nintendo-64
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Sony vs Nintendo in the motion sensitive arena
There's been an enormous amount of brouhaha about whether or not Sony added the motion sensitive feature to their controller after Nintendo announced the Wii, or if they had been planning it all along. Now Sony fanboys are claiming, via the YouTube video after the jump, that they had motion sensitive controllers back on the original PlayStation, so Nintendo must have copied the idea from Sony. Nobody seems to notice that it wasn't Sony who made the motion sensitive controller back then. Since it was pre-2000, then it's ancient history, in Net-time.
Skull Kid figurine makes fans swoon
Skull Kid was such a huge pain in the ass in the Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask that we weren't too happy to see his, er, face, being a beautiful nine inch tall figurine or not. On second thought, he looks quite incredible. Not as incredible as the Fierce Deity Link but really darn close. Being the Zelda freaks we are, we still find it hard to drop $100 on this figurine. Still, it is pretty awesome. [Thanks Alex!]
Found: Nintendo's lost N64 racer, Mini Racers
A dev cart of Nintendo's cancelled N64 racer Mini Racers recently surfaced in Marlborough, MA via a Craigslist post. That post has since been removed, but Joystiq has been in touch with the author, who writes:"There seems to be some speculation as to the legitimacy of [the dev cart in my possession]. As you can see [pictured], it is an official Nintendo dev cart. Some folks commented [see original post] that the contents will last forever, which is more or less true on a standard mass produced cart. As this game was never mass produced this may very well be the only cart with Mini Racers on it. Dev carts are known to be very unstable and only meant to hold roms in flash memory for testing purposes. Frankly, I am surprised that the game lasted as long as it did. Also, you will see a picture drawn on the cart, it is rumored that it was drawn by the Lead Designer of the game.I still haven't found anyone local to do the deed. I would be willing to bring the cart to wherever within MA by that person's terms, so no one needs to worry about a kidnapping. I just don't want to send it off to some stranger who may never return it. Unless I find someone local, the rom may never find its way off the cart."You may contact the owner here.
Craigslist poster has unreleased Mini Racers, offering free N64 rom for services [update1]
A Craigslist poster out of Marlborough, MA is offering a "Free Never Released N64 Game," allegedly developed by Nintendo. The owner is interested in preserving the contents of the game by creating a rom backup.Anyone with the equipment to do so is free to contact the poster, presumably head over to the location in Marlborough, do the good deed, and in return, receive a copy of the rom. We have contacted the poster for more details and are awaiting a response. In the meantime, if you're in the area, mind doing a little investigation of your own? (If you do, please use wise judgment.)UPDATE: While the Craigslist post has since been removed, the poster has confirmed with us that the game is Mini Racers, developed by Looking Glass, which is now defunct. Nintendo planned to publish the promising RC Pro-Am-like racer, but when Looking Glass went under, the game was cancelled. Interestingly enough, as IGN reported back on May 31, 2000, "the game [was] completed, approved and turned over to Nintendo." Also worth noting, Looking Glass was headquartered in Cambridge, MA, just 30 or so miles from Marlborough, where the poster is located. Coincidence?[Thanks, evilmax17]
Ad critic retro: Perfect Dark (N64)
One of the nice things about hanging on to old gaming magazines is the archive of classic ads they provide. I found this promo for the original Perfect Dark in the 10th anniversary issue of Entertainment Weekly (Spring 2000). Rare's sultry heroine is ready for war against the evil dataDyne corporation and those menacing Skedar -- notice the subtle alien presence in the upper right-hand corner.But how does this Joanna Dark model stack up (pardon the pun) against the lovely ladies who portrayed Ms. Croft? Her hairstyle and skin-tight, black leather outfit certainly seem to have inspired the wardrobe department for the Aeon Flux movie and game.It's interesting to note that a key promotional element persistent in today's gaming ads is absent here, which is a little surprising given the influence of the Internet on the gaming community at that time. Maybe Rare was too busy making a kick-ass game to bother with a web site (anybody remember if there was one?). In retrospect, it didn't really matter as Perfect Dark became one of the most popular and successful titles for the Nintendo 64. In fact, it was so good, I bet they'll make a sequel some day!Update: Thanks to RyanH for helping my tired old eyes. There is indeed a tiny "www.perfectdark.com" URL embedded in the fine print. Also, thanks to NothingShocking for posting URLs of the game's viral marketing campaign.
