Filed under: Gaming

Finally, you can relive your really good youthful memories via the Wii and its latest Virtual Console addition: the Sega Master System. That’s right, if you happen to be nostalgic for a certain Z80A kind of action — and you live in Japan — you need only look to Nintendo’s cash-cow for help. Starting this February, you can play Fist of the North Star and the hallucination-inducing Fantasy Zone to your heart’s content, though just like other VC offerings we expect to see more games and more territories included later on. What’s important for Nintendo to know is this: the sooner we’re deep in a game of Wonder Boy in Monster Land, the happier everyone will be… so step on it.

[Via Digg]

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From Indexed, one of my favorite sites on the web. It’s funny because it’s true. [indexed]

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If you’ve been having trouble getting the location service in Google Maps to work in your jailbroken iPhone, Lifehacker’s figured out a fix to get you going again. [Lifehacker]

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Apple has just walked home with six new patents, one of which details an iPod shuffle-like remote control. The image may not tell us much, but a reverse side clip is clearly visible, as is some form of circular control, which could be a scroll wheel or four way control pad. The iPhone comes with a basic in-line remote; could this be a more sophisticated offering? The other four patents described the following.

A lanyard design, two iPod shuffle variations and a technology that allows production of smooth motion compensated frames by combining multiple interpolation results. Information is scant beyond that, but we do know the remote control patent was filed back in March 2007, and has just now been cleared. Bearing that in mind, the idea may have made it to the scrap heap, but we shall watch this space nonetheless. [ipodnn via Mactropolis]

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Verizon and AT&T have both gone on record saying they do not record SMS communications. The privacy debate is one that, understandably, gets emotions stirred, but you can all rest a little easy knowing the official stances of two of the major cellular networks.

Erica Sevilla, a Verizon spokeswoman, said:

I think people can feel comfortable we’re not storing information that can later be used against them. Unless you have something stored on your phone or on a recipients’ phone, it does not stay on our network for a long period.

AT&T said they do not store SMS messages beyond 72 hours, which are only kept for delivery purposes. In both cases, once deleted from the system, there is no conceivable way to check your text message communications short of physically going through your phone.

You may want to breathe a collective sigh of relief, but Rebecca Jeschke, spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, seems to think otherwise:

“We trust so much of our communications and thoughts, even, to these third parties who are capturing this information and storing it in various ways. It’s time for us to think about it.”

Gosh, we just want our private willy jokes remaining private. After all, it’s not fair everyone knowing about Mark’s miniscule member. [AP]

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If you enjoyed the original topless Wii video or the more recent, even hotter sequel, then you are probably the type to get a kick out of this semi-nude rendition of Samba de Amigo on the classic Sega Dreamcast. Live it up, pervs. Today is your day. Hit the jump for the full NSFW action.

[Thanks Steve!]

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Fact: NERF glocks are way cooler than their gunpowder-based alternatives. And steampunk (like certain varieties of sharp orange cheese) makes everything better. That’s why we’re flipping out over these customized steampunk NERF guns by Chris Furniss (even though you may have seen them before). It doesn’t appear that Furniss fabricated anything, and instead scraped off the toy logos and painted the pistols to looks like an aged mixture of metals.

Sadly, these two pistols don’t appear to be for sale. And even if they were, we’d have probably purchased them first and then posted the link.[flickr via boingboing]

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We have long thought the acronym P2P was the very antonym of the word legal, but Qtrax, a new P2P music sharing service, has plans to rewrite the geek dictionary. Here’s the skinny: The service is free, completely. Qtrax offers an unlimited service. It is supported by the four major labels, as well as smaller, niche music groups, and that means it will have a start-up music library of over 25 million songs. That is about four times bigger than iTunes, and about 100% cheaper. We know what you are thinking; is this all smoke without fire? Short answer; we’re not sure, but Qtrax is hitting soon. Very, very soon.

Monday, in fact, is the day the service goes live, and we cannot hold our wee we’re so excited. Initially, only Windows Vista and XP will be supported, but the Macboys and girls see some action on March 18th.

The system will work by tracking all downloads, royalties will then be issued accordingly. It isn’t too clear how that revenue will be generated, but expect some anal advertising to bombard a PC near you if you do give it a whirl. Still, we can’t help our cynical judgement chiming in—how did Noah get two of every species on a wooden boat? He didn’t—do you know what I mean? Nevertheless, we wait and hope for a legal, free, P2P music service, but we think eternal world peace is a little more likely by Monday. [Boy Genius Reports]

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We already heard news about the next-gen Windows OS, Windows 7 Ultimate. Well, the fellows at Think Next are offering up a video, which they claim shows the “Milestone 1 code drop,” all in shaky video glory. Check it out by hitting the video above.

The video shown is apparently from a release that was shipped to Microsoft’s major partners earlier this year. The clip shows the OS running to be Windows 7 Milestone 1 Ultimate edition 6519.1.071220-1525. We aren’t making any rash proclamations, no matter how much we like the guys at Think Next. We’re of the opinion that it doesn’t look to dissimilar to Windows Vista, but it does look tweaked for the better. The boot screen seems to be redesigned, and the Media Center on display certainly has more eye candy to offer.

All that said, if this is an early build sent to key partners that has been leaked, why can’t said key partners put together some competent filming? The video is shaky as shit, and though the shots that are in focus look well formed, the rest could easily be the work of a video editing genius. What do you guys make of it? [Think Next via Softpedia; Thanks, Dode!]

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The idea behind this phone concept is that it brings ideas together from past and present with its wood styling and smartphone functionality. The designer says the wood and rock casing is supposed bring together nature and technology, but it just looks like a piece of 70s tech to me (see the bluetooth headset with analog knobs). [Yanko Design]

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