100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience is a 75 min. historical documentary about the evolution of Japanese arcades and the culture surrounding it. Find out more at www.100yenfilm.com or on www.facebook.com/100yenfilm Support the film at www.indieGoGo.com/100-Yen-The-Final-Coin

<p>100 Yen: The Teaser Trailer from Strata Studios on Vimeo.</p>

 

Cool animation via Silly Ginger.

For those not familar with this long-running anime and manga franchise, this turn-based strategy game is based around giant robots with guns. You'd never know that from the box art. I spent many an hour playing this game back in the day. It has some really cool 16-bit cut-scenes that are cleverly designed for the system it's running on. This was a mint copy as it's not particularly hard to find. A great little game and an essential for every anime fan.

This was one of the very first games I first bought for my console back in '92 and it's great to have it back again. Delphine Software's Prince of Persia: A title that has since spawned thousands of games in a similar style and level design. You even can feel elements of PoP in current gen games such as Mirror's Edge. This has to be one of the coolest box art designs on the Super Famicom and it's a timeless classic. There's something about the early Delphine Software games that just ooze style and originality. The box has some tiny wear at the corners but the instructions, inlay cards and cartridge are mint. These photos really don't do it justice (last time I use my naff iphone for pics!).

And for all you Prince of Persia fans, check out this fantastic book, recollecting the making of the original game - put together by the creator of the game, Jordan Mechner.

Out of all the Star Wars video game tie-ins, the 'Super' series for the SNES is still one of my fave incarnations of the original three movies. Great music, fantastic sprite design and it somehow manages to retain that old school Star Wars vibe. The 'Super' series is very easy to pick up for Western consoles but the Japanese Super Famicom versions are a little more expensive, with each sequel being more collectible. The artwork for each box is stunning. I finally decided to try and track down these games and find copies in as good condition as possible. Empire Strikes Back should arrive next week but I'm still on the look out for an elusive SFC copy of Return of the Jedi. This came in fantastic condition, complete with inlay cards and instructions. It cost me less than £15 and I'm happy with that, for a complete, near mint copy.

Ty Lettau's pixel art is just stunning and I love his 8 bit model kits of Nintendo characters. I hope he does more of this series.

The smallest hardcore retro gamer I have ever seen:

"4am? Dude, I'm just getting started... Plug that cartridge in!"

A topic that's unrealted to the SFC but I thought I'd share it with my fellow gamers anyway :)

After my mate @Crofmmv customised his own Xbox 360 fightstick and seeing some great custom designs by others on the web, I decided to do build my own fightsick. I started off with buying a new MadCatz WWE Brawlstick, which has cloned internals that are based on Sanwa (Sanwa parts can be found in the more expensive Street Fighter Tournament Edition fightstick and are popular with Street Fighter stick users). The great thing about the MadCatz fightsticks is that you can completely customise the interior and exterior and for such a low price, the WWE Brawlstick is a great base unit to start from.

Rather than use Sanwa parts, I decided to go with the other high-end manufacturer that's very popular - Seimitsu. I replaced the joystick with a Seimitsu LS-32-01 and popped the restrictor (directions the joystick can move in) to 4-way, rather than 8, a popular choice with Japanese Street Fighter fans. I personally find it makes your moves faster and easier to pull off. Next, I replaced the cheap buttons with Seimitsu PS-14-K1 buttons. 6 purple and 2 pink (with transparent tops). The great thing about these buttons is that you can slide the artwork that's cut out back into the top of the buttons, making your artwork flow completely across the fightstick, something I've seen a lot of others do. The artwork is courtesy of Boss Logic's awesome Street Fighter and Marvel Vs Capcom art, I merely photoshopped some of his illustrations into one design, laminated the artwork and placed it on top (after spending half an hour painfully scraping off the crap WWE cover!).

It was great fun to work on and I'm looking forward to taking it along to some Street Fighter tournaments. Big thanks to Crofmmv for his advice on parts and of course, to Boss Logic for the stunning visuals. I'll be at the HypeSpotting event in March playing with this little beast.