Wii owners have something to celebrate this week! The popular Contra series has been literally born again with the new WiiWare title: Contra Rebirth. The familiar music and play modes have been updated and are available with all new environments for you to play in. Check out this trailer.

From the official Nintendo WiiWare Website:

Description: Chief Salamander and his Neo-Salamander Force travel back to 1973 A.D. to invade Earth. They land in Central America and take control of the Shizuoka ruins on the Yucatan Peninsula. There, the aliens plan the destruction of all the “Contra” on Earth. The Galactic President calls on Lance Bean, a member of the elite “Contra” warriors, to save the day, but his sudden disappearance jeopardizes the safety of the planet. Now, Bill Rizer and samurai Genbei Yagyu are the last hope for Earth. They must pick up their weapons and defeat the evil Neo-Salamander Army before all is lost. Experience the fast-paced, action-packed, side-scrolling adventure that pioneered the run-and-gun genre.

1000 Wii Points

If you follow this link, you’ll get to watch two auctions for the original video game Computer Space.  Computer Space is considered the world’s first commercially sold coin-operated video game. It was developed by Ted Dabney and Nolan Bushnell and was released in November 1971 by Nutting Associates.  The date on the yellow machine shows August 1972.  The year and month I was born.

These machines are as old as I am!  I only ever saw one of these machines in person as a kid.  I remember it being too tall for me to play.  I have always enjoyed seeing these machines since they look so futuristic with their metal-fleck painted plastic enclosures (maybe fiberglass?)

The photos below are from the auctions with the exception of the blue Computer Space machine showing the gameplay.  My favorite photo is of the “troubleshooting guide” that’s included in the auction that has Nolan K. Bushnell printed on it with the title:  Chief Engineer.

Wikipedia Entry

I’m a Sega nerd in a Sega world… Life’s fantastic– with carts of plastic!

Earlier this year the Sega Megadrive also had a birthday. It’s sleek black lines, true-to-arcade titles and 16-Bit Graphics were responsible for putting Sega ahead in the console race in August 1989.

This year, Watermelon: Juicy Development is releasing the first new game for the console this decade code named: Tavern RPG. Otherwise known as Pier Solar, this RPG is getting ready to set the world of the Sega Genesis on fire! Ok, well maybe it will smolder a little longer. Whatever the case, these recent moves by development teams to take advantage of old hardware seem pretty clever. Hopefully, there will be no licensing lawsuits revolving around this title or the aforementioned Rush Rush Rally Racing game.  It would appear neither is licensed by Sega.

Pier Solar will be the very first all new game to appear on the Sega Mega Drive / Sega Genesis and Sega Mega CD / Sega CD this millennium. The game is neither a Port, nor a translation and has not ripped content from any other game what so ever.

The hardware is cheaply found these days– especially in the Sega world. Genesis systems with controllers can be had for less than $20 U.S. currently and that’s a small price to play for a solid console.

This could either put these developers on the map or cripple them for future efforts. As this appears to be an RPG, I’ll likely not purchase it– but I guarantee you there are a plethora of RPGers looking for something EXACTLY like this; something they’ve never played but hearkens back to the less complicated systems and video games of yesteryear.

It’s being released not only in a cartridge format but in Sega CD format as well. If you pre-order now, you’ll get all of them at one low price with a soundtrack and a Poster to boot!  No word on the official release date that I can find.  However, the european version of this game sold-out as of 08.11.2009.  So if you want a copy keep pinging the site.

Official Site