Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Angry Birds, Dragon Quest, FIFA Soccer, and Silent Hill are the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- BAFTA Games Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books to Get a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- We Pitched a Museum a 1993 Game Hint Line (And They Actually Said Yes) – Yarn Spinner (2026)
- The History Of The Word “Metroidvania” And How It Spread – A Critical Hit (2025)
- Creator of Hit Game Shovel Knight Is at a ‘Make or Break’ Moment – Bloomberg (2025)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Most Recent: Retro
The Frames Per Second Fight is Just the Return of the Bit Wars… We All Need to Move On
Unlike many in the video game community, I don’t have fond memories of gaming as a child. It wasn’t until I was 13 or 14 when I got a PS2 for Christmas that I got serious about my gaming. Before that, video games were an entirely foreign concept to me, though I did play my sister’s Super Nintendo from time to time. We’d play Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Country, and Paperboy 2; it was the only time when we weren’t trying to kill each other. My dad was into games back then too, playing old adventure games like Riven and Myst.
As my interest in gaming grew, so too did my interest in gaming’s history. Time and time again in my halfhearted and aimless research I became aware of the fanboy subculture. In those days, I was a Sony fanboy, but the art of emotionally investing in a multi-million dollar company that didn’t care about its individual customers was more refined in the height of the Sega and Nintendo wars. (more…)
Long-lost animated cutscenes from Crash Bandicoot emerge
One of many former mascots for Sony’s PlayStation, Crash Bandicoot, was originally going to feature animated cutscenes between levels. Footage released yesterday via YouTube, thanks to a user named “9Matt2,” gave gamers their first look at the animation, which had been lost for more than 20 years.
David Siller, a Producer on Crash Bandicoot, spoke to Crash Mania about the cartoon:
“It was based on ideas for where we were going with this IP at that time. It was probably too ambitious in nature and was also trying to be humorous. It was never used or even embedded in the game as a hidden ‘easter egg’ treat.
Once UIS licensed the game to Sony for publication, Sony did not want it utilized since they were heavily pushing the ‘3D’ agenda.”
The first segment of the video was supposed to be the game’s intro, while the second part was going to be used for the outro of the game. Crash Bandicoot hasn’t been heard from in a long time, but it’s always fun to get a taste of gaming history.
Posted in News, Retro
Tagged Crash Bandicoot
Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata dies at age 55
It’s a sad day today, as Nintendo has announced the death of President and CEO Satoru Iwata due to a bile duct growth. He was 55 years old.
“Nintendo Co. Ltd. deeply regrets to announce that President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth,” was the company’s only statement to the public. In the hours since the news was released, Nintendo of America posted the following message to Twitter and Facebook: “In remembrance of Mr. Satoru Iwata, Nintendo will not be posting on our social media channels today.”
Iwata had been with Nintendo since the 1980s, starting out as a programmer at HAL Laboratory (where he worked on Balloon Fight and EarthBound, among others), before reaching the level of CEO in 2002. The executive also had a close relationship with Nintendo’s devoted fans. He regularly made appearances at industry events, hosted Nintendo’s monthly Nintendo Direct videos, and conducted Iwata Asks, a regular interview series in which he would talk to the developers of Nintendo’s games. Iwata had been battling this illness for several years, missing last year’s E3 Expo due to a surgery. But he made his final public appearance as part of this year’s Nintendo Digital Event @ E3 just last month.
Above all, Iwata was a principled man in an industry that’s dead set on nothing but making money and treating customers like cattle. When Nintendo failed to reach its financial projections in 2013, Iwata voluntarily cut his salary in half for the next five months.
There is no word yet who will be named Nintendo’s next President and CEO, though it will be extraordinarily difficult to replace a man like Iwata.
GameStop opens Retro Classics store on their website
GameStop executives first began discussing the retailer’s “vintage sales” initiative back in 2012. After three long years, GameStop has finally opened a Retro Classics storefront on their website, offering games that originally appeared on the NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, Genesis, PlayStation, and Dreamcast.
