resurrection
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Nintendo's NES Classic Edition returns on June 29th
About a year ago, Nintendo announced that it was effectively killing the popular NES Classic Edition. Several months later, however, fans rejoiced when the company reversed itself, saying the product would once again ship in 2018. Now we know exactly when: The retro 8-bit console will arrive on June 29th, and should be available through the end of the year, according to a Nintendo tweet.
TCL is reportedly reviving Palm with new devices in 2018
Chinese electronics company TCL boldly claimed it would release devices under the BlackBerry name to revive the brand, and its recently-released KEYone smartphone proved them right. But according to Android Planet, the company is eyeing another classic tech name to resurrect: Palm. And they could have new devices under its name by 2018.
Biotech companies get permission to test brain death reversal
Brain death in humans is normally considered irreversible. Even if you keep the body running, those damaged brain cells just won't recover to the point where you get a fully functioning person again. However, that isn't stopping Dr. Himanshu Bansal and his partners at Bioquark and Revita Life Sciences. They recently received approval from American and Indian review boards to conduct a trial aimed at eventually reversing brain death in humans. The initial, months-long test will use multiple techniques to try and regenerate brains in 20 patients, including lasers, nerve stimulation and injections of both peptides as well as stem cells.
Eleven alpha tester: Game is 'identical to Glitch'
"Incredible! I didn't expect it to be identical to Glitch, which it is." So sayeth one of Eleven's select few alpha testers, some of whom posted testimonials on the site about their experience. While a second tester cited "overwhelming" nostalgia, others were more critical of bugs, reloads, and generic visuals. The fan remake of Glitch has more than doubled its alpha test pool, from 13 to 31 players, and continues to advance the project as a whole. "This has been a great success, with many improvements being made to help improve the stability and experience while some other work is ongoing in order to bring over some more features," the devs said.
Hulu's new Disney-ABC deal brings 'X-Men' and 'Resurrection'
While Amazon and Netflix take their fight to the awards arena, Hulu is still looking for ways to make its content library stand out. Of course, it has plenty of recently or currently airing TV shows, but these days it's all about the exclusives and that's at the heart of a new deal between Hulu and ABC / Disney. According to a blog post, Hulu is the "exclusive subscription video on-demand" home for Resurrection, Mistresses, and those Devious Maids episodes you've been meaning to watch. While we wait for The Wrong Mans to fill in the holes, it's also adding some non-exclusive shows, including the X-Men cartoon (RIP Saturday mornings, and it looks like they're not on Netflix anymore), Melissa & Joey, Alias, Body of Proof, Twisted, Make it or Break It, Spider-Man and Iron Man: Armored Adventures.
Eleven (the Glitch resurrection project) is moving into alpha
It's been two years since Glitch shut down, and there are two possible responses to that. The first is to be sad that the MMO landscape lost an attractive, quirky, interesting little game. The second is to be quite happy because Eleven, the project that seeks to restore the original functionality of Glitch with a new team as a labor of love, is entering its alpha test phase. How awesome is that? The first phase of testing is not a particularly large one: The amount of functional stuff in the game is tiny, and only 13 people are getting let in for test purposes. But it does mean that the project is moving along, and those lucky 13 people are going to get to play a game whose fans have been mourning ever since its shutdown. It's also a project done with Tiny Speck's blessing, ensuring that a successful alpha test now is the first step toward opening the doors of this world once more.
Suba Games is bringing Dream of Mirror Online back
It's always sad when you lose a game that meant a lot to you. Dream of Mirror Online made a pretty big impact on a number of players, and it's been gone for a while. Yet sometimes it turns out that the game is less gone than you had previously thought, which is also the case with Dream of Mirror Online. It's coming roaring back under the aegis of Suba Games. When? Where? How? Who can say? The team behind this unexpected revival certainly can't, as the official post states that there are no more details to be announced at this time. Still, there's a very quick trailer past the break, and if you've been missing the game, you can take some joy in the fact that it is happening after all. So isn't that enough? [Thanks to Evan for the tip!]
