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Analogue News: Could It Be The Release of the Analogue Pocket?

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We told you all about the Analogue Pocket last October, however, with the current world health situation, it seems that their scheduled release plans in 2020 were impacted, till now?!

Analogue tweeted last night (Australian time) with a simple message, “Jul. 27, 2020 8am PST”. Could this date be the release of the Analogue Pocket? Chances are that it is, but we’ll know more in a few days.

Unfortunately for those of us in Australia, we’ll have to stay up late (1am AEST, Jul. 28, 2020) to check out what the news/announcement is. Make sure you all set your alarms.

Let the excitement (and speculation) begin!

Sega Mega Drive – Street Fighter 2 Remastered Edition

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Nintendo may be grabbing a lot of attention with their Nintendo Direct announcement this week, but we reckon you need to know about this other awesome news too.

So what’s the awesome news? Well, remember when Street Fighter II hit the 16-bit consoles and we were all discussing which version was better? For the record, we preferred the SNES version, but the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis (Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition) game was no slouch either. The awesome news is, things have changed for the better on the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis version, thanks to coder Gabriel Pyron.



Gabriel has been toiling for 4 years, reworking the Mega Drive / Genesis Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition game to bring it as close to arcade perfect as possible, aptly titled, Street Fighter II Remastered Edition. Gabriel has injected better/more colours, updated the graphics, animations and art, fixed some bugs and removed the pesky censorship elements to name just a few of his updates.

Head on over here to download Gabriel’s update and apply the patch to play the ultimate (and best) Street Fighter II game on the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis!

image source: Romhacking



Your Top 4 Favourite Classic Video Game Characters of All-Time

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The good folks at Replay Magazine recently conducted a survey to find out who was our favourite video game character of all time.

Well, it was no surprise to see the usual suspects, however, we honestly thought Mario would be on top of the list. Oh yeah, how did Dirk the Dragon Slayer (Dragon’s Lair) make it in third spot and where was Sonic The Hedgehog?!

Upon reflection, the iconic yellow dot-muncher definitely deserves to be on top. We can’t wait for Replay’s next surveys, so stay tuned.

Top 4 Favourite Video Game Characters of all-time:

  1. Pac-Man (38% of vote)
  2. Mario (21%)
  3. Dirk the Dragon Slayer (13%)
  4. Donkey Kong (8%)

image source: Just Kidding

 

LEGO Nintendo Entertainment System Set

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Whoa, LEGO and Nintendo have given us a one two punch of sets – first with their LEGO Super Mario, and now, the awesome LEGO Nintendo Entertainment System set!

This awesome LEGO NES set will be available from August 1 and will retail for AU$349.99. You’ll now be able to assemble your own console and retro CRT TV, then turn the crank to make 8-bit Super Mario move across the screen! We are excited 🙂

source: LEGO

 

Portable Retro Emulation

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What is it about the need to ‘hack’ handheld systems to play old school video games? Is it the challenge (to hack), is it the fact you are doing something shady or is it purely to just play your ‘backup’ video games from gaming generations gone by?

What ever the reason, there have been a plethora of options for retro gamers to either soft or hard mod their portable beasts to play classic games. In parallel, there have been dedicated emulation handheld systems to help with your hit of nostalgia, like the GP2X, Caanoo and the latest beast, the RK2020, to name just a few.

CycloDS – the softmod hack for the Nintendo DS

We have quite a few handheld systems that we use to play our favourite retro video games, some emulate better than the others, but our favourite right now is the PSP for playing Mega Drive and SNES games. We have the exciting new RK2020 retro handheld coming to our office, so stay tuned for our review on that little beast 🙂

WARNING: Hacking your systems is not without risk and can also void your warranty.

 

FunKey S – All Your Retro Games On A Keychain

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We promised no more Kickstarters, but this FunKey S – the world’s smallest handheld gaming system, has grabbed us by the scruff off the neck and it ain’t letting go!

You can relax with the question about funding, the FunKey S is already well and truly funded – by a long shot! Right, let’s get straight to it – if you want a retro gaming system small enough to fit on your keyring so that it can be taken anywhere, then the FunKey S is your jam. The FunKey S features a clam-shell design, just like the classic GameBoy Advance SP. Once opened, it greets you with a 1.54″ IPS LCD screen and a D-pad style controller. This teensy little beast is no slouch, with an ARM Cortex-A7 CPU @ 1.2 GHz under the hood. Playtime is roughly 90 minutes on a 20 minute charge, which is pretty decent too.

Most importantly, the games are loaded via its SD card slot, supporting memory cards up to 128GB, which should be enough for pretty much every retro game under the sun – which bring us to the shady part. To play NES, SNES, Game Boy (Original, Color, GBA), Sega Master System, Sega Genesis / Megadrive, Sega Game Gear, Atari Lynx, Playstation, WonderSwan and Neo Geo Pocket games, you will have to hunt for ROMs in some pretty murky areas on the web, which is kinda not so legal.

If you are craving to play classic video games on the go, then you can’t really go past this small and very cute foldable handheld!

story & image source: technabob

 

Building Miniature SEGA Arcade Machines

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The amount of talent and knowledge some people have is beyond comprehension. One particular person got our attention on Twitter, gaug888. gaug888’s miniature Sega arcade machine creations are beyond amazing! Not only are they faithful miniature recreations of their bigger arcade brethren, they also play the arcade video games they are based on – totally mind blowing!

