Late Night Consoling

August 20, 2003 8:00 PM

My quest to get s-video out of my Saturn took another strange turn this evening, as I decided to attempt to attach an s-video adapter that I had lying around to my existing composite cable. Incredibly, it didn't work at all. While the audio worked fine (those cables weren't touched, so that was expected) I wasn't able to get any video whatsoever out of my Saturn once the adapter was put on, which was very strange indeed. Clearly this just wasn't meant to be. But I'm not out of the woods with my Saturn yet anyway, as I still need to replace the on-board battery which seems to have died on me yet again. Actually, my Saturn is completely falling apart, and it's started doing some pretty strange things (like always giving me the CD player screen regardless of what disc is put in the drive...I don't remember it ever doing that before) so if I can find one cheap enough (that's still in decent shape itself) I might just replace the whole damn thing. I love my Saturn, but it is most definitely not a well-made piece of hardware. Of all the consoles I own (okay, maybe not my X'Eye, which is functional but really clunky) my Saturn is probably the most poorly made of the lot. Whereas even my Jaguar (complete with toilet seat CD-ROM drive) feels nice and sturdy, my Saturn is loose and in terrible shape. I know it's silly to chastise Sega for a console that died off years and years and years ago, but I've got systems that are ten years older that are in much better condition. To say nothing of my original wood paneled Atari 2600 which looks positively brand new next to my dilapidated Saturn.

	Nokia Announces N-Gage Arena Just one day after announcing that they have purchased Sega's online technology, Nokia has announced N-Gage Arena, a new (free) online service for N-Gage users. The service will contain cheats, strategy guides, and rankings along with two-player matchmaking for multiplayer games.
	Ninja Gaiden Impressions Both IGN and GameSpot have posted hands-on impressions of Ninja Gaiden, the long-in-development Xbox title from the aptly named Team Ninja. While most games don't deserve their own story like this, the rarity of actual hands-on looks at this game more than warrants one.
	F-Zero: The Anime Nintendo of Japan has announced F-Zero: Legend of Falcon, a new anime series that will be airing overseas later this year. The series starts airing on October 7th, and revolves around a pilot who's cryogenically frozen after being injured and is woken up 150 years later to stop corruption in the F-Zero racing circuit. Oh those wacky anime storylines. I love 'em, but let's face it...Strong Bad was right about some of the wackier aspects of anime.
	Madden Bug Acknowledged, Replacement Offered As noted in this story at Xbox.IGN, EA Sports has acknowledged a bug in the Xbox version of Madden NFL 2004. Apparently there are issues when importing draft classes from NCAA Football 2004. If you've encountered this problem, EA is offering to replace it. Details are up at IGN.
	e-Reader Back on European Schedule Computer and Video Games is reporting that Nintendo has reversed their original decision to yoink the GBA e-Reader from their European schedule. It won't be out this year, but CvG was told the peripheral is now set for release in the first half of 2004. Apparently a European release of Animal Crossing (which utilizes the e-Reader) is being hinted at as well.
	New Famitsu Scores Games Are Fun has posted a roundup of scores from a few Japanese magazines, including the well-known Famitsu. A few of the notable scores this week are Tales of Symphonia (GC) which garners a 34/40 (9,8,8,9) from Famitsu, Sega Ages: Phantasy Star Generation 1 (PS2) which scored 26/40 (7,6,7,6) and Sword of Mana (GBA) with a 30/40 (8,7,7,8).
	Activision Classics Announced Despite being primarily a Mac OS publisher, Aspyr has announced Activision Anthology, a GBA title that contains more than 55 Atari 2600 games from Activision, including the genuine classics Pitfall and River Raid along with a whole lot of others.
	The Suffering Q&A The Armchair Empire has conducted a Q&A with Richard Rouse III, the lead designer at Surreal Software on their upcoming survival horror title The Suffering.
	Real Life Getaway How's this for cool...a new site called The Real Getaway Tour has screenshots side-by-side with actual photos from the game's locations in London, and it does this for every mission in the game. Someone told me recently that after playing the game, his son knew his way around London perfectly when they went there on vacation. I guess he wasn't kidding? Thanks Slashdot Games for the tip.
	Crazy Space Invaders Controller Get a load of this crazy 25th anniversary controller that ships with the special edition re-release of Space Invaders in Japan...it's basically a table-top cabinet, and intended to emulate the joy of parlor-style arcade games from way back when. Presumably you'll have to provide your own beer and cigarette stains for that extra touch of authenticity.
	Misc. Media/Previews GameSpot new previews of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (PS2) and Dragon Drive (GC), while IGN has new media from SSX 3 (GC, PS2, Xbox), Magic: The Gathering Battle Grounds (Xbox), Boktai (GBA) and Killer 7 (GC), as well as new details and images from Metal Slug Advance (GBA). Elsewhere online, GameSpy has a new preview of Mega Man X7 (PS2), The Magic Box has new shots from Sonic-N, Puyo Pop, Super Monkey Ball, Pandemonium, MotoGP, MLB Slam, Virtua Tennis, Tomb Raider and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (all for N-Gage), Planet GameCube has new impressions of Mario Kart: Double Dash (GC), CvG has new shots from Grabbed by the Ghoulies (Xbox) and HomeLAN has new impressions of Freedom Fighters and The Simpsons Hit and Run (both Xbox).

Console Game of the Evening: Ninja Gaiden II for the NES. "The best ninja game ever created! Awesome storyline, engaging characterization and terrific gameplay! Best of the trilogy" (submitted by dr`Slayah).

jason bergman

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