'Only for Nintendo, old sport!'

Gaming fans who also are fans of the "Great American Novel" should be happy to hear that some enterprising--and talented--individual has created a NES-esque game based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

An example of the developer's enterprising nature: Not only did he or she create an 8-bit retelling of the aforementioned novel, but he/she also created a prototype cart, an instruction manual and a magazine ad (below) for the unreleased (not really) title.



Although the game--which, despite appearances, wasn't actually developed to NES specifications--is a bit easy and also on the short side, with just four levels, it's well worth experiencing--even if you're not a fan of the source material. (Play it here.)

The 'Mother' of all novel translations

Reason #2,516 to be jealous of the Japanese: In 1994, not only did they gain access to Shigesato Itoi's Mother 2 (aka EarthBound), but they gained access to Kumi Saori's novel adaptation of the Super Famicom/SNES title, too.

Thanks to Lindsay Nelson, we may soon be able to scratch that reason off the list. Why? Well, the Wisconsin-born blogger has decided to spend this Golden Week translating (into English) Saori's 492-page paperback.

Although Nelson won't be posting the full translation on her blog--due to a pesky little thing we call "copyright law"--she will be posting "excerpts from the book that are really worth taking a look at."

Anyway, all of this is a rather long-winded way of letting you know that I heartily recommend checking out Nelson's blog if you have any interest in the Mother series whatsoever.