EA Senior Producer Jim Vessella has published an account of how seven classic EA games were restored for modern release. He describes working with the community to track down and bring back these older titles, as part of EA's broader effort to re-release 25 classic PC games. Vessella frames the project as a response to the difficulty of preserving games whose original media and hardware are increasingly inaccessible. via ea.com
Modder SEGARPGFAN has released a performance improvement hack for SEGA Touring Car Championship on the Sega Saturn. The hack improves performance across all five tracks in the game, with the biggest gains noted in Time Trial mode. The release also adds support for an online ghost car portal, letting players compare lap times or runs via the internet. SEGA Touring Car Championship was originally released for the Saturn in the late 1990s. via segasaturnshiro.com
EA has re-released 25 classic PC games on Steam and GOG, with some titles receiving new Anniversary Editions featuring quality-of-life improvements. As part of the effort, EA restored and re-edited FMV cutscenes for Wing Commander, sourcing material from Betacam tapes. The release covers a broad swathe of EA's classic PC catalogue brought back for modern storefronts. via gamesasylum.com
The YouTube channel MetalJesusRocks has posted a video titled "EA Restored 1,500+ FMV Cutscenes + Revives 25 Classic PC Games!". The title indicates the video covers EA's restoration of over 1,500 FMV cutscenes and the revival of 25 classic PC games. via YouTube
Time Extension has revisited the Japanese television commercial for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past from 1991, which features actors dressed as Link, Zelda, Gibdos and Stalfos dancing to a memorable rap track. The site had long assumed the song was written specifically for the advert, but says it discovered, via a Japanese music credit, that the track actually predates the commercial. A Link to the Past was originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991. via timeextension.com
A speedrunner has figured out the underlying formula that determines prizes in Dampé's "Heart-Pounding Gravedigging Tour" minigame from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The minigame, in which young Link pays the gravedigger Dampé to dig up random items such as Rupees and Heart Pieces, has apparently kept this mechanic unsolved since the game's 1998 N64 release. The discovery comes as Nintendo's Switch 2 remake of Ocarina of Time has just launched, renewing interest in the original game's mechanics. via timeextension.com
A long-hidden developer message in An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire has finally been exposed, revealed through a specific keyboard input sequence. The 1997 Elder Scrolls spin-off had kept the secret concealed for nearly three decades before the method was documented. Battlespire was developed by Bethesda Softworks as a side story within the Elder Scrolls series, set apart from the main numbered entries. via console-classics.com
The Centre for Computing History and the LEO Computers Society are holding an event to celebrate the 75th anniversary of LEO, the Lyons Electronic Office, described as the world's first business computer. LEO was built by the J. Lyons and Co. catering firm in Britain, adapting early computer research to run business applications such as payroll and inventory. The anniversary event brings together the preservation society dedicated to LEO's history with the computing museum hosting the celebration. via computinghistory.org.uk
A new instalment of the "Under the Microscope" series looks at Sokkou Seitokai, also known as Sonic Council, a fighting game released for the Sega Saturn. The game is based on a manga series that originally ran in Gamest magazine, a Japanese publication known for its coverage of arcade and fighting games. The feature notes that background on the game's origins is already well documented in Japanese sources, and examines the title in more technical detail. via segasaturnshiro.com
A long-standing Easter egg hidden in An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire, the 1997 Elder Scrolls spin-off, has finally been explained. The discovery followed a new donation to the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, which helped reveal how the secret worked. Andrew Borman, the museum's director of Digital Preservation, announced the find on social media with a short video documenting the discovery. Battlespire was developed by Bethesda Softworks as part of the Elder Scrolls series. via timeextension.com
Hidden Palace has published a Halloween-themed release detailing a cache of material recovered from the floppy disks of former Sega Technical Institute programmer Ken Rose. The collection spans six STI projects, most never seen before, including prototypes and source code for a game called Segapede, one called Jester, and an unreleased title starring Sonic the Hedgehog's sidekick Tails. The release was put together by Hidden Palace members Ashley, Travis and Kat along with new contributor vladikcomper, working directly with Rose to preserve the material. Rose began programming on a PDP-8 before studying computer science at UC Berkeley and contracting for companies including Synapse Software prior to joining Sega. via hiddenpalace.org
Games That Weren't has published research into Comic Relief Adventure, a text adventure tied to the 1991 Comic Relief charity event. The piece explains that at the time Comic Relief ran biannually, and that Britain had a thriving home-made adventure scene, with hobbyists using tools such as The Quill, PAWS and Graphic Adventure Creator to build interactive fiction sold by mail order. Magazines and fanzines of the period, including Adventure Probe, regularly covered this independent adventure-making community. via gamesthatwerent.com
