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Excellent, I was beginning to fear the project might have died a sad death.

From some of the screenshots it looks like it might be similar to his Nuon Tempest 3K. Though it's kind of hard to judge.

There's already a Playstation Portable. Homemade.

He also makes all sorts of other portables. Check it out.

There's already a Playstation Portable. Homemade.

He also makes all sorts of other portables. Check it out.

The true sequel to Super Mario Bros. was Super Mario Bros. 2 (JPN).

The true sequel to Super Mario Bros. was Super Mario Bros. 2 (JPN).

How about at least a mention of the original RTS, from the Sega Genesis. Created back in 1989 a little game called Herzog Zwei was created, and it single-handedly implemented most of the things that are a staple of RTS games today. Different units, buying upgrades, getting more resources through capturing bases, and most importantly destroying your opponent. It had air, land and sea units, and was incredibly fun. It was really THE game that created the genre.

classicgaming.com

Maybe you didn't play any PS1 games on your PS2, but nearly all of my friends did. One of my friends got hooked on my copy of FF9 and directly because of that, he went out and purchased FFX and FFX-2.

By definition, old games are...old. And crappy.

There are many who would disagree. I'm one of them. Classic games, by and large, are leagues better than the shiny 3D whiz-bang eyecandy that publishers shovel down the throats of consumers these days.

In any case, if I have a stack of old games, why wouldn't I still have the console?

Why would you want to keep an extra console hooked up and taking up space if your PS2 plays the old games even better? Let's also not forget that consoles break. The CD-ROM drive mechanism in PS1s (and PS2s for that matter) are notoriously fragile and are known to simply give up the ghost after a few years of moderate use. For crappily-built systems like these, backwards compatibility gives you a few more years at least before you have to resort to unfaithful emulations of your favorite games.

A Breif History of metroid composite On The Web

When I was growing up, I was one of those "Nintendo fanboys", and hence the first place I went to was www.nintendo.com (which fits perfectly into your theory). And also a little known Metroid Database (MDb).

It's from the MDb that I first got linked to IGN. Nintendo's information was considerably behind the rumors of IGN (now privatized) and Dailyradar (now closed). Both these sites updated daily, which fed my addiction to the web.

Sites, however, can't keep up with the update pace of message boards, and I soon found my way to GameFAQs message boards. From there it was a gradual move over several years from small specific metroid boards, to boards on varios systems to large general talk boards (where I got links to Slashdot among other things) and somewhere in the interm I started using Linux and got wrapped up in an ongoing group web project.

Short version: Yes, people start by going to those sites (in my case Nintendo.com). However, between Google and word of mouth that's not where they end up.

Alright everyone, we've got a smash hit on our hands here. We've got to release an English translation to rake in the dough in the western hemisphere; what would be our most cost effective solution?
Hey, didn't Mr. Ishikawa take a semester of English during his senior year at the university?
Oh, yeah, let's have him do the translation!

Here is one example of the results.

My Commodore 64 was the best games machine I've ever owned, one game where the packaging really stood out (for better and worse) was "Dr. Who and the mines of terror."

This game was great, the packaging featured a picture of the TARDIS on the front with a image of the Doctors brain on the back, inside (along with the 'tape') were numerous documents that really added a lot to the game.

There was however one item that had gave no clue as to why it was included, a credit card sized piece of card in a protective sleeve with three symbols printed on it.

I played through much of the game (about 90% as it turns out) and didn't find a use for the card, as time went on I lost parts of the packaging (including the card).

When I finally went back to the game I found myself stuck at a door, the door required those three symbols from the card to be set correctly to get though, I was screwed. Not till I obtained an "Action Replay Cartridge" and turned "collision detection" off, was I able to get past that damned door. :)

Wrong. It was this scenario they were considering.

No, but you still need to destroy the angry Red Planet...

I don't know, judging from the first images sent back there might still be a problem....

