The Pop-Culture E-Zine
I must admit, I am a sucker for infographics! I am a visual person and would prefer to see more pictures than words. Don’t get me wrong, a well constructed piece will hold my attention, but I get excited over pictures – the more of them, the merrier. As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words”.
You don’t need words to explain what you are looking at below – just click on the infographic and then zoom in and enjoy the visual ride!
source: Pop Chart Lab
As a Commodore 64 lover, I was in constant feuds with my fellow 8-bit home computer enthusiasts that chose the other brands. Ah, those glorious school-yard arguments. I miss those days.
Hang on, what’s this then? A new Speccy? OH MY GAWD! Even I, a one eyed C64 fan can’t deny the excitement generated by seeing the famous rainbow coloured stripes on a shiny black Sinclair system.
Sir Clive Sinclair and his band of geniuses (Chris Smith, Dr. David Levy and Paul Andrews) at Retro Computers Ltd. are back with a vengeance! They are resurrecting the style of the venerable British-made ZX Speccy and bringing it into the 21st century as the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega! This time around, instead of the rubber keyboard, the computer is the controller!
The crowd funding campaign on Indiegogo has gone gangbusters! The £100,000 goal has already been exceeded and there are still a lot of weeks left! You better get in quick if you want a piece of this new ZX Spectrum Vega kit. This initial run is limited to the first 1,000 backers.
For those of you that want to know more about this little beast; it is powered by an ARM processor and contains flash storage that will have 1,000 Speccy games pre-loaded! Don’t stress though, you can also load your own Spectrum games onto the Vega via an SD card.
What’s there not to love about this? Absolutely nothing – we love everything about it.
source: Retro Computers
There have been a swag of quality books published recently based on our rich history of video gaming. This illustrates the importance of the impact and value that video gaming has played in our recent past. The cultural importance of video games has gained enough momentum that it has become our favourite form of entertainment. What these publications do for the history of video gaming is to document eras, games, systems of our wonderful industry for us to indulge in the nostalgic memories and also act as a reference for future generations.
One book that caught our attention was Read-Only Memory’s ‘Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works‘. The book aimed to become the definitive retrospective of Sega’s 16 -bit beast, featuring development and concept illustrations of Sega’s best-loved game franchises, original developer interviews and previously unseen hardware production plans.The crowd-funding campaign of a year ago was so successful that Read-Only Memory added additional content to sweeten the already quite tasty book. The finished product not only surpassed what it promised to deliver, but it provides loads more – from exclusive interviews with legendary US developers, Greg Johnson and Mark Voorsanger (ToeJam & Earl), Naoto Ohshima (Sonic The Hedgehog) and Yu Suzuki (Space Harrier et al), to concept art and level visualisations for Vectorman 2 and detailed pencil-drawn level maps for Comix Zone.
For those that only know Sega as a software publisher, this book is a reminder of its former glory – making awesome gaming hardware. The Sega pedigree carried from its arcade systems to its home systems reached a pinnacle with its 16-bit world beater, the Mega Drive (Genesis for our North American gaming friends). With an estimated 40 millions consoles sold world-wide, the 16-bit beauty assured itself a place in the pantheon of great systems. This ‘Collected Works‘ book not only celebrates the Mega Drive hardware, but it also showcases the wealth of Sega’s 16-bit software titles; from blockbuster games such as Bare Knuckle/Streets of Rage, Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star, Gunstar Heroes, Super Shinobi/Revenge of Shinobi and Golden Axe, through to cult gems such as Rent-a-Hero, Vectorman and DecapAttack. This book has it all!
If you are after the definitive book on all things Sega Mega Drive / Genesis, then look no further – this book oozes quality and makes you want to come back to it again and again to feast your eyes on each page – from it’s well written foreword, to the never before seen Sega production blueprints, and to the great collective artwork. Even if you are not a Sega fan, this book’s historical value and page-turning ability is simply irresistible. For those not into gaming at all, we guarantee this book will get lots of attention if placed on your coffee table. This is the only Sega Mega Drive / Genesis book you will ever need. Highly recommended.
Vital Stats:
Title: Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works
Price: £35.00 (plus shipping)
Size: 216mm x 267mm
Binding: Hardback
Pages: 352pp
Specials: 8 x Gatefold Pages
image source: Read-Only Memory
The start of September in 1997 was tinged with sadness with the passing of Mother Teresa and the funeral of Diana, Princess Of Wales. With Elton John’s Candle In The Wind song topping the music charts, we were also introduced to another hit song, Tubthumping from Chumbawaba. In the video gaming sphere, Electronic Arts was pervading the top 5 games charts on a number of platforms, from the PlayStation and Saturn, to the ubiquitous personal computer.
I recall hammering V-Rally to death on my PlayStation and loving the politically incorrect and gruesome Carmageddon on the PC. What were your favourite games from September 1997?
 |
1) V-Rally (Ocean) |
| 2) International Superstar Soccer Pro (Konami) | |
| 3) Syndicate Wars (Electronic Arts) | |
| 4) Rage Racer (Sony) | |
| 5) Fade To Black: Platinum (Electronic Arts) |
 |
1) King Of Fighters ’95 (SNK) |
| 2) Fighters Megamix (Sega) | |
| 3) Manx TT Superbike (Sega) | |
| 4) FIFA ’97 (Electronic Arts) | |
| 5) Shining The Holdy Ark (Sega) |
 |
1) Dungeon Keeper (Electronic Arts) |
| 2) Carmageddon (SCI) | |
| 3) FIFA Soccer Manager (Electronic Arts) | |
| 4) Command & Conquer: Red Alert (Virgin) | |
| 5) Theme Hospital (Electronic Arts) |
It had been some time since our last The Thrill Of The Chase. With the close of 2014 getting nearer, we are aiming to squeeze a few more thrills before the curtain falls on this year!
With the adrenaline rushing, we blazed a path across Melbourne to some vintage markets, pawn stores and a very funky memorabilia store. What we found was great and thrilling, but prices of items precluded us from taking things back home.
So, what did we find you may ask? Rather than words (Ed: boring!), check out the below photos!
Celebrating like it is 1984!
Let’s take a look, shall we
Um, this memorabilia store is a fire hazard – it’s packed to the rafters!
TANANA NANANA TANANA NANA TANANA NANANA TANANA NANA GHOSTBUSTERS!
A very expensive Freddo!
Old school WWF is where it’s at baby!
E.T. will phone home!
At last, some Game & Watch beauties
The ubiquitous Pac-man and Simon!
Sega, Atari and Nintendo games!
Donkey Kong Hockey Micro Vs for $65? No!
Atari is best
Scarface playing cards? Say hello to my……
Perfectly tactile QWERTY keyboard
I spy a MOTU boxed product!
Whoa! I wonder if this Taito Asuka & Asuka arcade cabinet is for sale?
Before DVD, there were some big ass LaserDiscs
Oh man, Gakken Super Puck Monster tabletop! Very hard to resist
Let’s hookup this Mac to the internet
Scarface – enough said!
Surely this Taito Speed Race machine is for sale?
Oh damn, it’s for fun only
I play while Ms. ausretrogamer shops
Three screen action aplenty!
Yoda overseeing our shenanigans
