Paul Brownlee

Mega Man’s Game Boy releases coming to 3DS VC

After releasing all of the NES titles to the eShop — and after a lot of groveling from Dr. Wily — Capcom has decided to release the rest of the Mega Man’s Game Boy titles (II-V) to the 3DS Virtual Console in North America and Europe. We don’t have any release dates yet, but we do know that Mega Man Xtreme 1 and 2 from the Game Boy Color are also coming too!

GIFs are courtesy of Netyhobby!

BUY Mega Man games and more, upcoming games

Shin Megami Tensei IV is out today, and in case you hadn’t heard, it’s a pretty tough game. We’ve compiled a list of tips for everyone that plans on picking the game up.

Read Shin Megami Tensei IV Tips For The Aspiring Samurai on Siliconera!

New StreetPass games and hats are here!

Europe and Japan have had them a while, but those of us with North American 3DSes can now grab the new StreetPass games starting tonight! Just update your 3DS with the newly released firmware, open and update Mii Plaza, and then you’re good to go.

There are four games you can buy for $4.99 each (or buy them bundled for $14.99, or wait to spend your free eShop credit if you plan on taking advantage of the Shin Megami Tensei IV promotion): Mii Force, Flower Town, Warrior’s Way, and Monster Manor. You’ll be able to unlock new hats and outfits as you play them, like this Tom Nook cap that @johntv posted.

You should also get a new StreetPass puzzle!

BUY Animal Crossing: New Leaf, AC:NL guide, upcoming games

DuckTales Remastered has a release date. Capcom have announced that the game will be released in August for PC, PS3 and Wii U, with an Xbox 360 release to follow in September.

Read DuckTales Remastered Out In August, For Xbox 360 In September on Siliconera!

Get a $30 credit for buying Fire Emblem and SMT IV

If you caught Atlus’s Shin Megami Tensei IV unboxing — yes, publishers are posting unboxing videos of their own games now — you heard the company stress that you should register the Club Nintendo code included with each copy. Now we know why!

The full details aren’t out for this deal, but it looks like you will be able to score $30 worth of eShop credit if you register both Fire Emblem: Awakening and Shin Megami Tensei IV (this photo doesn’t specify that you need to buy both, but that’s what makes the most sense) with North America’s Club Nintendo. Presumably this works with both digital and physical copies, considering the shots of the retail boxes. Also, I’m guessing you’ll be eligible even if you previously registered a copy of Awakening.

The deal already makes sense because RPG fans will probably end up owning both of these anyway if they have a 3DS. And it helps to ease the pain of SMT IV costing $50 for its box set. Annnddd there’s that whole Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem project for Wii U thing — that probably helped prod Nintendo into this unconventional promotion. 

BUY Fire Emblem: Awakening, Shin Megami Tensei IV, upcoming games 

Mega Man’s 25th anniversary continues with an Udon art book. They're going to be publishing MM25: Mega Man & Mega Man X Official Complete Works in North America this month.

Read Mega Man Gets A 430-Page Art Book As Part Of His 25th Anniversary on Siliconera!

Castle Shikigami 2 is a solid shooter, but it ended up with an incomprehensible translation with lines like "I like girls, but now, it's about justice" and "slaves for fashion dislike bulges."

Read Castle Shikigami 2 And It’s Hilarious Translation Lands On PSN Tomorrow on Siliconera!

My cousin Katherine Leipper is part of a crew that's building a 15-foot-tall head and brain with interactive light and flame effects that will be controlled by a participant's brain waves.

Yup. Weirdness runs in our family.

She and her co-makers will take it to Burning Man, but the bigger plan is to take it around to schools after the festival, "to get kids excited about science, technology and fabrication."

Katherine and her brain-building buddies have a crowdsourcing campaign under way. They're well on their way, but if you love 15-foot-tall brain-controlled brains like I love 15-foot-tall brain-controlled brains, and you think America's children need more 15-foot-tall brain-controlled brains in their classrooms because SCIENCE, you should kick in a little to ensure this weird dream comes true.

Katherine explains the wild idea to Boing Boing, below:

The Mens Amplio (Latin for "expanding the mind") will be an interactive model of a brain and head that stands 15 feet tall. Inside, LEDs will light up a branching structure representing a bundle of neurons that is made up of Endlighten rods, a special type of clear light-diffusing acrylic.

The sequence that the lights display will be determined by data from an EEG reader, attached to a participant's forehead. For example, calm, meditative readings may trigger ambient sequences, while active, attentive brainwaves will cause rapid pulses of light to shoot through it.

We're using a Raspberry Pi to run our software, which is primarily written in Python. To test our light sequences on-screen before the actual structure is complete, we're using Open Pixel Control, which has the advantage of handling both visualization of the model and actual LED updating through the same interface.

The outer surface of the brain itself is being constructed out of steel tubing, with the squiggly curves formed by a custom-built mandrel bender. Oh, and of course, there will also be fire. Flame effects additionally controlled by the Pi will be attached to the outside of the steel head structure. But you'll only see them go off if you can meditate!

After the Mens Amplio debuts on the Playa at Burning Man this year, the plan is to take it around to schools to demo it and get kids excited about science, technology and fabrication.

We have an Indiegogo campaign underway to help us fund the remainder of the costs associated with bringing it to schools.

More at the Indiegogo campaign site, where you can kick in some funding.

(All pix courtesy of Katherine Leipper)

I’m now nervous about the prospect of building my own PC if this is the slippery slope of enragement I get to look forward to.

I totally missed when Dj CUTMAN started This Week in Chiptune but I’m glad somebody linked me to it! For those of you who don’t know, Dj CUTMAN also makes his own tunes, but This Week in Chiptune is a great way to catch up with many of a week’s new chipmusic releases, I’ve been waiting for someone to do something like this after CDK’s Chipmusic Hour went off the air in 2011.

[Video Link]. The rap artist and actor formerly known as Mos Def agreed to participate in a video demonstrating and explaining the procedure of force-feeding as it is applied to Guantanamo detainees. The video for Human Rights organization Reprieve is directed by BAFTA award-winner Asif Kapadia, a British filmmaker of Indian descent.

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins this week, and over 100 hunger-strikers at Guantánamo Bay are continuing to hunger strike in protest of their indefinite detention without trial. More than 40 of them are now being force-fed. During the Muslim holy month, the US military will time their force-feeding in a manner that violates the religious practice of fasting during the day.

Yes, the rumours are true—Steins;Gate is coming to the West.

Read Steins;Gate Is Coming To The West on Siliconera!

Asiana Flight 214 from Seoul crashed while landing at San Francisco Airport today. Early reports suggest the plane was unstable as it touched down, which led to the tail of the plane breaking off. There are no official casualty reports yet, but passengers were seen walking off the plane, and unofficial communications at the airport say all of them are alive and accounted for. (Others are reporting two dead and perhaps a dozen injured.) Eyewitness report: "You heard a pop and you immediately saw a large, brief fireball that came out from underneath the aircraft," Anthony Castorani said on CNN. "At that moment, you could see that that aircraft was again starting to lift and it began to cartwheel. The wing broke off on the left hand side. You could see the tail immediately fly off of the aircraft. As the aircraft cartwheeled, it then landed down and the other wing had broken." The media has estimated about 290 people were on board the plane. The top of the cabin was aflame at one point, but it's not known yet whether that affected the passengers. "Federal sources told NBC News that there was no indication of terrorism." Some images from the news make it look like the plane may have tried to touch down too early, hitting the seawall just before the runway.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.