Take a trip down memory lane with the following video. The trip begins with some of the first Atari 2600 television advertisements and continues with almost 20 years of video game commercials. This great compilation of ads reminds us of our gaming past with legends like Mickey Mantle selling on demand intellivision, and Phil Hartman playing a wide range of characters for Philips CD-i. There is even a young Tobey Maguire cutting class to play the huge Atari Lynx in the boys room.

Some great early ads demonstrate families playing video games together, while classic GameBoy ads remind adults that your never to old to play games. The video comes to a end with Jaguar & Sega’s crass advertisements during the 90’s that I remember liking at the time, actually were really pretty awful.

ClassicGaming.com’s Museum had this Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) regarding the Sega CD. The following should answer any question you may have, and provide a complete look at the history, a list of all games, little known facts and more.

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RipTen posted a commentary on the passing of head coach of the San Francisco 49ers and Stanford University, Bill Walsh (1931-2007) who lost his fight with leukemia.

The Mad Gamer said this:

I watched the news today regarding the passing of Bill Walsh and couldn’t help but feel that if this was John Madden every video game website on the face of earth would be talking about it.

However Bill Walsh, a member of the hall of fame, three time Superbowl champion, and one of the greatest coaches of all time, loses his fight with leukemia at the age of 75 today and I could not find any mention of him on IGN, 1up, or Gamespot.

Was his mid 90’s video game not “hip” enough? It was one of the first games to deal with football on the college level. Call me what you will, but I know for a fact that if this was John Madden this would not have been the case.

The world is left with one less father, one less teacher, and one less innovator today. He should be remembered and respected by all of us … including the gaming community.

So when you grab your controller, drop back with your QB and throw a quick pass to your running back for a gain of five, remember that it was Bill Walsh who first used the short passing game as an alternative to the running game. And the next time you call out your buddy for not being able to defend your high flying west coast offense, all I ask is that you quietly thank the man who invented it.

[source]

Okay so he started as “the angry nintendo nerd” and without informing me, he graduated to become “the video game nerd”… the dude still likes feces in his ear. He also states the obvious, and rants the 32x to near death (c’mon the 32x was rushed to market, plus we all know it was Sega Japan vs. America communication that killed this ill fated add-on…?) what am I doing? Fuck it, be a angry videogame nerd with a the $2.50 32x which is pennies on the dollar (I’m jealous of that too) - fellow reader Ksee was a proud owner of this… I remember having a hard time really getting impressed by the games I played on it, but I remember wishing I had one. I know Ksee paid a bit more than $2.50 price, and maybe… I want to play Halo 3. I’m so jealous of my friends right now. Watch out you don’t want to see a REAL angry gamer - plus I know I’d so kick his ass… I shouldn’t post after drinking, but do we need to be reminded the dudes a nerd… watch the video and see for yourself… oh yeah, TGif.

Ahh the memories… Sega’s 1989 Genesis version of their arcade hit Altered Beast, “Rise from your grave!” - watch as a three EGM dudes sit on a couch and play this classic then follow it up with Crime Patrol, the 1993 American Laser Games (originally an LaserDisc arcade game) FMV shooter that was released for Sega CD.

If you have seen these already I appoligize in advance, these are from an OLD TechBlog post. I think some of these mods are pretty amazing… some are just plain strange.

Enjoy this collection of oddities and observe what gallons of caffeine and countless hours of free-time (I’d imagine most of that time spent would have been female-free as well :)

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#10

Colecovision Portable

Yes, this will play all your old school Colecovision games like “Donkey Kong”, “Galaxian”, and “Zaxxon” in all their 16 color glory.

Ben Heckendorn, creator of the NES Micro, made a custom case, tore apart an old Colecovision system, designed his own controller, and put it all together into the sleek package you see above.

It features A/V outputs, an auxiliary power input, and a reflective black vinyl case with brushed aluminum accents.

Unfortunately, this one-of-a-kind system was built by request and has already been sold.

[Source]

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#9

NEStation

The NEStation is one of the most unique custom systems we’ve ever come across.

A French modder painted his NES completely black with blue accents, created a custom vertical stand, installed four blue LEDs, and than carved in a PS2-style logo on its side.

[Source]

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#8

The nPod

The nPod is Ben Heck’s latest gaming console, featuring a 3.5-inch LCD display, custom machined case (only 41mm thick), and a rear-loading cartridge slot.

It’s powered by 4 AA batteries and can play any NES game.

[Source]

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#7

Portable Sega CDX

Most of you may not remember the CDX, it combined the Sega Genesis and Sega CD into one console.

SegaSonicFan’s portable CDX sports a 5″ display, JP/US import switch, second headphone jack, S-Video output, external controller switch, and a built-in automatic scan FM radio.

It even plays 32X games.

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#6

Gamecube-to-Go

Gamelver spent a great deal of time constructing this portable Gamecube — especially the case.

It looks to feature external controller ports for multiplayer action, along with a pair speakers.

Other specifications have not yet been released.

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#5

NESPlusSega

This all-in-one machine can play both Sega Genesis and NES games.

The case was made from custom molded ABS plastic and features controller ports for both systems.

[Source]

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#4

Handheld Atari Jaguar

The Jaguar was the world’s first gaming system with two 32-bit processors.

Unfortunately, the system met its demise in early 1996 due to poor sales.

Well Dave decided to pay tribute with this portable Jaguar.

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#3

Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Mini

Kotomi took one of those 6-in-1 Sega TV game devices and turned it into a Genesis/Mega Drive mini, complete with cartridge slot.

One potential drawback, he doesn’t mention if the cartridge slot is functional — it’s an interesting project none the less.

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#2

Dreamcast Portable

Dave took on an ambitous project when he created this portable Dreamcast from scratch.

It features a custom designed case, 5″ LCD display, and a built-in 16MB memory card.

Powered by two rechargeable batteries, its good for up to 1 1/2 hours of playtime.

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#1

PlayStation 2 Portable

Click the above picture to watch the 10 minute demonstration of the PlayStation 2 Portable - our #1 pick for custom system.

Enjoy!

We take a look into the past of Sega and where they went wrong in the console wars.

Tecmo Bowl sucks, I got Joe Montana. You’re still playing Mario, Dude! Ask your Mom if you can come over. I’ll let you play on a real video game system. My Genesis has 16-bit graphics, what’s yours again? 8-bit, that’s funny. Oh the good old days of harassing Nintendo players. Being the first kid to own a Sega Genesis on my block was the biggest thrill of my adolescent life. Until Mark “My Parents are so Rich” Bradley brought in his Neo Geo instruction manual, everyone was my friend. But that’s another story for another time. It was a time when wearing British Knights and Air Jordans was as important as having a Triple Fat Goose and a Starter hat to be in the upper echelon of public middle school society. It was the pinnacle of Sega’s Pax Romana. Sadly, like a VH1 “Behind the Music” episode, the downward spiral soon began.

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