$17,500 NES Game Sells on Ebay

This is a story of a true fanboy; someone willing to pay $17,500 for an NES game with under 7 minutes of playtime on it. Why would anybody buy such a game you ask? Well, your answer: The Internet.

A man by the name of JJ Hendricks had purchased this game for an insane amount off of Ebay-A "cheap" $17,500. He bought the game as a collectors item, it is a special gold colored cartridge used in a contest run by Nintendo. The contest involved players getting the highest score in several Nintendo games (Super Mario Bros., Tetris, &Ridge Racer) within a time limit of 6 minutes 21 seconds.

Only 26 of these cartridges were made (according to Wikipedia), so they are the "Holy Grail" of games, as Hendricks says. This was actually a good deal, the game was originally list for $25,000.

Weekly Time Waster: Hedgehog Launch

This week's time waster is a bit on the strange side. In Hedgehog Launch 2 your goal is to launch a hedgehog (yes, a hedgehog) to the moon. You work for the "country" of Minovia Cay. You must launch your hedgehog through a hole through the center of the Earth to Nebraska, and then to the Moon.

The game itself is simple to learn, and pretty easy to master. You hold down the mouse and pull back to launch your hedgehog and use the arrow keys to steer him with a jetpack. You can also hit platforms to gain money and speed, there are also coins that give you money. At the end of the level you can buy upgrades and clothes for your hedgehog.

The Story mode of the game is fairly short, but the Free Play mode adds a lot of fun. You just try and get as high as you can. This game will suck up hours of productive workdays. You can play Hedgehog Launch 2 at Armor Games.

Tetris Turns 25 Today

Tetris was the game that every child in the 90's played on the archaic Game Boys, with polyphonic music, squinting at the unlit screen.  The music still rings in my head.  Time to take a look at the history of Tetris, courtesy of one of my favorite web-shows, Play Value.

Weekly Time Waster: Spewer

Spewer is a game about, well, puking. Wait, don't stop reading just yet. It's not the gross cousin-at-Thanksgiving-ate-too-much-turkey barf so much as cartoonified, "cute" barf. You use this projectile to solve the various and puzzling levels throughout the game.

A warning though, this game is hard. If you give up easily on games when the going gets tough you will not be fond of Spewer. It is near impossible to get through some levels on one try (unless you use the nonexistent walkthrough). Luckily, you have many lives though.

The gameplay, surprisingly, is remarkably simple. Within the first 2 levels you will be spewin' like a pro. The addition of a level creator makes the game hard to stop playing. Spewer also has the addition of Newground's new Wide Layout. You can "dim the lights: (like on Hulu) and maximize the game to fill the page, and there's also Achievements (like on Xbox 360). You can start upchucking on Newgrounds.com.

Weekly Time Waster: Wizard Defense

Wizard Defense is free online game by the BigPark (recently acquired by Microsoft). Wizard Defense is a tower defense game with a magical twist. It has solid design and the graphics are top notch. It has blistering fast load times, no lag, and has a learning curve of about a minute. When you first start the game you can choose to sign in to an account to play (to save scores and such and such) or you can just get right to the fun part. Once you first start playing (and choose your character) you can choose to take a short tutorial. The tutorial is incredibly simple and will have you playing in about a minute. Once you finish the tutorial you will be plunged right into the magical, and incredibly addicting, world of Wizard Defense. You can play this game, and see your productivity drop by about 75%, at wizarddefense.com.

Game Consoles Get X Rayed (NOTE:most likely not a word)

You probably have opened (or broken) game consoles to see there guts before (I haven't , well, on purpose anyway). Technabob has an interesting post that shows game consoles in a way you've never seen them before. You can see the splendor here.

Happy B-Day Game Boy!

20 years ago today the first Game Boy was released in Japan. Now it's been giving kids an excuse to tune out their parents for 2 decades! Kotaku has a great post paying homage to this portable gaming veteran.

The Munchables Trailer: Pac Man Meets Katamari

The new trailer for the Wii game The Munchables it out. Basically, you go around and eat stuff, like Pacman, in 3d. The character grows bigger as you eat, though, like Katamari. Also, you need to be a certain size to go into certain places. Also, it has some of Katamari's "flair" (or insanity).

Weekly Time Waster: RetroShoot

If you've ever spent weekends playing Space Invaders all day you'll get a kick out of this game. RetroShoot is space shooter that has graphics similar to Geometry Wars, but a little more "neon-er". The controls are simple, mouse to move your ship around, you shoot automatically. When you hit an enemy they explode with a satisfying fireworks display. There are many, many levels to keep you occupied and an achievement system to boot. The powerups always seem to appear just at the right time, too. But, this is not a shooter for people who need to hit ever single enemy on screen, for you will probably want to set you computer on fire. The enemies seem to fly past the screen faster then Apple nerds at an Apple Store the day a new iPhone comes out (no offense guys). You can play it on Newgrounds.

Weekly Time Waster: Music Catch 2

The first Music Catch was fun, but the sequel brings it to a whole new level. The object of Music Catch is to "catch" music notes with you mouse. You have to avoid red notes, they take away your score multiplier. Yellow notes give you a score multiplier and purple notes make your mouse a note "magnet". Well have fun playing Music Catch 2.

DSi UPDATE: Preorder it now

As a little update to the DSi article yesterday you can now preorder the new DS at these sites.
Amazon: Go here.(Black and Blue colors)
GameStop(Black): Go here.
GameStop(Blue): Go here.