Extra Future

Hi, I’m Phil Nelson, a writer, developer, and audio-visual maker of stuff. I have been making stuff online for over 25 years. I run RetroStrange and Set Side B. Good to see you.

Blog Archives

Tag: retrogaming

  • Build Your Own Breadboard NES

    Extremely cool. You can find the code and instructions on GitHub. I would love to build something like this sometime…

  • Super Mario Bros. Remastered

    Over on Github some awesome person has released

    “A Remake / Celebration of the original ‘Super Mario Bros.’ games. Features new levels, custom modes, new characters, alongside a full level editor / custom level system!”

    It looks like a lot of fun and I’m planning to play with it this weekend.

  • Last-minute 3D Prints: Analogue Pocket Grip

    Threw this chubby little grip by Thingiverse user wilkesvaughn onto my Ender 3 Pro the day before a multi-leg trip thru the American Middle-West and so far it’s been nice. One thing that I’ll need to mod in: My travel earbuds have a 90-degree bend in the TRRS connector, which means I can’t use headphones with this on. It looks nice in pink on my black Pocket, with some light sanding right before hopping in a cab to the airport. I’ll clean the bottom a bit better when we get back. Take a look:

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  • AKI.guide

    AKI.guide is a website dedicated to sharing knowledge about the pro wrestling video games made by AKI Corporation between 1996 – 2007 such as Virtual Pro Wrestling, WCW/NWO World Tour, and No Mercy. These games have a huge online following, and mods are still being actively developed that add entire new gameplay modes and total conversions. The site even has an online patcher so you can try out mods without needing to download any tools.

  • Pocket Platform Images

    Stylized image of a Game Boy Advance with text overlaid, meant to be used in the Analogue Pocket menu system.
    A ton of nice images like these are in the repo.

    I’ve been traveling with my Analogue Pocket and Game Boy Camera as my only gaming devices and it’s been going great. There is a lot of customization possible with the Pocket and a pretty big community with lots of well supported “cores” (basically, hardware-level emulation-but-not-emulation, it’s the actual reimplemented hardware using FPGAs). This repo of hi-quality platform images is my latest addition to my load out.

  • LOADSTAR COMPLEAT

    John, my co-founder at Set Side B, has released a dump of NEARLY the complete Commodore 64 magazine-on-disk items from the legendary LOADSTAR zine:

    LOADSTAR was a long-lived, possibly the longest-lived, of the microcomputer disk magazines. It lasted for 250 issues, of which the first 199 are included in this collection, in addition to a ton of extras, including puzzles, music, art, and a bunch of games.

  • Finding the First Videogame ROM

    [Ed Fries tracks down the first ever ROM programmed for a video game, older than previously-found chips.][link] What a find.

    [link]: https://edfries.wordpress.com/2017/10/23/finding-the-first-videogame-rom/ “Finding the First Videogame ROM”

  • Dan Luu’s Keyboard Latency Tests

    [Apparently, keyboard latency has gotten measurably worse over time][link]- computers in the 1970s had faster keyboard input that we do today. The post does a good job of debunking several of the most common BS claims made by “gaming” keyboard manufacturers, too. They aren’t any faster than regular ‘ol consumer-grade keyboards, and in some cases slower!

    >Most keyboards add enough latency to make the user experience noticeably worse, and keyboards that advertise speed aren’t necessarily faster. The two gaming keyboards we measured weren’t faster than non-gaming keyboards, and the fastest keyboard measured was a minimalist keyboard from Apple that’s marketed more on design than speed.

    [link]: https://danluu.com/keyboard-latency/ “Keyboard Latency”

  • Unreleased Sim City NES prototype shown on the Internet

    I’ve never wanted any single object more than this one? If there is any decency left in the world this will get dumped and I will get to play it.

    I can barely make words about this.

  • Takeshi no Chousenjo is being released for iOS and Android in Japan

    The classic Famicom *kusoge* (literal translation: “shitty game”) [is coming to Japan][link], but likely not the US. I’ll have to be happy with my Famicom version.

    Related: [This game was Arino-san’s very first challenge on Game Center CX][yt]!

    [link]: http://tinycartridge.com/post/164215380587/beat-takeshis-nes-game-is-out-today-on-mobile “Beat Takeshi’s NES game is out today on mobile ⊟… – Tiny Cartridge 3DS – Nintendo Switch, 3DS, DS, Wii U, and PS Vita News, Media, & Retro Junk”
    [yt]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMsv0Y7Ny1w “Game Center CX 01 Takeshi no Chousenjou”