Technofranki's blog

There is one gaming company that I do remember from the 80’ies, Epyx. They made a lot of good games. One, which I’m very fond of, is Winter Games on Commodore 64. The games was released on ‘all’ formats under the sun. And since it’s time for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, I thought it was time to digg the game up and make a small review of it.

This is the emulated Commodore 64 version on Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console (only available in Europe I think).

Winter Games have 7 eventens, detailed bellow. The games was released in 1985 and is 25 years old this year. Is the game still good? Yes, I think so. The graphics is quite blocky by todays standards. But all those 8-bit games have some sort of soul that many new games don’t have. Remember that these games ran on a 64 Kb computer. It’s amazing what they achieved with so little memory.

The characteristic C64 sound brings back good memories. The game emulates very well, it only lack a Tac 2 joystiq.

Under my YouTube-video, you will see a small description of each event.

Hot Dog

This is a freestyle event. Make your twist and turns and try to land stright.

Biathlon

Find a nice pace with the left button to get a good rythm of your skier. Watch your heart rythm since you will get tired and slow down uphills. It will also be harder to hit your target while shooting. This is one of my favourite events.

Speed Skating

This event is pretty easy. Find a good rythm with the left and right buttons, and you will win easy.

Figure Skating

You have 1 minute to do your jump and spins. Sounds easy, but you have to land stright to get good score from the judges.

Ski Jump

The key in Ski Jump is to time your jump right, have a nice flight down the hill and try to land standing. As you see in my video, this is something I’m not good at.

Free Skating

My only criticism to this game is that this event is the same as Figure Skating, except that you now have 2 minutes to do your athletic movements.

Bobsled

This is my other favourite event. Learn the curves and when to press the button, and you will do great.

In other words: Play some Winter Games. It’s still a great game after 25 years.

If you’re lucky and live in Europe and have a lot of friends and family who have still not connected their Nintendo Wii to internet, you can now help them and earn Nintendo Wii points. The more you help, the more points you earn. Helping 10 persons gives you 5000 points, 20 person helped gives you 10 000 points and you can download every Virtual Console game for free.

The Nintendp Connection Ambassador Promotion was launched in Europe on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009.

Here is some of the pressrelease from Nintendo.co.uk:

By becoming a Connection Ambassador, players can gain up to 10,000 Wii Points by encouraging friends and family to get connected to the Internet with their Wii.  Each time a friend or family member connects for the first time to the Internet with the help of the Connection Ambassador, both the Connection Ambassador and the person they helped will receive 500 Wii Points.

If you help 10 people connect to the Internet, you reach Gold status and can download ALL Nintendo-published NES games for free on Virtual Console as well as receiving a total of 5,000 Wii Points. If you connect a maximum of 20 people to the Internet, not only will you attain Platinum status, you will also receive a total of 10,000 Wii Points to spend on WiiWare games and can download ALL NES, Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 games on Virtual Console for FREE.

How do I become a Connection Ambassador?

• Enter the Wii Shop Channel
• There is an icon on the Wii Shop Channel entitled ‘Connection Ambassador Promotion’
• Select this icon and you will be prompted by two icons: one showing that you are the Connection Ambassador (or the Helper) and the other icon showing that you are the ‘Person Who Was Helped’
• Select the Connection Ambassador icon
• You will be prompted to enter the Wii Number of the person you have helped.
• You must do this within 30 days of when the person you have helped, has registered their connectivity using your Wii Number
• Once both parties have registered, you will have received 500 Wii Points on your  Wii Shop Channel Accounts to spend in the Wii Shop Channel

What do I do if a Connection Ambassador helps me connect to the Wii Shop Channel?

• Enter the Wii Shop Channel
• On the Wii Shop Channel welcome page there is an icon called ‘Connection Ambassador Promotion’
• Select this icon and you will be prompted by two icons: one showing that you are the Connection Ambassador (or the Helper) and the other icon showing that you are the ‘Person Who Was Helped’
• Select the ‘Person Who Was Helped’ icon
• You will be prompted to enter the Wii Number of the person who has helped you connect
• You must do this within 30 days of accessing the Wii Shop Channel
• You will be asked to fill in a short questionnaire
• Once both parties have registered, you will have received 500 Wii Points on your Wii Shop Channel Accounts to spend in the Wii Shop Channel

This is what you can download from th Europen Wii Shop Channel on Firday May 8, 2009

Fantasy Zone II
Master System – 1987 by Sega – shooter – 1 player – 500 points – age 7+

Rainbow Island – Towering Adventure
WiiWare – 08/05/2009 by Taito – action – 1-2 players – 800 points – age 3+

This week, Europe finaly got Dr. Mario on DSiWare. I will get that game. Here is all the new games on DSiWare, WiiWare and Virtual Console in Europe on Friday May 1st, 2009.

Galaxy Force II
Mega Drive – 1991 by Sega – shooter – 1 player – 800 points – age 7+

Bit.Trip Beat
WiiWare – 01/05/2009 – Aksys Games – arcade – 1-4 players – 600 points – age 3+

A Little Bit of… Magic Made Fun: Funny Face
DSiWare – 01/05/2009 by Nintendo – magic tricks – 1 player – 200 points – age 3+

A Little Bit of… Dr. Mario
DSiWare – 01/05/2009 by Nintendo – puzzle – 1 player – 500 points – age 3+

This week Europe got one new Virtual Console game to download on Nintendo Wii.

The Legend of Zelda: Major’s Mask
Nintendo 64 – 2000 by Nintendo – action/adventure – 1 player – 1000 points – age 12+

Satoru Iwata held Nintendo’s GDC 2009 keynote today, well covered by Joystiq.com. There some great new from that keynote. The most waited for is a firmware update for Nintendo Wii which let you use an SD-card as storage to download to or launch software from. Firmware version is 4.0 and is available now.

Nintendo also announced Virtual Console Arcade which let you download old arcade games. Four games are available today: Gaplus (Namco Bandai), Mappy (Namco Bandai), The Tower Of Druaga (Namco Bandai) and Starforce (Tecmo). Space Harrier (Sega) and Solvalou (Namco Bandai) will be available later.

Picture from Joystiq.com

Also a new Zelda game for the DS was announced; Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (tentative title). Pictures are from Joystiq.com.

There is one new Virtual Console game this week, Friday Macrh 20, in Europe.

Super Punch-Out!!
Super Nintendo – 1995 by Nintendo – sport/boxing – 1 player – 800 points – age 12+