The meticulous level of detail of these miniature creations are off the charts. We reckon Yu Suzuki would be quite impressed too!

PS: If you want to check out the complete and documented log of gaug888’s miniature creations, head to Togetter now.

image source: gaug888 via Togetter

 

Hudson Hawk on Game Boy

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By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.

“Hudson Hawk” is considered one of the worst films of the 1990s. I watched it late at night on cable when I was a kid and I loved it. I enjoyed its free-wheeling plot and silly action sequences. Maybe it was because I’ve always been a fan of Bruce Willis and Danny Aiello’s acting? Willis and Aiello have incredible chemistry, and every scene with them together are the best scenes in the film.

Is it a great film? No. But being young, my standards were lower and I watched it every time I found it on HBO or TBS. Then, I traded a Game Boy cartridge for the “Hudson Hawk” video game.

“Hudson Hawk” on Game Boy is exceptional, because there’s not many heist video games. It was a simple platform game, but unlike games of that format, it wasn’t easy to maneuver all of the potential threats. The game is like the classics, “Double Dragon” or “Ghosts ’n Goblins” because of how enemies appear suddenly in windows and behind Hawk as he’s trying to steal priceless items.

Playing as Hudson Hawk, you had to jump and climb between suspended platforms while sidestepping obstacles. As the famous cat burglar, you are sent on a mission to steal three Da Vinci artefacts. You try to avoid sounding alarms as you move through the different levels of the game. Dealing with dogs is the hardest part of the game; they’re quick and unpredictable. The security guards are a push over as an enemy. Simply punching them swiftly or throwing a ball at them took them out. You don’t expect the aggressive kangaroos or the stampeding rhinoceros in the library. The various, oddball enemies give the Special FX Ltd. game an originality.

As over-the-top as Richard E. Grant is as the film’s villain, Darwin Mayflower, he’s still entertaining. Grant, in my opinion, has been one of the most underrated actors of the last thirty years in cinema. He steals every scene he is in, and throughout his long career, I can’t think of one bad performance by the Swazi-British actor. Some critics would say “Hudson Hawk” is his worst performance, but I think it’s fun, and you can tell he’s having a good time torturing Willis’ character.

The Game Boy game and the 1991 film gave me an odd, mystifying joy that I still don’t fully understand. I spent hours of my childhood trying to steal artefacts with my Game Boy close to my face.

 

Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX – A Legend Reborn

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We woke up today to great news that our fave ex-Sega mascot, Alex Kidd, will be getting a new lease of life on modern consoles!

Yep, you read that right, the classic and awesome Sega Master System game, Alex Kidd in Miracle World is being brought into the 21st century, titled Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX! Slated to be released early in 2021 on PC, Switch, Xbox and PlayStation, we honestly can’t wait to reacquaint ourselves with Alex on a modern gaming platform.

We love the brand new visual style, but we are even more chuffed and excited that it will have a retro mode to experience classic Master System Alex Kidd. This new version of AK will feature new levels, modes, and alternative boss battles – all based on the iconic Master System game. So if classic ‘80s platforming is your jam – and it should be, then you will need Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX in your life.

A legend has truly been reborn!

PS: While we wait for this to be released, we’ll keep playing Alex Kidd in Miracle World on our Master System 😉


source: GameTrailers

 

 

SEGA Announces the Game Gear Micro

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Do you remember us gushing last week with the news that SEGA may re-enter the console market? If you recall, we speculated on some pretty cool console concepts that SEGA may have brought to us SEGA starved fans.

Well, it seems that the wait is over! SEGA has blindsided us by announcing their Game Gear Micro, harking back to their popular 90s handheld, the Game Gear. The Game Gear Micro will be 40% smaller than the original and will come in four colour variations, each one with their own four pre-loaded games.

The list of games per Game Gear Micro variant:

  • Game Gear Micro (Black): Sonic The Hedgehog, Puyo Puyo, OutRun, Royal Stone
  • Game Gear Micro (Blue): Sonic & Tales, Gunstar Heroes, Sylvan Tale, Baku Baku Animal
  • Game Gear Micro (Yellow): Shining Force Gaiden, Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya, Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict, Nazopuyo Aruru no Rou
  • Game Gear Micro (Red): The GG Shinobi, Columns, Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible, Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible Special

Oh yeah, in addition to these four coloured variants, there will also be a Game Gear Micro Smoke a limited edition unit which can be added to a framed display to showcase the 5 variants (as part of the Deluxe (DX) pack from the Sega Store). If you are a SEGA collector, you may want to jump onto this!

Specifications:

  • Body size : Width 80 mm x Height 43 mm x Depth 20 mm
  • Screen size : 1.15 inches (240×180 pixel)
  • Audio output : Monaural speaker, 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack
  • Power supply : 2 AAA batteries (sold separately), USB micro terminal power supply

image source: Sega 60th Anniversary

The four Game Gear Micro variants will be released on October 6 (coinciding with the original Game Gear’s 30th anniversary) via Amazon (JP), Rakuten Books and the Sega Store with a suggested retail price of ~AU$70. If you don’t have the means to pre-order from these sites, then keep an eye on Play Asia, as they will have them available soon!