Who knew? You can put a price on obscure video game secrets, after all. Buried in 25,000-odd lines of game code for twenty-six years, an ancient “Easter egg” has been uncovered — thanks to a modest cash reward — from the Atari 8-bit port of Donkey Kong. Hint: You’re looking at it (pictured above). Don’t see it? It’s the initials: LMD. Yeah, that’s it.
Last year, in an unabridgedblog post about early-80s programming for Atari, celebrated coder Landon M. Dyer offhandedly remarked, “There’s an Easter egg [in the Donkey Kong port], but it’s totally not worth it, and I don’t remember how to bring it up anyway.” Still, game databaser Digital Press thought it worth it enough to offer up a $75 reward for discovering the hidden treasure; or, more accurately, a reward for discovering the process by which the Easter egg is triggered, as it was known that the bonus itself was simply the programmer’s initials displayed on the title screen. In turn, the seventy-five bucks was worth it enough to a Mr. Don Hodges to scour the game code and dig up the dusty trail to the Easter egg. There are plenty of eggs left to crack, too, if you’re looking for adventure that pays.
Head past the break for the suspenseful reveal. The video’s got quite the build-up. Be patient.
This post is a little bit of a history lesson, but at the end you get to play a game, so stick with us. A few years ago, an unreleased Sunsoft game, called Sunman, was uncovered — and it was pretty clearly a re-purposed Superman game. Now, an even earlier version of that same game (which actually features the Man of Steel!) has been discovered and made available for your perusal.
The gameplay is so-so, but there’s an absolutely gorgeous version of John Williams’ Superman theme that we just adore. It’s worth it for the music alone, trust us.
European publisher Alten8 has announced one of the weirdest WiiWare titles yet — which is saying a lot on the platform that features Major League Eating: The Game, Target Toss Pro: Bagsand Pong Toss: Frat Party Games. Squibs Arcade isn’t just a collection of Game & Watch/Tiger LCD-style games, it’s a collection of fake LCD games, designed as boiled-down parodies of modern favorites.
In the five released screenshots, we can see Gun Cogs, based on Gears Of War, as well as Crowd Wader, Jack a Motor, We’re Fat, and Cardboard Axel Mush (Assassin’s Creed, Grand Theft Auto, Wii Fit, and Metal Gear Solid, respectively). The collection will also include games called Clown, Button Basher, Fantasy Turn Base, Call of Honour, Lots of Levelling, and Regret the Fist. Alten8 will release Squibs Arcade in Europe in Q2, and will show the title at this week’s WiiWare Media Summit in Frankfurt, Germany.
In related news, there’s a WiiWare Media Summit this week in Frankfurt, Germany!
The press release also mentions that Luc Bernard’s Eternity’s Child is still on the way, within “the next few months.”
Retro Game Challenge comes out in North America next week, but Japan is already one game ahead of us — the sequel, Game Center CX: Arino no Chousenjou 2, comes out there on the 26th. Famitsu has screenshots of two brand-new games in the sequel, and four … kind of new games.
Guadia Quest Saga is a sequel to the original game’s Dragon Quest-like RPG, released late-ish in the (fake) Famicom’s lifetime, in 1991. GunDuel, the sequel to StarPrince, is a vertical shmup with much more detailed backgrounds.
Four “rare” games are only available in the (in-game) game shop, presumably because your character can’t afford to buy them! Cosmic Gate: MASA-X version is a port of the first game’s Galaxian-like shooter, made in the style of MSX computer games. Rally King EX is a special “time trial” version of the original’s racer, and StarPrince SA is a special version of StarPrince in which players have just a few minutes to accrue a high score. Perhaps weirdest of all is Karakuri Ninja Haguruman: Koume Version, which was (in the alternate universe of the game) a special release of Haguruman with the hero sprite swapped out for his sister Koume, given to members of that character’s fan club!
The countdown at the Eventful Journey! Pole’s Big Adventure site has elapsed, revealing a lot of inscrutable Japanese info and wonderful media about the new Famicom parody game from Phantasy Star Universe producer Takao Miyoshi. While the graphics and Mario-esque gameplay suggest Nintendo, the music sounds kind of reminiscent of the Master System. Speaking of which, isn’t it a bit strange for Sega to be revelling in NES nostalgia?
