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Frank Cifaldi (GDC).nes
@frankcifaldi
Founder, co-director and noisemaker
@GameHistoryOrg
and co-host of
@GameHistoryHour
. Former ink-stained wretch. He/him.
Oakland, CAGameHistory.orgJoined March 2009
956 Following
35.4K Followers

Frank Cifaldi (GDC).nes’s Tweets

Frank Cifaldi (GDC).nes
@frankcifaldi
I don't think this is like, charity for history nerds, I think it's incredibly inexpensive and effective marketing. If your archive is large enough you can just pump these out on the reg and have a constant drip-feed of brand recognition. Disney could do this with one FT employee
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Frank Cifaldi (GDC).nes
@frankcifaldi
I think we should all take a moment to appreciate and give props to Sega for being the only old game company of note that literally pays people to not only archive its historical material but SHARE it, pretty much daily? They're ahead of the curve, others will follow suit someday
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SEGA Forever
@SEGAForever
From the archives: Early artwork for X-Perts on the SEGA Genesis, used at the CES show. While similar to the final art, this features more characters, with different designs. #SEGAForever
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Frank Cifaldi (GDC).nes Retweeted
kelsey lewin
@kelslewin
We all know that the eShop shutting down sucks. But it sucks for way more reasons than you might realize. There is no reasonable path to legally accessing enormous swaths of video game history, *even within libraries and archives*, and it’s because the ESA wants it that way.
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Ars Technica
@arstechnica
Why game archivists are dreading this month’s 3DS/Wii U eShop shutdown arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/03 by @KyleOrl / @KyleOrl@mastodon.social
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Frank Cifaldi (GDC).nes
@frankcifaldi
Hey! Did you know we have a Patreon? Every dollar helps preserve video game history. If you sign up before 5pm Pacific today we'll mail you some stickers! I recommend the $10 Discord tier if you can afford it, we have a nice tight-knit community of very engaged historians/nerds
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Video Game History Foundation
@GameHistoryOrg
There’s still time to celebrate our birthday! So far only 77 patrons provided their address, so if you support us on Patreon now, you’ll not only get stickers — you’ve got a good shot at winning a deaccessioned copy of Nintendo Power #1 from our archive! Patreon.com/gamehistoryorg
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Frank Cifaldi (GDC).nes
@frankcifaldi
This is horrifying. My experience for this entire game is bumbling around until the game tells me what to do next. Maybe if the map had icons for "come back later" doors it wouldn't be necessary...
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birdie bro
@sammy_crow
Replying to @frankcifaldi
I saw someone tell a first time player looking for tips to "turn off the hint system", which is just crazy to me! I dearly love Prime but sometimes the path forward is absolutely not clear at all.
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Frank Cifaldi (GDC).nes
@frankcifaldi
Ok here's another unreleased NES game fun fact: the first trading card featuring John Madden, canonically his "rookie card," was a promotional card from Nintendo Power magazine for an NES and Game Boy version of the game by Ubisoft that never made it out
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Frank Cifaldi (GDC).nes
@frankcifaldi
This is one of my favorite bits of trivia about unreleased NES games. A Taito game that was cancelled in the U.S. and Japan just kinda showed up in Taiwan, and it's a virtual certainty that the files were provided by Taito (or at least someone working there?).
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BootlegGames Wiki
@BootlegGames
Nitra Semiconductors (九統半導體股份有限公司) is a definite curiosity in the Famicom lifetime. This Taiwanese company was active only 6 months (!) and released two Taito titles around 1994: - Queen Bee V (Insector X hack) - Time Diver Avenger (Time Diver Eon Man)
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Nitra Semiconductor logo.
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Frank Cifaldi (GDC).nes
@frankcifaldi
Something people don't generally know about that I absolutely adore is that the Oliver Twins keep finding Dizzy games for the NES that were made back in the day and putting them on cart. We're at FOUR now (and counting??). I got them all as they came out because it's so weird.
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Frank Cifaldi (GDC).nes
@frankcifaldi
Sadly a game I'll likely never get to play in English is the somehow-even-weirder original computer version of what became Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom
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weirdo
@vg_history
salad no kuni no tomato-hime, screenshot, sharp x1 (1984) mobygames.com/game/sharp-x1/
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Frank Cifaldi (GDC).nes
@frankcifaldi
Sure but like it or not video game collecting is ground zero for video game preservation, that initial documentation of what exists is the building blocks of historical research
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Avery Beckett
@nintendonovelty
Replying to @nintendonovelty and @frankcifaldi
As someone who has been studying game history, I would also say that focusing on a specific region makes it feel a lot more manageable. And that goes for collecting as well. Also, game preservation =\= game collecting much of the time, which I’m sure you’re well aware of.
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Frank Cifaldi (GDC).nes
@frankcifaldi
I'm kind of fascinated by video game collecting, because from a mostly outsider perspective what I tend to see is a rush to define a "canon" list so people can get the full set like they're baseball cards. It's kinda rare to see collectors exploring weirdness.
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Frank Cifaldi (GDC).nes
@frankcifaldi
I think the reason these aren't cared about is because of how difficult they are to find. The print runs were tiny, and it's rare to find packaging for any game still intact in Brazil. I think if these were reliably on ebay we'd see people buying these as variants for their sets.
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