An appeal for Cho Chabudai Gaeshi at home

Dear Taito,

I was fascinated by the concept behind your latest arcade creation Cho Chabudai Gaeshi. Unfortunately, arcade rooms have become extinct in the West so it’s almost impossible for me and so many other players to do our share of tea table upsetting. For this reason I decided to lend a helping hand and suggest a number of creative hypothesis for a possible conversion of this game that don’t require the production of an expensive new accessory no one would want to buy around here anyway. I’ve asked for the help of Otosama to guide me along the way.

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tags / bruno / guest / cho chabudai gaeshi / arcade / taito

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A Z64 backup unit for the N64, commonly referred to as the “Mr. Backup.” This model recently showed up in the Neo-Geo Forums, one of the premier places on the web to buy and trade ultra rare game devices related to hacking and modding. In this instance, the owner has apparently added a 4GB laptop hard drive, which is supposedly filled to the brim with assorted N64 roms. The filthy pirate!

The Z64 was actually the Rolls-Royce of such hardware during its day for many reasons, imho. Not only was the design super sexy (at least compared to similar units for the SNES and Genesis), but also utilized cutting edge technology at the time. Whereas the Game Doctor (the most commonly known backup device for the SNES) ran games from 3½-inch floppy disks, the two different models of the Z64 (as far as I know of) supported either burnt CDs and Zip disks. Remember those?

Here’s a video of the latter version, which is the one I have the most familiarity with; a buddy of mine who was heavy into the bootleg scene had one, it was his pride and joy. Never-mind/please enjoy the creepy dungeon-like quality of the dude’s apartment:

Because I don’t understand Portuguese, all I can do is recall from memory; I believe you always had to have a cart in the slot for the console to boot up with the device attached. The long load times, if I also remember correctly, is because each rom was so heavily compressed and had to be decompressed before being played (hence why the unit’s menu claims to have 606MB free at one point on a 100mb capacity Zip). But the real reason why the disk version was superior to the optical media version is that one could copy contents from a cartridge onto the Zip within the unit (whereas you had to burn roms onto the CD on a PC).

Thanks for the heads up, drozdal!

Guest post by Matt “Fort90” Hawkins

tags / backup / backup / n64 / piracy / z64 / fort90 / guest

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Love Plus Protect Case DSi from Hori. There’s one for each love interest in Konami’s hit dating game: Nene Anegasaki, Manaka Takane, and Rinko Kobayakawa. Each comes decorated with the Love Plus logo and the girl’s name, as well as thirteen interchangeable pieces of artwork. It would be really damn cool if it weren’t entirely composed of humiliating images of your virtual teenage girlfriend.

Konamistyle says that these will be out April 1 in Japan for ¥2,230 ($25) each. It’s actually kind of surprising that it’s taken so long for the Love Plus merchandise machine to create some DS cases.

Import: Love Plus

See also: More Love Plus posts

tags / love plus, / jc / konami / hori / protect case / accessories / jc

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NSFW-ish: COSCOS Touch Girl by Soft Studio for iPhone. The game, about wiping the clothes off of idols Natsume Sano, Hikari Suzui, and Nana Kokubo, is funny on its own (and available from the US iTunes store for two bucks!), but I can’t get enough of this trailer.

Why? Because of the pulsating, static image of a hand being dragged around by a mouse cursor! Love it.

[Via Famitsu]

tags / coscos touch girl / iphone / soft studio / nsfw / jc

/ permalink / / 18 hours ago / Comments (View)

“Sonic 4”, not the one that Sega revealed a few days ago, but the one that’s been around for well over ten years now! As noted by Frank Cifaldi, it’s obviously not an official game, but a rom hack of an old SNES Speedy Gonzales game. It’s been getting a decent amount of attention since Frank put a spotlight on it, though a few simple observations have yet to be made:

