The NYAFF premiere of Game Center CX, soon to be known as Retro Game Center, isn’t a one shot deal. I got in touch with a Retro Game Master representative that clarified the screenings are the start of the KACHO in North America.   “They have produced the English subb'd DVDS and are now looking [...]

Jim Henson’s 1980’s cartoon series did more than splice Star Wars clips with toddler Kermit the Frog imagining himself as Luke Skywalker. In one episode the Muppet Babies got a brand new Nintendo Pretendo, which gave the writers a chance to parody video games. Kermit enters Frogger, Fozzie is thrown into Tetris, and Miss Piggy [...]

While the Pokemon franchise is immensely popular Nintendo has yet throw any of their cuddly creatures into a proper platformer. However, some pirate company did and created Pka Chu. I got a chance to play the pirate ROM, which is essentially a sprite swap of Super Mario Brothers.     I guess this yellow thing [...]

Every year Los Angeles is home to I am 8 bit, an art gallery specifically catering to the taste of gamers. The gallery showcases retro art like Mr. & Mrs. Pac Man grenades and the pictures above. This photo was taken from the first show. This year marks the fourth I am 8 bit exhibit, [...]

Double Dragon, also known as this week’s lonely Virtual Console game for North America, is quite different from the arcade version. At the beginning of the NES adaptation Billy can only punch and kick. Want to do the signature spinning kick? You have to level up first.   However, there is a trick to amass [...]

Should I call the game by its proper name, Dragon Quest? Or should I go with the original title Dragon Warrior, which was used since the Dragon Quest trademark was owned by TSR at the time? In any case we’ve been talking a lot about Dragon Quest with trademark reveals, ESRB ratings and so forth [...]

Electronic Arts announced Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for every console under the sun today. News, but predictable news. A few weeks ago I played a Famicom shmup with Harry Potter soaring over Arabian skies on his broom. I’m covering the latter.     Surprisingly, the game isn’t awful like most pirate carts. Harry [...]

If you are thinking, “Contra III never came out for the NES!” you’re technically correct. Konami had no hand in the pirate ROM. However, the work put into the downscaled Super Nintendo classic is pretty impressive. Not graphically, but content wise. The first level of Contra III replicated fairly well as seen in a series [...]

The Final Fantasy VII Famicom bootleg got a notable amount of attention and rightfully so since it Cloud is in it. Even though Titanic raked in over a billion at the box office only Insert Credit is linking to a post about a bootleg game based on the sappy love story. I have to thank [...]

The unearthed pirate Final Fantasy VII ROM led to a library of 8-bit pirate adaptations found by Insert Credit. While the list is massive it is worth browsing through just to find items like Top Fighter, a 2D fighting game that brings together Ryu, Kyo, Cyclops, Goku and other SNK characters for the ultimate (non-mugen) [...]

Browsing through my photos from Korea I discovered a picture of Korea’s Nintendo Entertainment System. This might surprise some readers, but when Nintendo launched the NES in greater Asia (read: outside of Japan and not mainland China) they released the toaster box NES commonly found in North America. However, by this time plenty of people [...]

Remember the theatrical advertisement for Super Mario Brothers 3, the Wizard? Geoffrey sent a link with an interview with the director, Todd Holland (thanks!). Holland’s responses are an interesting peek into the dull plot, which could have been much worse. The paper thin traveling through California plotline was Holland’s recommendation. Holland also explains the success [...]

I can’t see much personal use for the line of RetroDuo consoles since all my old consoles work, but there is some novelty in having the “Gen-X” a third party hybrid that plays Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis games. Remember when the two companies were mortal enemies?   There are two other models of [...]

Back on the Famicom, Capcom developed a Mega Man party game. However, Wily & Light's Rockboard: That's Paradise!! isn’t a mini-game collection like Mario Party. Rockboard shares more in common with Monopoly or Enix’s Itadaki Street series. You roll dice, move on a board, purchase properties and make bets to collect the most Zenny. While [...]

Many years after it has become a treasured memory people are still developing games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Occasionally, homebrew games come out in gray cartridge shells, but Sudoku for the NES also has a rare gold cartridge edition. Only five of these were made and one of them will be auctioned off at [...]

The title alone makes this rom hack worth mentioning, but there is more to Mr. Pac-Man besides a clever name. The repurposed release of Mrs. Pac-Man has new maps to check out and a new ghost. Granted it’s not nearly as lavish as Pac-Man: Championship Edition, but the NES never had widescreen support or HD [...]