Live Arcade Stick that not only adds an entirely new dimension to those immensely addicting HD Xbox Live arcade titles, but is rumored to actually include a few with the purchase of the 'stick. While things aren't set in stone quite yet, a few internet sleuths nabbed a screen cap (hit the read link for a peek) of the pre-order page -- which was quickly yanked, of course -- that shows an awkwardly high $69.99 price and an October ship date. Our friends over at Joystiq have claimed that the yankage occurred because Mad Catz still hasn't finalized which games it'll toss in, and for reasons beyond our understanding, have suggested that we'll see a $49.99 pricetag when the pre-order (really) officially starts. Whatever the holdup, we're glad to see someone stepping up and offering us retro gamers a controller that feels a bit more natural, and we'll consider this kit a much more worthwhile purchase should it actually drop for under 50 bucks.[Via Joystiq]
Epyx returns to PSP
The retro compilations keep on coming to the PSP. If the Genesis-era of gaming is still too new for you, then you'll be glad to know that the popular line of Commodore 64 games published by Epyx are making a comeback. Impossible Mission will hit in January and California Games will follow in May. The Last Ninja trilogy will be making a comeback as well. Although these games will be remakes, they won't be 3D:"You gotta keep the gameplay mechanics the same or else it ceases to be the original game and you're only using the game brand to sell games," Kale (System 3 founder) said. "It ceases to be Impossible Mission or California Games or what have you. ... What we're doing is we're incorporating the original gameplay and mechanics and bringing the gameplay up to date."The remakes will also be available on the DS and Nintendo Wii.[Via DS Fanboy]
Xbox Live Arcade Stick priced at $50, includes games
Contrary to what the recently deceased EB Games page indicated, the newly revealed Xbox Live Arcade Stick from Mad Catz will actually retail for $49.99 and will come bundled with extras. Several full Live Arcade games are to be included with the purchase, simultaneously enhancing the stick's value and implying that someone working for the prolific peripheral producer does, in fact, have a functioning brain. We're rather fond of those.The leaked (and still very small) sales sheet was promptly yanked because Mad Catz is still gripped by the process of finalizing which games they'll be tossing in. If we weren't barred entry from metaphorical casinos, we'd place our brightly colored chips on Frogger, Galaga and Pac-Man being the survivors of a rigorous selection process. It's unclear as to what kind of an endorsement would make the Arcade Stick itself survive the retail world, though a sticker reading "Not the standard D-pad!" would probably suffice.
Capcom Classics trailer travels through time
The retro hits just keep on coming today! This newly released trailer of the upcoming Capcom Classics Reloaded compliation shows off the game in action, and it gets a retro-loving gamer like myself pretty excited. Not only will it feature Street Figher II, and Ghouls 'n Goblins, it'll also come with game-sharing so that you and your friends can play using just one UMD. The compliation will feature more than 15 games, and will collect stats, and save things like cheats and music in galleries that you can easily access. Best of all, it has a nice budget price of $27 shipped on amazon.com. The game comes out October 24th.
Sega does what Nintendon't on your PSP
If you're into classic games like me, you're probably eagerly awaiting the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console feature so that you can play not only some Nintendo games, but some Genesis games as well. For those of you Sony fanboys that'll avoid the Wii like its a smelly grandmother, there's finally an alternative: Sega Genesis Collection, a compliation of nearly thirty Genesis games is heading to the PSP. The disc will not only come loaded with the games, but exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. PSP owners can rejoice in knowing that an exclusive wireless multiplayer mode is being created just for them. Maybe it'll even support Game Sharing? (I hope so!) Here's the list of games: Alex Kidd Altered Beast Bonanza Bros. Columns Comix Zone Decap Attack Ecco the Dolphin Ecco: The Tides of Time Ecco Jr. Eternal Champions Flicky Gain Ground Golden Axe Golden Axe II Golden Axe III Phantasy Star II Phantasy Star III Phantasy Star IV Ristar Shadow Dancer: Secret of Shinobi Shinobi III Sonic the Hedgehog Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Super Thunderblade Sword of Vermillion Vectorman Vectorman 2 Virtua Fighter 2 Whoa... out of breath just reading that list. Visit 1up to see details about all of these classics.
