A new free-to-play browser game reimagines Pokémon characters as American football players, letting creatures such as Nidoking and Gengar face off on the field. The project blends the sports genre with Pokémon's roster of monsters. via retrododo.com
At Portland Retro Gaming Expo, EA senior producer Jim Vessella gave a talk on restoring Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger using original FMV tapes found in EA's archive. He also discussed his broader effort preserving around 16,000 tapes held in the company's vault. via timeextension.com
A project called demoscene-recomp has brought classic PC demo scene productions, including Second Reality and Unreal, to run directly in a web browser. It currently features four demos, which can be played in full or viewed section by section, with more planned for the future. via reddit.com/r/thisweekinretro
A GitHub project called Ultima7_Decomp has produced an AI-assisted decompilation of Ultima 7: The Black Gate and Ultima 7 Part Two: Serpent Isle. The rebuild is byte-verified against output from Borland C++ 2.0, the original compiler, with much of the preserved logic including original assembly code, enabling the game to be built natively for Windows, Mac and Linux. via github.com
An EA producer has reportedly found the original FMV source tapes for Wing Commander 3 in the company's archives, leading to plans for a 30th Anniversary Edition remaster. The restored footage would improve on the compressed video quality of the original 1994 release. The plans were revealed at the Portland Gaming Expo. via pcgamer.com
Protoweb is a community-run proxy service that rebuilds and hosts historical websites to recreate the look and feel of the internet circa 1995. Users connect by pointing a proxy-capable browser at Protoweb's servers, giving old computers access to period weather, news, music and game sites without needing registration. The service is in public beta with its library of restored sites growing daily. via protoweb.org
DROP64 3D is a 3D remake of a Commodore 64 downwell-style roguelite, released for Windows and macOS at 4.99 euros. The original C64 game's mechanics, falling through a mine shaft and using gunboots to shoot and stomp enemies, were rebuilt using AI tool Claude Opus 5.5, which wrote the code, graphics and music under human direction. via itch.io
Fans of the obscure Japanese PC point-and-click adventure Cookie's Bustle gathered for a secret 25th anniversary party. The event included live music, exclusive merchandise, themed cookies and an appearance by a figure called Cookie Blair. via console-classics.com
mdk-sdl is a new engine reimplementation of MDK, the 1997 Shiny Entertainment PC game, allowing it to run natively on Windows, Mac and Linux. The project rebuilds the original engine using SDL rather than relying on emulation. via reddit.com/r/thisweekinretro
Time Extension has published an interview with Shinji Usui, discussing his career across video games, anime and toys. He talks about his time at FromSoftware and his work on titles including Metal Wolf Chaos, Chromehounds, Armored Core: Nexus, Vanquish and Mobile Suit Gundam: Zeonic Front. via timeextension.com
v86, an open-source project that emulates a full x86 PC inside a web browser using WebAssembly JIT compilation, now offers presets for three AROS (AROS Research Operating System) distributions. Users can launch these AROS builds directly from the browser without additional setup. via amiga-news.de
A community of enthusiasts for the obscure Japanese PC point-and-click adventure Cookie's Bustle: Mysterious Bombo World held a secret gathering to mark 25 years since its release. The game, developed by Rodik and released at the start of the millennium, follows a five-year-old girl named Cookie Blair who believes she is a bear as she journeys to the Pacific island of Bombo World. via timeextension.com
