Rent ROMs Online Legally?

The legality of downloading and sharing ROMs has long been debated. But what about renting them? Console Classix not only claims that it is legal, but offers ROM rentals for systems from Atari, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Gameboy and Sega all for $5 a month (or $50 a year).

So is it really legal? According to them it is: "The case of SONY V. CONNECTIX found that unauthorized emulation is perfectly legal...We have taken great pains to fulfill every letter of the law. Our images were made by our own personnel. The data was copied directly off the cartridges we own and the image was transferred using a generic EPROM reader...The way our service works is simple. Our clients log into our service, they then can browse a list of available games. Once a user has selected a game our server locks that image so that no one else can use it. This ensures that we are never using more copies of a game than we own, that would be copyright infringement.". Nintendo even questioned them once, and seem to have left them alone afterwards.

Could this be the rising future of retro gaming? Or will the future bring down this ROM renting website?

Rent ROMs Online At Your Own Risk

E3 R.I.P.

If you haven't already heard, The Electronics Entertainment Expo as we know it "Where Business Gets Fun" is no more. 2006 will be remembered as the last generation of the next generation console wars... at E3.

While the big dogs in the game press are loving all of this, this is a sad day for the smaller guys who's only touch inside the industry has been wisped away.

The Death of E3

The Top 100 Games of the 21st Century

Following up on their feature on "The Ten Greatest Years In Gaming", Next-Gen.Biz now brings us what amounts to the top 100 games of the current console generation (XBOX, GameCube, and PS2) based solely on unit sales.

Can you guess what made number one? I'll give you a hint, it's new competitor's demo just hit XBOX 360 Live.

But who wants to read through 100 games, so here's a link to the good part.

The Top Ten Games of the 21st Century

And if that's not enough, how about The Century's Top 50 Handheld Games

Digg It

As you probably already know, Digg.com is taking over internet gadget and gaming news. With "the good" Tech TV's Kevin Rose behind it and the ability for we the people to be the writers and reviewers of the news, what would you expect!

But what you may not know is that a recent update has made way for a new subsection of gaming there, Playable Web Games!

To check out a few, let's start with Scorched 3D, a remake of the insanely popular DOS game Scorched Earth (which also inspired the Worms series of games)! It boasts fully OpenGL 3D environments, LAN and Internet play, works on Windows, Macs and more, and best of all it's TOTALLY FREE!

Prefer emulation, check out "Andre's" online NES emulator. Or how about playing real GameBoy games in your web browser, check out the Gameboy Online Emulator.

Or if remakes are your game, check out Sonic The Hedgehog in Flash. Or how about a game of online multiplayer Asteroids. You can play these right in your web browser!

And if you've ever been caught playing games at work and got in trouble by the bossman, then 1) you don't work for Xgaming, and 2) you need to look around here. The boss will never know.

Finally if you think these are all crap, then make your voice heard, sign up and start Digging!

Digg More Playable Web Games

GAMMA BROS.

Warning: GAMMA BROS. is an addicting game with old-school flair that will destroy all hopes of productivity once engaged. It's Robotron meets Galaga in an epic story of a lifetime; brothers Buzz and Zap must fight their way from Jupiter through alien ships and creatures of unknown origins to their home on Earth for a most important occasion ...dinner.

It features fully pixilated graphics, retro enemy AI, and tons of weapons and powerups. If only it had a diagonal-fire powerup...

X-Arcade owners can play this like Robotron! From the title screen seen above, click "Info", then "Controls", change the controls to look like this. Be sure to turn Numlock OFF for this setup.

Best of all, it's FREE, you can download it for PC or Mac, or play it right in your web browser!

Download GAMMA BROS. for PC/MAC,
or Play It In Your Browser Now!

Super Mario Deathmatch

Super Mario War is a multiplayer Super Mario game, a cross between a deathmatch game and Super Smash Bros.. The goal is to stomp as many other Marios as possible to win the game.

Features:

• Up to four players deathmatch fun
• a whole bunch of game modes (featuring GetTheChicken, Domination, CTF, ...)
• Comes with the leveleditor - you can create your own maps.. and a lot of people did so. There are currently over 400 maps
• The whole source code of the game is available
• uses SDL and is fully portable to windows, linux, mac, ...
• CPU Bot Players

Download Super Mario Wars

G4 Icons: Nintendo Entertainment System

G4's Icons recently took a run down memory lane featuring how Nintendo with the NES brought a dead-end console gaming business back to life, the literal rebirth of the entire gaming industry..

Now some nut has gone and posted the whole episode on YouTube! I doubt the poster got the rights to post it, so watch it before it's gone!

It features commentary from the likes of Howard Lincoln, Ken Lobb, Peer and Matt from IGN, and even Cliff Bleszinski.

WARNING: Nintendo Fanboys will get goose bumps and may shed some nostalgic tears. Oh, and the audio runs away from the video while playing.

Check Out G4 ICONS NES Flashback

Wiitality!

Midway recently revealed that it is planning to bring its new entry into the bloody Mortal Kombat series, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon to Nintendo's Wii console. That makes the Wii the first and only almost next-gen console that it is scheduled for release on. It includes Every Kombatant ever (more than 60 characters), and a new character select screen posted by "Cinder" on Midway's forums proves it.

Midway has not yet revealed how it plans to take advantage of Nintendo's unique controller for the Wii version of the title... here's hoping that those GameCube slots can be used instead! Expect MK: Armageddon to bash your Wii in early 2007. (XBOX and PS2 versions still set for this October).

"I'm just going to ask what everyone's thinking--can I throw the Wii controller at my friend to perform a fatality? Boy I sure hope so. " - Ryan Davis, Gamespot

Check Out More on Wii Kombat

Classics Come To Life

2 arcade classics have come to life, real humans are being victimized! Human Space Invaders is the work of 4 hours of moving 67 participants around and capturing 390 images to create a 3-minute video, all to make us ask...why?

Check Out Human Invaders

And if you're still with us, human Pong.

A Look Into The Death and Rebirth of the Coin-op Industry

IGN recently posted a feature called "Arcade Evolution: A look into the death and rebirth of the coin-op industry.".

They mentioned the surge of classic gaming at home: "Taking a more direct approach, fanatics of classic gaming still have a chance to take a literal chunk of history home with them, as companies such as X-Arcade now make a business on selling home arcade cabinets." We do indeed, thanks for the mention IGN!

Maybe the future of arcades has just not arrived yet...or have they?

IGN's Arcade Evolution

$2,199
X-Arcade™ Machine