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The latest scene and console emulation and hacking news alongside other gaming news, competitions, give-aways, video game and gaming hardware reviews and much more!
 
 

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News  Discover The Origins Of Final Fantasy, With This New NHK Doc Launching Later This Month

The Japanese public broadcaster NHK is launching a new documentary series called "Legendary Games Chronicle" focusing on the birth of iconic Japanese game series and has revealed that the first episode will be themed around the making of the original Final Fantasy. The episode will broadcast on October 11th in English (03:30 - 03:58 / 08:30 - 08:58 / 14:30 - 14:58 / 20:30 - 20:58 BST) and can be viewed using cable TV, the Internet, or the NHK World Japan app. It will feature insights from the series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, the battle graphics designer Koichi Ishii, the artist Yoshitaka Amano, the composer Nobuo Uematsu, and the game's sprite artist Kazuko Shibuya, and will cover the story of how the game originally came about, the...
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News  The Open Source Cartridge Reader Helps Preserve Your Games And Save Data

We're all keenly aware that vintage gaming technology isn't going to last forever, but with cartridges, there's a pressing issue of valuable save data becoming lost when internal batteries eventually fail. We've already seen devices hit the market that attempt to solve this problem – such as the Retrode 2 and GB Operator – but their remit has been rather limited so far, covering a couple of formats at best. The Open Source Cartridge Reader (OSCR) is a somewhat more robust solution, as it is compatible with cartridges from eight different systems out-of-the-box. The OSCR can read carts for: NES / Famicom SNES / Super Famicom N64 (Nintendo 64 (and N64 controllers and Controller Paks) SMS (Sega Master System) Sega Mega Drive (Genesis)...
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News  Weekly Gaming News: October 7, 2024

A new Aussie development studio has launched A team of industry veterans — Joseph Donoghue, Nikhil Kurian, and Benjamin Dawe — have launched The Three Thousand, described as a cutting-edge development studio. They want to use their rich motorsport, automotive, and pop culture backgrounds to create a fresh, innovative approach to video games. Collectively, the three founders have over 750 million downloads in racing games (including big franchises like Need for Speed). With their extensive experience, they intend to develop genre-defining racing games that combine the rich cultures of car enthusiasts and pop culture lovers. Fun fact: The studio's name is inspired by its Melbourne postcode! Joseph Donoghue, Chief Executive Officer...
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Gaming  What Makes ‘The Last of Us: Remastered’ A Classic?

https://www.joyfreak.com/threads/what-makes-the-last-of-us-remastered-a-classic.15351/
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News  Switch 'Hokkaido Serial Murder Case' Remake Retains NSFW Easter Egg From Yuji Horii's 1984 Original

Earlier this year, G-Mode remade Yuji Horii's 1984 Famicom detective adventure Hokkaido Rensa Satsujin: Ohotsuku ni Kiyu for Nintendo Switch and Steam. Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance ~Memories in Ice, Tearful Figurine~ was so successful in its homeland that the Switch version managed to top the sales charts, and with good reason – the game is considered to be a formative classic in the adventure genre, at least by Japanese players. Amusingly, we've just discovered that the recent version retains a cheeky easter egg that was hidden in the Famicom original. To see it, you had to try and remove Megumi's towel at a certain point in the game, at which point she would refuse to allow it. However, if you follow this...
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News  Bringing "Lost In Time" Satellaview Tracks To F-ZERO 99 "Was A Treat," Says Nintendo Artist

Nintendo Software Technologies artist @morimotes_ has taken to social media to say how happy he is with the reaction online to F-Zero 99's recent 1.5.0 expansion and the fact that it brings "lost" circuits to the game. The patch also adds an expanded practice mode, but for Nintendo historians, the real news here is the introduction of tracks that were previously exclusive to the SNES Satellaview add-on, which never made it out of Japan. "This is definitely my favorite patch I've worked on," says @morimotes_. "Bringing the Satellaview Tracks that were pretty much lost in time to F-ZERO 99 was a treat, and seeing fans reaction to it was so so great, If you play this game, Thank you." The new circuits include MUTE CITY IV, SAND STORM...
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News  9 Capcom Mobile Games – Including A Devil May Cry Spin-Off – Have Been Saved From Digital Oblivion

Game preservation is a tricky process at the best of times, but it's even more challenging when the games you're talking about are tied to a defunct platform and were only ever made available for purchase digitally. That's the task that faces the many hard-working people who are trying to preserve games which were released for Japanese "feature phones" (or "keitai") back in the days before smartphones took over. Because keitai culture was so massive in Japan, some of the game industry's biggest publishers supported these devices with exclusive games – many of which are now considered lost media, as there's no way of downloading them as the networks associated with these unique devices have long since ceased to exist. The only way...
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Emulation  Bleem, The Company That Took On Sony And Won, Rises From The Dead (Again)

