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Archives for November 2017

Review of the Official SNK Book – NEOGEO: A Visual History

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When you grab hold of a tome by Bitmap Books you immediately feel its quality in your hands. Like every other Bitmap Books publication, the high standard in aesthetics extends to great content within.

We found that with each page turn of the NEO-GEO: A Visual History book our pupils were dilating in joy at the eye popping and gorgeous visuals (the photography and artwork throughout this book is simply sublime) and the content on each page, like the rare interviews with key SNK staff (Yasuyuki Oda, Tatsuhiko Kanaoka and Hideki Asanaka) and the brilliant master games list for NEO-GEO, among other great content, simply elevates the book to bible status.

It is easy to see that the NEO-GEO: A Visual History book was a labour of love for its creators. The loving and painstaking detail that has gone into each of the 400 pages makes the reader stop and absorb it all before turning to the next eye popping page. With SNK’s official blessing, this is the one and only definitive English language book you will ever need based on the great NEO-GEO video game line, from the MVS, AES, CD to the Hyper 64 and NEO-GEO Pocket systems, and the aforementioned master games list. This book will be a permanent fixture on your coffee table for ease of access to great content and reference (oh yeah, and to show off its beauty to your friends).

If you are a NEO-GEO fan (or even if you are not!) or know of someone that is a NEO-GEO fan, this book is an absolute MUST GET! With Christmas around the corner, you can’t go wrong with this as a gift for yourself or for that SNK fan you know will appreciate this fantastic publication.

If you can only buy one video games related book this year, then let me make your decision quite easy, get NEO-GEO: A Visual History now!

NEO-GEO: A Visual History Collector’s Edition is available from:

  • Pixel Crib $109.99 AUD (free Australia-wide delivery)

What you get in the NEO-GEO: A Visual History Collector’s Edition:

  • The book comes protected in a full-colour heavy duty board slipcase
  • A set of 5 high quality A4 art prints protected within a card wallet
  • Comes with a 25mm black plated soft enamel pin badge
  • A sticker set comprising 2 A6 stickers of famous Neo-Geo logos

You better hurry, as the Collector’s Edition book is in limited quantity and will never be produced again!

The NEOGEO: A Visual History book (only) is available from:

Do yourself a favour and get this now. You won’t regret it!

NEOGEO: A Visual History was supplied for review by Bitmap Books and Pixel Crib

 

PC-Engine Duo Monitor

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Forget the PC-Engine LT, apparently there is the PC-Engine Duo Monitor! Yep, you read that right!

NEC engineers weren’t just sitting around high-fiving each other once they released the LT version, oh no, they wanted to create something similar for the dual CD/HuCard console – enter the PC Engine Duo Monitor!

These monitors are so rare, you will have a very hard time finding one and when you do, you will have to negotiate on selling a limb (or two) and a kidney – yes, these things are very very expensive!

source: eBay

 

A Retro Gamer’s Review of LUMO on the Nintendo Switch

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Hang on, this isn’t an old game on an old system. What am I doing reviewing a game on a current gen console?

That is an easy one to answer – I am definitely a sucker for anything that has references to the 80s, especially video games. My expectations were high of Lumo on the Switch, and right now, I can safely say that the game has exceeded my expectation by a long shot!

Screeeeeeeech, the load screen takes us back to 1985!

As soon as I started Lumo it grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and injected its nostalgia with its screeching and decompressing loading screen, just like my C64. Once I got to the menu to select the type of game I wanted to play, of course I opted for the old school ‘3 lives and you are dead’ option. Perhaps my retro tinted glasses totally missed the option to play the game with infinite lives or perhaps I am just a sucker for punishment.

Playin’ it old school!

When you begin playing Lumo, the immersion of being in the game is immediate, from your character walking through a room full of micros and arcade machines (hello 1980s!), to then being zapped ‘inside the game’!

Looks like our monthly Amiga Users Group meet-up!

Had to stop and admire the view

If you haven’t figured it out by looking at the screenshots, Lumo is an isometric platform puzzle adventure game in the mould of Ocean’s Head Over Heels and Ultimate Play The Game’s Knight Lore from 1984 – a great pedigree indeed. Don’t be lulled into thinking that Lumo is a reskinned Head Over Heels or Knight Lore – it isn’t. It stands on it’s own, with great and absorbing level design that makes you want to explore and see what’s behind each door. The control mechanics fit the Switch Joy-Cons like a glove – it literally becomes second nature the minute you start playing the game! The aural and visual extravaganza also had me smiling from ear to ear – this game looks and sounds ace!

Zap! That Speccy is dangerous!

