AUSRETROGAMER

The Pop-Culture E-Zine

You are here: Home / 2017 / Archives for April 2017

Archives for April 2017

Ben Heck’s Mini Pinball Kit

By

We are huge fans of Ben Heck’s creations, from the giant Game Boy to the awesomely cool portable Atari 2600. This time around, Ben and his team have hit the mark with the Mini Pinball machine, which they aim to turn into a kit for us to use and enjoy! Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long.

After watching this update video, we must say we are quite excited about the prospect of having a mini pinball machine in our games room! We eagerly await future updates on this amazing bit of kit.


source: The Ben Heck Show

 

Australian Jordan Tredaway Wins Division B At PAPA 20 World Pinball Championships

By

Young Australian pinball wizard, Jordan Tredaway wins the PAPA 20 (Professional & Amateur Pinball Association) World Championship B Division!

The 16 year old Melbournian showed poise and maturity beyond his years by beating veterans double and even triple his age from across the globe in the world’s most prestigious pinball championship. We managed to grab Jordan as he was tucking into a well deserved dinner to ask him how he was feeling right now, “Ecstatic! Feels like a dream come true”. Also flying the flag high for Australia was Martin Robbins, whom also had a fantastic tournament.

14 year old Jordan (JTH) smashes Game Of Thrones at PAX Aus 2015

Jordan’s PAPA 20 (Division B) win was just reward for his hard work and consistent pinball tournament wins in Australia. We first met Jordan at Supanova in 2015 when he won the Under 18s Pinball vs. Supanova Championship at the tender age of 14! With his current IFPA world ranking at 231, we are pretty sure that this win at PAPA 20 will propel him in the top echelon of pinball wizards, and who knows, perhaps an A Division win at next year’s PAPA 21!

The PAPA World Pinball Championships is the most renowned event in all of competitive pinball which is held annually in Carnegie, Pennsylvania USA.

PAPA 20 competition floor!

Jordan in action!

Martin Robbins keeps an eye on the standings, while Jordan keeps an eye on the competition!

Jordan Tredaway, PAPA 20 Division B World Pinball Champion!
image sources: Martin Robbins and Carme Martinez

Jordan’s impressive points tally in Division B at PAPA 20

 

Learn To Make Your Own Video Games With PICO-8

By

Finally, my childhood dream of making games in my bedroom can come true!

How to make games with PICO-8 Kickstarter is exactly what we have been seeking – an easy-to-learn and all-in-one development tool that allows you to draw sprites, design levels and add sound effects and music. The programming itself is done in an extended version of Lua, a widely used and easy to learn programming language.

This Kickstarter (by Tassilo Rau) is for the book on how to make games with PICO-8*, which comes with 100 full-colour pages in a child-friendly layout, with reasonably sized textblocks and lots of illustrations. While the book’s primary target audience is kids and teenagers, us adults will get a hell of a lot out of it too. Feel safe in knowing that this book will help you to take your first steps to making games.

With the Kickstarter campaign ending in about two days, you better hurry and secure your tome so you can start making your own video games!

source: Tassilo Rau on Kickstarter

*Note that PICO-8 is not included with this book, so you will have to increase your pledge by USD$14.99 or buy the license separately. PICO-8 can be used on Windows, Linux, Mac or a Raspberry Pi with a 700MHz CPU and any video card.

 

PAPA World HQ Site On The Market!

By

REPLAY FOUNDATION OUTGROWS WORLD HEADQUARTERS
World’s Largest Pinball Tournaments to Continue

With PAPA 20 around the corner, Replay Foundation, the NPO that operates the Professional & Amateur Pinball Association (PAPA) brand of tournaments, has just announced that it is placing the PAPA World Headquarters, a facility in Scott Township, just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the market. This facility currently houses more than 700 rare and valuable pinball and arcade games in the Replay collection.

PAPA Buildout – January 2004

Since its founding in 2011, Replay Foundation has operated two of the largest pinball tournaments in the world, the PAPA World Pinball Championships and the Pinburgh Match-Play Championship. In 2013, the PAPA World Headquarters, which opened for the first public PAPA event in the Pittsburgh area in 2004, was donated to Replay Foundation and used to operate these events. The Pinburgh championship quickly outgrew the PAPA World Headquarters facility and was moved to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, as part of the annual ReplayFX event, starting in 2015.

PAPA 7 – September 2004

PAPA 9 – August 2006

This reduced the headquarters to hosting only one public event each year, and that event, the PAPA World Pinball Championships, has exceeded the facility’s capacity for the past several years. Consequently, the headquarters is being put up for sale on the commercial real estate market, effective immediately, with a transaction expected to close sometime after the PAPA 20 event this month. Replay Foundation will not be reducing the size of its collection, nor are there plans to discontinue the PAPA World Pinball Championships.

PAPA 13 – August 2010

PAPA 19 – April 2016
source: PAPA

“We recognize that our followers have thirteen years of nostalgia and great memories of the headquarters, but the facility has hit its limits in terms of attendance and logistics, and of course parking was always a nightmare,” said Kevin Martin, chairman of Replay Foundation. “We are very optimistic about the continued growth of our events and the PAPA brand, and we look forward to making further announcements regarding PAPA 21 and next year’s Circuit Final.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pinball Press
Pinball Press brings you news from the world of pinball – events, product reviews/updates, interviews and the people in pinball!

If you have any pinball news to share, hit Pinball Press on Twitter

 

 

 

Coolate Vectrex 3D Printed LED-Lit Controller

By

We’ve been on a Vectrex kick lately, from having a beautiful boxed system donated to us, to the cool custom controller overlay to pimp out our older and tired looking Vectrex controllers. We adore the retro gaming splendour that is the Vectrex!

While we are on this vector kick, we’ve found out that there is a smart cookie out there that has used their 3D printing skills in fabricating a Vectrex controller, decked out in great colours and LED-lit analogue sticks! It’s a bit rough around the edges, but it’s still damn cool.

PLEASE TAKE OUR MONEY!

source: eBay

source: Coolate