The Pop-Culture E-Zine
The ausretrogamer team was recently interviewed by Adam Turner for the Sunday Age M lift-out cover story which was all about the revival of retro gaming and the classic gaming area at PAX Australia!
If you didn’t get the chance to read the article in print, then you can read it all online right now on The Age website!
The full story can be read online on The Age website now
image source: PAX Australia
We are back, baby! Not much more needs to be said!
We are proud to be bringing the Classic Gaming area yet again to PAX Aus in 2017. Together with our fellow retroholics, Weird and Retro and Press Play On Tape, this will be our 5th (consecutive) year that we will be bringing you a hit of nostalgia at PAX!
But that’s not all! Bartronica, Bayside Pinball Club, Pinmem, Zax Amusements and Melbourne Silverball will also have their arcade and pinball machines for you to indulge your nostalgic senses. We hope to see you all there (and don’t be shy, come and say hi!).
If you want to get your classic gaming competitive juices flowing, then check out our tournament schedule. If you want to attend a great retro gaming panel, then diarise Saturday 5:30pm in the Gamespot theatre for a Blast from the Past!
Watching the ABC’s Classic Countdown on the weekend, we saw a music clip that triggered a torrent of nostalgia. The music clip in question was Mi-Sex’s Computer Games.
Released in 1979, Computer Games was way ahead of its time, both in the context of the nascent computer and video gaming age, and the use of Control Data Corporation’s data centre to film their music video, which features a number of arcade games from 1979 – can you name them all? The answers are further down below – don’t you dare cheat!
For those of our vintage that remember this hit song, here it is for you to enjoy once again. And for those that haven’t heard this before, kick back and enjoy!
source: saynotonowave
Answer: Computer Games features Vectorbeam’s Speed Freak, Atari’s Basketball and Exidy’s Star Fire! Did you get them all right?
Just in case you’ve been busy playing Jersey Jack Pinball’s other awesome machines (which is understandable), you may have missed the unveiling of their fourth and latest title, Pirates Of The Caribbean! The machine made its debut at the Pinball Expo in Chicago last Thursday and to say that it impressed the pinball world would be a gross understatement.
Jersey Jack’s Pirates Of the Caribbean features all the best bits of the five films and hosts a remarkable 3.25 sextillion game play variations – so you will never play the same game twice! Pinball wizards can play as one of 22 movie characters to plunder on this awesome looking machine. As per usual, JJP will release the machine in three versions: a Collector’s Edition (USD$12,500), Limited Edition (USD$9,500) and Standard Edition (USD$8,500). There will be variations between the machines, as expected, with the Collector’s Edition being the most blinged out of the lot with barnacle-covered legs and body armour, a moving ship in a bottle topper, rotating pop bumpers, extra toys and a custom hand-drawn playfield art package featuring the villainous Davy Jones.
The machines are packed with innovative and unique features including the spinning wheel that can be activated directly above the main flippers, which when lit gives extra points or even allows the player to plunder their opponent’s points or balls. There is also a secondary display showing Captain Jack’s compass, which in the film’s shows the direction of his heart’s desire, constantly shows the player the best shot they can take at that time – very clever indeed.
It is great to see Jersey Jack Pinball raising the bar yet again and with Pirates Of The Caribbean, we reckon they have another hit on their hands!
If you missed Buffalo Pinball’s live Twitch stream from the unveiling at Pinball Expo 2017, you can check it out now on YouTube.
source: Jersey Jack Pinball
Set the date to 1987 and get ready to revisit the classic 8-bit adventure games that mesmerised a generation of console junkies. Now is the opportunity to play cult favourites Shadowgate™, The Uninvited™ and Déjà Vu™ the way they were supposed to be played, with controller in hand and worlds awaiting to be explored!
The 8-Bit Adventure Anthology (Volume One) will be available on Steam, PlayStation®4 and Xbox One on October 31.
The three classic ’80s thriller adventures games are being bundled into one package by Abstraction Games. Set within the realms of fantasy, horror and film noir, these three fantastic stories are a must have for those who lived in the decade of neon and those that wish that they had.
The 8-Bit Adventure Anthology (Volume One) includes these classic games:
source: GamePress
The wait is over peeps! Remember how we told you back in May about the UNIQLO Nintendo T-Shirt Grand Prix (UTGP’17) competition winners? Well now you can head on in to your local UNIQLO store and snag a few (or all) of the UTGP’17 Nintendo tees!
We started with one tee because we love Donkey Kong, but we couldn’t resist grabbing the two Super Mario tees. Oh yeah, the littlest member of the ausretrogamer crew also scored herself some tees – check them out!
If you intend on going into their store, UNIQLO also have a free play area for you to enjoy some premium Nintendo video gaming! And don’t fret if there is no bricks and mortar store near you, just head to their online store and buy them all!
Remember folks, life cannot be reset!
Whoa, where to begin…
Of course there were plenty of Mario related tees. Oh yeah, Luigi gets in on the act too!
Do your eyes hurt?
Metroid and Zelda fans will be happy
Whoa, we love 8-bit Mario (which was the winning design)!
There is even a junior 8-bit Mario tees! Our little one will love this!
One of the cool Donkey Kong tees
We had to grab this DK tee!
