8 Bit Xmas 2 is a new NES cartridge from RetroZone crafted specifically for the holiday season. Built using completely new parts, the cartridge is festooned with blinking lights that should brighten up any original NES you slide it inside of. The cart is loaded with Snowball Fight!!!, an original game in which up to four players fire multi-colored snowballs at each other from the sides of the screen.

While the unique cartridge makes it well worth the $43 price tag, an additional $5 scores you a personalized splash screen message for the game, with a matching Christmas card.

Its late, but retro gamers have a distorted sense of time and space anyway, so it should still be fresh. Just be sure to order before December 31st, or you won't be able to order at all.

RetroZone's 8 Bit Christmas 2009 [RetroZone via GameSetWatch]

This is Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril, by Sivak Games. It's a real, proper game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It even comes on a cartridge.

Fans of home-made games for decades-old systems that look brutally tough willl be able to get it early next year from RetroZone.

'Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril' could be the latest NES hit [Joystiq]

Multiplayergames got the real-life karate master, John, to look at the titles - both ports of Data East classics that took about $100 from me over the summer of 1985. Here's his report on Kung Fu:

"[S]ome of the goons attacking run at Thomas with their fist raised above their head. This may be trying to convey something like a wooden monkey style. That being said, the ancient visuals actually serve martial arts proud by rendering chambers and pivots through punching and kicking (the base foot turns on Thomas' side-kick). The jumping kicks are right on for any style of Kung Fu as well as the quick striking, but the limited graphics make it impossible to show all the circular movements and blocks that makes Kung Fu artistic/cool looking, therefore a popular choice for movie characters to show off on screen. Thomas lacks any kind of guard stance and certainly doesn't hold a wider one which is more appropriate for Kung Fu.

And now on Karate Champ:

The graphics do not demonstrate technique as well as Kung Fu. Much of it is a jumbled mess, but the idea of the point fighting is fairly accurate. In point fighting tournaments, you score a point, break, and go again when the judge starts you. The typical colors are even white and red, as in the game. The side scrolling graphics are also appropriate for point fighting in the 80's, because sport karate used to be more linear then, as more angled and dynamic fighting evolved shortly after.

The verdict? You know what, head over and see for yourself. It's a brilliant idea and a great read.

Multiplayergames' Digital Dojo: Kung Fu vs Karate Champ [Multiplayergames, thanks Matt P.]

Final Fantasy Classic WITH LYRICS [YouTube, Thanks Lyndon R. L.]

Just like Kung Fu (or Kung Fu Master, the arcade original) a drunken, raging Santa battles his way through waves of foes - including Christmas shoppers and elves - before fighting bosses on five levels. if a chiptune "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" isn't your cup of nog, you can choose the soundtracks of Ice Climbers, Slalom, Dr. Octoroc, Gyromite or the original Kung Fu. Be sure to check out the gruesome Game Over screen, too. It'll fill you with holiday cheer.

If the Flash version isn't your speed, or your connection's slow, there's also a downloadable version.

Santa Fu [I-Mockery]

Remember, this is Machinima (the site, and the titular genre), not a mod. So sit back and enjoy, you can't literally play this. Although it's hard to do so without imagining the impossible turbo tunnel level done in Source.

Half-letoads (Battletoads NES Remade In Half-Life 2) [Machinima on YouTube]

Pretty shrewd how the level's creator (M0rtanius) staggered the platforms so you could shoot up foes above and below you, just like in the 2D version. But I'm guessing this isn't one-hit-kill difficulty.

Thanks Awwal for sending the tip. Sorry we spotted it so late.

Half Contra (Contra NES Remade in Half-Life 2) [Machinima on YouTube]

Now, that's not to say this is exciting. I kept waiting for a crescendo event and then realized this emulator probably cannot handle that many characters on the screen. But the common infected are a little too sedate, especially considering 8-bit games are remembered for being muuuuuch harder.

There's also only one special infected - the Boomer - although the creator Eric Ruth says all of the other special infected will be added in later some point. Ruth promises that all maps and campaigns will be represented, too, when the game is available for free download on PC on Jan. 4.

NES Left 4 Dead Gameplay Video 1 [YouTube, thanks Eric.]

Osama calls it The NEStickle (not to be confused with the NES emulator) because, well, why not. It's not like FightDeck or TurboConsole's gonna make this look any less weird. The NES controller houses the stick's USB cable, and it's compatible with all consoles and PC.

Osama says Nicolas, his friend, had to carve a reinforced interior from wood "using nothing but his laser vision. This insures that I don't over-zealously cave the NES in while pressing hard on those buttons when I'm losing badly to a cheap-ass who won't stop throwing me."

You can see more pics of the NEStickle and its construction over at the link.

