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‘Super Mario 64’ is an online multiplayer game thanks to hero modders
Super Mario 64 turned 21 years old back in June, but the classic title lives on in the hearts and minds of players. A new fan project has taken that collective nostalgia to another level with a downloadable version of the game allowing up to 24 friends to play through the (formerly) single-player adventure. But given Nintendo's extremely low tolerance for unauthorized versions of its games, play it now before the company DMCA's it off the internet.
Turn your smartphone into a Game Boy with Hyperkin’s Smartboy
The first of April has long been a day for practical jokes and silly pranks -- and there's no escape from April fools on the internet. Companies like ThinkGeek regularly announce fake products on April 1st, only to have customer demand push those jokes into production. It didn't take long for companies to start using the prankster's holiday as a soft test bed for silly ideas. That's how Hyperkin announced the SmartBoy -- a gamepad case that lets your smartphone play real Nintendo Game Boy cartridges. Two years later and Hyperkin's ridiculous April Fool's gag is actually a real product -- and, believe it or not, it's actually pretty cool.
Play the lost 'Rayman' prototype if you have a SNES emulator
While the dream of playing a lost version of Rayman for Super NES on Nintendo's Switch console hasn't come true (yet), we have a bit of an update about the game itself. Archivist and game developer Omar Cornut recently borrowed the ROM original developer Michel Ancel (above) teased last fall, dumped it to his computer and then uploaded the files to Dropbox for everyone to play. Everyone who has a Super NES emulator that'll read a .SFC extension, of course.
Go back to 1984 with Internet Archive's Macintosh collection
Not content to sit on the sidelines, the Internet Archive recently resurrected something, too. This time, it's a swath of apps, games and software from the original Macintosh circa 1984. That means stuff like Lode Runner, MacOS System 7.0.1, Microsoft BASIC 2.0 and Space Invaders are on offer in their pixelated, black-and-white glory. Just like the old days. Except, you know, these run in a browser window. The Archive says this collection of stuff from 1984 to 1989 is just the first set of emulations from the machine, so it might not be too long before more apps are available.
Here is a tiny GameBoy emulator for your tiny Apple Watch screen
The last place you'd probably want to play a video game is on an Apple Watch. The wearable has a tiny screen, almost no buttons and can only be operated with one hand. It's a completely impractical gaming device, but developer Gabriel O'Flaherty-Chan made a Game Boy emulator for it anyway.
Cancelled '90s arcade fighter 'Primal Rage II' released online
Forget Tekken 7, 2017's hottest new fighting game has just arrived - only it's 22 years later than originally expected. After being cancelled in 1995, Kotaku reports that Atari's long-lost Primal Rage II has found its way onto the internet. Downloading an emulator will allow 90's fighting fans to dive straight into a competent build of the ill-fated beat 'em up. While some menus are still incomplete and it has its fair share of bugs, players will find that the dino-brawling itself works.
Nintendo's Switch might play GameCube games
Following years of pining after GameCube games on the Virtual Console, it looks like Nintendo fans will soon be getting their wish. According to a recent report by Eurogamer, the Nintendo Switch is rumored to be the first Nintendo console to offer GameCube games on its Virtual Console. Citing several sources within the company, the article states that Nintendo already has classic titles like Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion and Super Smash Bros. Melee running on the Switch.
Google snaps up the creators of a game-focused Android emulator
You can already run Android apps on a Chromebook, but would you run games and other intensive mobile apps on it? Probably not. However, Google might be taking steps to make that practical. The creators of LeapDroid, an Android emulator that specializes in games, have revealed that they're joining Google just months after releasing it to the public. The team isn't discussing "specific plans," but they're halting both development and support for LeapDroid. You can continue running the latest version, but you won't get anything more than that.
Add-on brings Game Boy cartridges to your Android phone
Hyperkin toyed with gamers last year when it teased a peripheral that would play real Game Boy cartridges on your phone, but it wasn't just kidding around -- it's making good on its word. The company is now taking pre-orders for a Smart Boy Development Kit that lets your Android smartphone play Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges. The $60 peripheral isn't meant for everyday use -- Hyperkin is hoping you'll improve the open source code yourself. Nonetheless, it's likely the closest you'll get to reviving your childhood short of dragging the original hardware out of storage. Just be ready to wait until December 1st to get yours... and while Hyperkin originally talked about an iPhone version, Apple handset users are out of luck so far. [Thanks, Kristy]
Burger King Game Boy toy turned into real retro handheld
At the turn of the Millennium, Burger King handed out adorable tiny Game Boy Colors with fake Pokémon cartridges. Sixteen years later and a modder, armed with a Raspberry Pi Zero, has turned one of the dummy units into a working console. Paired with a two-inch display from Adafruit and Retropie's software emulator, the title will play Game Boy Color and Advance titles with its now working buttons. Although, of course, since there's only A&B, you might struggle with titles that need the shoulder bumpers too. It's not the first time that we've seen Raspberry Pi's tiny board being used in this way, with a full-size Game Boy being turned into an emulator earlier this year. Given how many broken handhelds are available on eBay, we imagine everyone's going to devote a weekend to building their own.