SF2: 24 hour love affair
So you've spent a day kicking Chun-Li's ass, or at least trying to. Is Street Fighter 2's retro Live play all that you dreamed it would be? Anybody make the top of the leaderboard, however briefly?
Pong clock unboxing, finally
It seems like ages ago when we first laid our eyes on the nostalgic hotness that is the Pong clock, but now it has finally made its way into the greedy hands of the select few consumers who punked down for theirs, and there are pictures to prove it. The unboxing shows --as one might expect -- the unit as it goes from its packaging to the wall, where it looks incredibly small when compared to an iMac (the actual display is only 12 x 16cm). Another picture of a letter that accompanied the unit, certifies that at least one of the 400 units being produced has now been accounted for, so you better get your $240 order into designer Buro Vormkrijgers soon, if they're not already sold out. Oh, damn, they are. All the more reason to enjoy the unboxing, eh?
Ninty NES mints box; retro fresh breath
Continuing the trend of placing the iconic NES controller design on practically everything you can imagine, here's a packet of NINTENDO POWER MINTS for your bad gamers breath. C'mon, just because Contra is addictive doesn't mean you have to go in for the whole "we're men with guns, we don't care about our dental health" thing.[Via Wonderland]
All-tube digital clock, seven years in the making
Nixie clocks, which use little vacuum tubes to display the numbers, have been around for a while. Geeks build them, hipsters put them in their lofts, and they range from very cool to not so cool. Now Friedhelm Bruegmann, a member of the German Tube Collectors Association, has spent seven years of his life putting together an all-tube digital clock. Instead of a little quartz module, he uses 103 tubes to calculate and display the time. Yes, it looks like a small army of pointy silver-headed robots. No, it's not for sale, but Friedhelm's site is so detailed, you can probably hack one together yourself in a decade or so.[Via Music Thing]
Flickr Find: Old Radio, new iPod Speakers
Ok, this is just cool. Flickr user obeyken had a great looking old radio hanging around and he thought, 'Why not make this into an amplifier and speakers for my iPod?' That's just what he did, and he posted pictures on Flickr charting his progress.[via MAKE]
Amazon supports retro gaming
Jason spotted this gem over on Amazon's "browse by system" link. It's great that they're still supporting systems that could be considered retro (Mario Kart 64 anyone? No? How about Crazy Taxi for your DC?), although excluding modern platforms like the DS and the Xbox 360 may not be in their best interest. Maybe they should start up an operation in Senegal? We hear that retro is really popular over there.
TEAC's AM/FM RADIO R-1W
We loves to get old school now and again, so this new AM/FM radio from TEAC is looking pretty sweet right about now. The R-1W features some free swingin' BASS/TREBLE knobs, 10 hours off battery (with 2 hour recharge), a 1.5W 65mm speaker, headphone jack, and weighs just 3-pounds. Still, she manages to keep things fresh via an AUX IN jack for connecting your fave MP3 player. Now, if they could just slap on a few toggle switches we'll happily fork over the ¥12,600/$110 when these drop the 16th of June in Japan.[Via Impress]
Darwinia to evolve on XBLA
According to the German blog Xbox Archiv, Microsoft and Introversion Software are in negotiations to bring the highly regarded PC title Darwinia to Xbox Live Arcade. Apparently, they got the info directly from MS (Deutsch speakers please provide a respectable translation). It's by no means a done deal, but let's hope it happens. This stylish budget RTS/puzzler was widely praised last August for it's cool art design, addictive gameplay and general retro appeal -- all the stuff that makes a great XBLA game.[Thanks Papa Moll]
Retro look at extreme exaggeration in game adverts
"Do not have any other arcade machines before Me. Do not represent such arcade machines by any stories or pictures of anything in the heaven above, on the earth below, or in the water below the land. Do not bow down to arcade machines or worship them. I am God your Lord, a God who demands exclusive worship."Obviously someone from Neo-Geo forgot to read the Bible. We all know that we're supposed to bow down and worship our [fanboys, insert your console of choice here] on a daily basis. Arcade machines are for heathens.GameSetWatch has posted a brilliant article that highlights several examples of "visual hyperbole" being used in video game advertisements. The article looks at several examples where the marketing department might have gone a little too far, although in retrospect we're glad they did because it gives us the chance to laugh our socks off at their outrageous attempts to get people to buy their games.[Via Vintage Computing]See also:Lara advert portrays her massive buttHitman ad with undertones of rape
Music Thing: Modern Analog Synths
Each week Tom Whitwell of Music Thing highlights the best of the new music gear that's coming out, as well as noteworthy vintage equipment: A year ago, if you were in a band and wanted to buy a basic monophonic analog synth with a keyboard, you had one option: eBay. Aside from Moog's in-no-way-basic Voyager (yours for $3,000 and up), all the other possibilities had been out of production for 20 years or more. Now all that's changed. A generation of musicians have grown up on the knob-covered retro-flavoured interfaces of software like Propellerheads' Reason. They've bought cheap "Virtual Analog" digital synths like Korg's incredibly popular (and endlessly complained-about) MicroKorg. But now they want the real thing. And if it comes with a guarantee and can actually stay in tune on stage, so much the better.
