The Pop-Culture E-Zine
Whoa, gotta set aside about 14 minutes and watch this brief tour of the Nintendo Museum with none other than Shigeru Miyamoto!
The Nintendo Museum is scheduled to open on October 2nd, 2024, in Kyoto, Japan! This is one item we definitely want to cross off the bucket list!
source: Nintendo Of America
Retro gamers rejoice, you can finally put away your physical SNES game manuals as you can now use the SNES Manual Archive online library to check out any game manual from your smart device (or computer) anywhere in the world!
This amazing resource for nostalgic fans of videogaming history was painstakingly curated by a team of dedicated peeps lead by Peebs. To say we owe them all our gratitude would be a massive understatement!
PS: If you look closely, there are Super Famicom, N64 and Virtual Boy manuals too!
Story source: The Verge / image source: Reddit / Title image: Peebs
Every morning we do what most of us probably do when rolling out of bed – we grab our phone and scroll through our Twitter timeline to see what we had missed while asleep!
This morning was no different till we came across a tweet from our Liverpudlian friend, Paul Darbyshire, who showcased a DIY Super Famicom SF-1 Mini that was fully integrated with a 5.5 inch LCD TV in a cute CRT case!
I mean just look at this thing – it’s so adorable! The creator of this amazing DIY is Limone Studio, so you should check out his DIY creation video here.
Oh yeah, now we need to find the ChoFamitsuku DIY kit (~ AU$55.00) to make our very own SF-1 mini!
SF-1 Mini Features:
This time, I made a TV-integrated Super Nintendo SF-1 mini with a DIY kit Super Nintendo. (No TV function)
I haven’t actually seen sf1 in the design, so I referred to the photos on the net.Features
-5.5 inch LCD screen
-usb c-type 5v power supply
-RGB output
-Stereo sound #Retro game #Super Nintendo pic.twitter.com/VWYrqgRvSI— Limone Studio (@limonegongbang) July 6, 2022
Being fans of Swedish outfit, Love Hultén, there is no shortage of retro gear they make that make us drool!
Their latest creations, the SNES-PVM and Famicom Computer(FC)-PVM all-in-one systems combine a 9″ Sony Trinitron PVM-9042QM monitor with genuine Super Famicom and Famicom consoles – which are absolutely gorgeous!
video and image source: Love Hultén
image source: FURiOUS via Twitter
Super Mario World has been in our top 5 all-time favourite games for 3 decades – it is that good!
Now we recall playing SMW for hours and hours on end (we still do!), so you can imagine our jaw-dropping to the floor when we saw Brazilian gamer, Matheus Furtado (aka: FURiOUS) setting a new Super Mario World (0 Exit) speedrun record by completing it in 41.022 seconds!
Check it out!
Fastest completion of Super Mario World (0 Exit) – 41.022 sec
Record holder @furious_ said the hardest part was placing Yoshi in the right spot to spit out the red shells 🐢 #Mar10 pic.twitter.com/zwOQd94CM7
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) March 10, 2022
PS: If you want to watch this speedrun effort on Twitch with all the beautiful SMW music and sound effects, go here.
Since we are on an R-Type kick (Ed: check out yesterday’s story), we thought we might as well continue rolling with more (great) news relating to this venerable shoot’em up.
Retro-Bit® is set to package two of the most iconic and critically-acclaimed IREM® shoot ’em ups together in one 16-bit cartridge for the first time this month (August) with the release of R-Type®III and Super R-Type® Collector’s Edition.
First released in 1991 alongside the Super Nintendo Entertainment System®, Super R-Type® was hailed as “easily the best Super NES® shooter on the market” by Electronic Gaming Monthly (September, 1991) and “an outstanding piece of work” by GamePro (November, 1991). It sees the formidable R-9 once again go up against the evil Bydo Empire in seven intense stages inspired by the 1989 arcade game R-Type II®.
Three years after the series’ explosive Super NES® debut, the Bydo Empire returned in R-Type III®: The Third Lightning. Named “the best shoot ’em up to appear in a long time” by SNES® Force (March, 1994), the popular action game puts players in control of the most powerful and versatile R-series vessel yet — the R-90 Ragnarok. Equipped with Round, Shadow, and Cyclone Forces of power, as well as the ability to warp between dimensions, R-Type III was an epic fight for Earth’s survival.
Bundled together for the first time ever, R-Type III and Super R-Type Collector’s Edition will include a 16-bit cartridge that can be played on the Super NES®, Super Famicom and select Retro-Bit® consoles. The exclusive hard embossed collector’s box will come loaded with a full-colour instruction manual featuring original artwork, R-Type branded notebook, exclusive sticker collection and an individually numbered certificate of authenticity, along with art prints by the world-renowned artist Paul “OtaKing” Johnson from his R-Type fan-inspired anime collection. Retro-Bit has also collaborated with FiGPiN® to create a limited edition R-Type pin set.
