The ASCII Stick Super L5 (アスキースティックスーパーエルファイブ) is a controller designed for one hand, primarily targeted for RPGs. I have posted an article with some commentary on how it works, as well as scans of the controller and packaging.

I've posted some images of a couple of Nintendo of Europe prototypes with final US binaries on them. The first, Metal Combat, is unique because it is the only prototype that uses the OBC1 chip, and therefore has a unique PCB. The other is Yoshi's Safari, which uses a more standard prototype board. Many thanks to Marek Schmidt, the owner of the game for allowing me to document this! Make sure to check out his SNES PAL companion collector guide!

The SNES library is highly varied in quality, and now a days most people gravitate towards the classics. Peebs, on the other hand, has made it his quest to play through every single SNES game, without the aid of cheating or FAQs. I find this goal to be incredibly interesting, so I have asked him a few questions in this article. Many thanks to Peebs for answering!

This year has been very fruitful for the discovery unreleased SNES games, and this might be the biggest one so far. Special Tee Shot is one of the white whales of Nintendo's SNES output, a game that was cancelled very close to completion. It was eventually remade into Kirby's Dream Course, one of the best games for the system. A prototype of this game surfaced years ago, but it wasn't until Trevor McAleese discovered a second one that we get a proper dump of it. Not only has he dumped the game, but he has written an excellent article to accompany the release, detailing HAL's efforts in developing golf games prior to the release of Kirby's Dream Land.

This is the first of two near final Big Sky Trooper prototypes that I received. I will release the second next month (I am currently in Japan and very busy with work). Many thanks to Nostalgia Alley and The Video Game History Foundation for allowing this to be preserved!

I truly believe we are now in a glorious era where video game preservation is now widely popular and accepted. However, what does it mean to preserve games? And what is the main problem that we face? I have written an article to give my perspective on this.