Just cashed in my club nintendo stars for this (all 7000 of them). Its a replica SNES controller for using with virtual console games - it plugs into the remote for wireless authentic SNES gaming :).

Darius Gaiden
Playing console shmups in the PAL region can be hit or miss - even if we do get some releases that the US doesn't, we still miss out on a lot of Japanese releases. Nowadays PAL ports aren't an issue, and the 360 is proving to be an excellent home for modern day titles, but during the 32bit era, which was a bright spot in the history of shmups, PAL releases were thin on the ground.

Star Chess (Videomaster)

Chessmaster II - PS1
Virtual Kasparov - PS1
Checkmate - PS1
Virtual Chess 64 - N64
Chessmaster - PS2
Wii Chess - Wii
CXG Computachess - dedicated
Mephisto Atlanta - dedicated
Videomaster Star Chess - dedicated

In 1968, international chess master, computer programmer and author David Levy made a bet that he would not lose a chess match to a computer program within 10 years. In 1978 he collected his winnings of £1,250. A tidy sum - but he didn't make another bet. Maybe Mr Levy saw the writing on the wall for chess as the ultimate challenge to computer programmers at the time. Now in 2011, chess games can be bought at an impulse purchase price that will trounce all but those at the very top of the chess playing fraternity.

Tower Toppler (Atari 7800)#36 - #42 - The rest of my 7800 collection

While the old 7800 is connected up I may as well cover the other games I have, including a homebrew effort.

Champions OnlineHello everyone! Long time no post. First thing's first I can happily say, that I have completed my degree and graduated as of March 1st, 2011. It's just my first computer science degree and there are two more I am after so I will start on them soon.

So as many people know about a month or so ago, Atari and Cryptic games announced that they were turning Champions Online in to a free to play game. After my final ended last Wednesday and I actually had time to sit down and check it out, I thought I might share my thoughts and opinions on my playtime so far.

The game is based on the a tabletop role playing game of the same name, Champions. It uses the same attributes in game as in the table top game but it doesn't seem to influence characters as much as it does in the tabletop game. It takes place in a fictional city, I believe in Canada called Millennium City. You play the typical role of super hero extraordinaire. Your mission? To defeat all the bad guys that are running amok in Millennium City. Now I cannot say much about plot line as I have only played about 10 hours worth of game time, making it to the paltry level of 11. But I shall start with the graphics set of this review first.

Part II of a multiple part series of videos in which I take a look at the open source Pandora handheld that has been in the making for quite some time. In this second part I take a look at N64 gameplay and MSX-gameplay. Please be sure to watch the HD version of this video! Watching it low-res/SD will take away much of the shine this system has.

Running on Linux sporting a specialized 3D GPU and a powerful ARM CPU this is the ultimate handheld gaming device in my opinion especially if you like retrogaming or open source handheld gaming without the need to hack/patch or crack into a commercially available system voiding support and warranty.

Part I of a multiple part series of videos in which I take a look at the open source Pandora handheld that has been in the making for quite some time. Please be sure to watch the HD version of this video! Watching it low-res/SD will take away much of the shine this system has.

Running on Linux sporting a specialized 3D GPU and a powerful ARM CPU this is the ultimate handheld gaming device in my opinion especially if you like retrogaming or open source handheld gaming without the need to hack/patch or crack into a commercially available system voiding support and warranty.

This system is very capable of emulation and emulating 32 and 64 bit consoles is possible and playable on this system.

Click here to read more.

 
#25 Caravan Shooting Collection (SNES)

Caravanning - this is a pastime in the UK that gets a lot of flak. People towing mobile homes behind their cars means they have a reduced max speed limit and given the slow speed and lack of visibility to the driver behind, is a source of some ire on UK roads. Perhaps some UK readers think this is a game produced to relieve the stress of encountering a caravan on the roads by allowing players to blast them off the road - sadly that is not the case.

Let me take you to Japan in the mid-80s when the Famicom/NES ruled the video-game world. At this time, Hudsonsoft were releasing some 2D shmups for the NES and part of the marketing effort was some sort of road show where temporary game-fests were set up around the country and video game competitions were ran with the highest score on the latest Hudson shmup for the NES being the aim. This seemed to be quite a phenomenon in Japan and ran for several years. It gave birth to the idea of caravan modes in some shmups - which is a quick 2 or 5 minute score attack mode which is a featured mode of lots of shmups released in later years.

In episode 5 of the Armchair Arcade Radio podcast, Chip Hageman pointed out a great piece of software called 'Armalyte'. I ordered a copy and decided to check it out and capture it on video. Check it all out below.