Vintage gaming nerds, check this out:

[DSJ™]

Have you guys seen this?

Space Invaders game set for new U.S. invasion

[JediMAC]

Have you guys seen this?

Space Invaders game set for new U.S. invasion

Good news indeed!  Wonder why the hell they didn't allow for it to be sold here in the U.S. for so long?  I'm including the various vintage gaming software compilations here of course.

From that article:

Namco, which also has it own classic video game, "Pacman," will handle sales of Space Invaders in the United States.

Guess that means we can expect Namco to include this game on one of their great compilations at some point in the near future.  Hopefully they'll re-do that one I mentioned above which included Galaga, and slap SI on there too now!  

[Jim]

I've also heard that the book called Game Over, by David Sheff, is a really good one.  It's supposed to detail Nintendo's rise to dominance in the mid-80's.

I've heard good things about that book as well, though aside from DK and DK Jr., Nintendo was never really my cup of tea...  That's around the time that I kinda retired from video games for a long stretch.  Ended with the last few truly classic arcade games from around 1984/85 (with some ColecoVision mixed in as well), and I didn't really get back into it until around 6 years ago with our first "real" PC, and even then I've only really delved into the Star Wars and Tomb Raider (and classic gaming) titles.  Due to my addictive nature, I'm afraid to test the gaming waters anything beyond that...  

Sheff actually wrote a couple of those Nintendo themed books:

Game Over Press Start To Continue

Game over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children

Game over: How Nintendo Conquered the World

Unless a couple of those titles are for the same book...  Regardless, Nintendo fans, and most classic video game fans, should definitely check those out...

So did anyone here used to play Scramble?  Haven't seen that one thrown into any of the current day game compilations yet.  Long overdue!

Matt, Scramble has been released.  I have it for the Gameboy Advance Compilation.  It is the Konami Arcade Advanced which includes:   Frogger, Time Pilot, Gyruss, Scramble, Rusn-n-Attack and Yie Ar KUNG-FU.  

[Scott]

My wife needs a $100 idea for my Birthday...25 days away BTW, I'm thinking of asking for a GC...BUT...

Anyone know how far off the next Nintendo system is???  I'm sure I'd love all of the SW, Mario, Metroid and Zelda goodness that I could play on the cube.  But if it is like next year, I'll probably just ask for some Creed CD's

[Matt]

My wife needs a $100 idea for my Birthday...25 days away BTW, I'm thinking of asking for a GC...BUT...

Anyone know how far off the next Nintendo system is???  I'm sure I'd love all of the SW, Mario, Metroid and Zelda goodness that I could play on the cube.  But if it is like next year, I'll probably just ask for some Creed CD's

Good idea.

Well, despite some rumors a few weeks ago, there won't be any new home console from Nintendo in 2004, or we'd be hearing about it already.

This is just conjecture on my part, but I'm guessing that we'll see the next generation of consoles from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo in Fall 2005, two years from now.

There has traditionally been a five-year gap in between new consoles (for example, Nintendo released the Super Nintendo in the fall of 1991, and next released the Nintendo64 in the fall of 1996).  Based on that, the PlayStation 2 debuted in the fall of 2000, which would mean that the new Sony system will be due in 2005 sometime.

And that's the tricky part--Microsoft and Nintendo both released their new systems a year later, in November, 2001, meaning that if you went by the usual five-year period, they wouldn't be due for new systems until 2006.

However, the PS2 jumped out to such a huge lead, since they were pretty much the only game in town for a year (except for the Sega Dreamcast, but that's another matter).  Microsoft and Nintendo have basically trying to play catch-up ever since, fighting for #2 (bad luck comment deleted for now).  Their fighting is basically why you're seeing really good deals on them, like the $100 GameCube with the Zelda compilation, or the $180 Xbox with two free games, while Sony is basically doing nothing at all, running their PS2 for $180 with no extras.  They don't need to run any promotions--they're already plenty ahead.

I think it's pretty crucial for Microsoft and Nintendo to release their new systems alongside the new Sony system, in order to remain competitive.  If they waited until 2006 to release, they'd be playing catch-up again, which would be especially harmful to Nintendo.

So, I think that's what's going to happen.  I'm betting that we'll get the first official announcements next May at E3, and we'll see three new systems in September/October/November 2005.

----------------------------------

All blah-bity-blah aside, I think that a GameCube plus four full Zelda games for $100 is a hell of a deal.  The low price kind of betrays the strength of the system, in my opinion.  It really is a good one, and a lot of the great games can be had on the cheap nowadays.

Pull the trigger, Scott.  It's what another Scott--Mr. Stapp, to be precise--would want you to do.

[jokabofe]

This is just conjecture on my part, but I'm guessing that we'll see the next generation of consoles from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo in Fall 2005, two years from now.

have you heard the rumors of the new  version of the ps2 that is supposed to be released in japan early in 2004 and a few months later stateside? supposed to be a suped-up version of the ps2 with a dvd recorder and built in hard drive. the name escapes me at the moment, and all the real details are very hush hush.

All blah-bity-blah aside, I think that a GameCube plus four full Zelda games for $100 is a hell of a deal.  The low price kind of betrays the strength of the system, in my opinion.  It really is a good one, and a lot of the great games can be had on the cheap nowadays.

i'll agree with you there, since i just bit the bullet and picked up a gc a few days back simply because of the zelda disc. which i can't stop playing, btw. while all the other exclusive games (mario, resident evil and star wars plus tons of others) couldn't get me to bite, the free zelda did the trick. sucker, ain't i??

