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Retro Gaming Rarity: SEGA Master System Store Demo Unit

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There are a few holy grail and rare items in the video gaming industry, and then there are those that are so rare that you probably didn’t even know they existed.

Well, it seems that this SEGA Master System Store Demo Unit on eBay falls in the category of ultra rare and an absolute holy grail! The seller has put up a considerable price tag on their auction, but we reckon it is totally justifiable, as they are being honest in their description and also opened to best offers.

This rarity is unique as there hasn’t been any precedent set before it – this is the first one we have encountered that is for sale which is in great working condition which also comes with very rare Master System demo game cartridges and cards!

It goes without saying that we would love this in our collection. How about you guys, do old gaming demo units interest you?

source: eBay Australia

 

SEGA’s House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn

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Sega sure know how to get our attention when it comes to their arcade machines. Back in the day it was Space Harrier, Super Hang-On, OutRun, After Burner, Thunder Blade and of course, Daytona USA that we would find ourselves dropping coins in. One Sega game that we loved playing both at the arcade centres and at home was House Of The Dead (HoTD) and House Of The Dead 2! To say we were excited about their latest House of The Dead instalment would be a gross understatement. If you don’t know anything about it, here we go….

Returning after twelve years, Sega Amusements’ House Of The Dead Scarlet Dawn is the most eagerly anticipated sequel in arcade game history. Considered by many as the brand that defined and popularised the horror game genre, House of The Dead has pushed the limits with every release. An impressive back catalogue of 4 blockbuster amusement games, movies and console games, it has a vast global following of core and casual players. Staying true to its reputation House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn delivers an unparalleled horror action experience that has never looked or felt this real!

“We are thrilled to be part of this historic release. House of the Dead is the crown jewel in the Sega’s licence portfolio, with such a great heritage and loyal following. We pulled out all the stops to deliver the best experience. Developed by the dedicated R&D team in Japan, this game gets a truly special edition treatment in every way possible.” Commented Paul Williams, CEO at Sega.

The House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn super deluxe cabinet will deliver a five-dimensional (Ed: yep, 5D!!!) full body experience. Players will hear bullets flying and terrifying zombies from every angle with the 5.1 channel surround sound and sub-woofer system. High spec bass shaker will produce 50 Watts of vibrations getting players on the edge of their seats when escaping zombies on a quad-bike or in a helicopter. Perfectly timed air canon blast will make players feel explosions and wind. Dedicated spot LED lights will accentuate the thrilling mood of the game. All these features will work together to produce a captivating, tense horror feeling that thrills players.

The game-changing controller will be lightweight and will use unique vibration technology to produce a realistic recoil feeling. By controlling the frequency to the vibration unit, the controller will generate just the right type of recoil that feels natural for the kind of weapon used in the game. This is indeed a game-changing controller technology!

Five epic (1 or 2 player) game missions, lots of secret items to collect and various special weapons to encourage players to keep coming back to play even more (Ed: that means load up the credit or carry lots of coins!). Oh yeah, the game will be able to be played in Normal or Master modes, based on skill level.

Get Ready For Some 5D Experience!

You definitely won’t miss the machine once it hits your local amusement centre, as the super deluxe cabinet measures 215cm deep, 145cm wide, 231cm high and weights a whopping 500kg! Now that is one seriously massive cab!

If you are anywhere near Orange County between November 13 to 16, head on to the IAAPA event at the Orange County Convention Centre to check out Sega’s House Of The Dead Scarlet Dawn. For everyone else, we will have to wait for HoTD Scarlet Dawn to hit our local arcade parlour!

source: Sega Amusements International

 

Introducing the PlayStation Classic – with 20 Classic PS1 Games

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It was inevitable! After the success of Nintendo’s NES and SNES Classic Minis, of course Sony PlayStation were going to do the same.

In case you haven’t heard, come this December 3rd, there will be a cute little PlayStation Classic you can procure for USD$99.99/AUD$149 which will be pre-loaded with 20 classic PS1 games, including fan favourites Final Fantasy VII, Jumping Flash, Ridge Racer Type 4, Tekken 3 and Wild Arms.

The new PlayStation Classic will be 45% smaller than the original PlayStation

For all Australian fans, the PlayStation Classic is available now via pre-order from JB Hi-Fi for $149.00. If you prefer EB Games, they will begin pre-orders on Thursday (September 20) from 9:00am. For more info, go here.


video source: PlayStation

image source: PlayStation

 

SEGA Mega Drive Classics Coming to Nintendo Switch

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What are you doing to us SEGA? We definitely love playing your classic SEGA games and we truly love your SEGA Mega Drive Classics on our PS4, but now hear news that your SEGA Genesis Classics is coming to the Nintendo Switch, in physical and digital format?!