Museum hopes to resurrect Habitat, 'world's first MMO'
So here's a bizarre little piece of MMO news for your Friday morning: This weekend, with the help of Kixeye and Fujitsu, a volunteer-driven, public museum in Oakland, California, hopes to relaunch an antique Lucasfilm game called Habitat, which it's calling the world's first massively multiplayer online game (that part is probably debatable, but let's hear them out). "The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (The MADE) will be spending Sunday, September 28th, attempting to resurrect the world's first massively multiplayer online game, Habitat. The project seeks to relaunch the Habitat server on original Stratus Technologies hardware from 1989, and to allow users on the Internet to connect to the game server for free using a Commodore 64 emulator. The MADE is the first videogame museum to attempt such a relaunch. In fact, there has never been an attempt to relaunch a 28 year old, dead MMO before, primarily because MMO's are mostly a phenomenon that has existed only over the last 15 years." According to Wikipedia's curators, Habitat was created in 1985 as the "first attempt at a large-scale commercial virtual community that was graphically based" and is "considered a forerunner of the modern MMORPGs." MADE even claims the game invented the term "Avatar" for use in online games. The 1989-era server hardware it'll run on can today support 10,000 users, says the museum. Massively's very own Game Archaeologist, Justin Olivetti, investigated Habitat's history in a two-part series in 2012. The Game Archaeologist moves into Lucasfilm's Habitat: Part 1 The Game Archaeologist moves into Lucasfilm's Habitat: Part 2
Massively Interview: How Eleven is fighting to bring Glitch back
The Massively staffers were delighted to hear that one of our favorite quirky browser MMOs might be coming back from the dead. Fan projects such as Eleven and Children of Ur, the latter of which is in a playable pre-alpha, are often at an extreme disadvantage with such resurrection projects, as they can lack legality, resources, and access to the original code. However, in this particular case, it looks as though Glitch might be a go for a return, as Tiny Speck has blessed player efforts and released the source code and art assets to help out. Of course, this doesn't mean that there isn't a huge mountain of obstacles to surmount, but if anyone's to do it it, it might very well be the Eleven team. We reached out to Project Lead Jim Condren and several members of his team to get a better feel for where the project is at and when we might be playing Glitch once more.
Legend of Edda is returning September 24th
You could be completely forgiven for thinking that Legend of Edda had breathed its last when the game shut down at the beginning of this year. It was cute, but it just couldn't sustain itself. But the game is getting another lease on life starting on September 24th, when the game opens up under new publisher JC Planet. The opening will not feature any wipes or resets, apparently skipping public testing in favor of moving straight to launch. Numerous launch events are planned, including bonuses for registering your account before the start of service and for reaching level 20 quickly after the 24th rolls around. If you'd always meant to take a look at the game but never quite managed to, you'll be getting another shot at it in just a little while, hopefully without the issues that made it shut its doors back in January. [Thanks to Evan for the tip!]
NCsoft might allow players to resurrect the City of Heroes IP
There's good news for City of Heroes fans to celebrate now, even if it's not a finished thing yet. Nate Downes, President of Missing Worlds Media, has posted about a project wholly unrelated to City of Titans and yet entirely tied to it: the quest to resurrect the City of Heroes IP. He explains a story that began in September of last year, starting with a few contacts within NCsoft who led to the ultimate goal of resurrecting the last version of the game as well as licensing out the IP to its spiritual successors. The proposal currently on the table before NCsoft would allow the game's spiritual successors to drop the "spiritual" portion of their title, enable a restoration of the game's servers for the last update (albeit with no saved character data), and create the potential for a "transition" server between the original game and its successors. While it's far from a done deal, it's the best news that the former residents of Paragon City have heard since the lights went dark -- there may be brightness on the horizon.
