Twenty years ago today, the gaming world saw the launch of a truly landmark title:
Sonic the Hedgehog. Developed as a vehicle for a new Sega mascot, the fluid, vibrant, cheery-tuned wonderland swiftly became the company's flagship product, inspiring over the ensuing decades
an increasingly convoluted universe of TV shows,
comic books, and dozens of games on a variety of systems (all documented in
this frighteningly comprehensive TVTropes portal). And while in recent years the series has turned out
more and more mediocre 3D and RPG efforts, the original games remain crown jewels of the 16-bit era. So why not kick off this anniversary by replaying the titles that started it all for free in your browser:
Sonic the Hedgehog (1991),
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992),
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994),
Sonic & Knuckles (1994). Or click inside for music, remakes, and other fun stuff!
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Jun 23, 2011 -
71 comments
The video game
SEGAGAGA, a Japan-only release for the Dreamcast, is an incredibly odd bit of gaming history. A business sim (of sorts) it tasks the player to lead Sega to victory over its rival the evil DOGMA Corporation (a thinly veiled analog for Sony). Loaded with in-jokes obvious and obscure, it is a love letter to Sega fans, and it was one of the last Dreamcast games made before Sega went third party. After a four-year hiatus,
the Segagaga fan translation project has resumed work on localizing this most unusual game.
Intro video.
Edge Magazine interviews the director.
[more inside]
posted by JHarris
on Mar 23, 2011 -
24 comments
In the mid-1990s, a man named George Wood created a TV show called
Flights of Fantasy on a Maryland public-access channel. The show was was dedicated to videogames, and gained quite a few detractors; Wood was not known for his playing skills, research, or good taste, and the production was rather cheap. He would also tend to go off-topic, sometimes markedly so.
It had a small following, being a local public-access show, but would have been lost forever had Wood not joined a video gaming association called NAViGaTR, who archived the entire series, edited each episode, and put them online as
Gaming in the Clinton Years.
posted by Anatoly Pisarenko
on Mar 21, 2011 -
12 comments
Trash cans, landfills, and incinerators. Erasure, deletion, and obsolescence. These words could describe what has happened to the various building blocks of the video game industry in countries around the world. These building blocks consist of video game source code, the actual computer hardware used to create a particular video game, level layout diagrams, character designs, production documents, marketing material, and more.
These are just some elements of game creation that are gone -- never to be seen again. These elements make up the home console, handheld, PC and arcade games we've played. The only remnant of a particular game may be its name, or its final published version, since the possibility exists that no other physical copy of its creation remains.
As a community of video game developers, publishers, and players, we must begin asking ourselves some difficult but inevitable questions. Some believe there is no point in preserving a video game, arguing that games are short-term entertainment, while others disagree with this statement entirely, believing the industry is in a preservation crisis.
Where Games Go To Sleep: The Game Preservation Crisis [more inside]
posted by timshel
on Feb 9, 2011 -
44 comments
In
Aliens, what was the primary danger Ellen Ripley faced? Was it A. the machinations of the officials of the Weyland-Yutani corporation, B. the attacks and acid blood of the aliens themselves, or C. the bizarre, space-warping doors of the space colony dumping her into pits of death? According to a recently-surfaced prototype of a Famicom (Japanese NES) port of
Aliens, produced by Squaresoft, the answer is C!
Sardius of gaming blog
Dream And Friends tells us all about it:
Part 1 -
Part 2 -
Part 3 [more inside]
posted by JHarris
on Jan 20, 2011 -
37 comments
Animator OrinCreed said
I Dream In Retro is "based heavily on a dream I had that was caused by a long day of playing NES, SNES, and Genesis. In the dream I was moving through different levels from many games. In each level the music was wrong and my sprite (while fitting the bit style) didn't quite work with the game. During the dream I was abusing a cheat ability to use different weapons from pretty much any game I wanted at any time. The game itself behaved as it should, with my actions being the only aberration." The result was this loving tribute and mash-up of video game titles.
posted by ShawnStruck
on Jun 16, 2010 -
21 comments
Sure, you've played
Final Fantasy VII, but what about
Final Fantasy Extreme? You've played
EarthBound, but what about
Earth Bound (two words). You know all about
Dragon Quest VIII, but are you familiar with
Dragon Quest: Young Yangus and the Mystery Dungeon? There's a whole world of forgotten, canceled games out there just waiting to be discovered. Let 1UP's Jeremy Parish and Frank Cifaldi be your guides in an exploration of
The Best Games That Never Were.
