N64 Week Day 4: The Vaporware

So Tuesday I briefly mentioned some of the games featured in EGM's Nintendo 64 magazine that ended up never seeing the light of day. Today we'll take a look at a few titles that were cancelled or shelved until the next console generation, including one particular title which I shall forever pine for. Robotech: Crystal Dreams This was one of the first games to be announced for Nintendo's Ultra 64, and it was one that…

Doom hits Xbox Live Arcade today, and I just finished playing through the demo which really made me nostalgic. The sound has been remastered in 5.1 and sounds great, the midi-like action music was a joy to hear. The controls feel natural and responsive. Combined with the new 4-player split-screen coop or deathmatch, or online coop and deathmatch, I think I'll be dropping 800 points on this baby! The demo for Sonic the Hedgehog is…

In yesterday's blog, I mentioned Nintendo's "Dream Team" of developers, which was most likely a way of them putting a positive spin on the fact that only a handful of developers had started working on the Nintendo 64. Today I'll talk about the most important of those developers, Rare. A Brief History Rare, a company founded by the Stampers brothers in England, started off primarily in the PC market. The Stampers were amazing programmers who…

One day, about a month before the Nintendo 64 was set so launch, I was browsing through the magazine section of my local Borders Books and noticed a magazine that seemed to have been made especially for me! A special periodical all about the upcoming Nintendo 64, from the publishers of EGM. I paid my $9.99 and tore into the thing on the drive home (as I wouldn't be able to drive myself for another…

So as many of you may or may not be aware, on September 29th, we'll be celebrating the ten year anniversary of Nintendo 64's release in the US. Man, I can't believe it's been that long, it seems lonely yesterday that I was heading out to the Toys R Us one early Sunday morning to pick up my pre-order of the N64 console and a copy of Super Mario 64. So, to commemorate this occasion,…

I remember when I first read about the .Hack phenomenon taking Japan by storm in an issue of Newtype. The idea of a true multimedia story, one that was told through anime, manga and video games sounded intriguing to say the least. I also remember thinking that they'd never bring it successfully to the States due to the high volume of translation needed across all the various media. A few years later, I'm happy to…