Dungeon Fighter Online returns from the dead
It was a about a year ago that Dungeon Fighter Online closed up shop in North America, but the scrappy MMO might be back for round two. The resurrected version of Dungeon Fighter Online is being run by developer Neople, not Nexon. The studio plans to begin the alpha test of DFO tomorrow, May 15th. This will be an open alpha test requiring players to use their Facebook accounts to access. "As some of you rightly mentioned, this is an alpha test, not a full re-opening of the game," Neople cautioned on its Facebook page. "So there might be bits and pieces that don't go as smoothly as we want, and we sincerely hope the DFO community understands this." [Thanks to everyone who sent in this tip!]
Japanese Resident Evil Outbreak, File No. 2 playable online again
Capcom's online multiplayer adaptations of the Resident Evil series, Resident Evil Outbreak and Resident Evil Outbreak File No. 2, are online again thanks to an effort on the Outbreak Server forum led by "the_fog." Unfortunately, you'll need a Japanese copy of the game to join up with a band of survivors. When asked about the odds of the NTSC version of either game getting back online, the_fog said they were "nearly 100% sure that this will not happen." Citing a difference of middleware used for the Japanese and NTSC verisons as well as a lack of data packet captures from the NTSC games, the_fog estimated the process of bringing the NTSC version online would take "a half year or so." Aside from the time and money it would cost, the_fog also discarded the idea by saying the difference in language wasn't a good enough reason to do it. The forum's FAQ lists "functional online lobbies and games" as options for players, as well as support for "different game modes in File [No.] 2 (such as boys only, girls only, and nightmare)." It might be difficult to navigate the involved Japanese text, but this is a great chance for Outbreak fans to relive their glory days, unless Capcom were to make a third entry. [Thanks, CJ!]
Take a tour of Dragon Nest's Resurrection update
Dragon Nest (not to, y'know, be confused with any other game sporting the dragon moniker) is prepping for an exciting update to this action MMO. Called Resurrection, the patch will bump up the level cap to 60, add five new dungeons to the game, and offer players the chance to earn some truly outrageous gear. We've got a video tour of the Resurrection patch after the jump to help give you a good feel for what it's offering. It's bold, it's zesty, it's everything that you want in a salad dressing but are getting in an online roleplaying game!
WoW Moviewatch: Resurrection
Resurrection is an old movie. It was one of the early generation of very long, story-driven machinima. Created in part for a contest, this version of Resurrection ran a mere 10 minutes. But if you liked it, then Bear on a Trampoline (the creator) suggested you check out the full half-hour version. 30 minutes is a long time for a machinima, but it was generally worth your time. Resurrection was recommended for a re-feature by ArcVekter, who recalls it as one of the first machinima that inspired his love of the game. So whether you're seeing it for the first time, or checking it out again 6 years later, kick back and enjoy the upcoming Resurrection. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
The Game Archaeologist: Asheron's Call 2 returns from the dead
No, the above picture is not some sort of long-forgotten, dusty archive picture of Asheron's Call 2 from back in the day; it's from the live game this past Thursday evening. How incredibly, insanely weird is that? Turbine absolutely stunned the MMO community the other day when it casually announced that it was bringing back its second title, cancelled since 2005, on a new server. Our editor-in-chief burst into the office chat room screaming, "AC2! AC2! AC2!" It took us a minute to realize that she wasn't just discovering the Assassin's Creed series but had in fact learned that the impossible had happened: An old, deceased MMO had been brought back to life. As the resident MMO historian here at Massively, I felt this was kind of like going to Jurassic Park and seeing all of those dinosaurs after spending most of my time merely reading about them. In the blink of an eye, Asheron's Call 2 went from the ancient past to the playable present. We've got a lot to talk about today, including my hands-on experiences with the title and thoughts about what this means for classic MMOs. Let's not waste any time!