Goldeneye tested on 12 year-old, fails 'timeless' test
AddictedGeek.com recently dropped a N64, four controllers, and a copy of the much-beloved Goldeneye in front of a 12 year-old. Mind you, said 12 year-old, while a "confirmed geek," has never played a game that predates 2001. His entire gaming collection is firmly rooted in a high end PC, Xbox 360, and PS2.So what was this young upstart's reaction to what many of us consider a 'timeless classic?' Well, the little bastard panned it:"The single-player was one of the worst I have ever played ... I can see why it was so popular when it first came out, but nowadays very few aspects of the game stand out, and many more pull it back ... it wasn't long before we pulled out Halo 2." (Kids these days...)
Portable N64 site lives again, mocks us
The site for this incredible portable N64 dubbed -- mysteriously -- the L64, has been presumably recuperating after a thorough digging and Engadgeting(?) last week. Worst part about it all: the L64's creator, Marshall, turned us onto his creation ten days before that! We missed the boat and we deal with the consequences; namely, not being able to show you this thing until now. Now that his site is all better, we think you'll be plenty pleased with Marshall's labor of love. His site has plenty of pix of the assembly with some added commentary. Think he might have made himself a BenHeck-killer there. So sure, Marshall just happens to work as an industrial designer with a dozen years fabbing ... what's that? Marshall says, "In fact I'm not any bigwig of the game industry, I'm just a 16 year old with too much time..." Yeah, and now we're totally dejected. Seriously Marshall, tell us you were kidding. You're a pro, right?
L64 redefines portable N64 style
So, no disrespect intended towards the great Ben Heckendorn, but this reworked Nintendo 64 painstakingly assembled by a modder named "Marshall" is one of the best looking DIY portable consoles we've ever seen. Known as the L64 (which stands, rather geekily, for L337-N64), this device takes Heckendorn's N64p and styles it in a completely faithful Nintendo-inspired package, with support for external controllers and all of the N64's titles including those that require an expansion pack. Seriously, this thing looks so good, we're thinking that instead of paying professionals thousands of bucks to develop crappy hardware like the N-Gage, Nokia and friends might be better off crowdsourcing their product design to guys like Marshall, Ben, and their legions of fellow fanboys who seem to have a real flair for this kind of work.[Via digg]
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.
Wii impressions: Virtual Console
The classic controller is a good fit, albeit unfamiliar, for a gamepad that supports NES, SNES, N64, Sega Genesis, and TurboGrafx 16. Part of the sacrifice though, is that the classic controller can't offer an authentic retro experience and, of course, leaves us wondering, why bother? It's no secret that all of these platforms and their games are readily available in emulated formats for computers and other devices. And it's easy enough to invest in a gamepad that's as generic as Nintendo's classic controller. For Virtual Console to succeed, it's got to be clean, easy, and cheap. That said, the E3 Virtual Console demo featured an elegant interface (the downloading process was not shown) and superb emulation software. The demo featured a sampling of beloved launch titles, including Super Mario Bros. (NES), Super Mario World (SNES), Super Mario 64 (N64), Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis), and Bonk's Adventure (TurboGrafx 16).
Games that pushed the limits, parts 2 and 3
Racketboy has returned, as promised, with the second and third installments of his look at games that pushed the limits. We're not talking about games that pushed the limits of decency, like Sega's Night Trap, or the limits of human patience, like any version of last year's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but pushed the technical limits of their respective platforms.The platforms in part two are (arguably) the redheaded stepchildren of console gaming. Love 'em or hate 'em, they're not considered to be successes. Atari's Jaguar (and the super-popular Jaguar CD add-on), the ill-fated 3DO, Sega's x-citing 32X add-on, and Sega's "sneak-attack" Saturn. Part three includes big boys like Sony's party-crashing PlayStation, the cartridge'd Nintendo 64, and the Dreamcast, the console that history has--and will--remember kindly.Part four will cover portable gaming and--based on the release schedule of the earlier installments--should be up any day now.
Body ports: Nintendo controller port tattoos
Go Nintendo reader Olivier sent them pictures of his tattoos, an armband featuring controller ports from Nintendo's various consoles: NES, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, and GameCube. There's something very eXistenZ about having gaming ports on your body; admittedly, they're not on his lower spine... though that would be a cool tattoo.
Exploded N64 controller; a study in reverse-engineering
Cmr8286, aka Cole Ranze, has posted some images at deviantART of an exploded Nintendo64 controller, part of a reverse-engineering project. Cole says: "This was done for an [materials & processes] class I took last semester. The project was to reverse engineer a product and examine with what and by what means it was made. Instead of pasting the parts up on a board and labeling them, I thought this was a better way to present this particular product. It also has a nice sculptural appeal, I feel."Beautiful.[Via 4cr]