But you better bust open your piggy bank, because most of these games will set you back a fair bit of coin.
Some of the “Featured” titles include games available through the Nintendo eShop for under $10, such as Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! for $34.99, Super Castlevania IV for $44.99, and Contra III: The Alien Wars for $49.99. But there are also some relatively rare titles for sale including PaRappa the Rapper for $34.99, Mega Man Legends for $34.99, and Intelligent Qube for $49.99. None of these titles are available as legal downloads, but that could change at any time.
So remember kinds, retro gaming is great, but don’t forget to shop around.
World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2015 is Tetris, Super Mario Bros, Pong, Doom, WoW, Pac-Man
The World Video Game Hall of Fame, which is administered by the International Center for the History of Electronic Games and The Strong in Rochester, New York, has announced its inaugural list of inductees. Drum roll, please.
The 2015 Class of the World Video Game Hall of Fame includes…
- Doom, id Software’s pioneering first person shooter.
- Pac-Man, the dot-eating, ghost-chasing hero of every 80s arcade.
- Pong, one of video gaming’s earliest arcade hits.
- Super Mario Bros., the side-scroller that put the NES on the map and made Mario a household name.
- Tetris, the falling block puzzler that’s surely invaded your dreams at least once.
- World of Warcraft, Blizzard’s MMO made the genre what it is today and is still going strong after a decade.
While all of the games are at least ten years old, it’s amazing how important they still are to video gaming’s current climate. Bethesda will pull the curtain back on the next game in the Doom series at this year’s E3 Expo. Pac-Man recently celebrated his 35th anniversary and will star in a new mobile game this Summer. Super Mario Bros. is also celebrating a big anniversary this year and will influence this September’s Mario Maker. The Tetris Company, and Alexey Pajitnov, continues to license new version of Tetris and the latest, Tetris Ultimate, was released last year. Finally, Blizzard released World of Warcraft’s fifth expansion, Warlords of Draenor, in November and a sixth is already in the works.
These six games represent gaming at its greatest and are excellent choices for the Hall of Fame’s inaugural class. As part of their selection, the inductees will be on permanent view (and in playable form) at The Strong’s “eGameRevolution” exhibit.
Nine other finalists were considered for inclusion by the international committee including Angry Birds, FIFA International Soccer, The Legend of Zelda, Minecraft, The Oregon Trail, Pokemon Red/Blue, The Sims, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Space Invaders. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until all of them are enshrined in the Hall of Fame. But if you want to campaign for your favorite game, nominees for the Class of 2016 are currently being accept at the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s website.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Retro, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Doom (1993), Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., Tetris, World of Warcraft, World Video Game Hall of Fame
The cartridge-based console is coming back with Shovel Knight and Retro City Rampage
The cartridge-based console shuffled off this mortal coil more than a decade ago when Nintendo discontinued the Nintendo 64. The format had a great run, but the lower cost and higher storage capacity of compact discs killed it for good. Or did it? Retro Magazine‘s Mike Kennedy recently sat down with VentureBeat to talk about the Retro Video Game System, a new cartridge-based console that he plans to release next year.
Repurposing the case mold from the Atari Jaguar, Kennedy’s Retro VGS will bring classic game design to a new generation using the time-tested delivery method of cartridges. However, the innards of the console will be brand new and the cartridges will use flash memory similar to that seen in USB sticks. The Retro VGS team has also partnered with Interworks to produce a branded controller for the system that evokes the fusion of classic and modern controller design found in the Wii U Pro Controller.
With the huge resurgence of retro-style gaming in recent years, Kennedy and his team have reached out to these developers in the hopes of bringing their games to the Retro VGS. The consolemaker cited Shovel Knight and Retro City Rampage as two games that he’s reasonably confident will be released for the Retro VGS when it’s available. At this year’s PAX East expo, Yacht Club’s Nick Wozniak told me they “very much want to” release a retail version of Shovel Knight. I imagine a retail cartridge version of the game would be a dream come true.
