In order to commemorate the release of Gradius Rebirth on WiiWare on the 2nd of September of 2008, Konami has just released the original soundtrack. A little late to the party (the soundtrack was released on the 3rd of March 2009, months after the game’s release), the soundtrack is nevertheless bursting with tunes.

Tracks old and new along with remixes make up the 34 tracks in this soundtrack. Here’s the description of the soundtrack taken from Play-Asia’s product page:

Revived by Wii Ware, the shooting classic Gradius is once again available for gamers to enjoy. Following the release of the newest game in the series, Gradius Rebirth, is of course, the original soundtrack.

The tracks of the game summons the feelings of nostalgia, but at the same time, the new arrangements of well loved tracks are going to give you a brand new feel as well.

Background music throughout the series are incorporated into the disc with medleys as bonus tracks.

Be sure to check out the soundtrack. It is now on sale at USD 38.90. Click here for purchase information.

If you have not read the comic book and instead chose to watch Watchmen the movie instead, you really are on the losing end of the stick. Get a taste of the comic book with this free download of Watchmen #1. It’s a legal download of course, courtesy of DC Comics. Check it out here.

Onto free video game related stuff. Those guys that made that really interesting shmup, Big Bang Mini, for the Nintendo DS has just released the entire soundtrack….for free! Check out the Flash heavy website at www.bigbangmini.com for the download link.

Following Codemasters, it seems that it is EA’s turn to jump into making single syllable racing game titles. Here’s the formula to making EA’s latest Need For Speed game, Need For Speed: Shift.

Take one part GTR 2 + five parts EA livery + 10 parts EA marketing and promotions. Mix ‘em all up and serve to a variety of consoles and of course the PC. Add in a smidgen of support and patches, post serving.

EA’s has plenty to lose should this suck. It’s quite evident to see the company grasping at straws, choosing the path of realism, as one of THREE approaches to resuscitate a franchise that was thought to be dead and buried after the piece of crap known as Need For Speed Undercover.

Well, best of luck to EA and that developers (Slightly Mad Studios) they hired to get work done on this title. After all, Shift is just one letter away from SHIT.

Popular Bookstore is starting to be my happy hunting ground for all things unexpected. How much do you expect to pay for a book that lists out 500 Manga Heroes & Villains? RM80? RM 70? Try RM 29.90. Quite a bargain.

I took the girlfriend to see the fireflies at Kuala Selangor last night. I’m not too crazy about riding sampans on a river that reputedly has crocodiles (I prefer riding a dhow across a river filled with jellyfish like in Dubai) but the fireflies themselves made the trip really worthwhile. They were beautiful!

We share a sampan with two British old-timers. It’s embarrassing to hear that one of them had been to Kuala Selangor several times to see the fireflies, but hey, it’s never too late. The boatman went out of his way to bring his boat up close and personal to one of the larger mangrove trees and caught one of ‘em light bugs.

I can feel a little warmth from the underbelly of the little fella. Slow lighters are female while those fast blinkers are male bugs. Just make sure it’s “catch and release”, and not “catch and bring home” as you’ll be fined a wallet burning RM 1,000 if you are caught. The little fella flew off after a short ride on the boat with us.

The Best Days To Visit

And I got some tips on what are the best times to see these wonders of nature. The best days are from the 1st to 6th and 18th to 26th of every month on the Chinese Lunar Calendar.

This is when the Sungai Selangor (Selangor River) is at its deepest (15 metres) and the fireflies are grouped together (due to the trees being submerged). Also, don’t let a little drizzle deter you as it’s more important to have no wind blowing (the fireflies don’t like windy conditions).

How to Get There?

It’s pretty easy if you are heading from Klang, as you just need to make your way to Kuala Selangor. There’s a junction before the Kuala Selangor down, turn right and head towards Kampung Kuantan. The firefly tourist complex is pretty hard to miss, it’s on the left hand side 6 kilometers from the junction.

If you have heard rumours that these little fellas have gone extinct, don’t listen to them! Head on down to Kuala Selangor to see for yourself. The fireflies start their show at around 7.45 in the evening so be there early, especially during peak season.

Each sampan can seat four people and it costs RM 40 a boat. 4 bottles of water are provided so you do not need to bring your own. Umbrellas are provided as well in an event of a light drizzle. Each ride takes about 20-30 minutes, and yeah, there was a croc floating around against the current when I was there. Heh.

What I Had for Dinner

No trip to Kuala Selangor (especially at night) will be complete without a mention about the food. Kuala Selangor is an excellent place for seafood and these seafood restaurants are concentrated in the Pasir Penambang area. What you’ll need to do is drive through Kuala Selangor town, cross the bridge (you should be able to see the restaurants lining the river bank from the bridge, just look left if you are heading from Klang), and stick left down a narrow road right after the bridge.

