Made by a friend of internet person named Virtute, who tried to get a video fo him shredding the Mario theme, but "no cigar". Sadness!

My friend made an electric guitar that looks like a Koopa Troopa. [Reddit via Hawty McBloggy]

The Museum's Curt Vendel says the project has a practical application beyond the living history factor. "What is the potential of this?" he said to Atari Age. "Doing the chips in smaller SMT packaging, and potentially bringing back to life some of the later CMOS designs of combo chips which could lead to a SoC - System on a Chip.

"The future just got a little brighter in terms of preserving and continuing the legacy of Atari's custom IC chips," he added.

The more technically inclined can follow a deeper discussion here. The project involves the TIA, used in the Atari 2600; the GTIA, used in the 5200 and the 8-bit line (the Atari 400 and 800) and the MARIA (used in the Atari 7800).

Atari Chips Reconstructed [GameSetWatch]

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.]

pac-man bracelet chomps its way around your wrist on [Technabob]

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

The mascot even got his own toys back in the day — one of which was recently uploaded to YouTube.

The packaging has phrases like "Forever Hero! He became legend." You must watch this video. You must.

Forever Hero: Segata Sanshiro Figures [GameSetWatch]

The book, which in recent years has trended strongly toward video game records (and, according to us apparently, is a "must-have") found that more American consumers recognized Pac-Man, beating Mario by 1 percent, 94 to 93.

I'd say Mario hasn't done so bad considering not only he has a humanoid form, but he also has changed repeatedly over the past 27 years, whereby Pac-Man has largely been the same yellow pie-shape (except for animated cartoons and other non- or semi-canonical appearances.)

Then again, I don't see Pac-Man putting out a hugely selling title this year, or being the public face of a major console-maker and games publisher. So, take Guinness's appraisal for what it is: The long memory of an entire nation, many of whom might not be gamers.

[via Go Nintendo]

Hack-a-Day says the console has "somewhere around 1200 ROMs" on an SD card inside the case. With the three switches on the front, the user can cycle through them and then flash the title over to the EEPROM inside. The display's size is 2x16.

Atari 2600 Mod Features LCD Selector [The Bits, Bytes, Pixels and Sprites]

"There are IP clearances and rights we no longer have (particularly pertaining to voicework/soundtrack I believe) so our IP management group has told us it can't be re-released," Svensson said. "I'm sorry as it's one of the ones I really wanted to see be put back up.

"So if you still have that PS1 Rival Schools disc in your collection, it's unfortunately going to be the only way that gets played for the forseeable future."

This does not apply only to the PSN, but all platforms, it seems. Bummer.

No Rival Schools on PSN now, no Rival Schools on PSN ever [Dtoid]

More 8-bit Mega Man goodness? More hideously inappropriate artwork? Proto Man selectable from the get go? SHEEP MAN!? I'm sold, and I've only skimmed the too-brief article preview that NP has posted regarding the follow-up to Mega Man 9, coming soon to a Nintendo WiiWare service near you. I'd steal Nintendo Power's thunder, but I've already borrowed their magazine art, so you'll have to hit up the link below to find more details.

Could this be what's inside Capcom's mysterious energy block?

Mega Man 10 [Nintendo Power - Scroll down for article - Thanks Justin!]

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]

During the 1980's Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System) boom in Japan, Takahashi Meijin became the idol of Japanese kids for his ability to press buttons quickly. "Because I was a famous figure for kids, I was told, and myself believed, that I had to be careful not to get too close to anything too shady, to avoid the "grown-up" areas of Japan," Master Higgins told game site 1UP. "Because even though I might not have been going anywhere or doing anything specific, the fact that any gossip magazines were looking for dirt on me, and tailing me, if they got a shot of me just walking around those kinds of places, that alone would have been pretty damaging."

So Takahashi Meijin had to, in his own words, "lead an extraordinary careful life".

The means that the game spokesperson had to stay sober. "But there was one time when I got really really drunk, and even though there was nothing bad going on, I was just drunk, so I was concerned that might have been damaging, but I guess that wasn't enough," he recalled. "I used to smoke back then — I don't now, but I was really careful not to be photographed while smoking, obviously, because of the whole "role model" thing, but a lot of my colleagues smoked, and that was one thing I was extra careful not to have exposed."

Not only does Takahashi Meijin look like Mr. Clean, he is Mr. Clean.

Master Higgins Speaks... [1UP]

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]

The mod's levels employ 8-bit textures and sprites. "Mega Man will jump high and take damage recoil," says the creator, CutmanMike. "Weapons will behave exactly as they did back then, only from a 3D perspective. The plan is to eventually have all the levels and weapons from Mega Man 1-6 (and maybe 9). Obviously some weapons will have minor changes because there are a lot of clones throughout the series."

More info on the mod and a download URL is available at the link below:

Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch [Cutstuff via Game News HQ thanks Kevin]

Regardless of your feelings about Taito's arcade classic Qix, it appears that Microsoft will release the modern-day update to the game on Xbox Live Arcade next week. At least in Japan, Qix++ is scheduled for a December 9 release, priced at 800 Microsoft Points. We wouldn't be surprised to see North America and Europe and every other continent follow suit.

12 月の「Deal of the Week」他、最新のXbox LIVE マーケットプレース情報！ [Xbox Japan via GamerBytes]