Retro

Well, we didn't see this coming: according to Japanese website Kyoko Shimbun, so strong is Square Enix's faith in Nintendo that the upcoming Dragon Quest X is not just headed to Wii U and Wii, with some unspecified form of 3DS connectivity. It is also in development for the NES. Andriasang has two screenshots which show a battle party of four characters, with an onscreen prompt telling players to connect to the internet. Intriguing.

The Ambassador Programme, Nintendo's make-good plan for early adopters following the global 3DS price drop, isn't supposed to launch until tomorrow, but Destructoid reports that the ten free NES games on offer are available now. They're not on the eShop itself just yet, but eligible users should head to the Your Downloads section of the eShop's Settings screen where all ten games are waiting to be downloaded.

The Ambassador Programme - Nintendo's way of compensating early adopters for the 3DS price drop - begins on September 1. We're yet to receive a final list of the games on offer to European gamers, and have sought confirmation, but in the meantime Nintendo has announced the ten NES games that will be available to Japanese users: Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Jr, Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, The Legend Of Zelda, Wrecking Crew, Mario Open Golf, Mario & Yoshi, Metroid, and The Legend Of Zelda II.

Toshihiro Nagoshi, producer of the PlayStation exclusive Yakuza series, has revealed to Eurogamer that Microsoft turned down the opportunity to have the first game in the series on Xbox. In fact, Sony originally did as well. "At the beginning of the project we spoke to all the platform holders including Sony and Microsoft," he told Eurogamer. "Every platform holder was negative about this prospect, but we kept on pushing because we believed in the potential, and as we kept going the one platform holder that showed interest and saw the prospects of this title was Sony. That's how we started working with them, and that's probably not going to change." Sega announced in June that it had shipped five million copies of games in the series since the first Yakuza was released for PS2 in 2005.

A friendly reminder to 3DS owners interested in the 20 free games included in the Ambassador programme, Nintendo's compensation to early adopters for the global price drop: you need to connect your 3DS to the eShop before 11.59pm CET tonight - 10.59pm UK time - to be eligible. There are ten NES games on offer, though the only ones confirmed so far are Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Jr, Balloon Fight, Ice Climber and The Legend Of Zelda. We know seven of the ten GBA games: Yoshi's Island, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare, Mario Vs Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros 3 and Kirby & The Amazing Mirror.

The Halo developer has now been in business for 20 years, and has marked the occasion with the release of an hour-long documentary, O Brave New World. It charts the company's rise from relative obscurity to the Xbox's most prized asset, and also counts as a farewell of sorts to the Halo series as it moves onto its first project for new parent Activision. That project is codenamed Tiger, with co-founder Jason Jones saying: "One reason that Tiger is so intriguing to so many people is that it's reaching players in a way that we haven't before."

When it announced last week that early 3DS adopters will be compensated for the handheld's impending price drop with a selection of free classic games, Nintendo only named five of the Game Boy Advance games on offer. That number has now risen to seven after Nintendo confirmed that Kirby & The Amazing Mirror, and Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3, will also be available for free to 3DS owners who connect to the eShop before August 12.

In an interview with US magazine Nintendo Power, picked up by fansite Zelda Informer, Nintendo's Eiji Aonuma said: "One of the big things that made [Ocarina Of Time 3D] possible was that there was an outpour of emotions from people who said they would like to see this game done. I think certainly if there was a similar output of emotion and clamour from fans for a remake of Majora's Mask, it wouldn't be an utter impossibility."

Kidscreen reports that Atari has filed a federal lawsuit against US distributor Tommo, claiming copyright and trademark infringements and unfair competition. The suit alleges that Tommo is manufacturing and distributing a counterfeit version of the Flashback 2 console, a plug-and-play version of the Atari 2600. Atari is seeking $30 million in damages.

Commodore USA has resurrected its 30 year old Commodore 64 as a high-end PC - the C64x. The system looks just like the original, but houses 2GB of DDR3 RAM and 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Atom D525 processor. The company intends to begin shipping the system between May and June this year. Better still, it includes an emulator to run original 8-bit games. Commodore is also planning to restore the Amiga name to its former glory, with three versions (the 1000, 2000 and 3000) currently in development.

Sega confirms that it has shipped more than five million copies of the series since the first Yakuza made its debut for PlayStation 2 in 2005. Shipments of Yakuza Of The End, the zombie spinoff that was finally released in Japan two weeks ago after Sega chose to delay its March release following the March earthquake and tsunami, have already passed 400,000 units.

According to one Spanish online retailer, Capcom is to mark the tenth anniversary of the Hideki Kamiya series' debut with the PlayStation 3 release of a remastered collection of the first three games in the series this November. Capcom declined to comment.

Hideo Kojima reveals his disdain for the NES port of his 1987 MSX original: "I had absolutely no participation in the development of the NES version. The NES version was a pitiful title developed cheaply and simply by a small team in Tokyo... Even though it was an abomination, it was during the bubble economy and it sold millions overseas. That title has only soiled my reputation."

N64, NES, SNES, Game Gear, Game Boy, Mega Drive and Atari 2600 emulators taken down without warning as Google continues clampdown on unlicensed software.