  • Since the SNES can’t handle Sonic’s normal running speed (you know, because Genesis does what Nintendon’t), the programmers decided to add puffs of smoke wherever he went. Either that or it originally belonged to Speedy.
  • Sonic’s sprite is from Sonic 2, with one sole exception: when he slides down a line via handlebars, that’s actually from Sonic 3!
  • But for whatever reason, Sonic’s “curling up into a ball” animation is completely absent. Instead, he jumps with his body completely stretched out, utilizing the sprite normally displayed when he’s jumping off a spring.
  • And because he doesn’t use his backside in an offensive manner, i.e. as a spiky ball, he can’t jump on top of enemies. Instead he simply kicks his opponents by walking/running into them. Which begs the question of whether or not foes can do harm at all. The boss battle in particular is anticlimactic.
  • For whatever reason, Mario is in the game, and trapped in a cage. Which Sonic can free him from by, once again, just running into him It’s funny how, whenever Sonic is in a rom hack, his company’s primary competitor is not too far behind…

You know, stuff like this is precisely why I miss the 8/16 bit era. Granted, not all bootlegs are this interesting, but most have some degree of charm, plus the more ambitious ones are actually quite fine games in their own rights. Now, if you go to YouTube, you’re going to find a mountain of Sonic rom hacks, but here are my personal favorites:

[Note: I originally forgot to attribute this to guest poster Matt Hawkins. Sorry about the error! -jc]

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tags / sonic / sonic the hedgehog 4 / rom hacks / guest / fort90

/ permalink / / 23 hours ago / Comments (View)

Tiny Q&A: Atlus on Shiren the Wanderer's ordeals

Shiren the Wanderer, Atlus’s localized release of Shiren the Wanderer 3: The Sleeping Princess in the Clockwork Palace for Wii, takes its turn in stores this week, ready to punish and delight fans of the ronin and his weasel pal.

We spoke with a team of Atlus staff, including project lead Scott Strichart and editor Clayton Chan, about bringing a hardcore RPG to a new audience. And while they didn’t offer us any information about localization prospects for Shiren on PSP, Shiren DS 2, or the Koppa Wiimote stand, it’s hard to be too sad about that when they offered us so much fascinating discussion about the new game.

Shiren is a really different game from most other RPGs. What about Shiren the Wanderer, in terms of the experience more so than the systems, do you feel it offers that other games don’t?

Scott Strichart, Project Lead: “Different” is a great word to describe Shiren. What I think Shiren offers is a real juxtaposition between the classic rogue-like genre and the mass market JRPG. It’s got the challenge you’d expect from a rogue-like, but its story, characters, and visual style make overcoming that challenge a real joy.

It’s not easy for a game to please both sides of the fence – the masochistic “hurt me more!!” type who want a rogue-like that is going to do everything in its power to give them a game over, and the more mainstream (if you can call them that) JRPG gamer who just wants a great story and a fun battle system. I think this iteration of Shiren is one of the first games that can successfully straddle that fence.

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tags / atlus / chunsoft / sega / roguelike / shiren the wanderer / interview

/ permalink / / 1 day ago / Comments (View)

The Notorious P.A.C.” by Doctor Popular. This piece, which casts Pac-Man and Blinky as The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur, victims of the East Coast/West Ghost Coast rap rivalry, was created as a commission for nerdcore rapper Beefy.

I’m going to have to remember to show this to Eric when he gets back. I think he’s going to like this one.

[Via technabob]

tags / pac-man / docpop / jc / the notorious pac / art / painting

/ permalink / / 1 day ago / Comments (View)

Many deaths of Shiren the Wanderer (Wii) Japanese commercial, featuring Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.

Anyone familiar with this roguelike knows you die a lot in the game. We asked Atlus’s QA team, who probably spent hundreds of hours testing this latest release, about their most familiar and favorite deaths:

Scott Williams, QA Lead: It doesn’t really count as dying, but I hated the little bastards that would steal money or items from you and teleport away. That always drove me insane. My favorite death was seeing what would happen when dousing a teammate with water who had been turned into a fire monster. It didn’t end well.

Anthony Tran, QA: Dragon fire killed me the most.  It’s the worst thing too, because dragons can hit you from any part of the floor.  My favorite death has to be trying to sneak off with items from the shopkeeper in the dungeon.