(Previously)
posted by Servo5678
on May 27, 2010 -
30 comments
Platypus Comix has compiled images from around the Internet of
prototype game consoles and peripherals spanning from the original NES all the way to the Sony PlayStation 3. You'll see the NES's tape recorder, a touch pad for the Sega Genesis, the infamous Nintendo PlayStation, a PlayStation Portable you can clip to your backpack ("...or whatever reckless thing they thought you'd try."), a Wii controller with just one large button, and the embarrassing PS3 "serect" button.
[more inside]
posted by Servo5678
on Apr 14, 2010 -
38 comments
TheSmartAss.info's suite of Java emulators allows smooth, in-browser playback of literally
thousands of old-school video games:
517 Atari titles,
148 for DOS,
636 Game Boy games (and
410 for Game Boy Color),
2,019 (!) NES titles,
238 GameGear games,
802 Sega Genesis titles, and
284 for the Sega Master System. Highlights include
Space Invaders,
Frogger,
Galaga,
Pitfall!,
Super Mario Bros.,
The Legend of Zelda,
Metroid,
SimCity,
Zero Wing,
Duke Nukem,
Sonic the Hedgehog,
Aladdin,
Earthworm Jim,
Pokemon, and
Metal Gear Solid. Use
the search function to find your favorites! You can also register an account to save games on emulators that support it. Make sure to check the purple bar below each game for control info and links to alternate emulators in case the default one is buggy or slow.
posted by Rhaomi
on Nov 30, 2009 -
54 comments
"There's no sense mourning the Dreamcast's untimely demise. For as brief as its moment in the sun was, it lived two lives. In fact, the DC had more first-party titles in its short life than either the GameCube or the Xbox, and their quality can hardly be denied. Many hardware manufacturers have come and gone, but it's unlikely any will go out with half as much class as SEGA." Where were you on 9-9-99? IGN's the
History of the Dreamcast.
[more inside]
posted by Arbac
on Sep 8, 2009 -
100 comments
(NSFW)
The Angry Video Game Nerd (taking a cue from seanbaby's
lead) has been producing video reviews of some of the most notoriously awful NES games, from
Top Gun to
Bible Games. (Can't miss:
The Power Glove.) Not content to go after one system, he's upgraded his range to take on other colossal failures like the
Atari Jaguar,
Superman 64, and
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (the movie). His newest series of videos,
You Know What's Bullshit?, takes on everyday nuances like
DVD box sets. He may be vulgar and his vignettes silly, but damn straight he's got a
point. Enjoy all his archived videos
here, spanning five years of obscenity-laced love/hate for his greatest passions.
posted by Christ, what an asshole
on Jun 23, 2009 -
18 comments
The Japanese Trailer to Kokoro Scan. Japanese game trailers always seem pretty interesting and fun. And, well, most often more-or-less nonsensical. This is for the new game
Kokoro Scan, which, um, looks like it might be a dating sim of some sort? Maybe? The animation and segues are pretty interesting, and, though it's 6 minutes -- awfully long for a trailer, particularly one sans any gameplay (I think) -- it's interesting/off-the-wall enough to be engaging. What do cartoon nipples, pixellated white things and bananas have in common?
(via)
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me
on Aug 3, 2007 -
13 comments
A long time ago, way back before the internet brought us gaming news virtually at the click of a button, gamers had to get their gaming news via magazines. For console owners living in the United Kingdom and Australia, the magazine of choice would almost certainly have been
Mean Machines. Combining gaming news with classic British humor* with a great layout,
Mean Machines made for a great read every issue. Though now (sadly) long dead, nostalgic fans of
Mean Machines will undoubtedly be happy to learn that you can now read every one of their reviews online in both HTML and scanned pdf formats at
The Mean Machines Archive. With an issue by issue examination of this classic publication, the site is well worth a look if you were a fan of the magazine or just to see what gaming news was like before the likes of
IGN (which, interestingly enough, lead editor of
Mean Machines Julian Rignall would one day join).
* not an oxymoron
posted by Effigy2000
on Jun 9, 2006 -
21 comments
Well, I said, if they're going to insist on putting all those functions -- phone, camera, personal organizer, hand-held computer, TV remote, garage door opener, phaser -- on a single device then
I want 'em on my Gameboy.
posted by jfuller
on Aug 20, 2003 -
7 comments
Sega bails on another piece of hardware. It looks like the dreamcast is dead. They are stopping production and reducing the price to clear the dreamcasts they have remaining in stock.
posted by bytecode
on Jan 31, 2001 -
20 comments
As one whose gaming never advanced beyond PONG, I know
this must mean something. What that something is, I'm not sure.
posted by red cell
on Dec 27, 2000 -
3 comments
Ninga? Nintendo and Sega to form joint company. With Sony and M$ to contend with, it doesn't come as much of a surprise.
posted by john
on Oct 30, 2000 -
28 comments
