I’ve got a heart on.

Nothing says I love you like a large piece of hard candy in the shape of a NES cartridge.

These cartridge/controller combos, offered up on video gaming auction site ChasetheChuckWagon.com, are from the same guy that made the chocolate cart a couple years ago. Strawberry pictured, but also available in tropical punch, grape, mixed berry, orange, and lime flavors.

Craft Day for the arcade cabinet owner.

1) Buy a handful of acrylic photo keychains. I went with the Lifestyles Photo Keytags that Walgreens sells, two for three bucks.

2) Download flyers for your cabinet. The Arcade Flyer Archive is a perfect resource, and you’ll want to find two good pages, for both the front and back sides of the keychain.

3) Clean up and resize the artwork. Some of the scans can be pretty rough, so if you’ve got the knowhow, now is the part where you’ll want to do any color correction and blemish removal from the flyer artwork, otherwise don’t worry about it, they’ll turn out fine enough. Once everything looks good, size ‘em down. If you’re using the Walgreens keytags, you’ll want the print size to be 2×2.875 inches.

4) Create a printing template. If you have Photoshop, feel free to use the one I made, formatted roughly to size and for 4×6 glossy photo paper.

5) Print your artwork. Let your printouts dry for a bit, then trim as needed. Place the front and back flyer images in the keytag, snap in the acrylic cover, loop in your cabinet keys and you’re good to go!

link love 10-08-08

A Wii Ware Cave Story makes me very happy, because a) it’s a wonderful game, and b) I’ll have a reason to turn on the Wii again. More details here.

Danc’s Rules of Productivity. Good stuff as usual from Lost Garden.

Here’s a tiny pinch of TR2N info from AICN. You know those Star Wars geeks that lined up for Phantom Menace like two weeks before the movie started? Yeah, I’d be that guy with this one, if it weren’t for the whole job thing.

Guinsoo, the creator of DotA-Allstars, is entering the commercial game arena with League of Legends. This is gonna be huge.

link love 08-22-08

Alongside the very kick ass Bionic Commando Rearmed OST, Sumthing has also released the original NES soundtrack. It’s three bucks, go get it.

Retro Space, the newest entry into the pre-built MAME cabinet scene. These things are supposed to sell for around 5000-6000 Euros (I think that’s like $40,000 or something these days). Kinda nice, but not that nice.

Speaking of paying lots of money for your games, here is Rotheblog’s writeup on the 15 most valuable classic arcade games.

And finally, Multiple:Option has released the newest version of Game Trivia Catechism DS (the iPhone version we’re working on is an expanded branch of this). It’s one of two apps he’s entering into the NeoFlash Summer Coding Compo, so wish him luck!

Game Trivia Catechism: iPhone teaser

Here are a few shots from Catechism Mode, one of the game types in the upcoming Game Trivia Catechism for iPhone. Based on GTC DS, this new iPhone version will feature expanded gameplay, multiplayer modes, and even more trivia questions. Developed by Thuyen Nguyen, Josh Martin, and me, GTC will be a free appstore release sometime this fall.

We’re looking for a talented chiptunes-style musician or two to contribute original music for the project, if that’s you or someone you know, please let us know!

snowymydog’s Pipeline for PSP

PSP developer snowymydog has released Pipeline v0.2, a homebrew version of Pipe Mania, aka the Bioshock hacking minigame.

Don’t let the low version number deceive you, this game is in a very playable state. The current .02 features 35 levels, music, effects, solid graphics, and a high score table. Future versions will include additional levels and a built-in editor.

Demo video after the jump.
Full story, after the jump »

Finished: Eternal Sonata & Cave Story

Eternal Sonata is a weird one, in some ways a very typical JRPG, but with a wonderful score and brilliant art direction. The gameplay was solidly okay: the combat system was entertaining, the lack of random battles a definite plus, but the dungeons weren’t particularly inspired (although beautiful), and without maps a couple of them would have been exercises in tedium.

One aspect of the game that has received relatively little mention is the co-op mode, a feature I’d love to see become an RPG standard. While the primary player still dictates the flow of encounters, movement within the overworld, and equipment setup, there is an option to hand control of any of the three primary party members over to a second (or third) controller during combat. The additional player then controls every aspect of that character (including their part during Harmony Chains) whenever battle is entered. The system works well, and is a nice bonus for those of you that game with friends or a significant other beside you. Aside from Super Mario Galaxy, this is the first game I’ve seen with an asymmetrical co-op mode. It’s a welcome innovation, and I hope to see more.

Eternal Sonata also had what was probably the preachiest ending ever, taking both the story and player in unexpected directions. Still, solid nonetheless, and I do suggest staying through the credits for the kōan-filled short, The Shape of Life. Or just watch it on Youtube.

Final Grade: B

I finished my playthrough of Cave Story on the PSP last week. The buzz on this game is justified, and it’s become my favorite 2D platformer to come out since the original Metroid. While I’m done with the game for now, there’s all sorts of secret bits for the completionists out there, including a hidden location, mystery items, and multiple endings (I received the standard ending). Play Cave Story!

Final Grade: A

The music of Cave Story.

One of the highlights of Cave Story is the soundtrack. Written by Pixel using his own OrgMaker, the music is reminiscent of the best of the retro era while exuding its own originality and charm. As is usually the case, the soundtrack grows better once you’ve played the game and can associate tracks with specific events and scenes, but still, at least for me, this is one of those rare game OSTs that pulls you in on first listen.

Download the original Japanese mp3s. As an alternative, I’ve uploaded a translated version with the title screen as album art; grab it here.

Next, we have the Cave Story Remix Project.

The Cave Story Remix Project was a 2006 fan compilation, something along the lines of what you’d see from the OCReMix scene… think original 8-bit tunes with a nice helping of synth and guitar love. While there are highlights in the bunch, it’s a solid album altogether, and all 22 tracks deserve their place in the compilation.

The download links for the full album on the official site are dead, so I’ve gone ahead and mirrored it here. Who knows how long these files will stick around, we’ll see if my server stays happy with both versions of the soundtrack available for download.
Full story, after the jump »