Introducing the NEStickle! [Towards Mecca]

"So why did I decide to build an NES?," writes Dave Sterling. "I think mainly just to see if I could. I've never done something I would consider ‘art' or ‘sculpture' in LEGO and I really wanted to give it a try and see if I could recreate something directly to scale."

His creation is 1/16th of an inch of the actual dimensions — bravo!

MOCOlympics Round #6: Dave Sterling vs. Crimso Giger in Atari: A LEGO® creation by Dave Sterling [MOCpages.com via Brothers Brick via Gizmodo]

From classic scooters and teddy bears to Furbies and Cabbage Patch Kids, this Good Housekeeping list documents the hottest of hot toys that were hot in their day. And unlike People Magazine's 80s special, they've gone and given Nintendo and Sega their rightful props as hot toys.

While I can't name anybody who'd be glad to get a jar of Play-Doh this year, I can think of a lot of people who would be thrilled to see a Sega Dreamcast or an original Nintendo Entertainment System under their X-mas tree this year. Sadly, none of them are kids.

What classic entertainment system would you want under your tree this year?

The Best Toys of All Time [Good Housekeeping by Yahoo! Shopping]

Or so said box, obviously in terrible shape, commanded when auctioned off on eBay last month. As spotted by Siliconera, a fierce bidding war for the unreleased game's box—again, this is just a prototype of a box, not even a real box—ultimately came down to nearly six hundred bucks American.

Unfortunately for the seller, whoever won that auction apparently didn't come through. The box has since been relisted on eBay, with two days worth of bidding to go. Right now, top bid is $51.00, something we'll be keeping an eye on.

Somewhat related, is anyone interested in a copy of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch: Make My Video for Sega CD? I'm looking to unload a few.

New Kids on the Block Prototype Sample NES Nintendo Box [eBay via Siliconera]

Like most things Fangamer made—the Mother 3 Handbook, for example, or their sundry t-shirts—this Earthbound-ish get up comes with any number of unique pins, adding additional flair to your Ness cosplaying. There are even ultra-rare pack ins that might net the lucky Earthbound/Mother enthusiast a special yo-yo or badge. On top of that, Fangamer is offering your choice of hat embroidery, further making the combo pack uniquely yours.

There are men and women's sizes of the Awesomeness Combo Pack, both priced at $54. (But there does appear to be some discrepancy about the pre-Halloween availability of the thing. The site says you can rush order a pack as late as Tuesday night, but the rush shipping option appears to be unavailable. Act accordingly!)

Awesomeness Combo Pack [Fan Gamer]

As Joe and everyone who's seen this point out, that's rather like picking 1234 for your ATM PIN. Because the first thing anyone would do with an idle, disconnected NES controller is punch in the Konami Code out of boredom. Joe shows how it works, and so I assume the code can be changed up. But whatever its utility, it's damn cool and a triumph of mod ingenuity.

Retro Gamer Drive (Konami Code NES Controller Flash Drive) from ProtoDojo on Vimeo.

Retro GamerDrive [ProtoDojo via Gizmodo]

But spend $20,100 on said ultra-rare NES game someone did, snapping up the "one of a kind" item on eBay. That purchase price may not be as outrageous as you're thinking.

It does have three games on it, Super Mario Bros. 3, Pin-Bot, and Dr. Mario, helping to defray the cost. I'm fairly certain that any copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 costs about ten large anyway, so it's a steal!

The real story is that this really may be the only cartridge of its kind, created for a nationwide college video game tournament from 1991. The Nintendo Campus Challenge 1991 was allegedly supposed to be destroyed at the end of that promotion, but one employee managed to hold on to a copy.

Hit up eBay to marvel at this gorgeous little contraption of chips, PCB and plastic.

Nintendo Campus Challenge 1991 NES World Championships [eBay - thanks, Billy!]

On his Flickr stream, KodyKoala describes his Guts-Dozer as kit-bashed from the parts of a "Mech Hulk Top" and a "GI Joe vehicle that I used to have as a kid." I think that's the "Wolverine," the missile launcher that Cover Girl used to drive. Once again, I can't remember the formula for circumference of a circle, but I can recall that. And that's probably why I write about video games now.

As for HRH Hippo, I thought that 200-pounds-of-suet physique looked familiar. "I used a BLOB build [from the X-Men continuity] figure as the base, and unfortunately I had to make the legs not movable to make it look right."

Custom Guts-Dozer figure by Donald "KodyKoala" Kennedy [TinyCartridge via Go Nintendo]

Really though, a 160GB USB hard drive, or Super Mario Bros. 3? Is it really that easy a decision? I know what I can go out and buy tomorrow.

SMB 3 External Hard Drive Sends My Gaming Heart Aflutter [GeekSugar via Gizmodo]