nes
The Legend of Zelda Chest that is Also an NES
These are the kinds of things that make me all giddy inside. Mako Mod, a Spanish group that has made some wicked mods for consoles before, recently showed off their latest creation. And it sings to the retro gamer in me. This is a fully working NES in a treasure chest that’s made to look like it came straight outta The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. What’s more, the chest once open reveals a shiny g...[Read More]
The Seven Stages of My Nintendo Grief
Literally as I write this, I’m periodically checking Google and Twitter for sudden news, leaks, reports or diagrams. It has gott that bad. But why? After E3’s solitary showing of Zelda and each explicit and subsequent refusal to reveal at events or Directs, Nintendo’s mythical next platform, codenamed NX, has social media and the video game industry on the edge of their digital a...[Read More]
Retro Review: Adventures of Lolo (NES)
Release Date: April 20, 1989 Developer: HAL Laboratory Publisher: HAL Laboratory Puzzle games have always held a special place in my heart. Whenever the adrenaline rush of shoot-em-ups and the story of a good RPG paled, I would always relax by taxing my mind with a puzzle game. The mental stress was taxing yet soothing. It was my way of chilling out. While my ex-wife was in labor with my son, wait...[Read More]
Retro Review: Metroid (NES)
Release Date: August 6, 1986 Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo Last month, I celebrated Samus Aran’s 30th birthday by paying homage to one of my favorite games on the SNES, Super Metroid. I would be remiss if I didn’t recognize the matriarch of the series: Metroid for the NES. As a 15-year old obsessed with girls and cars, I missed this gem. I had to graduate from my teenage years before I e...[Read More]
Retro Review: Willow (NES)
Release Date: July 18, 1989 Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Back in the early days of video games, movie tie-in games were seen as cheap cash-ins. In a way, they still are now, but they’re mainly released on mobile phones for dirt cheap. But the movie tie-ins of the 80s were made to be played on home consoles and sold at $40-50. Yes, there were some good movie-licensed games back then, like Ba...[Read More]
The Mini NES Of My Dreams – WITH CARTRIDGES!
I got home from watching Jason Bourne (pretty good movie, by the way) and was too wired to go to sleep. Out of habit, I went on my computer and fired up Feedly to see what news tidbits crawled past while I was out. I found a Destructoid article whose title made my eyes click hard. “Someone made a custom mini NES that takes cartridges.” Wait, what? I want you to take a good, hard look at daftmike’s...[Read More]
Sega Genesis Emulation Console Falls Flat Compared to Classic NES
When Nintendo announced their NES Classic Edition, their Flashback version of the NES with 30 built-in games, the Sega camp felt the need respond. By “the Sega camp”, I mean AtGames, the manufacturer that essentially created the emulated console market with the release of the Atari Flashback and the original Sega Genesis Classic Game Console. They have decided to respond to Nintendo’s decision…by ...[Read More]
Retro Review: Rygar (NES)
Release Date: 1987 Developer: Tecmo Publisher: Tecmo The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) has more than its share of classic titles. I loved playing them all, but I much preferred discovering games that, while not heralded as absolute classics, I still enjoyed playing for hours on end. Tecmo’s Rygar, a cult classic among NES fans, fits that description for me to a tee. Rygar started life...[Read More]
Modern Marvels of Gaming
In the realm of human endeavors, there have been many tales of feats of strength, cunning, and intelligence. Some of those feats have transcended the mere act and have become their own form of legend. Around 2560 BC, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the oldest and the largest of the three pyramids in modern-day El Giza, Egypt, was finished. It still stands today, a great feat of engineering and human la...[Read More]
Retro Review: Double Dragon (NES)
Release Date: October 1988 Developer: Technōs Japan Publisher: Tradewest Double Dragon is a well-known and loved old-school side-scrolling beat ‘em up. Released in the arcade in 1987 by Technōs Japan, it had players control one of two brothers, Billy Lee or twin Jimmy. Players could play alone or with a friend, fighting through four stages of turf belonging to a gang called the Black Warrio...[Read More]
5 Things Today’s Console Gamers Take for Granted
Since I literally got into gaming when video games were first mass-marketed for the general public, my view on gaming has been skewed by my experiences over the years. This is most evident when my daughter bitches about something while playing a game that makes me want to get on my old-man soapbox and wax about the old days. She recently whined about having to save a game because we had to go some...[Read More]
The lifeblood of any good video game….Its Music
My fellow Digital Crack podcaster Grumpy Joe and I have a bit of a good-natured rivalry going on. His current love of Sony and my decades-long respect for Nintendo clash on many an occasion. Most would think of our adulation for the two companies to be approaching fanboy-ism, but I think Joe sums it up best when he discusses our “disagreements” to others. In his words, partially derived fro...[Read More]