Cynthia Ungson, QA: Nothing, I’m too good. My favorite death was throwing a riceball at an ally thinking it would heal him.

Wesley Ruscher, QA: Probably being killed by your possessed or confused teammate, or defeating the Karakuri Rose with a teammate still trapped inside, thus killing your teammate (and your patience as you’d then get to replay the dungeon).

Buy: Shiren the Wanderer Wii ($36.99)

See also: Shiren the Wanderer (Wii) walkthrough video

tags / mystery dungeon / shiren the wanderer / atlus / commercial / chunsoft / ec

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Konami Desktop Arcade Collection.

Whereas the best one can hope to score at your average Dave & Busters here in America falls squarely in the dice/spider ring/deck of playing cards range, expectations are a bit different in the East. Things like exquisitely detailed collectable figures and high quality stuffed dolls based upon popular characters are totally the norm.

Something else that seems rather routine over there, but which any of us on this side of the ocean would love get our hands on is this swanky little (as well as ultra detailed) Beatmania arcade cab! Though the best part would have to be how Konami has been thoughtful enough to provide upgrade kits in the form of papercraft, to ensure that your mini cabinet can keep up with what’s going on in the arcade.

Furthermore, you can also create your own arcade to help keep your various collectable figurines entertained instead of just standing there and collecting dust on bookshelves. Expect to see further machines coming later down the road.

[Via Konami Desktop Arcade Collection]

Guest post by Matt “Fort90” Hawkins

tags / konami / bemani / beatmania / arcade / papercraft / guest / fort90

/ permalink / / 2 days ago / Comments (View)

Somewhere” by Mikael “Orioto” Aguirre. Click for a breathtaking full-size version of this R-Type tribute!

I’d be too distracted to shoot anything! Which would be a nice excuse for my poor shmup performance, actually.

This official wallpaper for R-Type Tactics II: Operation Bitter Chocolate is also pretty rad! It turns out I just like looking at R-Type artwork.

See also: More digital paintings by Orioto

tags / r-type / irem / orioto / jc

/ permalink / / 2 days ago / Comments (View)

Shiren readies his sword for a new game (just a few more days before the U.S. release!) by Potionhead.

While scouring the net for Shiren fanart, I came across this wonderful Meowth the Wanderer piece:

How awesome is that? Meowth is the fucking truth.

Preorder: Shiren the Wanderer Wii ($36.99)

Buy: Shiren the Wanderer DS

See also: Shiren and Koppa overlooking a hamlet tucked away in the forest

[Via Uilt, Potionhead]

tags / atlus / chunsoft / ec / fanart / meowth / potionhead / shiren the wanderer / uilt

/ permalink / / 2 days ago / Comments (View)

DSi Toast” by Horse Holly.

(Hello everyone, this is Matt Hawkins, aka “fort90”! I’m that guy with the long-ass (and blue) blog posts that sometimes gets mentioned around here [along with the occasional Tweet, GSW article, or anything else that might catch the fancy of the two dudes here]. Anyhow, Eric’s getting some much deserved R&R and I’ve been asked, along with a few other fine folks, to help fill his shoes! So with that in mind… care for something to eat?)

The above is the aptly titled “DSi Toast” by an individual who calls him or herself Horse Holly. Unfortunately, if you check out the artist’s other works, you will not find a cruller resembling a PSP, I’m afraid.

Next is a selection of delectable and flat-out super cute looking confectionaries based upon the feline helpers from Monster Hunter (not only do cats help in the midst of battle, by distracting a creature so you can hone in on the weak spot unhindered, but they also provide assistance with more menial tasks, like lugging equipment around and cooking). And of course, it’s only available in Japan, from gourmet chocolate peddler Poire, for this month only.

[Via Pixiv and Capcom Unity]

Guest post by Matt “Fort90” Hawkins

tags / fort90 / guest / monster hunter / dsi / toast / candy

/ permalink / / 2 days ago / Comments (View)

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