Retro Weekly Roundup – 3rd October

Another week and another Retro Weekly Roundup to bring to you.  This week has seen a fair amount of news that blends the old with the new, seeing Retro games experienced through the latest advancements in technology.  But first let’s start with the announcement that gamers will be able to get up close and personal with a long forgotten piece of gaming history.

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You may remember that we brought you the news that a genuine prototype Nintendo Playstation had been found inside someone’s attic.  At this point many, myself included, hoped that everyone would be able to take a look at this piece of history in person.  Thankfully, the man who discovered this treasure Dan Diebold, doesn’t want to disappoint gamers, and has promised to give the console its debut appearance to the public at Hong Kong’s brand new retro gaming event ‘Retro.HK’.

Diebold has also said that he also aims to have the hardware looked by professionals at the event.  This should allow us to see what really went into Sony and Nintendo’s secretive joint project, and whether it still works.  Through this not only will we all get to have a closer look at one many consider a ‘Holy Grail’ of gaming, but we may also learn more of the hidden mysteries surrounding the collaboration.

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Preserving gaming’s history comes up a lot nowadays, and Oculus is more than aware of not only safeguarding the games, but the experience of playing them too.  In what is potentially an extremely exciting and unique project, Oculus announced during its Oculus Connect 2 conference that it is looking to bring back the experience of visiting the Arcade through Virtual Reality.  Already on board are SEGA, Midway and Bandai Namco, and those lucky enough to test the Oculus Arcade have been able to experience games such as Joust, Streets of Rage and Pac-Man all wrapped inside the feel of an 80s Arcade.  For me this is potentially the most exciting news to come out of Oculus, and I am for one can’t wait to go back in time and play some games at the virtual Arcade.

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The Oculus Arcade isn’t the only news this week surrounding preserving games in a virtual world.  This time though, the virtual world is that of the global phenomenon Minecraft.  Minecraft can be used to create all-sorts of things, from stories to your very own virtual world.  However, user Magib1 has taken it one step further, and has begun re-creating the Game Boy classic Pokémon Red.  This isn’t Pokémon in the Minecraft world, but rather a working virtual Game Boy running the original game.  It’s still early days for the project but so far so good, and Magib1 plans to make the recreation as authentic as possible, stating:

This is meant to be a true port of the game, not an adaptation, and is being designed to run on a 10×9 block representation of a Gameboy Color screen.

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Next up and Atgames have just re-released their Sega Ultimate Mega Drive / Genesis Handheld.  This handheld was so very close to being a dream for retro SEGA fans, allowing gamers to play all of the console’s 16-bit classics on the move, with 20 built in games and SD card support for more to be loaded.  However, it missed one critical feature that stopped it being an essential purchase.  Until now that is, as Atgames have upgraded their handheld to support save states, and now pre-loaded it with 80 games rather than 20.  So if you’ve ever had a hankering for some SEGA 16-bit action on the move, take a look at the newly updated Sega Ultimate Mega Drive / Genesis Handheld which retails in the UK for a reasonable £39.99.

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Another week and more news to come out of the crowdfunding scene.  In a past Retro Weekly Roundup I brought you the news of the Atari Jaguar inspired Retro VGS.  This prospective platform didn’t look to play games from old 8 and 16-bit platforms such as the Mega Drive and NES, but rather planned to create a brand new cartridge based retro platform utilising the shell of the ill-fated Atari Jaguar.  They took this project to Indiegogo looking for $1,950,000, but sadly have cancelled the funding project after only 10 days when it looked impossible to raise the required amount.  Nevertheless, project leader Mike Kennedy has vowed that the Retro VGS will return with a new crowdfunding campaign and a prototype to go along with it.  Not only that, but the Retro VGS is now planned to support retro cartridges from other platforms alongside its own.  Here’s hoping the project is finally able to make its vision a reality.

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Finally, and Keiji Inafune’s spiritual successor to Mega Man, Might No. 9, has now been given a brand new release date.  The project has been delayed a few times already, and now has a release date of 9th February 2016 for all platforms bar the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita which are still to have their revised release dates announced.  Having played the game on the Wii U at EGX, I’m really looking forward to seeing more of Beck’s Mega Man-esque adventure, and now can’t wait for February, even if it is a little later than originally planned.

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Well once again that’s it for the Retro Weekly Roundup.  As always make sure to check back in next week for all the latest happenings concerning all things retro, and if you’ve got any news you’d like to submit for the roundup hit me up at @DudeXChill or Rings & Coins at @RingsAndCoins.