Rare Famicom Strider Footage

Courtesy of all-around great guy and Lost Levels staffer Chris Covell comes this rare video footage of Capcom’s Strider for the Japanese Famicom (aka the Nintendo Entertainment System to us western folk).

This is significant for two reasons: first, because Strider was never actually released for the Famicom, and second, because this preview footage is from 1988 - nearly a full year prior to Strider’s arcade debut. What you’re seeing here is the earliest known footage of what would become one of Capcom’s more popular franchises.

The console version was eventually released for the NES in the United States, sometime after the arcade game, with quite a few layout changes and modifications made. It would appear - and this is pure conjecture - that the Famicom version was cancelled in favor of an arcade release, and then re-visited and tooled with specifically for the American market.

The Japanese version is something of a holy grail among Famicom enthusiasts. In fact, a pre-release review copy of the game - the only one I’ve ever seen - was sold on Yahoo! Japan Auctions last month for 176,000 yen. That’s over $1,500, for those playing along at home. Which, by our estimates, makes this blog post worth about $10.57. Score!

(post mirrored from GameSetWatch, the most awesome blog to ever pay me to write, ever)

PSP Keyboard Scrapped

The PSP Keyboard, a combination 47-key keyboard and screen protector attachment for the Sony PlayStation Portable slated for release in May, has been confirmed as cancelled by peripheral manufacturer Logic 3, following a number of delays and a lack of participation from Sony.

A member of unofficial PSP news and resource site PSP Updates‘ forums emailed Logic 3 about the status of the product, and received the following response:

Thanks for your mail, yes this is correct we are no longer producing or releasing a keyboard for the Sony PSP.

Thank you for your interest in Logic 3 PSP products.

It is unclear what Logic 3’s intentions were with the device, as no specific software compatibility or feature list was ever released. Those looking for an efficient way of questioning people’s sexuality in Socom will have to look elsewhere, for the time being.

Crave Entertainment Vice President Passes Away

Just got this on the wire from Crave’s PR guy, Michael Meyers. I found it oddly relevant and thought I’d pass it along:

Dear Industry Member,

The VanDeVelde family requests that donations be made to the scholarship fund in lieu of sending flowers.

I’d like to make a joke about Crave’s The Bible Game, but that would be tasteless of me.

Console SKUs of The Movies Not Dead After All

In a post on the official Lionhead Studios message forum, Lionhead Community Pet Sam Vantilburgh has revealed that the console SKUs of The Movies, the Hollywood studio management sim designed by Peter Molyneaux and released for the PC last year, have not been cancelled, despite previous reports.

“Activision will not be publishing the console version of The Movies but that does not mean the project is dead,” said Vantilburgh. “I’d like to add that PC sales for 2005 have been dissapointing (especially during Christmas) for everyone in this industry.”

Furthermore, Vantilburgh hinted at a previously-unannounced expansion pack.

“Rest assured that the team at Lionhead Studios are as dedicated to The Movies as they’ve ever been; an expansion pack is currently in development (which will be announced very shortly) and we are continuing to support The Movies Online!”

Despite disappointing sales, The Movies has been a critical success, with an 86% average rating on game review source Game Tab. Neither a release date nor a new publisher for the console ports have been announced.

Mother 3 Website Updated!

Early this morning (or last night in whacky Japan time), the Mother 3 website was updated with a mysterious gift box. Inside was a message stating that the website would be opened tommorow. Fast foward roughly 12 hours later and what we have is yet another chapter in what is perhaps the longest running cocktease ever.

There isn’t a single screenshot of the game to be found (with the release less than three months away), but the site now contains 16 gift boxes. Two are unwrapped so far, and another box will be unwrapped each week until the game’s release. The first is a rather strange message that roughly translates to “Strange, Fun. And…Painful”, while the second contains an mp3 of the game’s new theme song, further proving this won’t just be a downport of the Nintendo 64 version. As for what the page’s title, “Hobo First Itoi Newspaper” means, that’s a question best left for men greater than myself to contemplate.

Console Ports of The Movies Cancelled

During a conference call earlier today, global mega giant developing and publishing superstar Activision discussed that, like every other publisher and every other console for every new hardware generation change ever in this industry’s history, its third quarter 2006 fiscal year profits were lower than anticipated by Wall Street analysts. This is because - and this may shock you - when a new console comes out, i.e. the Xbox 360, your typical consumer doesn’t continue purchasing games for their old, ‘obsolete’ machines anymore. Instead they - hold on to your hats, folks - decide to save their money for the new, shinier machines and games coming out within the next year. And as a result, sales for existing machines drop dramatically. It’s an amazing phenomenon that analysts have yet to wrap their heads around.

As a result of Activision’s weaker-than-predicted financial performance - which, incidentally, was the highest grossing in company history, it just wasn’t as high as trusted, professional, hawk-eyed ANALYSTS thought it would be - some fat had to be trimmed. Namely, the console ports of Lionhead Studios’ The Movies have been cancelled. Specifically, SKUs for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, and Gamecube have been shelved. Fear not, though, the PC version is readily available. And I hear it’s an okay game!

Vaporware Roundup

Wired brings us a year-end round up of the top ten highly touted pieces of software and hardware that failed to exist this year. Highlights include a Zelda game that is going to come out, a StarCraft game that probably will, and a Valve sequel that probably won’t. All this and, of course, Duke Nukem Forever and the Phantom.

In related news, if you search for Duke Nukem Forever on Google Image Search, you will find a picture of Kelly Kapowski’s boobs. KABLAMO!