Ring Flyer
Songbird Productions recently opened up preorders Ring Flyer, the first new game release for the NUON in more than 20 years. Ring Flyer is a third person, 3D action game set in space where you pilot your ship through (as the title implies) an obstacle course of rings that increases in difficulty as you progress.
According to Songbird, Ring Flyer includes a full-color factory-pressed disc, instruction sheet and shrink-wrapped Amaray DVD case. It has been tested on the SD2300, N501 and N2000 for maximum compatibility. All pre-orders get $10 off until the release date Nov. 22. Learn more and order yours on the Songbird productions site.
Replacement Discs
Songbird also is offering free replacement discs for its release of IS3 and FreeFall 3050 A.D., which improve the compatibility of the games across more NUON players. The updated games now note on the disc art which DVD players the games are compatible with. For FreeFall, the discs show the game is compatible with the Samsung DVD-N501 and DVD-N2000, and the Toshiba SD2300. For IS3, it’s compatible with the N501 and SD2300.
Customers just need to supply their Songbird order number(s) in the “Order Notes” section when checking out to receive the discs. Kudos to Songbird for making these available!
Insta Death
As if all that wasn’t enough, a new homebrew NUON game is now available for download as well! Insta Death, originally created by Noel Rojas Oliveras for PS1 (via Net Yaroze) and PC, is the first NUON homebrew release in 10 years. The NUON port is by homebrew developer gwald who used DragonShadow’s Yaroze Wrapper tool to bring the game to life.
You can download the game from itch.io here, or see video of the game in action below:
Songbird Productions has partnered with Atari to present a licensed reprinting of Tempest 3000 for NUON. The release will feature a glass-mastered DVD with full-color offset printing, a 16-page full-color manual, full-color outer wrap and a black Amaray DVD case. The game is also shrink-wrapped.
The game itself is 100% identical to the original NUON release, but the artwork has been slightly modified from the original run, featuring “Aries 2000” in place of the NUON logo, an updated Atari logo, the Songbird logo in place of the Hasbro Interactive logo and added text reading “LIMITED EDITION” and “FOR THE NUON”
Also, through April 18, Songbird is offering discounts on its reprints of Iron Soldier 3 and Freefall 3050 AD for NUON if you order along with your copy of T3K.
- Preorders are open now, with a planned release date of May 7, 2024. You can read more about this release and place your order today over at the Songbird Productions website.
Also! If you missed it, I recently joined Bob from Retro RGB and Robert Dale Smith, creator of the NUON USB Controller Adapter, for a stream where Bob played through a large portion of the NUON library. You can see the stream archive on YouTube below:
NUON enthusiast V-SNES is back with his latest deep-dive into NUON history, this time focused on Troma Entertainment’s short-lived relationship with VM Labs and NUON. Troma is best known for such films as The Toxic Avenger, The Class of Nuke ‘Em High, Mother’s Day and Tromeo and Juliet, and had planned to use NUON technology to add special features to their Toxic Avenger movies and cartoons.
Want to learn more? Read the full story, “Untold NUON Tales: Welcome to Tromaville,” then jump into the NUON-Dome Forums or NUON-Dome discord to discuss!
After a long, hard search, NUON enthusiast emceebois tracked down a complete-in-box Samsung DVD-N591 — the NUON DVD player released in Korea. With the unit came a copy of Crayon Shin-Chan 3, one of the most elusive games in the NUON library, which he graciously dumped and uploaded to archive.org.
But, since the game is region-locked to only work on the N591, most NUON fans wouldn’t be able to actually play the game on their machines. Enter EdgeConnector, who was able to crack the NUON authentication keys in May 2022. Using the tools he developed, he was able to re-sign the ISO so it would work on non-Korean NUON DVD players as well.
Download links:
- Re-signed Crayon Shin-Chan 3 ISO by EdgeConnector (for Non-Korean NUON DVD players)
- Original Crayon Shin-Chan 3 ISO by emceebois (for Korean DVD-N591 only)
Unboxing video of emceebois’ DVD-N591 with Crayon Shin Chan 3:
Here’s a brand new, complete playthrough of the game that I recorded:
Retro and classic gaming news site Time Extension has put the spotlight on NUON via a new article titled “Nuon, The DVD Player That Tried To Be A Games Console.”
In it, author Ashley Day covers the history of the platform, gives a brief overview of each game in the NUON’s small library, offers advice on purchasing a NUON DVD player, games and accessories in 2023, and dives into whether it’s a platform worth investing in.
The story also features two interviews: one with yours truly as the resident NUON enthusiast and one with Bill Rehbock, who was vice president of third party development in VM Labs. For longtime fans of the platform, this will likely be the most interesting part of the piece, and Rehbock reveals some interesting behind-the-scenes information regarding the Korea-exclusive Crayon Shin Chan game and some of the many unreleased games that never saw the light of day.
I highly recommend giving this one a read, as you’re bound to learn something new. Check it out!