What, like this (warning: GameSpy link - don't click any ads)? BTW, he's made MANY 2600 handhelds, and the occasional NES and SNES handheld.

Whoever developed this played Sim Ant a bit too much about ten years ago.

At the risk of shameless promotion, check out Star Control: Timewarp, downloads are here. It runs on Windows and Linux, and can support up to 8 people at a time in hot-seat multiplayer (on the same computer with keyboard and joysticks). You can also play with two computers on the internet or LAN. There's a lot of cool ships and game modes, similar to the fun and excitement of melee fights from Star Control 1, 2 and 3.

This game is a lot of fun, it's open source, it's Linux friendly, and it's Star Control, baby! Check it out!

A LED flashlight that will knock their Christmas stockings off. MAME fans will want an arcade joystick. Or if they prefer their classic gaming fun on the go, a portable SNES/NES/2600. Some others have mentioned Leatherman tools. From Thinkgeek, an LED binary clock. How about an Archos media player? Probably not geeky, but something weird like this a magic tree. Or lastly, and perhaps not least, a very affordable Shortwave radio for $10.

Why don't they bring out the classic video game that everybody loved-- Custer's Revenge!

slightly offtopic I know... but I imaginet he title must have got a few of you thinkin how you could get ahold of scorched earth again...

I enjoy Scorched3D, a pretty good 3D remake of the game

And the orignal Scorched Earth.

Remember, No Kibitzing!!

Scorched Earth. I guess I need to look at the article sections closer. Tell you what, though - if someone created a modern, online multiplayer version of Scorched Earth (like Worms is, but with the traditional tanks), it would make for ten times more interesting an article than this "SCO's on crack" ad naseum.

a search on google for "windows mame" returns MAME32, a beautiful windows port of mame.

http://www.classicgaming.com/mame32/

You sound like a troll but...

MAME32 is what you're looking for.

i find it amazing how all these next gen games are rendering such detailed and complex scenes in realtime nowadays, given that you're running em on an appropriately endowed machine. but quite frankly, after much consideration i think i'm just gonna stick with my dusty 486 which purrs along with ms-dos and a few gems called wolfenstein, day of the tentacle, star control 2, etc etc etc. not to sound like a bitter old man or anything.. just that i seem to prefer the pc games of the late 80s up til about '98 to almost anything new these days..

"word to your mother" - vanilla ice

after a while the little lock holding it down would wear out.

Connecting games through a Game Genie should fix that (the Game Genie is designed so that you don't need to push it down to play a game). A more common problem is worn-out connector pins, and that's not difficult to fix either.

Orange Star has been at war for 15 years, starting with Famicom Wars in 1988.

You had me until here:

hiring lawyers and trying to take a Scorched Earth approach

at which point I began to imagine how awesome it would be if they really were taking a Scorched Earth approach, instead of just a regular scorched-earth approach.

Until you see tastless games like, "Abortion by coathangar!" or "Rape that chick!"

Kind of like this?

Actully I would love to support the game companies that repackage and sell their classic 15+ year old titles.

As for the don't care, some companies like Nintendo, Namco, Atari, Activision, etc do sell their old titles. Midway is going to release a one for the PS2 soon.

the key is to remember that sequels in themself is not a bad thing, as long as they try to improve gameplay to perfection (example: Virtua Fighter) - just like chess the first version is not perfect, and new versions of it will arrive until it reaches that hight. Now the problem with 'perfect' games is that you can make money off the sequel as well, but how do you improve a perfect game? (example: Advance Wars).

- and these improvments are often not for the casual gamer to see - they can even be a problem (again: Virtua Fighter) - and they in the end will stop selling great volumes. Some games do break this, and those are the 'non-hardcore' games like Sims, FF, and Medal of honor (still there must be an end to the insanity). Besides a simple game perfected is often just done for the hardcore masses (shmups anyone?).

so if you look at publishers orginial IPs then the Japanese publishers are not really worse off then for those here in the west; for example Nintendo and MS is among the best in this category. But then you can turn it, and see that Nintendo is pushing a heap of sequels - and Mircosoft is not (due to being new, or just because? - well time will tell).

