Cool NES Romhack

Cool NES romhack. Master Higgins has cool glasses and wears his hat backwards. Gameplay otherwise unchanged. Honeygirl got an update as well.

All of the other sprites looked too good to change.

Anyway, most hacks look absolutely horrible. I wanted to make something that people could actually play--an Adventure Island rom hack that I'd play. I'm pretty happy with the results!

All the sprites are changed, no loose pixels or weird/strange/cheap graphics.

Download Cool Adventure Island.

Development time: 4 hours. Check out the screenshot:







Read The Full Article:
http://8bitcity.blogspot.com/2011/06/cool-adventure-island-nes-romhack.html

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E3: Hands-off, eyes-on with Sniper: Ghost Warrior
2

The original Sniper: Ghost Warrior was a polarizing game that got as much right as it got wrong. The sniping mechanics were praised, but the run-and-gun segments, which inevitably invited Modern Warfare comparisons, were slammed. As a whole, it was an incredibly difficult game that demanded patience a lot of players couldn't muster.

City Interactive has been working to make sure that Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 is the game the original was trying to be. Run-and-gunning is out entirely, allowing the team to make this a pure sniping experience. And for good measure, the game will be running on CryENGINE 3.

Unfortunately, no one was able to test the game for themselves, but we got to catch a representative-controlled tech demo behind closed doors.

If nothing else, this game is beautiful. Yes, this is the latest CryENGINE at work, but I'm not just talking about polygons and textures. The level we were shown dropped us into the Himalayas, rich in lush foliage, Tibetan statues and temples, and bluish snow-capped mountains in the distance. I've been so jaded by the whole "gritty brown shooter" movement that this parade of colors was mind-blowing.

The rep crossed through a wooded area and sniped a couple of guards, triggering the bullet cam mode from the previous game in which time slows and the camera follows the shot as it hits the target. We were told that some changes would be made, that the angle of the bullet cam was not final and that the targeted enemies would exhibit better ragdoll physics. There was also a scripted knife-in-back stealth kill sequence that would be properly implemented in the final build.

The dialog was laughably wooden. Our sniper made a headshot and his spotter replied, "Nice one. Next beer's on me," in the flattest, most uninterested voice imaginable. Our rep mentioned that this was temporary voice work recorded specifically for the demo, but given how poorly the VAs performed in the previous game, I'm not expecting much improvement.

New elements include vehicle sections and swappable scopes for various situations. In the demo, the rep played around with the thermal scope to help him spot heat signatures in dark environments. There will also be a night vision scope, but no other toys were mentioned beyond that.

This was obviously a very, very early demo with a lot of placeholder or scripted elements. For example, after taking out a helicopter pilot, his copter just sort of floated to the ground and squirted out a tiny plume of smoke. I think all City Interactive wanted to do was show off how pretty the game is shaping up to be. The good news is they've got that covered, but they still need to prove that they learned their lessons from the last one. We'll see.

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E3: Nazi killing fun in Brothers in Arms: Furious
4

Can't see the video? Click here

Before diving into just how retarded awesome Furious 4 is, know that Gearbox isn't done with the main Brothers in Arms storyline. They'll be getting back to that series when the time is right, but in the mean time they're going to be telling us a new, over-the-top story with Furious 4.

Four specialized soldiers are sent directly into the heart of Germany with one mission: Kill Hitler.

Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC)
Developer: Gearbox
Publisher: Ubisoft
To be released: 2012

Think Bulletstorm and Borderlands crossed with Inglorious Basterds. Furious 4 has that same vibe of Quentin Tarantino's last flick with the gameplay style of Bulletstorm crossed with Borderlands's co-op goodness. Furious 4 isn't set in reality so you'll see lots of crazy things, such as Nazi soldiers flying around with jetpacks. On that note about Tarantino, there's even a narrator that comes on at various points and gives a Grindhouse style of dialogue about what's going on in the moment.

Each of the four main characters have different traits and the main one Gearbox focused on was Montana, a large man making use of a chain gun, axe, chainsaw and bear traps. Yes, bear traps. Enemies will actually get stuck in the bear traps making for easy kills.

Killing enemies earns you points and those points will be used to upgrade your characters abilities and weapons. One example of an upgrade for Montana is that he can attach grenades to his bear traps. So when the bear trap captures a guy, the grenade will go off a few seconds later. Don't you just love the sadism?

