Douglas Crockford, who oversaw the porting of Maniac Mansion to the NES, would like for you to know how the game changed in the porting process and why.
posted by Pope Guilty on Oct 8, 2009 - 59 comments

The 2009 Super Mario Marathon will kick off this Friday as three gamers from Lafayette, Indiana jump their way through 25 years of Mario games to benefit the Child's Play Charity. The marathon will be broadcast live online and you can track their level progress at the site. Viewers of the event will have the opportunity to win some Mario-themed prizes. If old-school RPGs are more your thing, the Final Fantasy Marathon, also live online, also with prizes, will be kicking off July 17 to benefit ACT Today.
posted by Otis on Jul 8, 2009 - 12 comments

"It's a secret to everybody" -- an unbelievably comprehensive blog post about the etymologies of the names of famous (and not-so-famous) video game characters.
posted by empath on Jun 20, 2009 - 26 comments

Lots of video game cross stitch designs.
posted by mippy on May 22, 2009 - 9 comments

Reinier van der Ende, an x-ray technician at the largest hospital in the northern part of the Netherlands, decided to combine his work with one of his hobbies and proceeded to x-ray his collection of video game consoles, peripherals and game cartridges. Here are the fruits of his labour. [more inside]
posted by Effigy2000 on May 2, 2009 - 20 comments

Good morning, Crono! (Cf.) Starting this Friday, the Vintage Game Club will play through the RPG classic Chrono Trigger, a game beloved and praised but perhaps not well understood. The discussion is beginning here (little substance so far). [more inside]
posted by grobstein on Mar 17, 2009 - 46 comments

Modern video game covers reimagined as Classic Books.
posted by ColdChef on Feb 4, 2009 - 30 comments

Bought a video game second hand and found it doesn’t have a manual? Or have you been thinking about that great manual that came with that copy of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past you owned years ago and wouldn't mind taking a look through it again? Well, help is at hand! Vimm offers you heaps of free pdf manuals from retro systems as old as the Atari 2600 and as recent as the N64! Meanwhile Meekeo does much the same, although it mostly looks after current generation systems (including the PC) only. Finally, if you own a Nintendo Wii, DS, Gamecube or Gameboy Advance, Nintendo is offering up full colour pdfs of games they publish(ed) for these systems, as well as manuals for some of their older games.
posted by Effigy2000 on Jan 5, 2009 - 15 comments

Mother 3 fan translation completed. Earthbound (known as Mother 2 in Japan) is one of the most highly regarded RPGs for the Super Nintendo. The game suffered disappointing sales in America, but has since gained the status of a cult classic. A sequel, Mother 3, was released for the Game Boy Advance, but it has never been officially translated into English. After a long development, a fan translation patch has just been released. Trailer. [more inside]
posted by painquale on Oct 17, 2008 - 44 comments

A novel youtube page promoting Nintendo's latest platform game. The page itself adds context as the video progresses.
posted by nthdegx on Oct 8, 2008 - 24 comments

Nintendo Wee
posted by jonson on Apr 10, 2008 - 51 comments

Remember Super Mario Frustration? Kaizo Mario World is another of those super-hard Mario level hacks, this one of Super Mario World. Someone played through its first level 134 times, with save states, recording all his deaths, then digitally composited them into one trip through the level. The result was Many-Worlds Mario. (For those interested, here's a video of a tool-assisted perfect run of much of the game. Here's the rest. Here's some more.)
posted by JHarris on Feb 3, 2008 - 36 comments

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has refused to rate Manhunt 2, Rockstar Games' latest controversial offering, effectively banning it from sale in the United Kingdom. This surprising decision comes only weeks before the game's July 10th release date. The last game to be blocked from sale in the UK was the 1997 classic Carmageddon. Appeal remains a possibility for Rockstar, “although it sometimes takes up to two months to get this happening.”
posted by mek on Jun 19, 2007 - 72 comments

Year of the Monkey. In the wake of yesterday's Nintendo Wii release information, take a look back at the birth of the company's flagship characters, Mario and Donkey Kong, who turned 25 last month. Play the classic online or check out the Donkey Kong Board Game while listening to "Kong in Concert."
posted by Otis on Sep 15, 2006 - 17 comments

