Hot damn there are clever creators out there! We absolutely adore stop motion, so we had to share this one with you all!
Love Street Fighters crushing Red Bulls cans with their ultra combos? Then this vid is for you 😉
source: Animist
Archives for March 2023
DOOM Ring: The Ring To Rule Them All
Hot on the heels of DOOM running on a Commodore 64 comes the DOOM Ring – you’ll have to squint, but we assure you it’s DOOM!
The version of the game being run is RP2040 Doom (designed to be run on a Raspberry Pi Pico RP2040) that’s been modified to generate grayscale graphics. It runs on a tiny printed circuit board along 4 score lines to wrap into a ring shape.
According to James,
“I wanted to see if this was a useable technique. It isn’t. The result was very fragile, and I lost the connections to the capacitive pads and USB port during encapsulation.”
source: Ancient
story source: technabob
Book Review – Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-’Em-Ups
If there ever was a book made for us, then Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-’Em-Ups is it! As massive fans of side-scrolling beat’em ups (Ed: Double Dragon and Final Fight are still two of our all time faves), this book screamed for us to read it!
Relishing each turn of the page and soaking in all that beat’em up content found in this book, the adrenaline rush we felt was off the charts.
Back in the late 80s going to the local arcade involved checking out the latest and greatest beat’em up games. When the first 2-player co-op beat’em up, Double Dragon, showed up at our local arcade in 1987, we were smitten. We pumped so many 20c pieces in that machine (each credit was 40c), the coin box must have been quite heavy when taking them to the bank! Double Dragon felt fresh, with an amazing array of weapons to use on baddies (we loved swinging the baseball bat!), plus the punching, kicking, backward elbowing and our fave, the knee to the head, all felt visceral at the time.
It was a pleasant surprise to read my hero, Yoshihisa Kishimoto’s foreword! For those that don’t know, Yoshihisa-san was the original creator of Double Dragon – he was only 26 years old when he created the groundbreaking game. Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-’Em-Ups is one heavy tome, so you’d be forgiven to think that it could also double up as a weapon in real life! Of course we jest about the weapon part, but we are dead serious about the weight of the book.
Packed with delicious beat’em up content (there are over 450 pages!), Go Straight covers all the major eras of the beat’em up genre, including the golden age from the mid 80s to the early 90s. Each decade from the 1980s onwards, has its own section, documenting all the games that were released during that period. The book documents every beat’em up that has ever graced a video game system (arcade and console) from 1980 all the way up to 2021 – that’s over 200 games!
There has been no stone left unturned in Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-’Em-Ups. Dave Cook and the team at Bitmap Books has created a tome for all fans of beat’em ups, and if you aren’t a fan of this genre, we urge you to check this book out, as it is a great guide for first timers wanting to dip their toes in playing some iconic and fun side-scrolling beat’em ups! GO and read it now!!
- Price: $79.99 AUD / Where to buy: PixelCrib
Specifications
- 456 pages.
- 210mm × 297mm. Hardback.
- Gatefold pages.
- Spot-varnished cover.
- Edge-to-edge high quality lithographic print.
- Sewn binding for enduring quality and the ability to lay flat for ideal double-page image viewing.
Disclaimer: Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-’Em-Ups book was kindly provided by PixelCrib for this review.
Jirard Bought EVERY Nintendo Wii U & 3DS Game Before the Nintendo eShop Closes
Jirard “The Completionist” Khalil has spent a smidgen under US$23,000 (~ AU$34,300) buying EVERY available Wii U and 3DS game before Nintendo shutters these respective eShops at the end of this month (March 2023).
This is definitely one way to preserve games, but let’s face it, we don’t all have tens of thousands of extra dollars sitting around, waiting to be used to buy up every game for these now deprecated Nintendo systems. We can’t even imagine the storage required to save and store all of these games – that’s a lot of microSD cards and solid-state drives!
Jirard should be commended, as he could have easily chosen the dark path, piracy, to achieve a similar result.
Completionist by name, completionist by nature, we salute you Jirard!