Kennedy considers 2D titles like Shovel Knight and Retro City Rampage “the sweet spot” for the Retro VGS. The system’s main focus will be sprite-based games from the 16-bit era, but he’s open to the idea of including enough power for developers to create polygonal PSX/N64-type games (or maybe even PS2-like games) as well.
A Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of the Retro Video Game System will launch sometime this Summer with plans to release the cartridge-based console next year if all goes according to plan.
Posted in News, Retro
Tagged Retro City Rampage, Shovel Knight
Pac-Man debuted in Japanese arcades 35 years ago today
Bandai Namco and Pac-Man have a lot to celebrate thanks to today’s big anniversary, but after the year he’s had, everyone’s favorite ghost-chomper isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.
On May 22, 1980, exactly 35 years ago, “Puck Man” made its debut in Japanese arcades. The game and its title character would go on adopt the much better known moniker of Pac-Man a few months later because executive at Midway, its American distributor, feared that unruly teenagers would attempt to vandalize the machines. And just like that, an icon was born.
Pac-Man made the most of its simple “eat dots/avoid ghosts” gameplay model, spawning dozens of sequels, spinoffs, and successors. And its unique mazelike structure shows up again and again in games like Bomberman, The Legend of Zelda, and many others. Pac-Man has appeared on numerous “Best Games of All-Time” lists and was selected as a finalist for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s inaugural class.
“From arcades and consoles to digital and mobile, Pac-Man has remained a fixture in our gaming lives. The endless appeal of the series’ simple but masterful design after all this time is nothing short of remarkable,” said Jeferson Valadares, the General Manager at Bandai Namco America. “But more than anything else, this is an anniversary for the fans. If you treasure any fond Pac-Man memories of your own from the past 35 years, we hope you share them with someone special today and make some new ones together.”
Bandai Namco is hosting a celebration for their most famous creation today at Level 257, a Pac-Man-themed restaurant in Schaumburg, Illinois. Pac-Man’s creator, Professor Toru Iwatani, will be on hand to present the birthday cake and I’m sure “Pac Man Fever” will be playing on a continuous loop. Mobile gamers who own Pac-Man on their iOS device will also receive a free update today that adds a “classic-inspired user interface” to the game.
Aside from starring in one of the most beloved video games of all time, Pac-Man manages to keep himself busy with a variety of side projects. Earlier this year, Bud Light borrowed the game’s familiar maze to create a “Real Life Pac-Man” commercial for Super Bowl XLIX. More recently, Google also dropped Pac-Man into the real world by offering a playable Pac-Man Street View in Google Maps. And last year the mascot got the chance to duke it out with Mario, Sonic, and Mega Man in Super Smash Bros. For Wii U and 3DS, with his very own Amiibo figure scheduled for release next week.
Let’s hope there’s also some pizza at that Pac-Man anniversary celebration.
ESPN SportsNation prepares for Pacquiao vs Mayweather with Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!
Michelle Beadle is a host of ESPN’s SportsNation, but she is woefully unprepared for this Saturday’s big boxing bout between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. Thankfully, her co-hosts, Max Kellerman and Marcellus Wiley, have the perfect solution to get her in fighting shape: Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!
While Kellerman and Wiley don’t stick a controller in her hands and force her to fight Kid Dynamite himself, they do drop Beadle inside for an amusing homage to Nintendo’s classic boxing game. It’s bizarre, but then again, so is Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!
As of this writing, Mayweather is listed as a 2:1 favorite versus Pacquiao. Those aren’t terrible odds, but Pacquiao might have better luck taking on Tyson’s NES doppelganger. After all, somebody beat him blindfolded not too long ago.
Posted in News, Retro
Tagged Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!