Furious 4 is a four-player co-op experience, but if you're lacking enough friends the game will fill the role with AI buddies. For the most part players can simply focus on their own thing, but there will be moments that will require team actions. These team actions slow the game down as you burst into a room and take out unsuspecting Nazis.

That's the basic core of Brothers in Arms: Furious 4. It's a crazy ride with crazy weapons with lots of Nazi murdering. This, like many other titles at E3, wasn't playable so I'm hesitant on raising too much praise for the game. But the initial impression is that it's looking really fun and I hope the entire game will be able to keep up the crazy pace that was presented to press. 

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E3 2011: Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Impressions)

by: Tina Amini
NEWS - Game: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Developer: Eidos Montreal
Release Window/Date: August 23rd
What works: Protagonist Adam Jensen is equipped with powerful augmentations to his body that allow him to perform impressive take downs like the Typhoon that essentially turns Jensen into a human claymore. Animations during his performances are cat-like, and Jensen is clearly very swift and dangerous.
What needs work: Although the conspiracies have yet to be fully revealed, I want to learn more about the storyline and some of the other characters/corporations before passing judgment on the allegedly mysterious conspiracies. For all we know, the storyline could prove to be a dud in comparison to the gameplay.

Square Enix and Eidos Montreal clearly know what the strength in Deus Ex: Human Revolution is. Every demonstration, trailer, screenshots, etc. that I have seen produced from the game always highlights some of the abilities Jensen’s augmented body can perform. The E3 demonstration on the showfloor this year was no exception. The developers took us on a stealth adventure to gain access to ____. Of course, the game has already been boasted as being able to be completed without killing anyone save for the bosses. You can choose to run in guns blazing, bribe people to your advantage, or find alternative methods to gaining entry to each part of the mission. There are essentially four pillars of gameplay as explained by Eidos Montreal. These include combat, stealth, social interactions and hacking, all of which you have at your access and at the ready should you decide to use it to your advantage.

The team opted for the stealth route to show us just how far you can get without causing too much destruction and mayhem. This tactic will oftentimes involve using your augmentations, particularly the ability to see through walls to determine your movement based on the location of your enemies. You can also burst through walls that are weak with cracks, but you’ll have to have these augmentations equipped during the time of your mission. Using Praxis points, the developers at the helm bought augmentations that helped them progress. These included the Icarus landing system to brace for long falls, X-ray vision to see through walls, cloaking to hide from guards, sound suppressor to be even stealthier, and various other augmentations that increased inventory space as well as Jensen’s strength in picking up (and throwing, potentially at enemies) large objects. As these abilities and take-downs are used, Jensen will have to consume nutrient bars to fill up his energy levels.

Jensen’s augmentations not only help him see through walls, but they also prove useful during combat. Jensen will have to face well-armed enemies, including mechanical combatants, but his augmentations can have powerful impacts. The animations of these moves are always impressive, and clearly fun to show off.

I’ve already been convinced that playing the game for combat will be fun. What I wanted to see more of, however, was the revenge and mystery story that is always only referenced in passing. The demonstration focused on the possibilities for trespassing and infiltrating, but it also dove into some key storyline elements. The demo picked up with Jensen infiltrating Tai-Young medical, a competitor and suspected to have been the one to attack Jensen’s company, Sarif Industries. The two-tiered city is gigantic, and you’ll have to sneak (or rampage) your way through the lower city up to the Pangu storage area that leads to Tai-Young medical headquarters.

While climbing up the ramps and sneaking through ventilation shafts, we see large cryo pools sustaining their biotechnical research. The small parts of the storyline revealed to us in the demo was primarily through visual storytelling like this. Our ultimate destination is the data core room several levels up, where we suspect we can find the evidence we need to reveal a major portion of the conspiracy at hand. As we infiltrate the headquarters to access this room, Jensen uses a myriad of take downs against his enemies - both human and mech alike.


Read The Full Article:
http://www.gamingnexus.com/FullNews/E3-2011-Deus-Ex-Human-Revolution-(Impressions
)/Item23155.aspx

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E3 2011: AMD

by: John Yan
NEWS - AMD has been I company I've worked with for a while. I used to love, love, love their processors when they were really competitively priced and ran circles around the Intel offerings. They've been a little behind in the CPU area (the GPU sector's been pretty good for them though), but at E3 they are looking to change that.