As for inovation, well it seems western and eastern inovative games often does not strike gold the first time around - but on the 2nd or 3rd installment (inovative?).

...and my personal view is that I do like inovation, and I love seeing good designs getting even better - that said I can always do the best thing and await for the inovation to get repeated - and done better the 2nd time (and that doesn't always work out - see above for sequels on perfection)

Who cares about Marble Man....will the have Karateka is the real question.

The grandfather to Prince of Persia has to be the hardest *stable* ROM to find of all time. How many times must I download another copy that gets me to the basement and then I can't go through the door to the final level?

IMHO it is hands-down the greatest game ever and I will easily pay $7.50 for the whole thing.

Karateka! Why have you foresaken me!

Sorry about the rant :-]

• Eye of the Beholder (1 2 and 3)
• Everything from Interplay (Champions, Death Knights and Dark Queen of Krynn; Buck Rogers series, Gateway to the Savage Frontier; Pools of Darkness & Radiance; very large etc.)
• Wizardry series
• Might and Magic series
• And of course, every FPS out there (okay, maybe that's too much :)

It's Jumpman, but they are kinda similar.

Miner 2049er

For those who were wearing a nappy when this game was out, link so that you too can enjoy what was the cutting edge of computer sound technology.

I mean, it only took the PC ten years to catch up.

I know you kids won't remember this, but

Another visitor ... stay a while ... stay for ever!

Oh, look a link

SNK trumped the 16 bit competition by releasing their 24 bit NeoGeo powerhouse.

NEC releases it's 16 bit system to compete with the 16 bit Sega Genesis.

Sega's last stand, the Dreamcast is a 128 bit super system that will change the world.

No thanks people. I'll just stick to my PC which includes the powerful 80 bit 8087.

That the game is basically an upgraded version of Gorrillas.

Actually Worms owes most of it's style to the ancient days of Scorched Earth. Still a great game, the best ones never go out of style. There have been quite a few remakes of it, even a 3d version.

I do like the whimsical twist Worms added to the trajectory-combat gaming scene. It's still the one game every one of my friends can agree on playing at LAN parties. Can't wait to get the new one.

The randomness of the levels is what makes the game more fun, you never know what you're going to have to work with next. And you'll know that no one has played the level to death to achieve an unfair advantage.

Apparently he was white on the box art and cartrige label in the U.S. (and presumably Europe) for Kirby's Dream Land.

However, in Japan (where I assume the game was released first) the box art showed Kirby as pink.

I have no idea what was up with the change, since Kirby didn't have his shape shifting abilities until the NES game, which was released a year later.

My only guess is that it was a marketing decision.

Apparently he was white on the box art and cartrige label in the U.S. (and presumably Europe) for Kirby's Dream Land.

However, in Japan (where I assume the game was released first) the box art showed Kirby as pink.

I have no idea what was up with the change, since Kirby didn't have his shape shifting abilities until the NES game, which was released a year later.

My only guess is that it was a marketing decision.

Apparently he was white on the box art and cartrige label in the U.S. (and presumably Europe) for Kirby's Dream Land.

However, in Japan (where I assume the game was released first) the box art showed Kirby as pink.

I have no idea what was up with the change, since Kirby didn't have his shape shifting abilities until the NES game, which was released a year later.

My only guess is that it was a marketing decision.

Apparently he was white on the box art and cartrige label in the U.S. (and presumably Europe) for Kirby's Dream Land.

However, in Japan (where I assume the game was released first) the box art showed Kirby as pink.

I have no idea what was up with the change, since Kirby didn't have his shape shifting abilities until the NES game, which was released a year later.

My only guess is that it was a marketing decision.