Windows 95 on an Apple Watch is wonderfully impractical
The quest to put Windows 95 on seemingly everything just achieved one of its biggest -- or rather, smallest -- feats to date. Nick Lee managed to get Microsoft's classic operating system running on an Apple Watch by modifying a WatchKit app to load his own code (in this case, the Bochs x86 emulator) instead of Apple's usual foundations. The interface is incredibly miniscule, of course, but it works. While you don't have a true mouse pointer, you can use the touchscreen to navigate the Start menu and open apps.
Google makes building apps easier with Android Studio 2.0
In 2013, Google launched an official integrated development environment (IDE) called Android Studio to make app development for its mobile platform faster and more visual. That must have worked, as the Play Store is now bulging with nearly 1.6 million apps, the most of any store. However, it's long overdue for an overhaul, so the search giant has launched Android Studio 2.0 with plenty of new speed and productivity features.
Game Boy mod plays nearly any classic Nintendo game
It's trivial to play vintage Nintendo games if you're not picky about what devices you use. But what if you miss the look and feel of the original Game Boy? Wermy has an answer: build a Game Boy that does it all. His Game Boy Zero modification uses a Raspberry Pi Zero, a modified game cartridge and a whole lot of drilling to emulate classic NES, SNES and Game Boy titles (up to the Game Boy Advance) while preserving most of Nintendo's original look and feel. On the outside, the only concessions to modernity are the 3.5-inch color display and the stealthily integrated buttons needed to play some newer titles.
3DNes adds another dimension to classic NES games
While Nintendo and Sega have given us a handful of "3D classics" for the Nintendo 3DS, a new emulator promises to open up the field considerably. 3DNes is a Unity-based emulator that, as the name suggests, converts NES games into 3D. Unlike SNES games, which have four background layers, NES games have a single layer for the entire background, making automatic 3D conversion tricky. According to the developer, 3DNes is based on an algorithm that analyses and separates flat backgrounds into singular, 3D objects. It's not just simply stretching out pixels on another axis, either: round objects are rendered as spherical or tubular shapes.
Run 500 hard-to-find Apple II programs in your web browser
Sure, it's easy to find ways to run classic Apple II programs like The Oregon Trail or Prince of Persia. But what about that obscure educational title you remember using as a kid? Is it doomed to be forgotten? You might not have to worry. The Internet Archive has announced that its web-based emulation catalog now includes over 500 relatively tough-to-find Apple II programs that might otherwise have disappeared forever. If you remember using the likes of The Quarter Mile or The Observatory, you can fire it up without having to dig your old computer out of storage.
You can run over 1,000 Windows 3.1 programs in your browser
The Internet Archive has spent many years gathering and storing digital content from the past. It now hosts millions of web pages, texts, videos and audio snippets, but recently the site expanded its collection to include software, or more specifically, games. After making more than 2,400 DOS titles available to play in the browser, the Internet Archive has embraced the GUI and done the same for Windows 3.1.
Windows 95 on a Nintendo 3DS is as strange as you'd think
The trend of putting PC software on wholly impractical devices isn't stopping with the new year, folks. GBATemp fan Shutterbug2000 has managed to get Windows 95 running on a New Nintendo 3DS XL thanks to both DOSbox emulation and some ingenuity. You won't be doing a whole lot with this right now -- Microsoft wasn't designing for touchscreens and analog sticks two decades ago -- but it really does work on a basic level. It looks more than a little odd, too, between the tiny desktop and the emulator status on the second screen.
Recreate the old-school internet with this web browser emulator
Sure, you can visit the Internet Archive if you want to see a website the way it looked years ago, but it won't recreate the feel of browsing that site when it was fresh. What if you want both? That's where the new Oldweb.today tool might save the day. It not only grabs an archived version of the website, but gives you a choice of old browsers for the visit. If you want to know what the Space Jam movie page looked like in an era-appropriate version of Netscape Navigator, you can do it.
Microsoft delays tool that will bring Android apps to Windows
Microsoft has confirmed that a tool that lets Android apps easily run on Windows 10 is "not ready," according Windows Central and other sources. The software giant introduced the Windows Bridge for Android, dubbed "Project Astoria," earlier this year as part of a larger effort to help app-builders easily convert Web, iOS and Android apps to Windows. Developers complained that it still isn't available (unlike the other apps), though Microsoft hasn't said the project is in trouble. However, the Project Astoria forums have gone dark and Microsoft removed the Android subsystem from the last Windows 10 Mobile preview, suggesting it may be killed altogether.
Dear Veronica: Going old school with game emulators!
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-408727{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-408727, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-408727{width:570px;display:block;}try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-408727").style.display="none";}catch(e){}I can't believe it's already been 20 episodes! You guys have been awesome about sending in questions, so thank you. But enough sentimental stuff, let's get to the questions!
