I was one of a handful of videogame journalists invited to a 2K Sports' Major League Baseball 2K8 conference call that ended a few minutes ago with producer Ben Brinkman and others. Despite some static (the person who didn't mute did eventually jump off the call, but then the static came back) and technical issues with the conference call (not on my end), I was able to record the full presentation on my Windows Mobile cell phone. UPDATE: Or at least I thought - the phone recorded the whole thing but only as silence, so that's not a good future option obviously. I'll have to use an alternative recording method in the future. I would have uploaded the entire conference call exclusively for the benefit of Armchair Arcade members if it had worked. Even if you're not a fan of baseball or videogame baseball, it would have still been interesting to hear some of the behind-the-scenes stuff (if the recording is made available to me, I'll upload it and make it available).

LAST UPDATE: 20pGaming.com has made the audio available, here: http://2opgaming.com/2008/02/22/mlb2k8-conference-call-full-audio/

As a long time videogame baseball fan, I'm on record in regards to modern interpretations as being a fan of Sony's "MLB The Show" series (PS2, PSP, PS3) since the demise of 3DO's "High Heat Baseball" series after the 2004 edition (my favorite being the Xbox version). I actually liked EA's first version of "MVP Baseball" (Xbox, PS2, etc.), but it never really evolved properly to my liking from there. 2K Sport's "Major League Baseball 2K" series has had some interesting elements, but they never quite came together in my opinion to form a cohesive and fun videogame baseball experience (and its audio-visual presentation was comparatively lacking). Based on the data already released and this conference call, it looks like 2K Sports' "Major League Baseball 2K8" is on a very, very promising track to being a top game, finally, if not THE top game. I should be receiving a review copy of the game very soon (Xbox 360 version was my first choice for the achievements, though it's available for several other platforms including Wii and PS3) and I'll see first hand how it ultimately plays, which is really 95% of what matters.

We were invited to submit three to five questions ahead of time. It seems a lot of questions were focused on technical aspects, though mine, as I always attempt, were more focused on other areas that don't typically get asked...

Lxdream is a Linux-based emulator for the Sega Dreamcast system that is currently under active development. The version number indicates that it is still a little ways to go until a 1.0 version but quite a number of demos and even some games are running. The latest versions boasts OSX support!

A new version of Yabause - an open source Sega Saturn emulator for PC - is out. Check it out at http://yabause.sourceforge.net . This emulator is very versatile and compatibility is increasing rapidly.

Captain S uses the rare Sega Mouse! While Internet only TV shows are common, it is rare to see ones devoted to the gaming crowd. One of the more amusing ones is The New Adventures of Captain S, a parody of the Captain N cartoon combined with the cheesiness of 90's sitcoms.

The plot involves Chad Belmont discovering he has the power to be sucked into his Sega Genesis in order to fight his evil nemesis, NES. Only 3 episodes have been produced so far, but the best by far is the most recent one, All's Fair in Love and Sega.

Could this be the product Coleco has been talking about for a while? I hope not, but until a unit is issued that includes real Coleco games it will have to do.

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=1-3/qid=1161671380/ref=sr_1_3/60...

Mr. Rogers: What, you thought Mr. Rogers wasn't into gaming?I've been so busy lately that I haven't been able to keep up with my blog reading...And boy, have I missed some cool stuff. Let me run through some of the most interesting posts. First off, from Kotaku comes this snippet of A Mr. Roger's Neighborhood episode featuring Donkey Kong. Fred Rogers reveals himself to be a true hacker, asking not just to play the game but to see inside the box to see how it works. Fun! And, by the way, anyone who thinks Fred Rogers was a pedo is truly sick. Next up, Racketboy runs through the best games for Sega's Master System, starting off with Phantasy Star. Psycho Fox, anyone? Thirdly, buried in this site is an announcement that Epyx will be releasing some of its C-64 titles for the Wii. Sorry, no titles as of yet...!

One of the major selling points for Nintendo's Wii system (at least for retrogamers) is its ability to easily play games from older Nintendo systems. For awhile, it seemed like Sony's PS3 system would counter by offering gamers access to the Sega Genesis/Megadrive lineup. Worthplaying is now reporting that this may not be the case after all, and that Sony is only "considering" this option.