Hi, I’m Daniel Thurman

Daniel reviews cyberpunk books, games, and more.

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  • Intellivania Is a Port of Castlevania for the Intellivision

    The very first Castlevania game is an 8-bit masterpiece. Originally released for the Famicom Disk System, then later ported to the NES cartridge format for release in the West, it is considered an all-time classic. Castlevania didn’t see many ports back in those days outside of one for the MSX home computer. That version was distinctly different than the NES title and considered by most to be inferior to it’s NES counterpart. Thanks to genius homebrew guru Matthew Kiehl, we now have Intellivania, a port of the NES Castlevania for the Intellivision. Yes, the Intellivision.

    The Intellivision, originally released in 1979, touts a pretty devout homebrew community. I’ve seen some impressive work done for the system in recent years. Intellivania however far surpasses anything I’ve seen released for the system. Bridging the gap between fan game, homebrew, demake, and console port, Intellivania has to be seen to be believed.

    As seen in the video above, the graphics, animation, and depth of gameplay featured in Intellivania are incredibly impressive, especially for the Intellivision and it’s limited capability. And while it can’t hold a candle to the original, this Intellivision port is still beautiful and its very existence is something that is but should not be. At least not in this capacity. It looks pretty much like a one to one port of the original, capturing the essence of the original game in all its glory.

    Intellivania was originally released as a boxed physical cartridge with beautiful artwork (as seen in this article’s featured image) created by Rudy Wilde. Now it’s been released digitally as a ROM download. The digital game is purchasable via Intellivision Collector and can be played on your choice of Intellivision emulators.

    Have you played Intellivania? If so, please let us know what you thought in the comments. This might be something that I will have to sink my teeth into for this upcoming Castlevania season. If I do I’ll be sure and write up a review, so keep an eye out for that. Maybe.

    [Source: INDIERETRONEWS via Time Extension]

  • This Is What Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Might Look Like if It Was Demade as a Game Boy Game

    We love demakes around here, and there sure are a lot of good ones these days. Some of them are real, fully playable games. And some are pixel art mockups. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the latest to get the demake treatment, though it does fall into the latter category. These are pixel art mockups of what Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night might look like if demade as a Game Boy game. And it looks phenomenal.

    So phenomenal in fact that it makes me sad that it’s not a real game. These beautiful screen shots are brought to us by Game Boy Demakes, an account that spotlights the best of modern (and sometimes not-so-modern) games demade with Game Boy visuals. If you have time you should browse through what they have posted. It’s all top-notch, authentic-looking Game Boy graphics.

    Game Boy Demakes has even created a Game Boy rom file for the mockups over at their Patreon page. It’s free to download for everyone and you can use your favorite Game Boy emulator to load up the mockups. This is great if you use filters and want to see what this game looks like with your favorite filters applied. That’s why my above screen shots all have scanlines on them. Because I put scanlines on everything.

    Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night of course is Koji Igarashi’s spiritual successor to the Castlevania franchise, which he was a vital part of in the later years of the series. The game has been accompanied by two 8-bit style spinoff titles, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon and Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2. The Curse of the Moon games are sort of demakes themselves, resembling the Castlevania titles of the NES era pretty strongly both in visuals and game play.

    We can only hope that this gets popular enough to inspire someone to actually demake Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night for real on Game Boy and have it be a fully playable game. That might actually be my preferred way to play it.

  • Prime 2D is a Sidescrolling Demake of Metroid Prime

    To say that Metroid Prime is beloved amongst Metroid fans would be an understatement. The game, first released on Nintendo GameCube in 2002, is considered one of the best in the series and the first to push the Metroid franchise away from it’s 2D platforming roots. Thanks to the brilliant work of Retro Studios, Metroid was perfectly adapted as a first person adventure game. And now Prime 2D aims to take the game and demake it back to it’s 2D roots.

    While Metroid Prime is loved among most Metroid fans, there are those who still prefer it as a 2D series. A group of dedicated Metroid fans and clearly very talented developers have been busy making Prime 2D a real thing. So real in fact that there is a demo that you can download and play right now.

    The demo is visually stunning, capturing the aesthetic of Metroid Prime perfectly while also changing literally everything else about it in its transition to 2D. It looks like a solid, retro-styled Metroid platformer game akin to Zero Mission or fellow fan-game AM2R.

    The demo allows you to explore some of the Talon Overworld and features some of the power-ups available to Samus in Metroid Prime and the ability to scan the environment with the power suit’s visor. And, I need to say again that this is just absolutely gorgeous. I mean, just *chef’s kiss* beautiful in every way.

    The development team, calling themselves Team SCU, has opted to keep the Metroid name out of the title (for obvious reasons). Assuming the inevitable cease and desist is issued soon, you might want to grab this this demo while it’s available and easy to find.

    And if Prime 2D does get the C&D treatment from Nintendo, we are really looking forward to whatever this game becomes when it gets reskinned. Or whatever else these talented folks make in the future. Team SCU, whoever they are, is worth keeping an eye on we think.

    [Source: Metroid Database]