Remember Bleem? If you were active during the Dreamcast years, then you just might, as it allowed you to play select PS1 games on your Sega console – a fact which Sony naturally took issue with. In the resultant court case, Sony lost, reinforcing the legality of emulation; as long as no copyrighted material is being distributed – such as BIOS files – then emulation doesn't break the law. Sadly, winning the case didn't stop Bleem from going under in 2001, crippled by legal costs – but the name would be picked up by Piko Interactive founder Eli Galindo in 2018, and it has now returned from the dead not as an emulation platform, but as a publisher. Earlier this year, Galindo posted a blog which suggested that Bleem would be...
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News  Blindfolded Speedrunner Completes Mario 64 In Under 20 Minutes

Bubzia – a speedrunner who specializes in playing games blindfolded – has just completed Super Mario 64 in under 20 minutes without being able to see the screen. "After 10 Months of restless grinding, 118 days / streams of practice, runs, and more, the most ambitious goal in blindfolded SM64 has finally been broken," says Bubzia, who has improved on the previous world record by over 40 seconds. This also comes seven and a half years after Bubzia's first blindfold attempt at the game. "I am so incredibly happy that I pushed through all the hardships that this challenge has thrown into my face," the speedrunner adds. "It has been a really fun blast. There have been so many new viewers to blindfolded speedruns in general, and many...
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News  Dragon Quest Vets Claim Comments On Censorship Were "Mistranslated"

Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii and former Shonen Jump editor Kazuhiko Torishima claim that their recent comments about censorship were "mistranslated" and taken out of context. The pair take issue with one aspect of the original translation by Valute News and say that because the comments were taken from a much larger discussion, they lack context. The translated video has since been removed from Twitter, as has the episode of KosoKoso Hōsō Kyoku from which it was taken. Here's Apple's translation of the statement:
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News  Serve cocktails and solve crimes in bartender murder-mystery game Best Served Cold, set in 1920s Bucharest

Cocktails and murders. Both are best served cold. And both are major elements in Best Served Cold, a game announced today by Hidden Through Time developer Rogueside. Play as a bartender at a speakeasy where potential suspects and witnesses gather. For the cops to look the other way on the whole illegal alcohol thing, you'll need to serve your customers cocktails to loosen their tongues. That's where the real truth can be found. Set in the fictional Tzaran capital of Bukovie during prohibition, The Nightcap is one of the few places where locals can drink and be merry. Because of the lack of other bars, The Nightcap has a clientele that spans social classes. As a bartender, your job involves listening to patrons speak openly about their...
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News  Sega's OutRun Gets Fan-Made Lego Kit, And It Could Become A Reality

We recently reported on a cool 'Lego Ideas' set based on the WipEout series, and today we're back in the land of bricks via another community-made pitch – this time for Sega's iconic OutRun. Designer Jugles has put together a block-based tribute to Yu Suzuki's 1986 arcade racer, complete with a scenic vista and moving joystick. "I wanted to try to recreate the iconic starting scene from OutRun Stage 1 as well as giving it my own twist," the creator says. "The building consists of 1735 bricks forming a diorama playing with perspective. The frame of the build is meant to resemble an arcade machine. The joystick is movable and linked with the car to make it possible to slightly shift the car from side to side." As with all Lego Ideas...
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Homebrew  Hotel Mario, One Of Mario's "Worst Games", Is Getting A Fan-Made Upgrade

When Nintendo infamously dumped Sony after the pair had promised to work on the SNES PlayStation, it inked a deal with Dutch electronics giant Philips to create a CD drive for its 16-bit console. When that eventually came to nothing, Nintendo allowed Philips to use some of its IP on its CD-i multimedia system, resulting in titles like Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon and Link: The Faces of Evil – games which were critical duds at the time of release but have since become cult classics. Another title released as part of this deal was Hotel Mario, a puzzle platformer developed by Fantasy Factory which sees the plucky plumber visiting various hotels in an attempt to rescue Princess Toadstool. While contemporary reviews were lukewarm, Hotel...
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News  SNK "Very Aware" We All Want A New Capcom Vs. SNK Game, But "The Hurdle Is Quite High"

There's been a serious resurgence in the world of fighting games recently, specifically those related to Capcom and SNK, the two biggest companies operating in this space in the 1990s. We've seen SNK characters appear in Street Fighter 6, and Street Fighter characters are lined up for the next Fatal Fury instalment, which has predictably lent even more weight to demands that the two companies work together on another Capcom vs. SNK outing. Japanese magazine Famitsu spoke to SNK producers Yasuyuki Oda and Joshua Weatherford during the Tokyo Game Show and touched upon this very topic (thanks to Event Hubs for the translation). Oda said: Weatherford thinks that part of getting a new game made revolves around ensuring that people are...
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News  Special Broadcast Being Held To Celebrate 40 Years Of Toaplan Games

