David Kudrev
Monday is almost over! And what do you know, 20 years ago today, the Super Nintendo was released in the U.S. What was interesting about the US SNES in comaprison to say the European/Australian SNES (PAL SNES as it’ll be called onwards) that most of you know of, and the Super Famicom, is the case design.
The Super Famicom and the PAL SNES looked the same, except for the markings on the controller and console indicating if it was a Super Famicom or Super Nintendo). See, the US SNES console, as well as the cartridges had a different design.
This here is a PAL SNES game, as stated, the Super Famicom ones look similar (but won’t work on each other’s consoles).
And this is a US cartridge. An interesting hack I was told about with the US SNES’s, because I went through so many PAL/NTSC converters in the past 12 months, I haven’t had any luck with any. I had no choice but to buy a US SNES, and here is why;
Source: Neogaf
In particular I went for the SNES Junior (There was also a Super Famicom Junior as well by the way, which looked like the above console, but donning the SNES colours for the controller and console). Now.. the interesting thing is, is that on the back of a US SNES cartridge, you’ll find two cuts;
At first I assumed they were there for looks, or to hold cartridges better? Perhaps, but if you look inside the US SNES cartridge slot area, you’ll find two grooves. Now, what I did was remove the grooves with a pair of pliers, and BAM! BAM? I am able to play not only US SNES games, but also Japanese ones on it too! (SOME PAL games have been reported to play on a US SNES, but there were lots of issues with that, like losing save games, and graphical/audible glitches. So I raise my cup of coffee and celebrate 20 years of the US SNES. Versatile console once you know what secrets can be unlocked from within :) Okay, now we can get on with the rest of today’s post!!
Source: Fangamer
Alright.. as much as I’m getting sick of Mario merchandising in every nook and cranny around the world, I find this to be somewhat a breath of fresh air for some strange reason. Oh that’s right, it doesn’t have Mario on it! Anyway, this is a very cool and well designed uh.. design. You can purchase it at Fangamer.net. You can purchase either the Coffee Mug by itself, or with a coaster (of a coin box), or with magnets.
There seems to be a lot of retro reboots appearing on the iOS App Store, here’s one that is more inspired than a reboot. Brings back to the Asteroids shooters, Alien Space Retro is a cheap fun shooter. If you’re a fan of Asteroids, and other overhead space shooters, this is worth a shot, no pun intended… Pumpin’ tunes, and simple gameplay, loads of weapons and upgrade paths for your ship. It’s universal and AU$0.99 on the App Store.
And finally, for US$10, you could get yourself one of these USB light-sensitive Pac-Man ghosts lamps. For sale at Brando.com