Drive through the narrow road and soon you’ll find yourself in a fishing village. There are signs put up by restaurant propertiers so just follow ‘em. We had dinner at Restoran Kuala Selangor, with a meal capable of feeding 3-4 people. Razor clams, mantis prawns, oyster omelette and asparagus made up the order and the bill was just RM 57!

I never had the opportunity to play on a Neo Geo arcade machine, but a couple of years back, I had the opportunity to watch a former colleague blaze through King of Fighters on one, in a single sitting, in an arcade right in the heart of Bangkok.

That to me was pretty cool. And the fact that there is a way to run Neo Geo arcade games on the Nintendo DS, its all the more exciting. All you need are some prerequisites. First up, you’ll obviously need a Nintendo DS and also  a flashkart capable of running homebrew software on the Nintendo DS.

You’ll need also to download the latest copy of NeoDS, a Neo Geo MVS/AES emulator for the Nintendo DS (get it here), several MAME ROMS and of course, a NeoGeo BIOS ROM.

Okie-dokie. Let’s get started.

Step 1: Uncompress the NeoDS folder that you downloaded and place the uncompressed folder somewhere convenient. For me, it’s my PC’s desktop. The file structure of the folder should be something like this:

Step 2: The thing about NeoDS is that any MAME ROMs that you wish to run with the emulator needs to be converted first. For this to happen, you’ll need the ROM (MAME naming conventions apply) and the BIOS ROM as well. Copy these two files into the NeoDSConvert folder.

Step 3: Once you have the ROM files within the NeoDSConvert folder, run NeoDSConvert.exe. Depending on the number of ROMS you dumped into the NeoDSConvert, you’ll see the same number of files with the .neo file extension created.

Step 4: Just one more step to go. Copy the .neo files and the NeoDS.nds (refer to screenshot 1) to your flashkart’s memory. Turn on your Nintendo DS and run NeoDS.nds. From here you can select which Neo Geo ROM to run. Enjoy!

Here’s a couple of really short videos from the start of Jason Mraz’s concert at the Stadium Negara, Kuala Lumpur on the 4th of March. Heh. Don’t mind the lousy quality. Makes you wish that you were there, no?

I don’t know bout you, but I personally find the Nintendo DS Super Mario Bros Touch Pen &  Stand to be really cool, both in form and function (and not to mention price…but more on that later). Here you have a 10 centimeter pen, which is thick, so you can hold it properly and the holder is actually the pipe opening you find in the Super Mario Bros games!

It effectively double ups as a really cool desktop ornament when you are not using it and best of all, it’s going for cheap. Available in three colours, Red, Yellow and Blue, these official Nintendo accessories are going for just USD 2.99 each! Click on one of the aforementioned colours for purchase information.

That’s right. What do Arkanoid (the game) and Apple (the company that gave us the Mac personal computer and iPhones among other things), have in common?

First one to answer correctly gets a USD 5 Play-Asia voucher!

The amount of video game related materials that I purchased this week has surpassed even my previous record. But if you are thinking peripherals, you are wrong. Try literature instead. Yup, having decided that Arcade Mania wasn’t enough, I ordered Chris Kohler’s Power-Up from Kinokuniya on Monday evening, and it arrived on Wednesday morning. How’s that for fast?

I went to MPH earlier this evening having a gut feeling that I’ll get lucky. True enough, the only copies of  the two video game magazines I only buy, Retro Gamer (Load 60) and the March issue of EDGE were available. They were in pristine despite not being wrapped in plastic unlike those generic video game magazines. It’s funny how that works out since both magazines are more expensive that almost anything else on the same shelf.

Coming home, I found a Play-Asia parcel in my mailbox, with the Classic Game Room DVD inside. I ordered this on the 24th of February and chose the free shipping option. I guess that Pos Malaysia has gotten its Mojo back, my parcels are coming in right on time.

Why no new game purchases? Well, with prices going northwards (no thanks to a weak Ringgit, and a government being in denial: “What recession? We’re not in a recession”) my purchasing power has taken a dent (or two). With high exchange rates such as what we are facing right now, I find it prudent to cash out on my web earnings (which are in USD), rather than just spend ‘em all.

Besides, my brother has started buying games for the PS3, with his first title being the rock fest known as Guitar Hero: World Tour. Rock on. Psst the game is selling below RM 300 over at Play-Asia (click here for details).

Anyways, stay tuned for the upcoming The Rom Report feature. Nine Over Ten 9/10 will show you how to play Neo Geo games, on where else but your NINTENDO DS!