Marcus Schmerl
Good morning everyone. Dave is on hiatus for the next few days while he works on CENSORED something else retro related, so I’ll be bringing you the daily retro gaming news for the rest of the week. Before you read today’s news I suggest you take a look at (or, more accurately, a listen to) Paul’s latest in his series of interviews, this time with Paul McGann, the 8th Doctor Who.
Last week we brought you the news of the father who had hacked ‘modified’ the Donkey Kong arcade ROM to have Pauline rescue Mario instead of the usual way around. Ground Kontrol, a video game arcade come bar / club in Portland are the first place in the world to have a ‘live’ working arcade cab of Mike Mika’s ‘Donkey Kong Pauline’ (aka DKP). Check out the video below…or alternatively head along to Ground Kontrol to see it in the flesh. That is, of course, if Ground Kontrol is in your neck of the woods. Wouldn’t it be good to have something similar locally? Hmmm…
After yesterday’s post about about a possible reboot/HD remake/re-imagining of ‘Castle of Illusion’, Sega have officially announced it already…who would’ve thought? Although the trailer above does nothing more than confirm the game’s existence, Sega’s blog states that the game will be available worldwide for digital download on Xbox LIVE Arcade, PlayStation Network, and Windows PC in summer 2013 (northern hemisphere ‘summer’, so one assumes by the end of August).
Evoland by Shiro Games is out not at Good Old Games (click the link to grab it here). Evoland sets out to recreate the RPGs of old, from the 2D style of those on the GameBoy to more recent incarnations of the genre in 3D. At only $10 it’s a steal if you (a) like action RPGs or (b) like to reminisce in nostalgic gameplay through the various 8 to 32 bit consoles that were home to numerous games of this style during the rise of the RPG. On the flipside, Gamespot (link) warns “it lacks any soul of its own, its trotting-out of one reference after another grows tired and predictable…Evoland doesn’t try to surprise you, to subvert your expectations, or even to capture what really made the games it’s mimicking so great. It sets out only to remind you of earlier games. To that end, it succeeds, but it’s hardly the most heroic of undertakings.” For every detractor there seems to be more than a few a fans (the original game created during Ludum Dare had over a quarter of a million downloads) so perhaps let us know what you think (either in the comments below or on Facebook if you do have a crack at the game). Personally, I’m still waiting for the mobile iOS or Android editions to arrive before I sink some time into this one.
Ever wondered what fifteen retro consoles crammed together in one ‘compact’ unit would look like? “Project Unity” answers that question with a resounding boxy, beige and utilitarian (original link). There’s good reason for this due to the creator’s need to store all of these consoles neatly in order to keep his wife happy… Actually, that’s a pretty lame reason, but this engineering feat is still pretty astounding, doubly so given his self-admitted lack of electronics knowledge (though I’d wager he’s much improved now). His solution so that only one controller is required is particularly ingenious, so make sure you take note of that in the video, though I couldn’t see multiple controller ports (did you?) so multiplayer gaming might be out. Three years, 3500 hours, 20 kg of cabling, and over $1000 invested into it and he now has in the one always-connected box the ability to play thousands on un-emulated games consoles from Amstrad, Atari, Coleco, Intellivison, Neo Geo, Nintendo, Sega and Sony. No original Xbox is understandable (due to heat generation, power requirements, and bulky size), but why no Atari Jaguar I wonder? ;)
Finally, I’ll leave you with a drool-worthy link – 72 Scenes from the Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2012. Yes, we are a couple of months into 2013, but this one only popped up on our radar today. Amongst retro goodies that could well bring a tear to your eye are arcade machines galore, (including Karate Champ and the wide screen X-Men beat-em-up!), pinball machines (Back to the Future), home computers, consoles and other hardware (do I spot Gorf on a C64?), and merchandise. In addition, the world ‘classic’ Tetris Championships of 2012 were held here. Amongst of of these sights and sounds you’ll spot my two favourites; Computer Space, which I’ve had a chance to play, unlike here where visitors were confronted with a “Please Don’t Touch” sign, and a sit down Star Wars/Empire Strikes Back cab, which I’ve played both as a kid and more recently…unfortunately I
still don’t own one (yet!).