The Game Archaeologist: When dead MMOs come back to life
Maybe I'm alone in this, but my jaw just dropped when I came home this past week to see that Massively posted the news that Shadowbane is coming back to life. Granted, it's only going to happen in China, but still, that's pretty incredible. Shadowbane's been in the ground for three years now, and if I had to pick an MMO that deserved resurrection, this particular one would be farthest from my mind (no offense if you liked the game; it's just that there are so many others that are even more worthy). But how can this not give you hope? Many of us have lost an MMO we loved or at least had a decked-out character populating the character select screen, and the thought of that game coming back against all odds is a goosebump-rising one. It may also smack of justice served, as some MMOs fail not because of faulty gameplay but because of mismanagement by the studio, complex legal wrangling, or bad marketing. Today let's look at a few examples of dead MMOs that were brought back to life and what this may mean for the future of the industry. Zombie MMOs! Not, you know, MMOs with zombies.
Blizzard buffs the bejeezus out of WoW's Scroll of Resurrection
World of Warcraft's Scroll of Resurrection has received a rather considerable buff. The feature previously allowed currently subscribed players to invite a retired friend to come back to Azeroth for a time. Now, however, the resurrected player will be provided a treasure trove of freebies to further entice retired players back to the game. The returning player will be able to boost one character directly to level 80, which seems pretty amazing in and of itself, but there's more. Scroll of Resurrection will also supply its target with a free upgrade to Cataclysm, seven days of free game time, and free realm and faction transfers so that returning players can join their friend right away. So, retirees and recovering addicts, if you need a little more Azeroth in your life, now's the perfect time to jump back in.
EVE Evolved: Resurrecting faction warfare
I think it's safe to say that most EVE Online players have never tried their hands at faction warfare, the state-sponsored bloodbath that pits Minmatar and Gallente pilots against their Amarr and Caldari rivals. When the system launched almost four years ago during 2008's Empyrean Age expansion, it was an immediate and colossal success. CCP ran news stories leading up to the expansion to show the growing tensions between the four nations, with several videos highlighting major flashpoints like the Malkalen incident. The stage was set for the war to end all wars, and players were brought to the front lines to die for their nations. Faction warfare was originally designed to be a stepping stone for empire-dwellers who wanted to get into nullsec and to give fleet-based PvP to pilots without nullsec contacts. The first few months saw some spectacular action, with fleets of over a hundred rookie pilots happily smashing each other to bits. For over a year, faction warfare provided practically instant-action PvP on any scale you could want, from solo roaming and small gang warfare to full-on fleet battles with several capital ships. Unfortunately, CCP didn't iterate on the feature, so after a year with broken capture mechanics and no real purpose or reward for fighting, faction warfare began to grind to a halt. In this week's EVE Evolved, I speculate on how faction warfare could possibly be resurrected.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 'Rezurrection' DLC on 360 August 23 [update: detailed]
First Strike, Escalation, Annihilation, and now Resurrection. The latest Activision earnings release names the new Call of Duty: Black Ops DLC, and provides a release window of sometime this fiscal quarter (which means July through September). It would be ironically poorly timed, but great for promotional purposes, if the DLC were to hit (on Xbox 360 first, as per exclusivity agreements) during the September 2-3 Call of Duty XP event. Hey, the first initials of each of those spell out "FEAR"! Or "FSEAR," but ... no, we're going with "FEAR." Update: Activision detailed the DLC in a press release. The bad news: it's actually called "Rezurrection." The good news: it's launching August 23 on Xbox Live, and includes three "re-mastered levels of Zombie lore: Nacht der Untoten, Verruckt, Shi No Numa and Der Riese, the Zombie factory that started it all," along with a brand new "Moon" level. It also includes an "enhanced Zombies Soundtrack" and a new Zombies Moon theme. Yes, by the way, this is really about fighting zombies on the moon. The four "remastered" maps were previously included with the Hardened and Prestige releases -- if you already have one of those, the rest of this content will be free. Otherwise, it's the standard 1200 MS Points/$15. It'll be easy to acquire, too, according to One of Swords: " the short version is you'll be able to go into your Download History and re-download the classic pack you already own, and the fresh download will include the new Moon map. And you'll also get the soundtrack and theme, too."%Gallery-129904%
