News

Josh and I have recently completed updating the CoN's fanart gallery, this time adding twenty new images total, with some from every game covered. We'd like to thank Narratorway, Kame, Rujuken, Figaro, Bluemonika, Gabe, Blackfauve, SilverMaduin, and Sethron, the artists of these awesome images. Please take the time to view the new fanart and also vote on them.

Have a great time viewing and voting!

In an apparent effort to get gamers to play in the great outdoors, Konami has released it's latest GBA title: "Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand."
The Action/RPG title, designed by the creator of the Metal Gear series, requires players to expose their GBA unit to direct sunlight through a small solar sensor contained within the game cartridge. Sunlight both affects key events in the game and provides energy to the game's weapon, a pistol named the "Del Sol."

Boktai sells for about $35 USD, and is available for purchase.
Further information about the title can be found at Konami's Website.

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Go! Outside! Expose your pale skin to the glory of the sun... and... continue your gaming out there!
Or you can sit next to a window as you play.
At least it's been programmed to only "accept" real sunlight: Desklamps, flashlights, and such don't affect the sensor.

Anyway, I'm surprised the technology for the sensor is so compact and cheap enough to warrant mass production on a video game cartridge. And furthermore, the gimmick behind the game is unique. While the game can be played in the absence of sunlight, Konami notes that it becomes significantly harder since players must be conservative in use of their gun's stored energy.

Another great short fic by SpacemanSpiff is now available for your reading pleasure in the FF4 section. Feel free to comment in this thread, or in the appropriate Site Submissions thread.

Please visit our FF4 fanfiction section to read "A Call to Darkness".

The past few months, Nintendo representatives have building up excitement about a radically new and innovative console that is neither the successor to the GameCube nor the Game Boy Advance. Originally Nintendo planned to keep the console a secret until the E3 Expo. It appears that the company has change its mind as it has revealed the console, tentatively named the Nintendo DS, in a recent press release.

This console truly is going to be different than any other previous console. It will feature not one, but two back-lit 3-inch TFT LCD screens and two separate 32-bit ARM microprocessors. It is thought the two screens will be used to give the gamer both an overview and a zoom-able close-up view.

As stated earlier, it is not the successor to the GCN or GBA and will not be marketed as such. Little is known about the software at the current time. It will not be backwards compatible with any previous Nintendo system though.

Source: Gamespot

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First off, let me say that I'm willing to give anything a chance. However, this whole console seems like a massive gimmick to me. I can't see my puny American mental capacities allowing me to focus on two screenes at the same time. I would imagine it is going to be difficult to even develop games for the machine.

It's good that Nintendo is trying to be innovative. Console gaming almost died in the early 80s (I'm looking at you Atari in particular [note my time period might be off]) because of lack of innovation. I just wish the innovation seemed like less of a gimmick. Hopefully it will do better than Virtual Boy, the other Nintendo console which was seen as nothing more than a gimmick by many.

We've upgraded some more parts of the page so you guys can have better data and more access to it. Here's a brief list.

• Added a link to i90's expert version of FF6. CoN created a small-download patch.
• There's a new CoN poll on the main site, too. It's not terribly exciting, but knowing what screen resolution you use is helpful to me in designing new features.
• We modified the maps sections. You now have a bigger map to use, and the locations with no shops are greyed out so you don't bother clicking them. You also get a pretty map that matches each site skin, and for FF4, the stores correctly display the difference between FF4PSX and FF2US stores. These changes apply to Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V, and Final Fantasy VI.
• There's a big one that we're proud of, too. For the Final Fantasy VI section, we've developed an extensive crossreferencing ability that not only will show you all the places you can find each weapon, armor, relic, etc. in the game, it also links you directly to the enemy or location from which you get it. It uses the CoN-exclusive "W technology" to put more information at your fingertips than any other FF site. We plan to slowly roll these features out to every game we cover. To see an example, take a visit to the Final Fantasy VI weapons page.

Hope you enjoy the new stuff.

Apex Digital and Infinium Labs, companies new to the gaming market, have each designed a console to compete with the industry giants: Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft.

Apex's machine, called the "ApeXtreme," will be released within the next four months and will carry a price tag just under $400.
Details about the ApeXtreme can be found at PCReview.co.uk.

Infinium has yet to give a specific date for release of the "Phantom;" however, the Phantom debuted at the Ultimate Gamers' Expo in Los Angeles last August. The console's expected price range is from $300 to $500.
Details about the Phantom are available at Infinium Labs.com.

Both the ApeXtreme and the Phantom use a modified version of the Windows XP OS and support broadband Internet connection.

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Neither of the machines sound like anything amazing to me; so far they have minimal publisher relationships. However, at least one of the two consoles will have some degree of support for running games designed for PC play, which is an interesting attempt at melding desktop to console gaming.

One other noteworthy piece is the price of each console--compared to the $99 Gamecube, it's hard to see how these virtually unknown companies can compete.