A big step for them in their "comeback" is the FX brand. Yes, they are rebooting the FX brand and looking to make AMD the cool CPU to own again. AMD's positioning the FX brand to be their top tier line of products. Initially, it will be their Scorpius platform, which consists of an AMD 9-series motherboard, a 6000 series of graphics card, and a very cool 8-core CPU that'll be coming soon.

The Zambezi processor is an 8-core unlocked CPU from AMD. In fact, all FX line of CPUs will be unlocked out of the box. Initially, this was limited to the Black line of CPUs, but it's great to see AMD doing this for all FX CPUs. It's a socket AM3+ processor, but like their previous ones, will be backwards compatible with AM3.

At the booth, AMD showed off the packaging and it was in this really cool tin. Yes, packaging as no bearing on performance and value, but it's another step for AMD to re-brand themselves and to make themselves cooler for gamers and PC enthusiasts out there.

AMD was showing two 3D technologies at their booth. The passive 3D example still needed some work as there was a lot of cross talk going on, but the proof of concept shown was there to let everyone know that they are working on it. The active 3D example worked well and I was able to play some Deus Ex Human Revolution in smooth 3D.

One of the more impressive sights at the booth was the 3 projector setup for Dirt 3. This Eyefinity display really put you in the middle of the game where from left to right with your peripheral vision, you see nothing but the game. It's a setup that any gaming enthusiast would be dying to have in their home.

While Intel might have taken the CPU crown the past few year, AMD's looking to come back and E3 is the start of their strategy. Rebooting the FX line and making unlocked CPUs with up to 8 cores is good start and we'll see if AMD can continue with solid product releases as I'd love to see them offer up some competition as the CPU of choice for gamers again.



Read The Full Article:
http://www.gamingnexus.com/FullNews/E3-2011-AMD/Item23154.aspx

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E3 2011: Razer

by: John Yan
NEWS - At Razer, the highlight of their booth was the new Star Wars The Old Republic branded items coming from the hardware company. Razer is no stranger to producing branded hardware, but this time they have something up their sleeve.

First up, they have a white Naga, which is Razer's MMO mouse. The large grouping of buttons on the side let you map various functions and macros to it allowing for quick and easy access to commonly used functions. The white Naga is wireless and has an interchangeable plate to let you customize which faction you are on.

Next up is the wired 5.1 headset, again in a white Star Wars branding. It has a rotating mic and something kind of neat is that it has these color changing LEDs on the bottom of each ear piece, which gives your shoulders a cool little glow when in use. You have a choice of 16 million colors to choose from so there's no shortage of colors to light yourself up. Each ear piece holds a 50mm driver for clear and concise sound and the Star Wars design should appeal to both the Jedi and the Sith out there.

Finally, the highlight of the group is the keyboard. It's a chiclet style keyboard with a multi-color LED lighting system. What sets this keyboard apart from the rest is the LCD touch panel on the right side along with the customizable keys on top.

You may remember the Switchblade that was such a big hit at CES. It's still concept, but they've taken that technology and put it in their first retail product. The touch panel supports two touch points (which may increase) and can show color pictures. Above the panel are 10 programmable keys that can also be customized to show various pictures as well. Up close, the panel and keys look really, really cool and having full color pictures on the keys can let you know quickly what function the key performs.

The LCD is set to be compatible with Logitech's G15 software so there should be some applets ready to go when launched. That's pretty cool so there'll be software options to choose from from the get go.

I asked if Razer was thinking of making an unbranded keyboard using the LCD touch panel and keys, but no plans in the works so far. For now, they are concentrating on just the Star Wars The Old Republic licensing with the keyboard.

You can expect to spend about $200 if you want to pick one up. Even if you're not Star Wars fan, there are some great possibilities for the LCD touchscreen and keys. It's great to see the technology from the Switchblade showing up on other products and I'm hoping that more will come out of Razer utilizing the same tech.



Read The Full Article:
http://www.gamingnexus.com/FullNews/E3-2011-Razer/Item23153.aspx

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E3: XCOM is looking good, feels a little like
Pokemon

Can't see the video? Click here

When I saw XCOM at last E3, I thought it felt way too BioShock-ish and wasn't all that interested. Developer 2K Marin shared the sentiment on how the game was feeling like BioShock so they went into hiding after the initial showing to make some key alterations. The team on the new XCOM are big fans of the original and these new changes should please fans of the series.

For people like me who have never played XCOM before, I have to say the new direction makes the game look a lot more appealing.

