“The Music Machine” was based on a line of other products, including albums — back when they were, in fact, albums. The seller indicated his elderly mother owned a Christian bookstore, and while going through her things, came across the game. It puts a real twist on the cliché of your mum chucking out a rare baseball card or comic book you later find out is worth thousands.

If the guy is taking care of his mum, and it sounds like it, then it sounds like the dough will be put to good use. Or he could be spending it all on hookers and cocaine… who am I to make judgements of people I’ve never met? C’mon, I’m trying to be a nice guy here.

Sealed Atari Game Sells for Over $US5,000 [Hot Blooded Gaming]

CVG’s source “close to the platform holder” says that sales of action-adventure eyesore Kameo: Elements of Power are largely to blame for the decision to stop development on a follow-up. According to NPD data, sales of the original Xbox 360 launch title totalled a little more than 300,000 — less than half the sales of launch peer Perfect Dark Zero, so that decision may have been a wise one.

(On the bright side, Kameo: Elements of Power sales over the course of four years outperformed two other Rare titles, Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.)

But it appears that Microsoft’s first-party needs for Project Natal software is taking precedent. Rare is said to be hard at work on a handful of unannounced games for the controller, now under the watchful eye of Microsoft Game Studios creative director Peter Molyneux.

Kameo 2 canned by Microsoft [CVG]

Rare’s Mark Betteridge tells MCV, as part of a feature on the first-person shooter, that the company’s “sights are trained on Natal”. Betteridge calls the Xbox 360’s motion and voice controller a “a great opportunity to break new ground with content and gameplay”.

Rare has been said by owner Microsoft to be “intimately involved with Project Natal in a number of different dimensions,” according to soon to be ex-Microsoft VP Shane Kim. The developer was reported to be staffing up in anticipation of the Natal launch in 2010. Hopefully, that will help give them the identity that Peter Molyneux thinks they so desperately need.

“[Project Natal is] also an opportunity to exercise some genre evolution,” Betteridge says, “so hopefully we’ll be able to develop something on that front.”

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? If the answer is a first person shooter/boxing game based on the adventures of Killer Instinct’s T.J. Combo, than it sounds like we are.

Shoot to thrill [MCV]

4J Studios seems to be doing a fine job of updating the original Perfect Dark to HD for its Xbox Live Arcade incarnation. Elvis is certainly looking healthy, all spruced up and ready to rescue Joanna from the clutches of the vile Skedar. Check out the other two screens below to see how the environments and weapons are coming along.

Asked in the latest RARE Scribes mailbag why Donkey Kong 64 isn’t on the Wii Virtual Console, the guy delegated to answer this gave a throw-up-your-hands questions that sounds like earlier answers regarding Goldeneye and whether we’ll ever see it again.

I have no idea why DK64 hasn’t shown up yet, and whether Jetpac would still be in there or they’d replace it with Mario’s Cement Factory (which ate about three years of my life as a child) or something. Or maybe a single-screen 2D shooty version of Jet Race would be more appropriate. Who knows? Not us, obviously, or we wouldn’t be sitting here pitching clueless alternatives.

Sounds like a “don’t ask me, I just work here,” type of response. And who can blame ‘em?

Addressing a reader question about Goldeneye ever getting an agreement between Nintendo and Microsoft, releasing it to current generation consoles, Rare said, alas, no.

That was some time ago, my friend. Fate was against us that day. Destiny conspired to raise the hurdles even as we attempted to clear them, resulting in unpleasant groinal injury. I suspect we’re long past the stage where an agreement was on the cards, but you never know. Stranger things have happened… somewhere … probably.

Dead is how we’d characterise it for now. It’s a shame. It’d be a no-brainer moneymaker, but because Nintendo and Microsoft can’t figure out who gets paid first, or the most, a re-release of Goldeneye is not meant to be. Not many things were.

GoldenEye 007 for Wii VC, XBLA “Long Past the Stage Where an Agreement was On the Cards” [Nintendo Everything]

It isn’t exactly rare for a game developer to show up on Twitter these days, so why is Rare so keen to get the information out? Perhaps it’s their way of letting us know they’re actively working with Microsoft’s Project Natal, as seen in the tweet they pointed out specifically in their email?

Rare is recruiting designers. Excited by Natal? Got loads of cool new ideas? Think differently to others? Take a look on our website.

Or perhaps they just want to make sure we don’t miss out on their awesome haiku skills?

Red Cliff haiku review… Running time: six years / Even spears through chests get dull / John Woo, moar guns plz

Or maybe they just want to tease fans with unannounced projects?

Three slices so far of Nic’s homemade cake to mark his nine years’ service at Rare – good man. Nic’s team is now hard at work on

Whatever the case may be, they certainly seem to be having fun with it, so you might want to keep track of Rare’s new Twitter. Who knows when they’ll announce a Project Natal-enabled sequel to Killer Instinct?

Peter Molyneux, creative director of Microsoft Europe, wants to help Rare have more of an identity. Here, let’s let him say it in his own words:

“Actually one of the things I really want to do is help Rare have more of an identity,” says Molyneux. “I was totally blown away from the amount of talent that there is at Rare, but it’s just that they come from a background where Nintendo required them to be this very, very secretive company. I just want to give them the confidence to tell the world what they’re doing. I hope you’re going to see more from Rare and I want to help them get well known.”

We thought Rare was already pretty well known — but well, that’s just us. While Molyneux is hatching plans for Rare, the company is currently hard at work on numerous Natal Projects. Hey, that’s it! Call it Rare’s Natal Project. That should do it.

Molyneux: "I want to help Rare have more of an identity" [GI via Eurogamer]

In a word, Perfect Dark looks sharper, thanks to its high-definition upgrades and “sporting a silkier framerate than ever before.” In hard numbers, that translates to 1080p resolution and 60 frames-per-second. The official Xbox.com product page also touts “All the original game features are included plus new Xbox LIVE ones.”

First screens of the Xbox Live Arcade port of the 2000 classic await you in the gallery below.