Warp Zoned Presents
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Watch This! Every NES title screen in alphabetical order
God bless the Internet.
Someone has put together a YouTube video that compiles the Start Screens of every NES game ever released (including some that never made it out of Japan) in alphabetical order. And get this… it’s nearly three hours long. I guess my entire day is shot now because, one, this sounds totally awesome and, two, I need to know if the whole thing actually is in alphabetical order.
Only-On-Xbox documentary series will unearth E.T. Atari 2600 cartridges
One of gaming’s greatest mysteries, the mass burial of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial cartridges, will soon be solved – and only on Xbox. A documentary series, set to film in January, will attempt to unearth these fabled games from the New Mexico landfill in which they supposedly reside. The documentary will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One as part of Microsoft’s original programming initiative, and will air sometime in 2014.
For those of you who are not aware, here’s the skinny:
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600 is largely considered as a major contributor to the great video game crash of 1983. The game was an awful mess, and millions of copies went unsold. Then, in the middle of the night, Atari drove several garbage trucks full of the game to the small town of Alamogordo, New Mexico, and buried them in a landfill.
So are they really there? We’ll all (well, those of us with an Xbox console) find out together next year when filmmakers Jonathan and Simon Chinn and director Zak Penn go in search of E.T.’s last home.
ICHEG adds largest collection of Japanese games in the world to its archive
The International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG), which is located in Rochester, NY, has accepted another large donation to increase the size of their already massive archive of games and related items. Andre and Sylvio Hodos, who reside in France, contacted the museum’s curators and offered them a collection of over 7,000 Japanese games that span 22 plaforms. With this acquisition, the ICHEG believes they now own the largest collection of Japanese video games in the world.
Spanning the 1980s and 1990s, the collection covers a crucial period when Japanese video game designers were pioneering many of the most important technologies and styles of play that influenced game design and spurred interest in Japanese culture globally.
The collection is comprised of nearly 7,000 Japanese video games spanning 22 systems, and includes home consoles, handhelds, peripherals, and accessories manufactured by Sega, Nintendo, NEC, and Pioneer. The items, many of which are rare, are in mint or very good condition and include all relevant packaging and instructions.
Like the remainder of the ICHEG’s collection (which now numbers more than 50,000 pieces), the Hodos’ donation will be used by curators for future museum exhibits and the games will be made available to researchers who request to play them.
Pac-Man is a finalist for the National Toy Hall of Fame’s Class of 2013
The National Toy Hall of Fame, which is part of the National Museum of Play at The Strong, has announced the 12 finalists that are up for induction this year. Two toys will be selected as part of the class of 2013 and the classic ghost-chomper Pac-Man is among the contenders.
Pac-Man will be competing against bubbles, Chess, Clue, Fisher-Price Little People, Little Green Army Men, Magic 8 Ball, My Little Pony, Nerf toys, the Rubber Ducky, scooters, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure line for the right to be called a Hall of Famer. A national committee will choose the two inductees, which will be announced during a special ceremony on November 7.
If Pac-Man makes the cut, it will join Nintendo’s Game Boy (2009) and the Atari 2600 (2007) as the only other representatives of the video game industry in the National Toy Hall of Fame.
Nintendo files new trademark for downloadable Eternal Darkness game
Precursor’s Kickstarter campaign to fund Shadow of the Eternals, a spiritual sequel to Eternal Darkess: Sanity’s Requiem, is now entering its second week. Backers have pledged $164,517 to the project, almost 22% of Precursor’s goal. They just might make it. But Nintendo may beat them to the punch with an official sequel.
The publisher filed a new trademark application for “Eternal Darkness” with the US Patent and Trademark Office on July 23. But wait a minute, you might ask, doesn’t Nintendo already own the trademark to Eternal Darkness? It’s true, Nintendo already owns the trademark to Eternal Darkness, but this new application specifically adds “downloadable electronic game programs” and “downloadable electronic game software” to the list of products the trademark would apply to.
Before we all jump to conclusions, this application could be something as uneventful as Nintendo covering their bases in case they someday wanted to create a downloadable Eternal Darkness expansion. But it could also mean that their plan to add GameCube games to the Wii U eShop is finally coming together. Or, yes, it could be that Eternal Darkness sequel we always wanted.
I guess we’ll just have to sit back and wait.
Posted in News, Retro
Tagged Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
“The Legend of Zelda” (sort of) stumps 2 of 3 contestants in Final Jeopardy!
Alex Trebek has asked many questions inspired by video games over the years on Jeopardy! But yesterday’s episode likely marked the first time that Final Jeopardy! would test a contestant’s knowledge of joysticks, pixels, and 1-Ups.
The category was “Video Game History” and the clue read, “The title princess of this game, which launched a best-selling franchise, was named for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wife.” Have you figured it out? I hope so. The answer is “(What is) The Legend of Zelda.” All three players knew the answer (though Trebek kept asking the three contestants if they knew the name of the franchise), but only one got credit for it.
Champion Mark Japinga was able to come up with the game’s full title, but challengers Ken Dasher and Toby Crew both answered “Zelda.” If this were the Jeopardy! or Double Jeopardy! round, the host likely would have asked them for clarification, but because it was Final Jeopardy!, the wrath of Trebek was delivered (“Gotta pay attention,” he told both losing contestants).
I think we all know how Sean Connery would have responded to that.
Posted in Etcetera, News, Retro
Tagged The Legend of Zelda
What Did I Just See?: 5 Surprising Moments From Classic Video Games
In 2013, video games have a graphical fidelity that was unthinkable during my childhood. But games were still able to shock us. Often, their seemingly simple worlds allowed these surprises to sneak up on us, changing the way we thought about everything that came before and, sometimes, even the entire world around us.
So take a trip back with me as I explore 5 Surprising Moments From Classic Video Games… (more…)
StarCraft: Ghost officially still in development at Blizzard
The boys at Blizzard are nothing if not optimistic. Seven years after active development for StarCraft: Ghost ended (and almost a full year after last discussing the game’s status), Blizzard’s Matthew Burger confirmed that it has still never been officially canceled during an interview with a Official PlayStation Magazine UK editor at this year’s PAX East show:
OPM: Is StarCraft: Ghost still an active project for Blizzard?
Burger: It’s on hold. It has never been cancelled.
OPM: So it might still get released?
Burger: Maybe.
If you recall, StarCraft: Ghost was a stealth action game in development at Nihilistic Software (and later, Swingin’ Ape Studios) for the PS2, GameCube, and Xbox. After four years of starts and stops, the game was put on “indefinite hold” in 2006. Presumably, if StarCraft: Ghost were released in the future, it would make the leap to the PS3, Xbox 360, or Wii U. But since this would require Blizzard to, more or less, rebuild the game from the ground up, I’d say there’s not much difference between “on hold” and “canceled.”
But as OPM UK’s David Meikleham says, if Gearbox can release Duke Nukem Forever, no game can ever truly be considered dead.
Posted in News, Retro
Tagged StarCraft: Ghost