Well the fun really starts once you start exploring rooms and completing puzzles. Did we mention that there are 400 rooms to complete? Wellllll, I guess Lumo will provide the longevity required to keep coming back to it, especially when played like it’s 1985 (3 lives and you are a goner!). I haven’t played Lumo on other platforms so it is hard to compare, but what I can tell you is that it plays beautifully on the Switch, either docked or handheld. Lumo is a challenging, rewarding and magical experience that is truly a love letter to the golden age of exploration adventure video games. If you haven’t already got Lumo, then I would highly recommend you hit the Nintendo eShop and get it quick-smart!

Take a bow Gareth Noyce, you’ve got me hook, line and sinker with your beautiful Lumo!

Lumo (digital) is available now in the Nintendo eShop store. The physical edition (AUD$69.95) will be released tomorrow (November 24)!


Lumo game and images were supplied for review by Rising Star Games

 

Awesomely Cool SNK Neo Geo Attire At Fangamer!

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*GULP* Hope you are all sitting down, cause you gotta check out the official SNK Neo Geo attire available now on Fangamer!

The only problem we can see is, which piece of clothing to get? Actually, there is an easy answer, ALL OF THEM!

Which one do you like?

image source: Fangamer

 

Super Size Me: Mega Nintendo Game & Watch Octopus

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Remember when you carried your Nintendo Game & Watch (or the equivalent knock-off) in your pants pocket?

Now try and imagine putting this mega (193cm by 116cm) Nintendo Game & Watch Octopus in your pocket and then whipping it out for a quick play – your friends would have been thoroughly impressed 😉

This gigantic Game & Watch is the brainchild of computer scientists and one clever Australian, The Tominator – Dr Thomas Tilley. This would have blown our mind back in the day, as it does right now! Awesome stuff indeed.


source: WithProfessorTom

 

Get Your Geeky Christmas Sweaters On

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Ah Christmas 🎅, it’s only when we see these awesome geeky sweaters that we wish it was cold down here instead of the furnace-like warmth we endure every year (Ed: We’ll take a warm Xmas over a cold one any day of the year!).

So, which Christmas sweater will you don for this festive season – the superhero, the pop culture geek or the hardcore gamer?

image source: Merchoid

 

Galencia Blasts Onto Your C64

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Fire up your trusty Commodore 64 and grab Jason Aldred’s brilliant new shoot’em up Galencia.

For those that have been away on Mars and have just landed back on Earth, Galencia is a fast action shoot ’em up for the C64 in the mould of Galaga, but even better! Yes, it is that good that we reckon it is even better than Galaga – there, we said it.

Galencia features 50 action packed levels with asteroid fields, challenging stages, boss battles, ebb and flow difficulty curve and siren enemy with tractor beam for double ship action (Ed: oo’er!). The game includes gorgeous intro, launch and completion sequences, coupled with 6 unique SID chiptunes for your aural pleasure.

Blast-Off!

But wait, there is more! In-game options include:

  • Load, Save and Reset High Scores
  • Extensive CRT options including 3 levels of Starfield Brightness
  • 3 different Score Palettes
  • Tournament Mode
  • Music and Simultaneous Sound Effects or Sound Effects only
  • 3 selectable difficulty levels; and
  • Pause and Quit game options

There are many great people behind great games, just like the peeps that had a hand in creating Galencia. We can all thank these talented group of people for making such a wonderful and sublime game:

  • Jason Aldred: programming and graphics
  • Pulsebot: all music and some sound effects
  • Saul Cross: additional graphics and sound effects
  • Lobo: physical artwork including box and manual
  • Mark Hardisty: manual back cover illustration
  • Flemming Dupont: concept art
  • Jakob Chen-Voos: Protovison

Even the great Julian ‘Jaz’ Rignall gives his sizzling approval!

You can grab the digital version right now via itch.io for US$4.99 (which is an absolute steal!), or for the more traditionalists among us, Galencia will be available on physical media from Friday, November 17 via Protovision Games, just take a look at these tangible temptations:

  • Cassette (without box) €10.00 – comes on a green cassette with a j-card that can be flipped around for an alternative cover picture. The tape comes in a neon green jewel case (front side is fully transparent, only back is neon green).
  • Cassette (boxed) €30.00
  • Disk (boxed) €30.00
  • Cartridge (boxed) €40.00
  • Disk and Cartridge Special Edition (boxed) €50.00

All boxed editions of Galencia will come in a fully printed cardboard box with custom inlays to hold the disk, tape or cartridge, which will also include:

  • a full colour manual with 16 carefully designed pages (A5 sized),
  • Galencia coaster with a scratch free glass surface,
  • Bee key ring that can serve you as a trophy when you battle against vermin,
  • Big Galencia sticker that you can stick on your disk sleeve if you have the disk version; and
  • While stocks last – the first 200 boxed version orders will receive an additional small Galencia sticker!