8-Bit Lit. An interview with Seth Godin and Peter Lerangis, two writers behind the pen name "F.X. Nine," who in the early 90's produced the memorable "Worlds of Power" book series spinning entire novellas for Scholastic out of various Nintendo games. Fun facts include the removal of all killing and even references to weapon use, the creation of the pen name as a way to make the books appear next to "Nintendo" in stores, and the embarrassment I feel actually remembering the passage quoted from the Blaster Master book.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Sep 14, 2006 - 14 comments

How the Wii will save the adventure game. Will the innovation of Nintendo's new console be able to turn this ailing genre around? Of course, as Next Generation points out, even consoles that fail can end up winning. Meanwhile, Nintendo faces litigation over the patent for the controller that brought it so much attention. Plus, what to do with your old Gamecube.
posted by magodesky on Aug 7, 2006 - 32 comments

bit Generations is a line of Japanese budget-priced Game Boy Advance games Nintendo released these past two weeks. Most of the titles feature minimalist graphics combined with simple but engaging gameplay, echoing the company's recent philosophy. Perhaps the most intriguing of the games is Soundvoyager, in which the player relies almost entirely on audio positioning to progress- a bit reminicent of this. No word on a US release yet, but if Electroplankton made it out here, maybe there's a chance.
posted by Dr-Baa on Jul 30, 2006 - 10 comments

Andre's NES Emulator — play the classics online
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Jun 30, 2006 - 18 comments

Takeshi no Chousenjou may be the hardest videogame ever written. With a title screen warning that it was "created by somebody who hates videogames" (actually writer/actor/director/comedian Takeshi "Beat" Kitano) "Takeshi's Challenge" forces gamers to endure such tasks as singing karaoke for an uninterrupted hour and holding a single button for four straight hours. Players who endure to the end are rewarded by having to hit the final boss 20,000 times. If you don't speak the language, you might be able to enjoy the game as a Japanese precursor to Grand Theft Auto, but those who understand it more fully see it as "a videogame that riffs on human disappointment for as many hours as the player is willing to search for redemption." Warning: last link contains possible spoilers for Mother 2 and some of the Metal Gear Solid games.
posted by yankeefog on Feb 21, 2006 - 31 comments

Mario Adventure - SMB3 hacked into an entirely new high-quality game
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome on Feb 17, 2006 - 20 comments

Children review classic games- some more. Back in November '03, 1up.com rounded up some kids from the 8-12 age range and had them play video and arcade games from the 70's and 80's, including Pong, Donkey Kong, and Tetris. The resulting commentary was mostly along the lines of "Tim: They could've just as easily called this game anything—Baseball, Bowling, Escape From the Monsters. EGM: Did you score? Kirk: I bumped into a dot." In December 2004 they brought them back to review Mike Tyson's Punch-Out and the 1983 Arcade version of Star Wars, among others. "EGM: What do those TIE Fighters look like? ...Are they scary? Anthony: No. It feels like they're trying to give me flowers."
posted by Meredith on Feb 16, 2006 - 44 comments

GameLife Video Game Review Show Episode 1
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome on Feb 9, 2006 - 29 comments

Super Mario Brothers sound effects. Boing! Boing! CRUNCH! Ding! Ding! Ding! Whoop! Boing!
posted by Robot Johnny on Feb 3, 2006 - 23 comments

Having trouble with that new videogame you got for Christmas? Text-only walkthroughs don't do it for you? Then try Stuck Gamer. Video walkthroughs for a pretty good number of games. Including, thanks the Lords of Kobol, Ninja Gaiden.
posted by WolfDaddy on Dec 26, 2005 - 16 comments

Assembler is a compilation of exclusively foreign, obscure and unreleased video game consoles, as well as strange hybrids, developer units and something you might have found in the Sears catalog ten years ago.
posted by setanor on Oct 27, 2005 - 10 comments

Duck Doom Deluxe is a version of the old NES Duck Hunt game skinned to use the FPS gun/hand graphics from the original Doom. Windows only, apologies...
posted by jonson on Aug 27, 2005 - 10 comments