PS: When you are done watching the vid, read Kelsey Lewin’s Twitter thread on how this could solve the whole “preservation of games” puzzle.
source: Jirard The Completionist on Twitter
Introducing the Lego Nintendo GameCube and Controller
YouTuber Peter Knetter has built a fully functional Lego Nintendo GameCube with a matching GCN controller!
The hardware inside the console and controller of course aren’t made from Lego, Peter has repurposed an existing GameCube’s internals for both the console and controller, but everything else, including the case, power light, controller buttons and joysticks are all a mixture of standard Lego and Technic bricks.
Game on!
source: Peter Knetter
story source: technabob
DOOM on the Commodore 64 is so RAD!
DOOM has been run on a multitude of devices – if it has a screen, then DOOM has ran on it! With this being the case, why not have DOOM run on the trusty 8-bit micro, the Commodore 64?
As you can see from the video below, that is exactly what we have here – a DOOM tech demo going by the title of RAD-DOOM which enables gamers to play DOOM on their Commodore 64 via the RAD Expansion Unit by Frenetic.
The RAD Expansion Unit contains a Raspberry Pi that takes the role of a CPU replacement for the Commodore 64. The graphics are still rendered by the original VIC-II chip. All technical details of RAD-DOOM can be found in Frenetic’s GitHub repo.
The gameplay starts off with keyboard controls, with the 1351 mouse control enabled later on. The special settings menu is visible from time to time where graphics rendering options and screen presets are available.
It’s amazing (and darn awesome!) what is still possible on the 41 year old 8-bit computer! Long live the C64!
source: emulaThor
The Official Real-life Boots of Super Mario Bros.
With the imminent release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Nintendo’s popular plumber now has his own real life boots!
Minnesota-based Red Wing Shoes (their logo is very reminiscent of Honda’s) has teamed up with Nintendo to create pixel-for-stitch-perfect Mario boots which will be on display at the Nintendo World New York store at Rockefeller Center from now till April 30th!
Even the “making of” video of these boots is cool, so check it out below, wa-hoo!
source: Illumination
image source: Red Wing Shoes
Pulp Fiction Pinball – The Bad Mother Flipper
When Ms. Ausretrogamer gets excited for a new pinball machine, you know it is going to be a special one!
One of the most requested themes in the pinball world has been Pulp Fiction, the cult classic 1994 crime film by Quentin Tarantino. Almost 30 years since the movie was released, Chicago Gaming Company and Play Mechanix Pinball have answered our prayers with a lineup of Pulp Fiction pinball beauties!
The Pulp Fiction lineup!
image source: Chicago Gaming Company (prices in $USD)
The Bad Mother Flipper LE
Designed by Mark Ritchie, who also designed classic pinball machines Fish Tales and Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure in the early 1990s, this new machine is in keeping of the era, reminiscent of the alphanumeric / early solid state machines, which translates well with this theme. Checking out the below trailer, there is no doubt that Pulp Fiction translates well into the world of pinball.
source: Chicago-Gaming Company
From their website, Chicago-Gaming Company state:
Pulp Fiction is a retro-inspired full-featured modern pinball machine. Developed at the request of Quentin Tarantino who wanted an 1980’s style Pulp Fiction themed pinball machine for his home. Tarantino’s continued involvement throughout the project shaped the final game. Tarantino rarely licenses his intellectual property, it is a unique privilege to produce a game which pays tribute to this masterpiece.
Legendary pinball designer Mark Ritchie masterfully crafted a playfield which on its surface appears comparable to games from this era but outside of initial perception features more mechanisms and greater depth than most games produced today. David Thiel forcefully pulls the player into this world utilizing over 250 iconic lines from Pulp Fiction’s legendary cast, five licensed songs from the original movie soundtrack, and a number of original compositions. Josh Sharpe developed an approachable rule set that is both intuitive and deep enough to engage even the most skilled player. Scott Pikulski’s vintage inspired art package is both stunning and perfectly cohesive.
