Recently, the most SCROLL-ish article I've written yet didn't put in SCROLL was published today at 1UP: The Hysterical History of Portable Consoles (I do take full responsibility for the title), which is, as it says, a history of all the different attempts to shrink game systems into utlimately expensive portable units, and revists such "gems" as the Top Guy (which I had almost forgotten about!), the TurboExpress, the Nomad, and all the other failures in between. Not to mention the recent wave of retro handhelds like the SupaBoy, which I doubt are demonstrably better than the old '90s attempts, but they're all goofy regardless.
Musician Ken Matsuzaka -- who I know best from a series of piano covers -- updated his YouTube page with a new set of videos from a recent live performance. Together with a few friends, they put on a small concert of familiar Famicom chiptunes, except that it was all performed through an actual Famicom. Each member of "NES BAND" controlled a different sound channel with their own keyboard, and pulled off some near-perfect recitations of the music and sound from games like Super Mario, Binary Land, and more. Most chiptune acts are just one guy or gal, so seeing a full band come together to produce the music is extra cool. The above video is a short medley that serves as a nice sampler, but do click through and check out the other ones, particularly the lengthy Dragon Quest III medley.
