EA Replay for PSP

[xmu]

The Finnish gaming mag Pelaaja reports that a 14 game collection of old EA games is coming out for the PSP in the US this October. The list of games is as follows:

B.O.B
Budokan
Desert Strike
Jungle Strike
Haunting Starring Polterguy
Mutant League Football
Road Rash
Road Rash II
Road Rash III
Syndicate
Ultima VII: The Black Gate
Virtual Pinball
Wing Commander
Wing Commander: Secret Missions

Apparently you can play games in either 4:3 or widescreen, and some games will have WiFi multiplayer support. From that list Syndicate and Wing Commander sparked my interest immediately, the rest I'm not either that familiar or interested in.

Link to the original story (in Finnish): http://pelaajalehti.com/2006/08/15/wing-commander-ultima-ja-muut-klassikot-takaisin/

Atleast play.com lists it for an October release.

 

[Nappe1]

Interesting...
Road Rash I and Road Rash II are from EA Canada early days. Developped somewhere between The Stunts (while made by DSI, company got bought by EA soon after release of 4D Sports Boxing.) and The Need For Speed. I think they were converted to PSX after starting as Saturn games. (or were these as well part of those famous 3DO games that EA released? The Need For Speed had sort of evolutioned Road Rash 2 gfx engine, so that's why I got this idea...)

 

[xmu]

Damn, The Stunts would've been a great addition to the pack!

 

[StefanS]

I don't how well Syndicate and Ultima will translate to non-mouse control.

But I still have fond memories of playing Syndicate (one of my all-time favourites). Anyone else remember the last mission (platform Atlantica / Oceania ... ?) ? That was ultra-mayhem. I took quite a while that the key to victory was using the shield and kill the enemies with the their own bullets ricocheting off the shield.

Wing Commander should work perfectly though.

 

[poopypoo]

Interesting...
Road Rash I and Road Rash II are from EA Canada early days. Developped somewhere between The Stunts (while made by DSI, company got bought by EA soon after release of 4D Sports Boxing.) and The Need For Speed. I think they were converted to PSX after starting as Saturn games. (or were these as well part of those famous 3DO games that EA released? The Need For Speed had sort of evolutioned Road Rash 2 gfx engine, so that's why I got this idea...)

There was definitely a Road Rash for the 3DO. I'm not positive when it's been remade or ported (there were, of course, Road Rash titles for the Sega Genesis as well, but not 3D), but iirc it existed, and was by EA Canada.

This list is exciting. More and more reasons for me to get a PSP. Ultima VII!? Never thought I'd see that one again... How're fonts on the tiny PSP? I found those old "read'em up" RPGs to be a pain in the ass on the GB, for example. Though I suppose U7 was relatively graphical by that time, I still seem to recall huge swaths of text.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I took quite a while that the key to victory was using the shield and kill the enemies with the their own bullets ricocheting off the shield.

The secret was to position yourself such that one laser shot takes down a dozen baddies!

It was a manic game, with dodgy guys in trench coats managing to somehow hide 8 miniguns under them, and then possess 100 civvies and get all of the them to jump into a 4-seater.

I don't see it porting well for the reasons you've given, but I do think this encouraging. I hope they do well and promote some other old games to get remakes. It's happened with Worms 2D and Lemmings. There's a number of classics that'd be great to have updated.

I also wonder what Molyneux thinks about this? This Eurogamer report
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=66696
suggests to me a release of Syndicate was unknown to him.

 

[BrynS]

This is huge news for the Wing Commander community.

The release of Prophecy Advance in 2003, which was developed and published by third parties and now the release of PSP versions (published by EA) of what are believed to be ports of the SNES versions of Wing Commander and Wing Commander: The Secret Missions, as well as the upcoming release of Privateer on the GameTap service, are really positive signs for the series and the genre and suggest that EA is gravitating to a point where it feels that the market is ready for another Wing Commander PC game.

With a number of Wing Commander mods already completed and a bunch of other mods and projects in the works, things are really looking good!

Cheers,


BrynS

 

[cthellis42]

First Lemmings, now Syndicate... My nostalgia is really kicking me in the face these days.

Pretty soon someone will bring out a wi-fi Archon and my life force will be consumed!

 

[BrynS]

EA have today confirmed the Replay package. Due to launch November 7th, 2006 for a reasonable $19.99. :smile:

[...]
Under production at EA Canada, Replay will also include features not found in the original games. To better suit some of these titles to gaming on the go, EA is including the ability to save any of these games at any point. Three games, Budokan, Mutant League Football, and Road Rash II, will also feature local wireless head-to-head play, and players will be able to unlock and collect virtual trading cards featuring retro game art.
[...]