The Limited Edition (LE) will surely sell out quite quickly, are you getting one?
image source: Chicago-Gaming Company
My ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ Weekend
By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.
Here is a little secret about entertainment: if something is good, people are usually going to find it and make it a success.
I’ve stayed away from buying a “Sonic the Hedgehog” game for all my life, but one recent weekend, I decided to purchase “Sonic Forces” and “Sonic Mania” for Nintendo Switch.
I’ve always played “Sonic” in a friend’s dorm room or at an arcade when I was younger, but I never bought a “Sonic” game; and I had a Sega when I was a teenager. All weekend long, I went back-and-forth playing the two Sonic games. I played “Sonic Mania” a little more because I like the retro look and feel to it.
The main thing that I’ve always enjoyed about “Sonic” games is the speed. I’m not the greatest at collecting tokens, however, I’ll get through each stage in a speedy fashion. When I land on some spikes and lose all my tokens, I’m never fazed by it. My focus is always trying to get to the end of the stage. I’m always trying to break my previous record; my time is my focus.
Before buying the games, my last interaction with “Sonic the Hedgehog” was the first film, back in 2020. I tried watching “Sonic the Hedgehog” with Jim Carrey; I got about an hour in, and said to myself, “This movie wasn’t made for me.” I hear kids love the film franchise. Worldwide, both films made $725 million combined. A third film is in the works for 2024.
When I went into my Sonic cave for the weekend, I couldn’t stop playing, I was enjoying myself so much. Yes, the game is hugely popular and iconic, but the game play, like the original “Super Mario Bros.,” is still thrilling and engaging.
And, like “Mario,” there are many iterations of “Sonic” to come. In the future, I may buy a third “Sonic” game.
image source: Ausretrogamer
It’s Time We Got A F1 Themed Pinball Machine!
We love asking the tough questions here at ausretrogamer. Today we ask, is it time for a pinball manufacturer to capitalise on the Formula 1 (F1) popularity by creating a modern themed pinball machine based on this pinnacle of Motorsport racing? F1 cars and pinball share a lot in common, both are highly engineered and precision made machines, with thousands of parts making them tick to perfection, and let’s not forget, they require skills to get the best out of them.
Thanks to the Netflix produced Drive To Survive docuseries (season 5 now streaming on Netflix!), F1 has experienced a renaissance, seeing its popularity break records by garnering new interest from all walks of life, including interest from teenagers, women and young kids, which previously were underrepresented. With pinball also enjoying a golden era, the fusion of this racing theme into a pinball machine would definitely not hurt in expanding the popularity of the silverball game – it’s a match made in heaven!
Stern’s ‘Stern Of The Union’ Newsletter for November 2022 contained this pic with Max Verstappen that we hope is a hint!
image source: Stern Pinball
Of course the licensing side would impact what can and cannot be included in such a theme, however, there are many different ways to infuse the F1 theme into a pinball machine, either based on a manufacturer/team, a popular driver, famous track or the F1 as a collective.
Now imagine a F1 pinball machine featuring exotic materials like carbon fibre rails, a rear wing topper and an integrated F1-style steering wheel on the lockdown bar for certain modes. As for the playfield and rules, well, we can only dream big; from incorporating qualifying laps to get to pole position, pitstops when your car needs to be fixed or requires a fresh set of tyres, to hitting a gear shifter to change gears and possibly hit DRS to kick off DRS multiball and ultimately get to the Chequered Flag wizard mode to be crowned F1 champion – the list of what to include in the design and play of such a pinball machine is (almost) limitless.
We love Stern’s Mustang, but we really want a F1 themed pinball machine!
The EM Grand Prix was cool back in the day
We are aware that there are a few car/racing themed pinball machines, from Stern’s Mustang and Grand Prix, Bally’s Corvette, Williams’ The Getaway to Sega’s Viper Night Driving and Data East’s Checkpoint (to name just a few), but we are still missing a F1 specific pinball machine, so please please let’s have one!
Imagine if you will a Stern Pinball F1 machine……