Toaplan rights holder Tatsujin is holding a "special commemorative broadcast" on the Game Center Mikado YouTube channel from 8 pm (Japanese time) on Friday, October 4th. During the broadcast, the company will also "be delivering the latest information on the 40th anniversary of Toaplan Arcade Masterpiece." You can read more about Tatsujin's plans for the anniversary here. Toaplan was established in 1979, but its gaming division wouldn't come into being until 1984. Its first two titles were Jongō (1984) and Performan (1985), but it was Tiger-Heli (also 1985) which put the firm on the map as a master of the shmup genre. Other notable Toaplan shooters include Slap Fight, Truxton, Hellfire, Zero Wing and Batsugun. It filed for...
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News  Don’t be fooled by the cuteness of horror game Amanda the Adventurer, launching for PlayStation and Xbox next week

While eager fans await news on Amanda the Adventurer 2, its predecessor is set to launch for PlayStation and Xbox platforms just in time for Halloween. It will also receive a free update on Nintendo Switch. Amanda the Adventurer seemingly came out of nowhere when it became a viral hit horror sensation but it had to be developed by someone — MANGLEDmaw Games, a small indie studio out of Hamilton, Ontario. (Hello from Ottawa!) Amanda the Adventurer begins with Riley Park inheriting their reclusive aunt's house. Riley explores what was left behind in the house. In the attic, Riley finds an old television set and VCR with a stack of VHS tapes containing episodes of a children's cartoon that appears to be from the early '00s. The cartoon is...
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News  The Last Live-Action Actor From Resident Evil 1 Has Been Identified

Resident Evil fans are a determined bunch. Since the release of the original Resident Evil in 1996, they have been hard at work trying to find out all they could about its cheesy yet endearing FMV opening, which has included identifying the actors chosen to portray the individual members of S.T.A.R.S. In the past, members of the game's community were able to identify and interview the actors who starred as Chris Redfield, Albert Wesker, Barry Burton, and Rebecca Chambers, and later made contact with the actress who portrayed Jill Valentine (who has, unfortunately, declined to share their experience publicly so far). But there has always been one last person that nobody could identify: the actor who portrayed the bandana-wearing...
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News  Meet The $16,500 "Nintendo Game Boy Bike" Which Comes With Its Own Cartridge Key And Cheat Codes

French company Dab Motors is producing a special version of its DAB 1α electric bike which takes inspiration from Nintendo's Atomic Purple Game Boy Color. Costing a cool €14,900 (over $16,500) to pre-order, the vehicle features transparent purple bodywork, custom handlebars with Nintendo-style controls and a screen which mimics the look of the Game Boy Color's LCD display. Fashioned by Dab Motors' bespoke service branch, the bike will also include an actual Game Boy Color cartridge which has been modified to act as the DAB 1α's starter key. It will also benefit from secret cheat codes, one of which will unlock a speed boost. You'll also be able to unlock themes for the display and sound effects. These codes will be included in a...
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Translation  Classic SNES RPG Illusion Of Gaia Gets Fresh Translation 30 Years After Its Western Release

Quintet's classic SNES RPG Illusion of Gaia (also known as Illusion Of Time) has just received a new fan translation 30 years after it launched in North America. Like so many RPG localizations of the period, the English script was pretty awkward – but thankfully, a fan by the name of L Thammy has taken the Japanese dialogue and given it another pass, resulting in a translation that's far closer to the original and reads better, too (thanks, Retro Dodo). "In September of 1994, Illusion of Gaia made its North American debut," reads the project page for this new translation. "The story was notable for being much darker than the other RPGs Nintendo was allowing at the time. Despite a softening of the themes, the plot went to dark and...
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Translation  Dezaemon 3D Gets English Translation, Including Nintendo 64DD Functionality

Athena's shoot 'em up creation kit series Dezaemon started life on the Famicom, and allowed players to create their own shooters. It would later expand to the SNES, Saturn and N64 – with the latter almost getting a 64DD expansion update that would have massively increased its scope, allowing for larger games, no limits on image creation and the ability to save multiple games to disk. It would also have supported mouse control. Sadly, this functionality never saw the light of day, mainly because the 64DD was a commercial dud – but thankfully, because the data was included on the cartridge version of the game, it is playable – and thanks to the efforts of the community, it's now possible to do so in English. "Zoinkity has provided us...
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