If you don’t believe us, see the below tweet from SEGA. Yep, we are suckers for classic retro gaming, so we are their exact target market – definitely procuring this awesome bundle once it is out (our summer!). How about you guys, are you keen to grab this for your Switch?

PS: Sorry, SEGA Genesis will always be SEGA Mega Drive to us 😉

Capcom Beat‘Em Up Bundle – Classic Side-Scrolling Brawlers

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September 18 can’t come fast enough!

Why you ask? Here is why, the kings of our favourite gaming genre (beat’em ups), Capcom is releasing their Capcom Beat’Em Up Bundle comprised of absolute classic old school arcade side-scrolling co-op brawlers on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Steam. Looks like they have covered all bases!

So what titles are included? Only seven of the best Capcom arcade beat’em ups:

✔ Final Fight (1989)
✔ Captain Commando (1991)
✔ The King of Dragons (1991)
✔ Knights of the Round (1991)
✔ Warriors of Fate (1992)
✔ Armored Warriors (1994)
✔ Battle Circuit (1997)

Can’t wait to grab this bundle on the Switch! Are you getting this too? If so, on what platform? Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook to tell us, and let us know your fave from this awesome bundle.

source: Capcom

 

Sega-Retro Gaming-Inspired MicroSD Cards

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How cool (and clever) are Sega? They seem to be attune to the market by realising that their past gaming consoles still have a place in the heart of millions of gamers around the world. Since Sega won’t be jumping into the console market any time soon (or ever again), what a better way to capture the retro gaming market with some contemporary gear – introducing the Sega (gaming console-inspired) MicroSDHC cards!

The collection of Sega MicroSD cards (Mega Drive, Saturn and Dreamcast) are to celebrate the Mega Drive’s 30th anniversary and the 20th anniversary of Sega’s last console, the Dreamcast. The awesome microSD cards will be officially launched in Japan on October 29th (pre-orders are open right now!) via the Sega Online store, but don’t fret, international buyers can grab these too via Amazon Japan! The only drawback we can see at the moment is that these cards are only 16GB capacity. Regardless of this small drawback, we still want them all! Oh yeah, they will retail for ¥1,980 (AUD$25) plus shipping.

Now imagine your early 1990s self being transported to present day and finding out that you could put a Mega Drive microSDHC card inside of a Nintendo Switch – you’d think the world had gone crazy!

Will you getting any (or all) of these?

Image source: Amazon Japan

Super Nintendo Anthology: The Ultimate Book

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If there is one sure thing, it’s that Geeks-Line Publishing know how to create brilliant gaming tomes. Their latest book, Super Nintendo Anthology has launched on Kickstarter and it has already blasted past its goal.

Geeks-Line had so much content on Nintendo’s 16-bit beast that they had to split the Anthology into two volumes, one for Software and the other for Hardware. There is also a Kickstarter exclusive “Ultimate Edition” where the software and hardware volumes are bundled together in a super-duper slipcase. With a combined 620+ pages, this is going to be MEGA! Oh yeah, have no fear as Geeks-Line always delivers on their crowdfunded projects. If you already have the PlayStation, N64 and GameCube Anthologies, you know what to expect – lots of awesomeness!

As already mentioned, the 620+ pages will be richly illustrated with documents from the period, with the two Super Nintendo Anthology volumes recounting the life story of the Kyoto-based giant’s wondrous 16-bit console and delve deep into its huge international games library. This will be the definitive SNES work of reference.

Back the Kickstarter project now!

Table of contents (“Ultimate” Edition):

Software Edition

  • The Complete Official Games Library (1724 games)
  • All Games in Alphabetical Order
  • The Box Art of each Game
  • Alternative Game Titles by Region
  • ‘After-Market’ Games
  • Canceled Games

Hardware Edition

  • The SNES Epic
  • Hiroshi Yamauchi: The Man behind the Machine
  • A New Revolution Is Afoot
  • Rise of the 16-bit Machines
  • Observe – Create – Play
  • War on the Horizon
  • The First Announcement
  • The Japanese Launch
  • The American Launch
  • The European Launch
  • The View from the Top
  • A New Era
  • Swansong and Beyond
  • Secrets of the Hardware
  • Accessories (Official and Unofficial)
  • Interviews with People Who Made History
  • Developers’ Words
  • Collectible Treasures
  • Bundles & Collectors’ Editions from around the World

 

source: Geeks-Line’s Super Nintendo Anthology on Kickstarter

 

Arcade1Up: Classic ¾-Sized Arcade Games For Your Home

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If you loved feeding coins into arcade machines from yesteryear and don’t want to spend big $$$$ on a 30+ year old machine, then Arcade1Up’s 3/4 scale classic arcade machines may be for you!