[Matt]

have you heard the rumors of the new  version of the ps2 that is supposed to be released in japan early in 2004 and a few months later stateside? supposed to be a suped-up version of the ps2 with a dvd recorder and built in hard drive. the name escapes me at the moment, and all the real details are very hush hush.

Yeah--the "PSX".  They've really dumbed it down to get it out by Christmas, according to this article:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sony drops PSX features to meet Xmas launch date

Rob Fahey 15:56 02/12/2003
Feature list shrinks for Sony's all-in-one entertainment system


A number of features have been removed from the original specification of the PSX home media centre, in a move which Sony claims is necessary in order to launch the system before Christmas.

The PSX, which is set to launch in Japan on December 13, features DVD playing and recording abilities, a hard drive video recorder, a PlayStation 2 console and a media centre for handling music, image and video files.

However, the company has now admitted that some of the functionality which was claimed for the device at its unveiling on October 7th will now not appear, due to a rushed production schedule to launch the device for Christmas.

The system will now not support playback of CD-R and DVD+RW discs, although it will continue to play back the other, official, writeable DVD format, DVD-RW. MP3 playback has also been removed from the machine, but music playback from Sony's ATRAC format, among others, will still be possible. TIFF and GIF file formats for images are no longer supported, although since the far more popular JPEG format is still supported, we're not sure anyone will care.

Perhaps more importantly, the speed at which the device writes video to DVD media has been downgraded from 24x realtime to 12x realtime. This is still a pretty decent speed - allowing you to transfer an hour long TV recording to DVD within five minutes, for example - but remains a disappointing specification cut regardless.

The most puzzling omission from the PSX, however, is the lack of a broadband internet socket on the system - which means that it won't initially be compatible with the PlayStation Broadband service, and more surprisingly, won't be able to access Sony's online music services.

Despite these changes to the specification of the device, the PSX remains an attractive prospect for consumers interested in DVD writing or digital video recording. The top of the range PSX system, featuring a 250Gb hard drive, will retail for 99,800 Yen (€758), while the low-end system, with a 160Gb drive, will cost 79,800 Yen (€606).

By way of comparison, DVD recorder market leader Matsushita sells a 160Gb unit with significantly less additional functionality than the PSX for 198,000 Yen (€1500).

It's possible that the additional features which are lacking from the PSX may be reintroduced in the New Year when the system is launched in the USA and Europe; however Sony has so far given no indication that it plans to restore the specification of the device to its original form, presumably mindful of the fact that any hints in this direction would lead to many consumers deciding to wait for the "full strength" version of the PSX.

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Doesn't interest me in the slightest, actually.

[Matt]

Stargate (called Defender II in this and most other classic game packages for some mysterious reason)

Just saw this on another forum:

Regarding Stargate vs. Defender II, from a post on USENET:

"When Eugene Jarvis created Defender some people loved the
game because of the challenge; other people hated the game
because of the "over" abundance of buttons on the control panel.

The next game in "the Defender family" was first given the name
Stargate Defender by Eugene Jarvis and the crew at Williams.

Since there was a movie studio that had a script titled Stargate
about a device that transports people across time, space &
dimensions; Williams chose not to cause further confusion.

Williams had started marketing the game with a title change
from Stargate Defender to Defender II."

[Scott]

I picked up the Midway and Activision complilations for the PS2 and played the Midway one extensively last night.  Some great old games on there, mainly Rampage and Gauntlet

Used play those a lot for Ye Olde Nintendo (which is the shocking thing, $20 for all of those games while one game cartridge for the Nintendo was $30+)  

I just want to say that Paperboy is one son of a bitch game, it is almost impossible to play

[JoshEEE]

Sort of an aside here....but I felt I needed to brag. If anyone has Midway Arcade Classics and Xbox Live, I have the highest scores in both Joust Normal and Extreme modes right now (by quite a bit I might add). It took a lot of playing to get them there, but I think they're good for now.

Any of you Joust Masters out there should really get this compilation disk and take me on.  

[Scott]

I f'n hate Joust almost as much as Paperboy...too bad you are on XBox and I'm on PS2 or I'd take you on Josh.  Much like our recent Snowball and Trash Can Battles

[JoshEEE]

I hate paperboy too. Besides Joust on that disk, I'm a fan of Root Beer Tapper, Klax, Smash TV, Robotron and a few others....but my scores are nowhere near as respectable as my Joust domination.  

[Diddly]

This might be a little off topic, but does anybody know any good sites to download old SNES games for emulators? I just downloaded the SNES Star Wars series, but I'm looking for some other things like the Donkey Kong Country trilogy. Any help would be nice.

[HWR]

A good place to download?

As I wrote in a earlier post, I know a place, but did not post a link. It's illegal to download you know unles you owe the original game.  

But iit's not ilegal to post a link so here it is. Besides SNES there is also NES, Neo-Geo, and Mame (old arcade machines). Besides the games (roms), you can also find emulators.

http://www.romnation.net

Sincerely
-Henrik

[Matt]

Evil, post-padding, place-holding, last-post-on-page-avoiding post.