The comedy-based game actually keeps a count of the jokes you encounter, and even has big red text on the screen commenting about it like a Japanese TV show!
The site features character portraits for the major characters, including this hilariously non-representative “realistic” take on the protagonist. The main enemies are cow-suited “poachers”, apparently chosen because 2009 is the year of the cow.
Clicking on the red button under the control diagram will pop up a video. Speaking of controls, Pole’s Big Adventure supports the Wiimote, Classic Controller, and GameCube Controller.
1up’s interview with Mega Man 9producer Hironobu Takeshita offers a look back at the brilliant downloadable sequel and its development. The 8-bit style, which is one of the game’s most distinctive and eye-catching features, almost didn’t happen! While Capcom’s management liked the digital distribution idea (it’s cheap!), they didn’t go for the retro look at first. “We heard lots of negative responses; they thought it would be better to make it 3D and that the 8-bit style would only appeal to the Mega Man fans, which would limit the sales potential.” Presumably, they eventually figured out that 8-bit graphics were also cheap.
Takeshita also describes the idea behind the item shop, which is wonderful and hilarious. “Even if MM9’s 8-bit design interested them, the difficulty level would turn them off. With that in mind, we tried to create a system that encourages casual gamers who might not be so experienced with action games.” That’s right, the item shop is in there to offer assistance to casual players. We love the idea that someone at Capcom thought that all people needed to be able to finish Mega Man 9 was a few E-tanks and a new dress for Roll.
In the wake of Mega Man 9, and after Friday’s discussion about Play on Wii, we thought we might ask what other franchises you’d like to see redone, either as Play on Wii titles, or in a classic, old school style, as was done with Mega Man 9. Want to see the other Metroid Prime titles given a motion overhaul … or do you want to see a very small Samus putting the Metroid back into Metroidvania?
Mega Man 9 is back-to-basics in more than just the graphics. Rush can no longer turn into shoulder pads, for example. There’s no charge ability for the Mega Buster, nor are there the shot upgrades available in Mega Man 8’s store. You can’t even slide any longer. If we were going to get into Mega Man X, we could add the wall-clinging business as well.
Is there one addition to the post-Mega Man 2 world that you miss the most? The Mega Buster? Sliding? Clown Man’s voice acting?
Not only have we (potentially) had a year with the Wii, we've also had a year with the Virtual Console. We've seen some great classics released this year in all regions, from the original Legend of Zelda to Super Mario Bros. 3, and some more obscure titles, like Devil's Crush. Of course, there are a few that we've love to see that are thus far no-shows, but even so, we feel pretty satisfied overall with the Virtual Console in its debut year. How about you? How many games have you downloaded? Would you like to download more, if you had an endless supply of storage space and Wii points?Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
OK, show of hands, please: who fancies a 3D remake of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past? If your arm just shot up, know this: you're far from alone. Series director Eiji Aonuma wants it, as well. Or at least, he's "very interested" in adding an extra dimension to what is arguablyprobably unquestionably the greatest Zeldagame ever conceived.
Aonuma, who most recently acted as director on the DS's splendiferous Phantom Hourglass, revealed his wish in the latest issue of the Official Nintendo Magazine (the UK edition), stating that "The first Zelda game that I played and felt potential in was Link to the Past. I'm actually very interested in what it would be like if we remade that title as a 3D game."
Now, we confess that's a loooong way from us actually getting a 3D Link to the Past, but the mere fact that Aonuma has even considered this makes our legs go all wobbly. If you've never played the game, and therefore can't comprehend that reaction, then we suggest you stop reading, head over to the Virtual Console now, and commence downloading. For $8, it's a quite obscene bargain.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Donkey Kong Easter egg cracked 26 years late originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
In the wake of 
Not only have we (potentially) had a year with the Wii, we've also had a year with the Virtual Console. We've seen some great classics released this year in all regions, from the original 