There are currently six arcade cabinets (see below), each cabinet housing multiple games. Before you get too excited, there will only be two cabinets available in Australia via EB Games (as at the time of this article) – Rampage and Street Fighter II Editions. Hopefully we’ll see the rest make their way to retails stores in Australia.

Release date (in Australia) is penned for October 11 with a retail price of $698. These aren’t exactly cheap, but they are cheaper than trying to find an original arcade cabinet which may require some TLC and parts to get it working.

With PAX Aus 2018 just around the corner, we wonder if EB Games could lend a few of these for our Classic Gaming Area…

Street Fighter II Edition with three brill Street Fighter II games

Rampage Edition: Rampage, Gauntlet, Joust & Defender 

Galaga Edition: Walmart exclusive only, housing Galaga and Galaxian!

Centipede Edition: Centipede, Crystal Castles, Missile Command & Millipede

Asteroids Edition: Asteroids, Tempest, Major Havoc & Lunar Lander

Final Fight Edition (coming in 2019): Final Fight, Ghosts’N Goblins, 1944 & Strider

Specs:

Recreate that arcade parlour from your childhood right in your living room!
image source: Arcade1Up

 

The Largest Playable Game and Watch Device

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Cast your mind back to November last year when we told you about Dr Tom Tilley’s awesomely cool gigantic Nintendo Game & Watch Octopus game? No? Shame on you!

If you do recall Tom’s great creation, then you will be happy to know that the folks at Guinness World Records took note and have officially recognised Tom Tilley’s mega G&W Octopus game as the “Largest playable Game and Watch device”!

Tom’s feat will feature in the Guinness World Records: Gamer’s Edition 2019 at the start of the Retro Gaming section. Well done Tominator, all of us Australians (and fellow retro gamers around the world) are very proud of this achievement.

source: Guinness World Records

 

The Pinball VS Arcade Industry Battle of the 80s and 90s

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During the boom times of the 80s and 90s, it would have been quite hard to imagine that one day the coin-operated (coin-op) pinball and arcade video games business would (almost) disappear.

With the current worldwide resurgence in pinball and old school arcade machines making a comeback in barcades, we thought we’d take a look at how prevalent pinball and arcade games were in the 80s and 90s in the biggest coin-op amusement market in the world, the good ole USA!

We delved deep into the available ‘Census of Service Industry‘ data from the US Department of Commerce, which kept record of “sources of receipts” for pinball and arcade machines in establishments across the US. What we found was quite eye-opening!

source: 1982 Census of Service Industries: Industry Series. Miscellaneous Subjects(SC82-I-5) – US Dept of Commerce

From the 1982 census data, there were 5,434 sites across the US where the general public could attend to get their fix of playing pinball and arcade games. The total US takings at these establishments was a whopping  USD$1.175 billion (for that year), with arcade machines earning the lion’s share with USD$890.4 million and pinball with $284.3 million. Remember, this was just before the video games crash of 1983. Interestingly, Pennsylvania had the highest number of establishments (268), with the split of takings between pinball (USD$34.2M) and arcade (USD$36.0M) being almost 50/50. Everywhere else, it was arcade video game machines that took more coins out of pockets.

source: 1992 Census Of Service Industries: Subject Series. Sources of Receipts or Revenue (SC92-S-4) – US Dept of Commerce

By 1992 the coin-op amusement landscape changed quite a bit. As evident by the numbers, pinball declined substantially while arcade machines broke through the magical USD$1 billion earnings barrier for that year – that is some serious amount of coins! Pinball had unfortunately slid back, earning their operators a poultry (when compared to arcade video games) USD$165M in 1992. With hindsight, pinball was going to be saved by some big name licensed machines – hello The Addams Family!

source: The Arcade Flyer Archive

As already hinted, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for pinball. According to Vending Times (which tracks the use of coin-operated games), in the mid-1990s the silver ball game had rebounded with takings of USD$912M in 1994 (that was 38% of the total coin-op market at the time) and then almost doubling to a dizzying USD$1.7 billion by 1997/8. Pinball had gone from junk to the golden goose in three short years! Before pinball operators could make it rain more coins, it was the 32-bit gaming era that sounded the death knell for not only pinball, but arcade video games too. By the end of the 1990s, the number of venues where one could play pinball and/or arcade machines dwindled dramatically. Things got acutely dire for pinball when the once mighty Williams closed up its pinball division near the end of 1999.

The beauty of hindsight is that we can assess and track the ups and downs of the pinball and arcade coin-op industry. With the current global video games industry sporting 2.6 billion gamers and takings in excess of USD$116 billion per annum, the time of amusement centres on every street corner are long gone. If pinball could tap even 0.5% of this (that’s USD$580M), then the great silver ball game will be here to stay and be enjoyed for many generations to come!

Enjoying some arcade and pinball action at Melbourne’s Invaders Amusement Centre
– circa early 80s