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• Progress Quest: Playstation 3 Growing Up and The General Beauty of Firmware Updates

  The much discussed 2.40 firmware update for the Playstation 3 was officially announced today. It will be available for download this coming Wednesday, July 2nd. If you’re reading this blog, chances are you know what a firmware update is, but for anyone out there not familiar with the language, it’s no different than updating your computer, iPod, or Blackberry’s operating system. It cleans up any bugs, improves digital security, and adds new features to whatever device you happen to be updating. The PS3’s firmware update brings a host of new stuff to the system that users have been clamoring for since the system’s launch in November 2006. The improved feature list includes access to the cross-media bar, or XMB, while playing a game. The XMB is the system’s handy row-and-column interface, organized into multimedia (stored video or audio), game saves, and community stuff like a friends list, etc. The update also ups the number of friends you can have on the Playstation Network to one-hundred. The other new feature is Trophies, Sony’s answer to Xbox 360’s Achievements. These are preset goals in games that signify play milestones for a user’s profile (Score a million points? Get a trophy.) The 2.40 update is a big moment for the PS3, yet another olive branch from the once haughty corporation to a slowly growing user base; Sony’s saying they’re listening and delivering. Read More... Posted Jun 30 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, playstation 3, xbox 360, nes, sony, firmware

• Don’t Call It Retro: Mega Man 9 and Design Resurrection

  As 61 Frames Per Second’s newest team member Nadia pointed out earlier today, Mega Man 9 is a reality. Revitalizations of long-dormant franchises have been a mainstay in the gaming business since the Playstation 1-era, trading on nostalgia and brand recognition to push new designs. But the past few years have seen a growing trend of proper numerical sequels releasing a decade or more after their predecessors. Games like WayForward and Konami’s Contra 4 and Taito’s Legend of Kage 2 are not only sequels in name; play in these games is built on the same archaic fundamentals as their ancestors. Both Kage 2 and Contra 4’s only real advancements are slight visual upgrades and mechanical tweaks (both games, being designed for the Nintendo DS, introduce skills that necessitate play on both the system’s screens.) Mega Man 9, however, is unique. It is being made using the exact same tools and in the same style as it was twenty years ago. The decision to build Mega Man 9 as an NES game is not mere retro pandering. Series creator Keiji Inafune has said numerous times that he’s kept making (and remaking) 2D Mega Man games (alongside teams like Inticreates, the team helming 9’s development) because it’s important to continue refining and rediscovering what made a simple design successful in the first place. With the freedom offered by digital distribution venues like WiiWare, creators like Inafune no longer need to ensure their games will be modern enough to succeed on store shelves. They can also utilize outmoded hardware, like the NES, to make their games. Read More... Posted Jun 26 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, wii, capcom, nes, mega man, contra, genesis, keiji inafune, mega man 9, turbo-grafx, legend of kage

• Chiptune Friday: Do the Monster Mash!

  Written by Derrick Sanskrit It's Friday the 13th, which means its time for a super-spooky edition of Chiptune Friday! Here's the ever-popular "Bloody Tears" from 61FPS favorite Castlevania II: Simon's Quest: Oh yeah, that gets me in the mood to dance with some cute vampire girls before I have to go reclaim chunks of Dracula's body from five different castles... Read More... Posted Jun 13 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: derrick sanskrit, nes, castlevania, chiptune friday

• Chiptune Friday: Helix Nebula

  Written by Derrick Sanskrit It's friday, which means it's time for chiptune! It's also June, which means that the summer concert season has officially begun! Summer may not officially begin for another two weeks, but the sun is beating down on NYC, so let's go outside and rock out with our joysticks out! To get you in the summer spirit, here's a track by one of my favorite chiptune bands, Anamanaguchi. This Brooklyn trio (sometimes quartet) uses a modified Nintendo Entertainment System to build their beats, then kick the bits up from 8 to 11 with electric guitars and bass (and sometimes a drum set for their live shows). Anamanaguchi's music is exciting and lively, full of warm square waves and fuzzy guitars with crunchy blips and beats. It simultaneously calls to mind the best 8-bit shooters and platformers with its aggressive playfulness. Makes me feel like running around the elementary school playground, hopped up on Pop Rocks, kicking the butts off radioactive goblins that only I can see. Read More... Posted Jun 06 2008, 03:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: derrick sanskrit, nes, chiptune friday, anamanaguchi, 8bitpeoples

• Personal Firsts: My Gaming Scrapbook, From A to Wii

  Written by Amber Ahlborn At some point in the 1980s, the year nebulous in my memory, my mom bowled with her team every Thursday night. I loved Thursday nights because dad let me stay up late to watch M.A.S.H. and Benny Hill. Sometimes he and I would hop in the car and go visit mom at the alley, and that was the best. Dad would sit and watch mom bowl. Me? I would squeeze every last quarter I could get out of him. With a fist full of change and dollars soon to be converted into change, I’d walk down to the alley’s hamburger bar, snag a stool, and drag it through the glass doors into the arcade. Without deviation, I’d position my stool in front of the “Ostrich Game” and stay planted there until I ran out of money. I’m speaking of Joust of course, but at that age I could neither reach the controls without a stool to sit on nor read very well. Read More... Posted Jun 02 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: pac-man, metroid, wii, legend of zelda, snes, nes, ico, mega man, atari, gamecube, amber ahlborn, kaboom, katamari damacy, chrono trigger, firsts, pikmin, Playstation, joust, pitfall, star fox, ps2, frogger, super mario bros, ds

• Chiptune Friday: 8bit bEtty Tastes the Rainbow

  Written by Derrick Sanskrit It's common practice at this point on the internet to have Dance Party Friday. Don't let us stop you. Its been a long week, you shake your groove thing. Please, allow us to contribute to your booty-shaking. Here on Chiptune Friday, we will spotlight one of our favorite chiptune tracks every week, embracing our primitive gaming past while looking to the very sexy future so you can wiggle while you work it. This week, 8bit bEtty's cover of the classic Reading Rainbow theme song. bEtty uses the soundchips from the NES, Gameboy, and Commodore 64 alongside Pro Tools to craft these retro nuggets. Enjoy: Reading Rainbow - 8bit bEtty Read More... Posted May 23 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: game boy, derrick sanskrit, nes, chiptune friday, reading rainbow, commodore 64

• Periphery: Angry Video Game Nerd Edition

  I like to think, in my more ponderous moments (read: stoned), that gods are born constantly. It was probably the steady diet of British fantasy I consumed while being an ornery Catholic school student during my formative years that led to this continuing line of speculation. Working on the internet every day, I’ve started to spot the reigning deities of the Web 2.0 pantheon. The Angry Video Game Nerd is one of them. I’m not wholly convinced James D. Rolfe was ever a human being at all; he was born straight from the net, a spiritual conjuring made of Youtube users, fandom, and nostalgia addictions. His followers are legion too. Just look at the sheer number of blatant imitators sacrificing their dignity at his altar, the numerous acolytes playing his theme song across Myspace and Facebook. Read More... Posted May 15 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, wii, mario kart, periphery, angry video game nerd, nes