Programmer and CMU PhD Tom Murphy created a function to “beat” NES games by watching the score. When the computer did things that raised the score it would learn how to reproduce them again in again, resulting, ultimately, in what amounts to a Super Mario Brothers-playing robot. The program, called a “technique for automating NES games,” can take on nearly every NES game but it doesn’t always win. → Read More
The OUYA Android-based gaming console is getting ready for its debut: the stated beginning shipping date for Kickstarter backers is March 28. At launch, it sill isn’t clear exactly how many software titles the console will offer, but a new report suggests that at the very least, early backers will have emulators to play with on the small, inexpensive console. → Read More
If you consider yourself a gamer, then you likely have a few NES cartridges lying around the house. If not, leave now. Rather than letting them continue to collect dust, 8-Bit Memory turned a bunch into external USB hard drives. You can get whichever size and style you want and you can even get USB 3.0. → Read More
Happy Birthday, NES. 25 years old, eh? Wow. A lot’s changed in over your lifetime. You, along with a bit of help from Mario, Link, Kid Icarus, brought gaming to living rooms worldwide. Many of us grew up with you as our babysitter. I can recall countless sleepless nights trying to make my way up the tower in Kung Fu and later through the war-torn jungle in Guerrilla Wars. What memories. → Read More
So you’ve got an emulator installed on your Android device, along with a few ROM, and you think you’re pretty cool. Well, I can pretty much bet you that [Sk3tch]‘s geek-fu is better then yours. He took an NES controller, connected it to a Bluetooth module, and plays his NES on a controller, while you fumble around with your SEND and Home buttons. → Read More
Can you dig it? Ryu from Ninja Gaiden on the NES was a real badass. He could climb on walls and he had unlimited shuriken, a big plus when you’re going against hordes of anti-ninja forces on the NES. But how is he against Koopa Troopers? Our favorite game, SMB Crossover, just announced they’re adding Ryu to their line-up of classic characters. → Read More
I don’t know if this is a waste of a good harmonica or a waste of a good NES cartridge but what you see before you is a harmonica hidden inside an honest-to-goodness NES game. The best part? They cost less than the $80 copy of Adventures of Link that the rental place around the corner from my house was selling back in 1988: $34. → Read More
While I think the passion for building stand-up arcade games has waned recently, it’s nice to see that someone out there is still thinking of the children. PuppyArcade by Scott Jarvis is a CD-based arcade system that boots in any PC and allows you to access MAME ROMs on almost any disk. The game plays Amiga, Atari, Commodor, and even Doom ROMs and WADs and, as you’ll notice, even runs… → Read More
Some hardware is just dear to a geeks heart that they can’t let it just die. Take for example the original NES system. Some enthusiasts take modding them to a whole new level. I mean, I like to play Mario Bros. as much as the next guy, but this is getting extreme. → Read More
Holy wow. Remember this game? You were some kid named Jason with a frog. The frog turns into a monster and then disappears and you follow the frog in a battle tank called Sofia the Third (WTF, right?). Well, the game has been remade and is coming to Wiiware. All of the goodness is there including the ability to hop out of your tank for overhead combat. All I remember is that this was hard as heck… → Read More
Ahh the Konami code. Favorite cheat of gamers for years, it lives in legend and will never die. Much like that Rick Astley video. And while it might not be the most secure way to lock your data, it certainly raises your geek cred. → Read More
Be still my beating heart. The UberNES Nintendo Screen Saver displays a grid of multiple working NES games when your computer is idle. Leave it be, and you’ll see all the various demos running at once. Hit the spacebar and you can actually start playing the games.