The back of the DK tee is as cool as the front! The level of detail is just sublime.
Wish they had this in adult size *sad face*
Just some of the UTGP’17 tees we grabbed. We will be going back for more!
After you are done shopping, play some (free) Nintendo video games!
So true!
If you were one of the lucky patrons to have attended this past weekend’s Pinfest 2017 at Caves Coastal Bar & Bungalows in Newcastle, then we envy you!
Not only were there heaps of pinball machines to play from every era, patrons also got to see and experience Homepin’s amazing new Thunderbirds machine. Homepin have done an amazing job, not just on the theme and design, but also by setting up a factory to mass produce pinball machines! We will Mike Kalinowski and the Homepin team all the best.
If that wasn’t enough, Australian Pinball League’s Norbert Snicer also caught up with Andrew Kress who built his own Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy machine! Yes, you read that right! Andrew’s creation is unique and sophisticated, featuring multiple LCD screens and an awesome playfield to boot! To say Andrew’s machine was impressive would be a gross understatement. Pinfest 2017 could claim that it was the only place on the planet where you could play the only Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy pinball machine.
If you were like us and missed out, here are a few highlights from Pinfest 2017: Festival Of The Silver Ball:
An impressive flyer for an impressive event!
Norbert Snicer chats with Homepin’s Mike Kalinowski and checks out their new Thunderbirds machine!
We are quite excited by Thunderbirds and can’t wait to play it!
The crowd lines up to play some pinball!
Stern’s new Star Wars pinball machine proved popular
The sweet sound of the silver ball!
There were pinball machines to enjoy from every era!
Every generation enjoys flippin’
Andrew Kress stands proud in front of his creation: Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy!
The impressive Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy playfield
image sources: Australian Pinball League
Woohoo, the PAX Aus 2017 Tournaments have just been announced!
If your preference is to compete on old school consoles, 8-bit computers, handhelds, arcade and pinball machines, then the PAX Aus 2017 Classic Gaming Tournaments will be right up your nostalgic alley.
Check out the Classic Gaming tournament schedule below and make sure you come to the Classic Gaming Area nice and early to ensure you do not miss out. What are you waiting for? Put these times in your diary and get practising!
The PAX Aus 2017 Classic Gaming Tournaments are brought to you by these awesome community partners: Bartronica, Bayside Pinball Club, Melbourne Silverball, Pinmem, Press Play On Tape Podcast, Weird And Retro and us at Ausretrogamer.
Just in case you have been busy drooling over the SNES Classic Mini, you may have missed the news that the greatest 8-bit computer, the Commodore 64, will also be joining the Mini stable!
Slated for release in 2018, The C64 has told us that this reborn C64 Mini will feature high-def output via HDMI, a pixel filter for pixel perfect graphics, 2 x USB ports, a classic style joystick (like the Comp Pro!) and most importantly, 64 built in games!
The list of included games cover every kind of gaming genre, including sports titles like California Games, awesome shmup action via Armalyte, and platforming shenanigans on Impossible Mission II, just to name a few!
2018 can’t come fast enough!
image source: The C64
By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.
The Joker is one of the most fascinating and colourful characters in fiction. Moviegoers and gamers have a strong curiosity when it comes to the Crown Prince of Crime.
Nintendo’s Batman: The Game, released in 1989, was ground breaking for its graphics, its music score and dark tone. But something that has always bothered me about the game is the lack of The Joker.
The objective of the game is Batman fighting The Joker’s henchmen as you make your way to the Dark Knight’s popular nemesis. You get a little of The Joker sprinkled in throughout the game with quick shots from the film. Sunsoft was smart to put those Joker shots in, because if they hadn’t included them, you wouldn’t even know The Joker had anything to do with the game.
When The Joker finally appears at the final level of the game, he’s unusually massive. The Joker is tall, but he’s not supposed to look like a giant. I admire that the creators of the game made it so difficult to defeat The Joker. It took me awhile to figure out how to kill the villain; I can’t count how many times I died before I finally accomplished the task. The number was high.
Perhaps The Joker’s absence is so noticeable in Batman: The Game because every Batman game since has featured The Joker prominently. Some games, like Batman: Return of The Joker, and the more recent games, has exploited The Joker. They feel more like a Joker game than a Batman game. And with Harley Quinn probably being the most popular comic book character on the planet at the moment, recent games have played her up more as well. And with a “Suicide Squad 2” in the works, expect to see even more Harley in upcoming video games.
I know back in the 1980’s game play was a bigger priority for developers than story. However, Batman: The Game could’ve used a few more sinister Joker scenes. But with the technology at the time, they could’ve turned out clunky; unlike today, where you have the pale villain appearing too lifelike.
The graphics are brilliant for 1989. Each stage, from the chemical plant to the cathedral, has graphics that were above any other NES releases at the time. Double Dragon II maybe being the one exception.
Jumping is one of the best options in the game. Batman, when he jumps, has the ability to latch on to a wall and push himself off of it. Pressing the A button in a rhythm is all you have to do. You don’t even have to point Batman in any particular direction for him to jump to the adjacent wall. That was a unique move for its time.
I grew up playing countless Batman games. Batman: The Game is still one of my favourites based on the Dark Knight property; even if The Joker has very limited screen time.