Archives for March 2015

Good Chemistry: Video Game Periodic Tables

March 19, 2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

Chemistry was never my favourite subject – I preferred biology and physics. However, I did like learning the Periodic Table (especially singing the Periodic Table Song – scroll to the bottom of the post for a sing-along video). I must not be the only one fond of the Periodic Table as some very clever people have created video game themed versions, enjoy!

A Periodic Table of Xbox Games
Source: Herd of Cats via Geekologie
Complete list of the Xbox ‘elements’

A Periodic Table of Final Fantasy Characters
Source: Via Geekologie

A Periodic Table of Controllers
Source: Flickr via Geekologie

A Periodic Table of Video Game Characters
Source: I Heart Chaos via Geekologie

It’s-a Mario the Periodic Table
Source: Design By Humans

A Periodic Table of Pokemon
Source: Kuinala – DeviantArt

As promised, here is the sing-along video of the Periodic Table Song – There’s Hydrogen and Helium Then Lithium, Beryllium Boron, Carbon everywhere Nitrogen all through the air…

The Periodic Table Song

Source: AsapSCIENCE

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ms. ausretrogamer
Editor and Researcher at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.

Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter

Made In Australia: Mega Drive Games

March 18, 2015 By ausretrogamer

Following on from our look at Aussie made NES games, the Made In Australia series dives straight into the 16-bit era this time around, starting with Sega’s Mega Drive. The Mega Drive was an instant hit for Sega – it had a headstart on Nintendo’s 16-bit offering and it never looked back.

With a pedigree in arcade gaming, Sega’s 16-bit machine wasn’t short on awesome arcade conversions. Who could forget their first play on Golden Axe? It was like (Ed: almost) having the arcade machine in your bedroom! With sleek looks and a plethora of crtically acclaimed games, the Mega Drive went from strength to strength and smashed all kinds of sales records across the globe. Australian coders also jumped on the 16-bit development bandwagon (Ed: especially Beam Software!) and created a handful of Mega Drive games – some more well known than others. Do you remember playing any of these?

NBA All Star Challenge (1991) – Beam Software

George Foreman’s K.O. Boxing (1992) – Beam Software

Blades of Vengeance (1993) – Beam Software

Tom & Jerry: Frantic Antics (1993) – Beam Software

Radical Rex (1994) – Beam Software

True Lies (1994) – Beam Software

Australian Rugby League (1995) – Dreamtime Interactive (in conjunction with I-Space Interactive)

image source: Moby Games, Games Database, retro gaming australia

In the next Made In Australia feature, we will look at Super Nintendo games that were made down under. Till then, play hard and have fun!

Best. Cakes. Ever. Awesome Geeky Cakes

March 17, 2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

Cake is great, but geeky cake is even better. These specimens from Anne Heap’s Pink Cake Box (Denville, NJ) are simply amazing! (But maybe too good to eat…)

2600 Calories Per Slice!

Extermin-cake

25c Per Slice

Mario Party

No Occasion NES-cesscary!

Nintendo D(eliciou)S

This Cake Is AWESOME!!!

Cutting This Cake Requires A Steady Hand

This Is Living: PlayStation 3 Cake

Press X To Eat

Hold The Onions!

But it doesn’t stop there – here are more fantastic geeky cakes to make you drool.

Charmander Birthday Cake

Source: Laughing Squid, Pink Cake Box

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ms. ausretrogamer
Content Manager at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion and TV. Player of games, old and new.

Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter

Amiga: 30 Years

March 16, 2015 By ausretrogamer

Can you believe that the Amiga is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year! To mark this momentous occasion, the Amiga30 group in the Netherlands has gathered a galaxy of Amiga superstars for a very special event – from the creators of the wonder machine (Ed: RJ Mical anyone!), to the great game developers and even ex-Commodore management, everyone will be there and you are invited!

So, when is it and where? Here are the details:

Event: Amiga: 30 Years
Date: Saturday, June 27, 2015 from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM (CEST)
Where: The Lighthouse, Krijn Taconiskade 432, 1087 HW Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tickets: Going fast! Go here

To get more details about who will be there, what you can bring and what to expect at the event, head on over to the Amiga30 site immediately!

We wish we could attend this unprecedented feast of Amiga history! Viva Amiga!

source: Amiga30

DigitalSoaps: Soap For Retrogamers

March 14, 2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

Chrystal Doucette started DigitalSoaps in January 2009, she was inspired to create her hand-poured retrogaming-themed glycerin soaps by memories of chocolate 5.25-inch floppy disks from her childhood. Although she didn’t find the chocolate disks, she found many molds shaped like electronics and the rest is history.

Check out Chrystal’s Etsy shop – it has enough soap and shampoo to even get Mario clean after a trip down the sewer! Here a few of the best (just don’t get them mixed up and try to use them with your precious consoles).

Chrystal and a SNES soap

The Legend of Zudsa Ocarina of Grime!

Press A to scrub

Gotta wash em all: Poke Ball with surprise toy inside

Soapemon Game Boy cartridge set

Soapy PlayStation

Bath time awaits! PS4

Genesis does what regular soap don’t

Soaper Mario Bros. 3

Soapic the Hedgehog 2

Mario Bath 64

Wetris

Jump in the bath: Xbox 360

Donkey Klean Country

Source: Geekologie, DigitalSoaps Etsy Shop

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ms. ausretrogamer
Editor and Researcher at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.

Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter

Jeri Ellsworth’s Fantastic Inventions

March 11, 2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

Jeri Ellsworth is a self-taught computer chip designer and entrepreneur best known for creating a complete Commodore 64 system on a chip within a (Ed: Comp Pro) joystick – the ‘C64 Direct-to-TV’.

Jeri and the C64DTV

Jeri’s YouTube channel is full of videos showcasing her fantastic inventions – here are just a few:

C64 Purse

Source: Jeri Ellsworth’s YouTube Channel

C64 Bass Guitar

Source: Jeri Ellsworth’s YouTube Channel

Half-Life Crowbar Controller

Source: Jeri Ellsworth’s YouTube Channel

Rubik’s Cube & Nintendo Controller Mouse Mods

Source: Jeri Ellsworth’s YouTube Channel

Source: Geekologie; Jeri Ellsworth’s YouTube Channel; Wikipedia

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ms. ausretrogamer
Editor and Researcher at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.

Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter

Syd Bolton’s Video Game Collection And Personal Computer Museum

March 7, 2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

Next time I’m in Brantford, Ontario I know where I’m going: Syd Bolton’s Personal Computer Museum!

According to the website, they have over 45 interactive computer displays and over 1,000 computers in total. The collection consist of a massive 25,000 artifacts (including computers, software, magazines and books) with approximately 5,000 items in the museum at any given time. Check out the lists of computers and software.

The museum is open on select dates as well as for school/group tours (best school excursion ever!).

Syd is Canada’s top video game collector – watch him and his partner Jenny Schween talk about what it’s like to have such a large collection of video games (15,000!) and computers:

Source: Syd Bolton’s YouTube Channel

Source: The Personal Computer Museum Facebook Page, The Personal Computer Museum Website, Syd Bolton’s YouTube Channel

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ms. ausretrogamer
Editor and Researcher at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.

Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter

Brutal 8-Bit Fatalities

March 6, 2015 By ausretrogamer

Could you imagine the media frenzy if our beloved 8-bit video games had gruesome fatalities just like in Mortal Kombat? Now that would be an awesome dream come true. You can never have enough fatalities in video games (Ed: settle down!). I would personally like to see those pesky Galaga bugs get obliterated in the most brutal way!

Hang on a second! Steven Lefcourt has made this dream come true in his great artwork depiction of 8-bit fatalities. Splat – take that Goomba! Damn the ignorant media!

source: Steven Lefcourt

Vintage Pokémon

March 5, 2015 By ausretrogamer

Damn it, I totally missed it! On February 27, those pesky pocket monsters, oops, I mean Pokémon, celebrated their 19th anniversary! Wow, how time flies when you are hunting wild Pokémon.

Instead of hurling a Poké Ball around here (Ed: you have no idea, do you?), we thought we would share some awesome rustic Pokémon ads created by the talented Mexican artist, Chuz0r.

source: Buzzfeed

Made In Australia: NES Games

March 4, 2015 By ausretrogamer

In the early days of the video games industry it seemed like all game development was being done out of bedrooms across the UK and Europe. The North Americans were also pumping out games from their hive in Sunnyvale. It is a little known fact that Australia also made major contributions to game development in those early days. Australian pioneers like Alfred Milgrom (co-founder of Melbourne House and Beam Software) were designing and producing games like Hungry Horace and The Hobbit. Melbourne House‘s other major release, Way Of The Exploding Fist, went on to become a massive hit on every 8-bit micro back in the mid 1980s. After Australia II won the America’s Cup in 1983, Armchair Entertainment cashed in on the craze by creating the sailing sim, Arnie’s America’s Cup Challenge. The game was bundled in the Commodore 64 Family Pack that was released to coincide with the 1987 America’s Cup event in Fremantle.

But what of the 8 and 16-bit consoles you know and love, like the NES, SNES and the Mega Drive? Did Australia produce any games on these world dominant systems? Of course they did. Australian talent continued to churn out classic games that went on to become major hits on their respective platforms.

In this maiden Made In Australia voyage, we will reflect on the games that Australians produced for Nintendo‘s world beating 8-bit console, the NES! I bet you will be surprised.

720° (1989)

Bad Street Brawler (1989)

Defender of the Crown (1989)

Airwolf (1989)

Road Runner (1989)

The Last Ninja (1990)

RoadBlasters (1990)

Smash TV (1990)

Aussie Rules Footy (1991)

Star Wars (1991)

But wait, there were more Aussie made NES games, like: Back to the Future (1989), The Three Stooges (1989), Battle Chess (1989), Days of Thunder (1990), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Back to the Future Part II & III (1990), Bigfoot (1990), Dash Galaxy in the Alien Asylum (1990), Fisher-Price: Perfect Fit (1990), Fisher-Price: I Can Remember (1990), The Punisher (1990), Rocket Ranger (1990), Bo Jackson Baseball (1991), Family Feud (1991), George Foreman’s K.O. Boxing (1992), International Cricket (1992), Nightshade (1992), Power Punch 2 (1992), Mickey’s Safari in Letter Land (1993) and Mickey’s Adventures in Number Land (1994).

In the next Made In Australia feature, we will reflect on the Mega Drive games that were Aussie made! You will be surprised to learn the number of hit games that Aussies had their hand in! Till next time, game on!

image sources: Moby Games, Tomorrow’s Heroes, GameFAQs, retro gaming australia

Archives for March 2015

Footer

Support This Site