Kotomi custom-makes lots of hardware. Most of his stuff is terrific, but as a Zelda fanatic, his custom Super Nintendo themed around a Link to the Past tugged at my heart strings. Take a look at the Master Sword detail on the eject button.
Posts archived in Retro
NBA Jam Tournament Edition is the sequel to the original NBA Jam. The game had an updated roster and many hidden characters — a staple of the NBA Jam franchise. Additionally, Tournament Edition included additional SuperJam power-ups, more detailed player attributes, player substitutions after each quarter, injuries and a new soundtrack. It was overall an improved version of the original.
Very few people know that there is a plethora of video game-based comic books in the wild. Most can be had for great prices. So, I recently decided to actively add to my puny collection of comic books based on video games to display by love for both hobbies. My next target is the Mortal Kombat: Blood and Thunder comic series, which was published by Malibu Comics back in 1994. It basically takes place in the first Mortal Kombat universe while taking a lot of liberty with “What If” scenarios.
There is a terrible article on this series at Wikipedia, but for those interested it is one of the only few places with at least SOME information.
Magnetize your love for the NES game Duck Tales, with these custom 8bit sprite magnets done by Erin Shukait. They are plenty large to boot: Scrooge measures 4 by 5.5 inches and the chest measures 3 inches square.
Found at Etsy.
One of the great things about the game industry, is that if you can dream of some cool video game schwag, someone out there has too — and actually created it. Enter the Pac-Man Ghost Key Covers available at Sprapya World. There colors are represented: Pink, Orange and Blue in these adorable rubber key cover beauties.
Found at Sprapya World.
X-Men was one of the key Genesis titles that fans of that console had in the arsenal against the Super Nintendo fan boys. If you did not own a Genesis, you had to constantly hear about how good X-Men was. I was lucky enough to own both systems, so I got to play and enjoy this two player action game in which you had to destroy a virus that was infecting the Danger Room. The source of this virus was, naturally, Magneto, the most feared of all X-Men villains.
Why We Liked It
In the early 1990s, X-Men was at its peak in popularity. It was one of the best selling comic books and it was the coolest cartoon on television. The game gave you the option to choose from four of the most popular X-Men characters: Wolverine, Gambit, Cyclops and Nightcrawler. You also had the ability to call Storm, Rogue (sexy), Iceman, and Archangel to assist — similar to the game Marvel Vs Capcom. Most of the levels also featured a staple of villains from the X-Men universe (Magneto, Sabretooth, Juggernaut, Apocalypse, etc.). In short: It was a X-Men fan’s wet dream.
I must have spent hundreds of hours with my friends trying to beat this game, because it was difficult. Which, by the way, I think was more difficult in the two player mode thanks to screenlocking. But then the craziest shit happens. In the level where you beat Mojo, you are asked to reset the computer. We must have spent hours and hours all over the level trying to find this elusive computer. We never did.
Years later, to quench my curiosity, I look the game up online and find out that the computer you had to reset was the Genesis itself! A neat little trick, but could you have given us a hint? Argh!
Playing the game now, I can guarantee that my love for the game was directly associated with my obsession with the X-Men. The music is now annoying and the controls are an abomination. Though I tried hard to get through the game, I couldn’t even make it through the first stage. I guess this is a game I think I rather relive in my memories.
X-Men Genesis Speed Run by honorablejay
Difficulty:
Hard
Released:
1993
Developer:
Western Technologies Inc
Platform:
Sega Genesis
Let your geek flag fly high with 8bitMemory’s vintage USB hard drives using original re-purposed Nintendo and Super Nintendo cartridges. Each hard drive is priced differently based on the game and also on the amount of storage desired, but most of the prices posted on the 8BitMemory’s Etsy store are for 500GB variants. As for the hard drive brand, 8BitMemory uses Toshiba 2.5″ hard drives which are powered alone by the USB cable — you won’t need to plug it into a wall outlet.
Contra – NES Cartridge Hard Drive
Super Street Fighter – SNES Cartridge Hard Drive
The Desktop Icon
Diego Sanz took an 8bit character sprite of Piranha Plant and turned it into an almost surreal real-life version of the recurring Super Mario Bros character by printing it out and planting it in a pot.
Although BattleTanx for the Nintendo 64 earned average to mediocre scores from the video game media, the game earned its rightful place alongside Goldeneye, Mario Kart 64, Super Smash Bros, and San Francisco Rush in the Nintendo 64 owners multiplayer wall of fame. If you think that’s good company, you’d be right.
Why We Loved It:
With a storyline where a terrible virus kills off almost the entire female population on Earth and the remaining ladies are gathered by marauding gangs, there is very little NOT to love about Battletanx. The game supports four players simultaneously, a staple of the best Nintendo 64 multiplayer games. Multiplayer modes include: deathmatch, family mode, battlelord mode (capture the flag), and annihilation mode where the player left standing wins. Of those games, the most popular amongst my group of friends was Battlelord Mode. Each player has a base with powered-up defenses (which you can control) that made capturing the queen difficult. However, the task was never impossible since you can destroy the other player’s defenses.
This is all accomplished with honest to goodness great controls (a staple of the N64 games) and at the time blow-your-freaking-mind weapons like The Nuke. This single weapon (very rare) causes damage to a great percentage of the buildings in the level and at the same time deals a massive amount of damage to all the players in the radius of the blast.
BattleTanx Nuke in Action (scrub towards the end of the movie)
If you get a chance to put together a group of friends to boot up BattleTanx on your Nintendo 64 do so. If you can get past the muddy graphics of yesteryear, you’ll have a blast.
Difficulty:
Medium
Released:
December 31, 1998
Developer:
3DO
Platform:
Nintendo 64 (N64)
Etsy user patola has created a soft felt case for average-sized eyeglasses or sunglasses in the form of a Super Nintendo controller. The A,B,X,Y buttons are actual buttons (nice touch) and the frontal features are hand-sewn. The sides of the eyeglass case are machine-sewn to keep it all tightly together.
There are multiple version of the SNES controller eyeglass case, including XL, so be sure to check out patola’s Etsy Shop.