Can't see the video? Click here

XCOM (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC)
Developer: 2K Marin
Publisher: 2K Games
To be released: March 6, 2012

XCOM takes place in 1962 at the height of the Cold War. An alien force known as the Outsiders are invading Earth and they have the technological and numerical advantage against the planet. You play as Special Agent William Carter and it's your job to build a team of the finest minds the world has to offer in order to stand a chance against the might of the Outsiders.

The E3 demo presentation started off with Agent Carter reviewing a case file inside the military base you'll be visiting between every mission. It's in this base where you'll choose what mission to take on and upgrade you and your teams abilities.

The player took on a mission to save a genius scientist who created a device that lets you capture alien technology, a key aspect of XCOM. The only way humanity has a chance against the aliens is by capturing their technology and repurposing it for their own uses.

Once on a real mission, 2K showed off just how you'll capture the alien tech ... It's exactly like Pokemon. No joke. You have to weaken whatever you're trying to capture at first and then throw out a ball that sucks up the weapon. In the demo, the player captures a turret and a giant floating laser beam shooting robot thing.

With these weapons captured, you can immediately deploy them out on the field to help you out. It looks like you should only do this if you need some immediate help on the battlefield. The other and more beneficial option is to take the tech you just captured back to home base and and melt it down for long term rewards such as new weapons, upgrades and agent powers.

The combat is made up of first-person shooting with a mix of tactical control over your AI partners. You can order your guys to move to different locations simply by pointing at it. Then there's Tactical Mode, a view that pulls you out of first-person view so you can get a good look at the battlefield. The combat comes to a crawl as you look around and select different attacks from the onscreen menu that comes up.

A couple attacks demonstrated from the Tactical Mode were Disrupt, which weakens an enemy with an electrical blast, and Defense Shield, which can protect or trap whatever you're targeting. Another ability shown off made one of your AI partners look like the commanding officer which made the aliens focus their attacks on your partner instead of the main player.

As for this particular mission the demo was on, the goal was to save the scientist that created the alien capturing balls from the Outsiders as they were looking for him too. You get to the scientist just as he's  sucked in through a portal. Carter goes through the portal too and the demo ends with the player in the middle of the alien's homeworld surrounded by massive alien ships. 

The 1960s setting looks great visual wise and the mix of first-person shooting with real time strategy is very refreshing. I need some real hands-on time, but for now XCOM is looking pretty damn good.

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The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past Nintendo
Power Scans

What can one really say about such classics that hasn't already been said? I'll let these Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Nintendo Power scans speak instead.

These are from Nintendo Power Issue 34, 1992 - the same year Link got his 16-bit update on American shores.

I've been in a Link to the Past mood lately. Although this game takes a while to really get started, once you can explore the world it's a really great adventure. It would have been nice for less linearity, but the puzzle and dungeons were some of the best!

I think everyone got stuck at least once playing this game, if only for a few minutes.

Even though I didn't have the game as a kid, I had this Nintendo Power and I would read about the items and get a feel for the quest. Eventually I'd play it of course, as well as every other game I read about in Nintendo Power.

This was the very first game I emulated.

When I got a job at 16, it was also the first game I bought for my Super Nintendo.

Nintendo Power was filled with LttP curiosities, and as I track them all down, hopefully I can upload them for everyone. In particular, the Link to the Past comic book, which spanned 12 issues (or more?) should probably be my next project! It's over 100 pages so I'll have to think of something more clever than PNGs.

Enjoy the gallery!















Read The Full Article:
http://8bitcity.blogspot.com/2011/06/legend-of-zelda-link-to-past-nintendo.html

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E3: Hot acting in this Ghost Recon: Online Wii U
trailer

video details and more

Can't see the video? Click here

It's going to be fun seeing developers try to appeal to both the "Wii" side of gaming (social players, families, etc), and the "U" side of gaming (solitary gamers, bachelors/bachelorettes) with their Wii U titles. Looks like they've already started with this trailer for Ghost Recon: Online. There is definitely "family friendly" vibe here, but with an artificial edginess that would do Mountain Dew proud.

Still, it's cool to see the potential features that may go into the Wii U version of the game. What I'm really curious about is how the online aspects of the game (and the Wii U in general) will pan out. Lets hope Nintendo makes an official announcement about the Wii U's online system by Tokyo Game Show this year.

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Kinect Sports: Season Two

Kinect Sports: Season Two was recently announced and still has a release date that is tba.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.gamerchip.com/kinect-sports-season-two/

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