• Garage Games
• Free Lunch Design
• Black Eye Software (check out Eternal Daughter)
• PopCap Games (Bejeweled)
• Dexterity Software

Star Control II was an awesome game. I even ended up replaying it with "The Ur-Quan Masters" a few months ago. BUT, I'll always remember it for the in-game story line rather than the ending. Actually I had pretty much forgotten the ending. So I ended up hitting Google for it. Here's the 3DO StarCon 2 ending. Many people have said that the PC version is better, but this one seems ok to me.

If any of you remember CDC's Plato terminals, there was Oubilette, Mines of Moria, Krozair, all first person games, a few multiplayer games as well. This was 1978 , folks. "Wizardry programmers Andy Greenberg and Robert Woodhead were both users of PLATO in the late 70's and were inspired to try and create a single player version of Oubliette on the Apple II." Another Plato tidbit, Bruce Artwick's Microsoft Flight simulator was inspired by dogfight and airfight, the 2d and 3d flight battle games that ran on Plato. 1975, hardcore gamers. Lots of old school geeks know about the Plato terminals. I was lucky enough to use them as a curious 12 year old in the basement of the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, CA. Before we got our first home computer (TRS-80), My father used to take me up there to rent time by the hour on these beasts. Before that I rented time on the fabulous teletype terminals. Plato terminals also had touch sensitive screens. They were slightly ahead of their time. A little bit of history that many don't know about. http://www.classicgaming.com/features/articles/com putergaminghistory/index5-3.shtml

There were 7 of them, the first trilogy was EGA based graphics, the second trilogy was VGA, and the last one (aliens ate my babysitter?) was basically just a collection of second rate levels that didnt make the second trilogy.

Sorry, beg to differ. There were 7, yes, but the "second trilogy" was a "second duology": "Aliens Ate My Babysitter" was #6, a separate story, and was not just a "collection of second rate levels" - it had new monsters and did thematically fit together.

The full list goes:

INVASION OF THE VORTICONS:
Commander Keen: Marooned on Mars
Commander Keen: The Earth Explodes
Commander Keen: Keen Must Die

LOST EPISODE
Commander Keen: Keen Dreams

GOODBYE GALAXY
Commander Keen: Secret of the Oracle
Commander Keen: The Armageddon Machine

ALIENS ATE MY BABYSITTER
Commander Keen: Aliens Ate My Babysitter

There was supposed to be another trilogy - called "The Universe is Toast" - and it's about 11 years overdue; the rise of FPSes pretty much killed it. Most fans of the series have given up holding their breath, especially after level 32 of doom II had you putting hanging Keens out of their misery.

Post information from A Look Back at Commander Keen and Cerebal Cortex 314

Didn't these people ever play Oregon Trail or the Carmen Sandiego games? I mean, come on! I'm 26 years old and I rememember playing these games in elementary school. And (I know, it's not a game--but it did have a cute turtle) who can forget LOGO programming? Tons of fun for everyone.

At last, my project to ge Custer's Revenge projected on a mountainside at Little Bighorn National Monument moves closer to fruition! Bwahahaha!

The classics will stay alive, as long as there are people out there who care about them.

This is evidenced in the dozens of emulators out there. Here's a small sample:

Stella (Atari)

FCE Ultra (Nintendo)

Freeze SMS (Sega Master System)

Gens(Genesis)

and, of course:

MAME (Every arcade game we know and love)

On the PC side, we have some very interesting projects:

AGI/SCI Remember all those old Sierra games? Well a few people were able to reverse engineer the interpreter language. The result is that you can now make your own Sierra games, and even take apart existing ones, look at the code, screens, etc, and even modify them if you want. Truly and old schooler's paradise.

SCUMM VM So times have changed, and you can't play your LucasArts games on whatever OS you happen to be running now? ScummVM will fix that. Compatibility is not 100% but give them time.

The people behind these projects are very dedicated to saving the classics. With these kinds of people around, we should have no worries about the games we loved so much fading into obscurity.

What can we do to prevent them from no longer being available?

MAME?

Anyone tried Somari?