With the Disk and Cartridge special edition, both physical media will be in the one box with all of the above inclusions, plus a space amulet that is much needed in higher levels of Galencia, as it has been reported to promote good fortune!

Oh yeah, the game works on both PAL and NTSC C64 computers, with all physical editions containing the tape and disk digital images. If you don’t have a C64, then emulation is fully supported through VICE.

So what are you waiting for, go and pilot the 1981 Galencia Fighter to restore order, before it’s too late!

The game is never over!

The eyes have it!

Credit where credit is due

Tough choice – will you grab Galencia on cart?

On disk?

Or on tape? The choice is yours (you can’t go wrong!)

Time to squash some bugs!

Go on, get blastin’

image source: Jason Aldred – Galencia HQ

 

Grab Some New Atari Jaguar and 2600 Games!

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Get your Atari 2600 and Jaguar consoles ready, as AtariAge has released six new games for pre-order!

The Atari 2600 gets, Super Cobra Arcade, Space Cactus Canyon and Draconian, while the Jag gets Escape 2042, AstroStorm and the Jeff Minter Classics, Llamatron 2112 and Revenge Of The Mutant Camels!

All six new games will feature high-quality, professionally printed boxes, manuals and labels. Draconian, Super Cobra Arcade and the Jeff Minter Classics will include a poster featuring the box art for each game (and the best part, the Jeff Minter Classics poster is double-sided!).

We are quite excited about these games, but it is the Jaguar Jeff Minter Classics we are most looking forward to! Hit the AtariAge Store now and grab yourself some cool new games for your old Atari hardware.

image source: AtariAge

 

Tomb Raider Film Looks Like 2013 Game

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By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.

It is rare that the tenth instalment of a video game is the best of the franchise. 2013’s Tomb Raider, an action-adventure game developed by Crystal Dynamics, was a reboot that reconstructed the origins of Lara Croft. The Warner Bros. Pictures film, coming out in March, starring Alicia Vikander, looks very similar to the classic ’13 Raider.

I liked the gritty, dark turn the ’13 Raider took. The violence was slightly outrageous, but it definitely pleased the fans of the franchise. It was time for a reboot and Crystal Dynamics and the publisher, Square Enix, knew it. It was vastly different from all of the prior Tomb Raider games and it was grounded by Lara Croft’s origin story. I think it’s one of the best games of the decade…so far.

The new Tomb Raider film’s trailer has the same colour pallet as the ’13 game. It looks like the film’s director, Roar Uthaug, has pulled various scenes directly from the hit game. The game centred on Croft’s survival and exploring an island and its various tombs. That’s what the film appears to centre on as well.

image source: The Nerd Mag

Academy Award winner Alicia Vikander looks just like the ’13 Croft; it’s indistinguishable. She’s an excellent actress; just watch Ex Machina or The Danish Girl. It’ll be interesting to see if Vikander can pull off such an iconic action character in a film that could be a tent-pole film for Warner Bros. She has the physicality and dramatic chops to bring a truly captivating Croft to the big screen.

I hope Vikander’s Croft is as cold blooded as the’13 game version. The gritty compositions, and some of the tilted camera angles in the trailer, mirror the imagery from the game. It’s just a teaser trailer, but I like what I see. The costume design is also on point, which is important for a property that has such a large following.

We have to wait until March to see if Tomb Raider will be that one great film based on a video game. From the teaser, and being an aficionado of the ’13 game, I’m anticipating Raider almost as much as Disney’s Solo: A Star Wars Story and Avengers: Infinity War.

Assassin’s Creed and Warcraft had good trailers too. I turned Assassin’s Creed off fifteen minutes in.

It’s astonishing that a film studio still hasn’t cracked the code on making an exceptional movie based on a video game franchise.

Tomb Raider has to be rated R to truly be like the ’13 game. Will it be as bold with its violence and death scenes as the iconic game? I bet it’ll be a safe PG-13 for box office reasons.

 

Commodore 65: Rarer Than Rocking Horse Poop!

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Back in February 2015 we told you about the Commodore 65 (C65) that sold for a then record of AUD$26,915.

Fast forward to today (November 9, 2017), and the latest C65 on eBay (serial number 000016) has sold for a whopping (and now new record price) AUD$123, 449! Geez we could buy a lot of pinball machines with that money.

Interestingly, the listing was deleted from eBay after the auction ended – time to speculate starts now!

 

image source: eBay