I’ve been meaning to pose this question for a very long time … as in since I was, hmmm, a little boy. Not that there’s anything wrong with being gay. The question actually comes from the mind of a disturbed lad nicknamed seanbateman42069@yahoo.com on The SHIZZ.org discussion boards.
Here’s an excerpt from his post entitled, “For The People That Watched Captain N As A Kid, I have a ‘?’ “:
Was Simon Belmont gay?
Not that it matters or anything, but I remember being eight (years old) and thinking he was a little, hmmm, off, you could say. Today was Day One of …read more

Actually, the word unbearable didn’t exactly come from me. It’s a quote from this British dude who seemed to have spent an entire afternoon trying to make a Smurf jump over white picket fences in the Colecovision game Smurf Rescue in Gargamel’s Castle. It’s funny how the label on the game’s box reads: “The Arcade Quality Video Game.”
In the game, you control a Smurf who is off on an action-packed rescue mission. Gargamel has captured Smurfette (I wonder why the big bald guy with the crooked teeth wants a little blue lady so much), and has taken her to his …read more

More than a week ago, b5media entertainment channel’s Film Gecko posted a trailer video of 20th Century Fox’s Max Payne with the suspicion that it had been leaked onto YouTube.
Film Gecko’s Jane Boursaw wrote:
I’m not sure how long this will stay online, but a new trailer for 20th Century Fox’s Max Payne has been leaked onto YouTube. It looks like an amazing movie.
The movie adaptation of the popular video game opens in theaters on October 17, and stars Mark Wahlberg, Chris O’Donnel, Beau Bridges, Ludacris, Mila Kunis, and Donal Logue.
I’m sure the “leak” was controlled … some sort of viral …read more

While we’re on the subject of Max Payne …
Have you ever wondered how Max Payne and the gorgeous Mona Sax look like under all those layers of “graphic novel-like paint” in
Max Payne 2’s dialogue or cut scenes? Well, you need not wonder any longer. Feast your eyes on these before and after shots:
Before

After

I’ve been asking this question since the early 2000s, and I don’t know for the life of me why I didn’t bother looking the answer up with Google, or any other search engine for that matter. Maybe it’s because I don’t want to ruin the mystery. It turns out, however, that the disappearance of Strategic Simulations Inc. is not a mystery after all.
Like all things in the corporate world, Strategic Simulations Inc., or SSI, was acquired by a bigger video games development firm. Join me in a virtual tour of the history of SSI, which is, for me, one of …read more

Hahahaha! I can’t stop laughing. I don’t know which is funnier: seeing The Goonies video game being played to the beat of Good Enough by Cyndi Lauper or watching Captain Lou Albano (who played Mario in the Super Mario Brothers animated series) in the music video for the movie The Goonies. I can’t make up my mind. Go watch the videos and tell me:

As promised, I’m here to talk about The Goonies, not really much about the movie of the same name, but the 8-bit video game that inspired an entire generation of video game addicts.
Actually, there’s not much to talk about as game features go. The only news concerning The Goonies is the fact that it has already celebrated its 20th anniversary and that a remake of the classic game is now available as shareware. More on this later. For now, let me share a bit of video game history.
There are two versions of The Goonies video game, one for the MSX …read more

Yeah, I’m supposed to post only one speed run a month. But, they, times change, and I need this speed run to introduce another old game I’m planning to write about soon. So here it is, The Goonies on the Nintendo Entertainment System:

Stay tuned to Re:Retro for my take on this classic movie tie-in.

A few posts back, I answered fellow b5media video games channel blogger Aiza Bautista’s meme on what games I currently play. My answer included “a plethora of old video games, including Super Mario Brothers, Adventure Island, Where in the World is Carmen San Diego, and Contra. Well, I’ve talked about the first two and the last game on the list a few times already, but haven’t gotten down to saying anything about dear ol’ Carmen. So here I go …
First off, it’s important to remind you, dear readers, who Carmen San Diego is. This is especially important for those who …read more

(Or: Elite Week Delayed By Shock Remembrance)
It’s the eighties. A school friend has an Atari 2600 – already a piece of treasure, a strange lumpy luxury from a time before time. It has that whiff of seventies design that’s still familiar and comforting to us, dodged deep in the brain from when our cortexes were still busy developing. We’ve got no concept of what ‘retro’ is, but we do get a kick of the feel and smell and shape of it and how the blocks on the screen the games are made up out of are so clunky and massive. …read more