“R-Type is back with the limited edition collector’s package gamers have been asking for,” explains Ron Pang, Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Innex Inc. “We’re taking two of IREM’s most iconic 16-bit shooters and offering fans the ultimate collection of exclusives, high-quality content and value at an attractive price. R-Type III & Super R-Type Collector’s Edition and Holy Diver are just the first of many possible exclusive releases from Retro-Bit® Publishing.
“Shoot ’em up fans looking to take the fight to the Bydo Empire will need to act fast, as production will be limited to only 2,900 units in North America and 2,800 in Europe. The first one-thousand units in each region will come with an exclusive Galactic Blue cartridge. R-Type III and Super R-Type Collector’s Edition is currently available for pre-order and will retail for USD$59.99 when it begins shipping in late August.
More information can be found at Retro-Bit.com/r-type.
We may have to get in touch with Retro-Bit to see if we could have this cartridge in time for PAX Aus 2018!
source: Retro-Bit
There is no stopping the retro gaming renaissance!
If you still have your Super Famicom or Super Nintendo (SNES) handy, then you’ll be happy to know that there are games being re-released on Nintendo’s 16-bit powerhouse!
First cab off the retro gaming rank is the side-scrolling beat’em up, Super Double Dragon / Return of Double Dragon. This exclusive title is available in Japanese (Super Famicom) and English/US (SNES).
This legendary series follows the young twin brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee, who run a martial arts dojo. Their friend Marian disappears, so we reckon you know the rest of that story of what they need to do to save her.
The player controls either of the (suped-up) Lee brothers. There are seven stages including a strewn of extra stages so your fighting reflexes will need to be sharp. Don’t fret, as your fighters have 30 special moves with power gauges to engage in powerful techniques. Oh yeah, if fighting cleanly doesn’t work, then you can throw items such as barrels, stones, knives, bombs, and boomerangs – woohoo, we love dirty fighting!
If you want some action for your Super Famicom / SNES and you are ready to rescue Marian, go ahead and pre-order Return Of Double Dragon!
Pre-Order Links:
image source: Play Asia
When it comes to video gaming related compendiums, Bitmap Books has got you covered. One of their first efforts, the cleverly titled Commodore 64: a visual commpendium was an absolute ripper. We still love and cherish our C64 commpendium, especially the nostalgic buzz we get when flicking through its pages and finding games that we may have forgotten about. That C64 commpendium was the start of Bitmap Books’ journey into publishing awesome gaming related tomes.
Fast forward to today and we are once again wowed by their latest publication, the SNES/Super Famicom: a visual compendium! Not only is this compendium double (and then some!) the size of the Commodore 64 one, it boasts content that you would not normally find in a book like this. We were expecting the games coverage (of course), but the variety of content and contributions from industry legends, like Eugene Jarvis (Ed: OMG!) really blew us away!
The first thing that struck us when we received the SNES/Super Famicom: a visual compendium was its beautiful lenticular fascia slipcase. As mentioned, the size of this compendium (it’s 536 pages!) did get the 16-bit nostalgic nerves tingling immediately. We can bang on about the premium quality and finish, but we have come to expect this from Bitmap Books, which is a great feather in their cap.
The SNES (Super Famicom in Japan) was Nintendo’s entrant in the bitter 16-bit console war with Sega’s Mega Drive/Gensis. Selling almost 50 million consoles worldwide, it made Nintendo’s console a firm favourite with millions of gamers around the globe. If you owned or played on one of these 50 million SNES/Super Famicom consoles, then this compendium is for you!
SNES/Super Famicom: a visual compendium offers a visual snapshot of the best games, developers, box art and product design from across the territories it sold in. As the name suggests, it is a visual book designed to stir up excitement and nostalgia for Nintendo’s fantastic 16-bit machine and its legacy of classic video games. From the varied and amazing visual content, we absolutely loved the behind the scenes look at the creation of the SNES product / console packaging – a fascinating insight into the design team’s thinking!
This is really an easy review to do as the subject matter and quality finish truly sell themselves. Do yourself a favour and grab this compendium before it sells out!
SNES/Super Famicom: A Visual Compendium was kindly supplied for review by Bitmap Books
A very cool video of the evolution of Nintendo consoles by our good friends at GameSpot Today I Learned!
Before some of you say, “But where is the Game Boy, DS and 3DS?”, relax, this is the evolutionary line of their consoles, not their handhelds. Having said that, it seems like the Virtual Boy doesn’t fit in any category 🙁
How many Nintendo consoles have you owned since their Color TV-Game 6?
source: GameSpot Today I Learned
Care to use Twitter on your Game Boy? Perhaps you would rather use Microsoft’s Office applications on Nintendo’s little coloured beast? I know, you want to Skype your friend with vintage equipment!
Ah yes, welcome to good use of retro gaming gear Japanese style! You got to hand it to the Japanese, they know how to refashion old equipment and make you notice it. I wish I was this clever. Now hand me those SNES headphones and scroll through these epic pics!
source: matome.naver.jp