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Thanks to Blue's News for pointing to a Megatree Ltd. press release discussing the charity auctioning of the original development discs for Mega-Tree, the legendary, unfinished Commodore 64/Spectrum title that "was [to be] the third in a trilogy of games following 'Manic Miner' and 'Jet Set Willy'." The currently-in-progress Ebay auction, to benefit Cancer Research UK, has much more info and concept drawings of the game sometimes called Miner Willy Meets The Taxman by co-creator Matthew Smith, also noting that "The Atari hard disk containing more 'Mega-tree' graphics was 'lost' when it accidentally dropped off the back of Matthew's motorbike when he went through the Mersey tunnel."

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Gamers.com article indicating that R-Type Final for Playstation 2 has allegedly been picked up by Eidos' Fresh Games label for US release. This comes hot on the heels of news that the game, the latest in the classic R-Type shoot-em-up series, will feature an AI mode, with the player "able to define the behavior of an AI-controlled R-9 fighter, and pit two of them against each other in a race to destroy enemy craft, collect items, and avoid getting killed in the process" - though the traditional single-player shmup gameplay will fortunately also be present. The import-friendly Fresh Games label has also brought quirky Japanese titles like Mad Maestro and the crazed Mr. Mosquito to the West - anyone got nominations for other import titles they should consider releasing?

An anonymous reader writes "Today NASA has an online terraforming simulation based on the McKay/Zubrin/Fogg model of Mars' weather modification. The simulation shows that the greening of Mars can be done in at least three ways: 1) mirrors melting stored carbon dioxide in tropical soil and polar dry ice; 2) a fluorocarbon (CFC) factory; 3) blowing a vent thruster in the side of a methane-rich asteroid and engineering a collision (perhaps many impacts, but a mere 0.3 km/s impulse drive if using an outer solar system asteroid, such as Chiron, beyond Saturn). Irrespective of the merits or wisdom of these huge engineering projects, their simulation allows moving back the clock to a previous time when Mars was blanketed by greenhouse gases, and thus much warmer."