Retro folk discuss Metroid Prime 3 Corruption
Following the flood of news coming from last week's E3, Retro Studios' Game Director Marc Pacini and Senior Producer Bryan Walker, along with Production Group No. 3's Kensuke Tanabe, commented on some of the features that will be in the final build of Metroid Prime 3 Corruption. In addition to discussing the ability for the player to go into Hyper Mode at any time during the game and a larger role for Samus' ship (bombing runs!), the team also took heavy inspiration from past Metroid titles such as Super Metroid in an attempt to find the perfect balance between the old and the new.
GameTap booth tour [update 1]
The GameTap booth is not one of those huge monstrosities that had to be trucked in on a fleet of 18-wheel semis, but it is a good example of a booth done fairly well on a limited budget. Plentiful kiosks, coherent branding, and a decent sound system fed tunes by a live DJ cum booth babe. The booth's low points -- trite "industrial" exposed steel, cheap plastic game controllers instead of classic arcade joysticks, conventional design -- were somewhat overcome by the quality of the real product on display. Simply put: GameTap's 500-plus-title library is impressive, and we shouldn't let a little boring booth design undermine our evaluation of the product. We know this, and yet sometimes it's hard to remember to keep the booths and the products separate! Continue for more photos.
Limited-edition t-shirt for readers at E3
Peter got one (it'll show off those tattooed pipes right nicely). Now you can get one too, if you stop by the AOL booth at E3's West Hall today between 11 AM PDT and 12 PM PDT. We will only be handing these shirts out for one hour or until supplies last (whichever is shorter). Please keep this our little secret, as we want this to be a reward for Joystiq readers, not any old random schwag hunter.
Make your Mac sound retro
Sure, all these new Macs are great, but sometimes you just want your Mac to sound like System Seven. Luckily, Uneasysilence has heard your pleas and has made several 'retro' Mac alert sounds available on his blog. Wild Eep, Sosumi, ChuToy, Submarine (which is my favorite)... they are all there! Go get 'em and give your Intel Mac a little more soul.
Horror history: Inside 3D Monster Maze
Developed for the Sinclair ZX81 twenty-five years ago, 3D Monster Maze occupies a tender spot in European gamers' hearts; consisting of a maze rendered in contemporary 3D and complete with a monster, it truly lived up to its title. As the first 3D title for a home computer, and the first corridor-based horror game, 3DMM is considered by some to be the first FPS, a precursor to the likes of Doom -- technically the game features no shooting, but there are similar elements.However, it wasn't developed as a game at all, as this behind-the-scenes look by Edge reveals. Originally a learning exercise, the frightening T-Rex only came to life after a casual suggestion, and the game's air of horror and suspense developed from there. This story really brings to life the days of bedroom coders and the times when a game could change on the creator's whim, although anyone who remembers the cold sweat induced by the words "HE HAS SEEN YOU" is probably quite glad they're over.
