Before you ask, yes, we did manage (somehow) to venture outside of the Classic Gaming area and hit the main expo hall (and more) at PAX Aus 2017!
Here is what we saw…
PAX Aus 2017 Was A Classic!
For a 5th year in a row, the PAX Aus Classic Gaming area proved yet again to be a popular spot for families, friends, kids, teenagers and people of all other ages wanting to get their hit of nostalgia.
The Classic Gaming area had it all – consoles, computers, handhelds, arcade and pinball machines. And for the more competitive types, there were tournaments to show-off their old school skills, like Press Play On Tape’s International Karate comp on the Commodore 64.
The museum displays had visitors intrigued, from Weird and Retro’s awesomely rare Atari pieces (like that cool Atari baseball and patches!) and Lord Sugar’s Amstrad micros, to our custom built Neo Geo MVS console and games.
In the arcade area, Greg Pell and Bartronica had curated some very cool and rare machines, like an original 3-player Rampage and a Ms Pac-Man. But once again, it was the fighting machines (Mortal Kombat II) and the gun games (Point Blank and Time Crisis) that proved quite popular.
As proven in previous years, pinball is getting a lot of attention, and rightly so. Skott Kellett assembled some absolute beautiful pinball machines with the help of the great pinball community – Bayside Pinball Club, Pinmem, Melbourne Silverball, Mr. Pinball and Zax Amusements. There were machines older than most players playing them and there were machines from Stern and Jersey Jack that had just been released. You would have been hard pressed not to have found a machine you would’ve liked to flip on.
The Classic Gaming area will be back bigger and better for PAX Aus 2018. For now, enjoy these photo highlights!
Look, this is where we are!
Almost there. Oh wait, we know this guy – it’s Mr Ant Stiller!
We have arrived!
On the way to the pinball section and look who we run into – Melbourne Silverball & Head2Head Pinball’s Marto!
Love this machine, again!
PAX Aus 2017 Cosplay
One of the main highlights at every PAX Aus is the cosplay. Even if you weren’t there this past weekend, you will definitely appreciate the awesome cosplay highlights package we have for you here – and to think, this was only the tip of the great cosplay iceberg!
Overwatch cosplay was well represented!
A bunch of Links. Now, to find Zelda!
Weird and Retro’s Kelly-Maree as Lollipop Chainsaw’s Juliet Starling
Press Play On Tape’s Phoebe as ‘The Puppet’ – FNaF2
Dragonair!
Of course we were bound to find a super couple
Skyrim by the awesome Combustible Props and Zel T
Zel T is gonna get ya!
A close cut!
2B (Nier Automata)
Even Pyramid Head makes friends with Nintendo characters
Nintendo Man?
Blathers and Celeste flew to PAX Aus too!
Sewn Chaos Orianna – Legendary indeed!
Cross-Cosplay = Roadhog (Overwatch) and Deadpool!
photos by: Alan Ly and ms. ausretrogamer
Amazon’s Retro Zone: All Retro. All The Time
While the big news is of Amazon arriving Down Under, we were more excited about their new Retro Zone!
Amazon has curated their best of the best retro gaming items, from console, games and toys, to clothing and books! Oh yeah, there is plenty of Sega, Nintendo, Square Enix and Atari gear too!
So what are you waiting for, go and hit up the Amazon Retro Zone now!
More Retro than you can poke a stick at!
The heavy hitters of retro gaming are all there! Wait, where is Commodore?
image source: Amazon Retro Zone
PAX Aus Panel: Blast from the Past – How Yesterday’s Heroes Became Today’s Icons
ausretrogamer.com Editor-in-Chief, Alex Boz, had the privilege of being a panelist on GameSpot’s ‘Blast From The Past: How Yesterday’s Heroes Became Today’s Icons’ panel at PAX Aus 2017.
The panel discussed the obvious gaming icons, Nintendo’s Mario and Sega’s Sonic and what exactly makes them and other well known characters so timeless and appealing to every generation of gamers.
There is some chat about Sonic Mania by Christian Whitehead which leads to a discussion in what (forgotten) gaming characters should make a return to our consoles – watch for Alex’s choice towards the end of the video!
source: GameSpot @ PAX Aus 2017
The Panelists await their questions!
Alex The Comeback Kidd!
PAX Aus 2017 Classic Gaming: Atari and Sega Console Giveaway
*** THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED ***
Thanks to our good friends at Five Star Games, we are giving away an Atari Flashback 8 Gold HD and a Sega Mega Drive Flashback HD gaming consoles to two lucky PAX Aus 2017 attendees.
To score yourself one of these gaming consoles has never been easier! Just follow these three steps:
- Visit the Classic Gaming area at PAX Aus (on any of the three days);
- Pick up an ausretrogamer flyer and take a photo of the flyer anywhere within the Classic Gaming area;
- Post the photo on either Twitter or Facebook using the #ausretrogamer and #PAXAus hashtags (make sure you also tag ausretrogamer on Twitter or Faceook!)
See, we told you it was going to be simple!
The winners will be selected at random by our Editor-in-Chief, Alex Boz. Winners will be notified after the event and advised when to expect their prize (Prize will be sent to the winners by Five Star Games).
So if you want to stand out from the other entrants, go and say hi to Alex (he’ll have his name on the back of his t-shirt)! *wink*
image source: AtGames
The Age Newspaper: Retro Gaming Revival
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
Classic Gaming Returns To PAX
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!
Mi-Sex: Computer Games
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?
Meet Jersey Jack Pinball’s Newest Pinball Machine: Pirates Of The Caribbean
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