Tears of joy, my friends. Tears of joy. → Read More
Behold! A portable convergence device from faraway lands! It plays music, it plays videos, it takes photos, it’s an e-book reader, a dictionary, a notepad, it slices, it dices, it does it all! But none of that matters. None of it. Why? Because this little $30 gem plays NES games. And so we dance… → Read More
Dig up your old NES cartridges, ladies and gents, and prepare to blow them. Wait. Blow out the dust from them. That’s what I meant. Buy.com has the “8-Bit Retro NES TopLoader Video Game System” for just $15 with free shipping. → Read More
Say hello to Nebudroid, an Android application that turns your phone into a NES controller for use with emulators. It also serves as an accelerometer-based steering wheel for racing games. → Read More
We’ll go ahead and file this one under “Things I Want In My House” and tuck it away in the filing cabinet for later perusal. Here’s a counter-top Nintendo arcade that basically consists of an XP machine running a NES emulator, all connected to a 17-inch LCD housed inside a custom-built cabinet made of MDF. → Read More
Old NES controller, meet iPhone. An enterprising individual over on the iPhonefr.com forums (careful, everything is in French!) has turned one of the most iconic controllers of all time into something that holds one of the most iconic electronic gadgets of the present day. → Read More
Got a Pre? Like Nintendo? If you fit in the overlapping intersection of that particular Venn diagram, then have I got some good news for you. Some enterprising individuals over at the Pre Dev Wiki have gotten a NES emulator up and running on the Palm Pre. → Read More
Hot damn, folks. If all the talk of newfangled gaming coming out of E3 this week has you longing for a simpler time, might I suggest — nay, demand — that you consider the $50 GEN-X Genesis/NES Game System from ThinkGeek? → Read More
I’m a big fan of the T-Mobile G1 but to say that the selection of quality games from the Android Market has been underwhelming (at best) would be sugar-coating it. Luckily none of that really matters any more, as Android finally has a decent NES emulator. → Read More
Portable 8-bit gaming sort of hits the mainstream with ThinkGeek.com now selling the $50 Retro Mini Handheld NES System. Unlike those far more convenient, yet far less legal portable emulation machines that you have to purchase from far away lands, this handheld ships right from the U.S. of A. and plays actual NES cartridges. → Read More
The things people will actually put up for sale! I think I remember hearing about this thing a long time ago, but I’ve never seen one before. Essentially a all-in-one system with 15 actual cartridges built right in, the FamicomBox was used in hotel rooms and arcades. It’s got a bunch of the classic games for the system, although I can’t read all of their titles. It’s got Mega Man and Ghosts &… → Read More
The year was 1986. The Nintendo Entertainment System had been out for about a year and absolutely every kid in the entire universe had one except for me. I’d resorted to casually inviting myself over to the houses of friends, non-friends, enemies, and strangers, just so I could play Super Mario Brothers, The Legend of Zelda, and RBI Baseball. I wasn’t proud of it, but it had to be done. I was… → Read More
I saw one of these things at PAX. It’s a great idea; after all, the actual hardware involved has become extremely small. You can fit an NES into a cartridge if you want to. So it makes sense to stick all the circuitry in a box, add some cartridge interfaces, make some ambiguous controllers, and sell it as a super-console. The one I saw was NES and Genesis, like this one, but there’s a… → Read More
This fellow is selling a $180 hard drive case mod he built out of an old NES cartridge and a 250GB hard drive. By stuffing everything inside the case, he’s creating what we can only describe as a Nintendo cartridge that could potentially hold the code on every other game cartridge in existence along with a copy of King of Kong. I recently purchased an external drive and was disappointed with… → Read More
Great piece over on OMG Nintendo about the top ten all-time best Nintendo levels. The staples are there like 8-4 from Super Mario Brothers, the Dark World (above video) from Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Rainbow Road from Mario Kart. Oh, and let’s not forget Giant Land in SMB 3 – that was unreal at the time. What would you add? I’d probably add the final level from Mike Tyson’s… → Read More
With the announcement of the coin-op Xbox 360 console, the Arcade Station T2, we hearken back to one of the most amazing evenings of my life. But first, the T2. This is basically a licensed console with two 360 controllers hanging off of it that will play any game including multi-player mode. No official availability or price. → Read More
The weekend is fast approaching so here’s another little project for you. Take an old NES console, gut it, and add a couple hinges. Poof! NES lunchbox. The step-by-step can be found over on Instructables.com, but here’s the short version. Again, take an old NES console, gut it, and add a couple hinges. The trickiest part seems to be removing all the little plastic posts inside – the ones… → Read More
Yes! This is awesome. Of course, anything related to modding an NES is awesome. Personally, I don’t watch DVDs that much — or if I did, the player’s guts wouldn’t fit into a Nintendo. Still, this is a cool mod and if you have a non-working NES sitting around (that you don’t feel like fixing), it won’t run you more than $40 or $50. Now if I were modding an NES… → Read More
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