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CultureTotal Recall
The Specs Of A Nintendo Console That Never Was
A quick recap for those who may not know: the Sony PlayStation only came about because a dealbetween Sony and Nintendo to produce a CD-based console fell through. Nintendo then went ahead with plans to make their own CD drive, and stick it on the SNES. That ill-fated attachment never appeared on the market, but…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 13, 2014 -
CultureTotal Recall
That Time When Mario And ‘Evil Brother’ Luigi Starred In a Racing Game
Recent Nintendo events got us looking back at some old news clippings about the house of Mario and we found some we just have to share. Here’s one of the more interesting ones from the Daily Yomiuri, from November 1992. As you’ll see, we can’t vouch for veracity of all of it…. The most recent…
By Stephen Totilo Published January 30, 2014 -
CultureTotal RecallAdam West: Batman, Mayor, Star Of Terrible Video Games
The real joy of seeing Adam West do anything on the screen is that, even at his worst, he can make the most dreadful thing fun. Because he is Adam West. From the 60s Batman series to Family Guy, that’s been the rule, and it applies also to Golden Nugget, a game which might sound…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 22, 2014 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Dreamcast Wasn’t The First Time Sega Quit A Hardware Business
The day Sega stopped making video game hardware was a sad one, but it’s worth remembering that, like former rivals Nintendo, video game hardware wasn’t the only thing Sega had ever made. Sega’s history is likewise littered with other stuff, from slot machines to photobooths, but one of the coolest has got to be the…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 9, 2014 -
CultureTotal Recall
Today, The Inventor Of The AK-47 Died
Russian designer Mikhail Kalashnikov, creator of perhaps the world’s most famous firearm, passed away today at the age of 94. He leaves behind a somewhat complicated legacy. Born in 1919, he was a tank commander in the Second World War, but in his spare time was also a keen inventor. While spending time in a…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 23, 2013 -
CultureTotal Recall
36 Years Of Console Prices, Adjusted For Inflation
If you thought the PS4 and Xbox One’s launch prices were expensive, well, they kinda were! But not as expensive as the NES. Or Neo Geo. Or Saturn, Or PlayStation, or Atari 2600. Reddit user Auir2blazehas run historical console launch prices through an inflation adjustment calculator (which normally use dollar strength and the cost of…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 17, 2013 -
CultureTotal Recall1993 SimCity Documentary Is 20 Minutes Of Madness
In 1993, Britain’s Channel 4 ran a four-part documentary series on video games. The third episode was about SimCity, and twenty years on, it stands as a monument to all that was amazing about both the early 90s and antique PC gaming. Dug up today by Motherboard, it’s fascinating seeing the way the doco blurs…
By Luke Plunkett Published November 20, 2013 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Last Days Of China’s Lawless Mega Slum
Kowloon Walled City was the closest this planet has ever come to having our own, real Mega-City One. Poverty, people packed in like sardines, drugs, prostitution, a vacuum of authority…it was insane. It’s been gone for nearly twenty years now, but a series of amazing photos has helped bring the “city” back to life. Originally…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 24, 2013 -
CultureTotal RecallA Sad Farewell To The Coolest Fighter Jet Of All Time
Anyone who grew up watching cartoons, or playing video games, or just taking an interest in large, expensive vehicles will be saddened to hear today that the US military has indicated the end is nigh for the fabled A-10 Warthog. Incorrectly labelled “ugly” by some detractors, the fact is the A-10 is the coolest damn…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 24, 2013 -
CultureTotal RecallThe First Time Diablo Came To Consoles
Diablo III comes to consoles today, and I’m just as giddy as I was back in March 1998, picking up my copy of Diablo for the original PlayStation — and the additional memory card needed to save the game. Picking up a new game was a special event for 24-year-old me. There was a ritual…
By Mike Fahey Published September 3, 2013 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Wonderful World of Video Game…World Maps
Thanks to Attract Mode for pointing out Are We There Yet?, a site that’s dedicated to collecting and showing off one of gaming’s most important – and often cutest – aids, the world map. It’s concerned mostly with older stuff, from the 80s and 90s, and covers everything from fighting games to old arcade titles…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 31, 2013 -
CultureTotal RecallWow, There Was A Daytona USA That Was Also A Little Bit…RPG
It wasn’t made by Sega, sadly, but whatever: around 2003-04, there was an arcade version of Daytona USA going around that added RPG elements to the famous racer. Put together by modders, it was called Daytona USA : GTX 2004, and featured a range of little changes and improvements to the original like upgraded visuals. The…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 29, 2013 -
CultureTotal Recall
Nintendo’s First Proper Console Was So 80s It Had A Cassette Deck
So, the Famicom turned 30 today. In honour of that, let’s look at one of the coolest accessories ever made for the console, one that sadly never made it out of Japan. In 1984, Nintendo released the Famicom Data Recorder, a tape deck peripheral for the console. Yes, cassette tape. The Data Recorder was a…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 16, 2013 -
CultureTotal RecallWhen Losing A Game Actually Means Something
Death or defeat in a video game is normally something to be glossed over, brushed aside as you continue (or repeat) a stage on your way to inevitable victory. A quick “GAME OVER” screen, maybe a prompt or two, then you’re back into the action. Where’s the realism in that? The sense of consequence? Life…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 15, 2013 -
CultureTotal Recall
Gaming In 1982: Moustaches, Tiny Shorts & Colecovision
These two photos, belonging to Richard Braunstein, are perfect. Just perfect. Perfect because they capture what it was like playing games in the days before giant couches and giant TV sets. Perfect because these are two grown men playing video games in 1982, smashing stereotypes. And perfect because this is a photo of a Colecovision…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 2, 2013 -
CultureTotal RecallA Dusty Old Football Game Shouldn’t Look This Pretty
And really, the item itself – Mattel Electronic Soccer – isn’t. But as is their thing, the team at Bleeping Relics have made a quick session with the relic about as informative and good-looking as possible. As you may quickly notice, the Bleeping Relics guys are Belgian, but there are English subtitles available in the…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2013 -
CultureTotal RecallThree More Episodes Of GamePro TV To Take You Three Steps Deeper Into The 90s
Last week, we took a trip back to the 90s with three episodes of the 1996 version of GamePro TV. The videos, as uploaded by Oakland’s Museum of Art & Digital Entertainment, are a welcome return to a simpler age. Now, they’ve uploaded three more. The fourth one (in total), up top, contains a funny…
By Kirk Hamilton Published February 26, 2013 -
CultureTotal Recall
There’s Nothing Quite Like Browsing Through Hundreds Of Old Sega Boxes
You may have noticed, but I’ve got a bit of a thing for the Sega Master System, and in particular its unique brand of documentation and branding. Which lay somewhere between Tron and a tablecloth. So it made my day/week/month when reader Jim let me know about his personal project to scan and upload as…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 26, 2013
