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Frank Cifaldi @ Comic-Con Profile picture
@frankcifaldi
Aug 26, 2019 • 6 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
As many of you know, I am fascinated by plug and play and handheld systems that secretly house the guts of the original NES, especially when they have new games written for them. Today a new one was announced: Coleco's Berzerk and Frenzy systems (thread): kickstarter.com/projects/90331…
These are the new systems, modeled after the old Coleco tabletop arcade units from the 80s. This is the current* Coleco's second round of these units, after a successful campaign last year.

*The original Coleco went bankrupt in 1988, "Coleco" today has nothing to do with it.
These ports were done by the extremely talented Bob "PacManPlus" Decrescenzo. Bob also wrote the Rainbow Brite NES game that Coleco is currently selling. He previously ported Frenzy to 7800 - so this new NES version is a port of a port! Proof: atariage.com/forums/topic/2…
There have been new commercial NES games written for the system every year since 1983. I wrote a thread kinda recently about it here. And I'm probably going to keep tweeting about it forever because they keep making more, and I keep finding new old ones!
Again, just...think about how weird this whole market is.

This is a 1982 game ported to a 1983 system.

And they're intentionally covering that up.

Also there's a market for this.

This system has been commercially viable FOR THIRTY SIX YEARS.
The system was so simple that it was cloned way the hell back in the 80s, and that cloned system got cheaper and cheaper to make, to the point where it's the 2000s de facto toy computer.

Now merge that with the NES being popular in homebrew communities and, boom, Coleco arcades.

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More from @frankcifaldi

Frank Cifaldi @ Comic-Con Profile picture
Jul 10, 2023
Nine out of ten classic video games are no longer available to consumers, and that number is unlikely to get any better. It's practically guaranteed that something you grew up with is gone, forever.
Most of us in the community knew it was this bad, but it wasn't until we conducted the world's first study on game availability that we could put a number on it.

87 percent.

You can no longer buy 87 percent of video games sold in the U.S. prior to 2010.
There are two paths to playing most classic games:

1. Maintain antique hardware and expensive secondhand software

2. Piracy

This means we are forever gatekeeping video game history. It's only for collectors and for those with software literacy. They can't inspire new players
Read 5 tweets
Frank Cifaldi @ Comic-Con Profile picture
Apr 3, 2023
On my way home from Milwaukee yesterday I did a triple take when I saw an ancient used book store, IN THE AIRPORT!!! I felt like I walked through a portal to a world where everything was a little bit cooler. 🧵
I was so enthralled I went up to the register and was like "hey, I'm fascinated by this place, can we chat?" A man with an orange hat, orange glasses, and an orange shirt pushed aside his laptop and said "oh, heavens yes." His name is Orange Mike, and he's worked here since 1979.
Every employee of the shop, including Orange Mike, makes exactly "8.125 dollars" an hour to keep this place going. They are also all in their 60s. Orange Mike himself comes from the local pen & paper community, and used to review games for Dragon magazine.
Read 9 tweets
Frank Cifaldi @ Comic-Con Profile picture
Nov 30, 2022
Hi! I just wrote a blog post explaining five of the core ways we preserve the history of games at @GameHistoryOrg. You can read it here, but I'll expand on it here in this 🧵 gamehistory.org/five-ways-youv…
@GameHistoryOrg Before we start though:

🚨WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A FUNDRAISER DRIVE

If you're able to give, we have sponsors that are straight up doubling your financial contributions! I can't stress enough how important it is we hit our goal, it's literally a salary: gamehistory.org/donate/
1. We have a physical library located in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's...quaint, at just over 1,000 square feet, but it's real!

We like to say this might be the first library dedicated to the study of video game history. If I'm wrong, tell me so I can go visit the others!
Read 47 tweets
Frank Cifaldi @ Comic-Con Profile picture
Sep 17, 2022
Ten years after a successful Kickstarter campaign, SpaceVenture is finally out today and it is a FASCINATING mess.

I have never played a game before that not only comes with a laundry list walkthrough, but is so broken that even following the walkthrough I can't get anywhere.
I have now encountered a softlock from a unique and obvious bug for the third time playing this game, and I have only seen three screens. Oh and every one of those times I was doing an action instructed in the walkthrough.
You know how adventure games highlight your icon when you are able to interact with an object? This game tried to do that but it just doesn't work somehow. It will highlight on unclickable objects and stay neutral on clickable objects.
Read 12 tweets
Frank Cifaldi @ Comic-Con Profile picture
Sep 16, 2022
Return to Monkey Island (the game) sees two of the original creators return to Monkey Island (the franchise), to make a game is about returning to Monkey Island (the island) and seeing how much has changed over the years. It's incredibly meta and I'm so excited I took Monday off.
No offense to those who worked on later entries in the series but I liked those original games because they were a little weird and auteur and had something to say, and the series hasn't been that for thirty years. It was something else entirely without Ron at the wheel imo.
The plot of the game that we've seen so far is that Guybrush Threepwood is back on the same island doing the same quest that he had in the first game, except the world has changed a lot over the years and the old ways don't work anymore.

I mean, come on. This rules.
Read 7 tweets
Frank Cifaldi @ Comic-Con Profile picture
Apr 17, 2022
Okay! Now that some emotions are cooled, I want to talk about this, because I think a lot of people are either not understanding the situation or are refusing to acknowledge reality. I am doing a very positive and productive thing here and I'd like to put doubts to rest.
I have been navigating the space between high end video game collectors and online citizen archivists/ROM dumpers for over twenty years. This is not an exaggeration. In 2002 I was striking deals with collectors to let me digitize their one-of-a-kind games and put them online.
I am not much of a collector myself, I find little joy in property ownership or wealth hoarding. I live a fairly simple life, and I don't experience the rush that some do by holding a physical object. I'm driven by information. I want to preserve data so that stories can be told.
Read 34 tweets

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