SMW - The complete soundtrack to Super Mario World, covered by one man using dozens of instruments. Roughly in game order, faithful to the originals, with some bizarre artistic license thrown around. A private hobby made public. Dedicated to Koji Kondo.
posted by Pretty_Generic on Aug 13, 2005 - 20 comments

The best E3 wrapup I've read this year. Also the only E3 wrapup I've read this year. But there are pictures! And amusing musings! It's also by Our Boy Mefite kevspace.
posted by WolfDaddy on May 31, 2005 - 33 comments

VGMix is a site that hosts MP3s made by video game afficionados who have remixed the tunes from their favorite video games, old and new alike. Check out the releases page and try out a few songs. You can also search for songs by a particular game system, genre, specific game, etc. (Unfortunately, search seems broken for me right now, but it usually works!) The users generally provide extensive reviews that will help you sort out the great from the mediocre before downloading.
posted by knave on May 23, 2005 - 11 comments

A Gamers' Manifesto
posted by Tlogmer on May 23, 2005 - 40 comments

HySpace! Dodongo's Interests:
General: NOT SMOKE
Music: NOT THE SMOKING PIPES
Movies: NOT CHEECH AND CHONG'S UP IN SMOKE
Books: Dodongo... not read much... BUT HEY IF TITLE OF BOOK IS HAVING THE WORD SMOKE, DODONGO PROBABLY NOT LIKE VERY MUCH, SEE WHERE DODONGO WITH GOING IS YOU?
posted by StopMakingSense on May 7, 2005 - 39 comments

8 bit goes a capella A Madison Wisconsin a cappella group (Redefined) sings (and acts out) the greatest Nintendo backing tracks in this video of a live performance. The Zelda and Tetris ones are priceless. There's a Windows Media version as well.
posted by eljuanbobo on Apr 15, 2005 - 33 comments

I am 8 bit is a celebration of the pixelated graphics of 80s videogames, at LA's Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight. A hundred artists have produced paintings, sculptures and designs inspired by the two-dimensional imagery of the pre-PlayStation era. The exhibition runs from April 19 until May 20. More information, including highlights from the gallery, appear at Game Informer. It remains to be seen if the other ninety-nine artists can match the quality of Sean Clarity's exceptional reworking of the cover to NES classic Excitebike.
posted by nthdegx on Apr 3, 2005 - 18 comments

Zelda Classic is a tribute to (what we think is) the greatest video game of all time: Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda. It has been developed into an exact replica of the NES version that we all know and love. For windows and DOS.
posted by crunchland on Mar 22, 2005 - 22 comments

How to beat Super Mario Brothers 3 in 11 minutes. If it's unedited (which I think it is), this is amazing. (link goes to .wmv file)
posted by Espoo2 on Nov 27, 2003 - 35 comments

His name is Mr Freetime, he has 2,967 copies of Moero!! Pro Baseball for the Famicom. He knows how to use them.
posted by nthdegx on Aug 6, 2003 - 11 comments

Interested in video game emulators? Yearning for the games of yesteryear? There is probably an emulator for any 'classic' game that you could wish to play. General arcade emulators, SNES, NES, Genesis, Atari 2600, et al. For the truly curious, listen to the story of the emulator that almost was, Silhouette, the emulator Nintendo almost released.
posted by patrickje on May 13, 2002 - 32 comments

Do you miss the music from your old NES games? Well if you do, be sure to check out the minibosses. They're a band that only plays the songs to classic video games from the Nintendo Entertainment System. Great stuff. I particularly enjoyed the Wizards & Warriors track amusing, since I was addicted to that game when I was younger. Also, am I the only one who thinks there should be a new console system DEDICATED to only 2D games? 3D games are neat 'n all, but I don't think enough good 2D games are being made anymore. The Gameboy Advance is probably the only system doing that sort of thing right now, but it's just a portable.
posted by kingmissile on Oct 3, 2001 - 22 comments

Nintendo delays U.S. launch of GameCube Nintendo has pushed back the U.S. arrival of its new GameCube video game console by nearly two weeks, with executives saying they intend to avoid the shortages and frustrated consumers that marked the debut of Sony's PlayStation 2 last fall.
posted by Brilliantcrank on Aug 23, 2001 - 21 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