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Vans X Nintendo: Powered Up Streetwear

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VansXNintendo_HDRIt is great being on holiday – nothing beats being relaxed and away from your every day concerns! On our recent trip to Queensland’s Gold Coast, where it is beautiful one day and perfect the next, we happen to stumble across the Vans store at the Pacific Fair Shopping Centre. To our surprise, the store featured a complete Vans X Nintendo range by having an eye catching display at the front of their store.

We obviously didn’t need much coaxing to enter the Vans store once the exclusive 8-bit Nintendo graphics inspired gear caught our attention. The Vans X Nintendo range includes all of your fave Nintendo characters in an assortment of streetwear; from shoes, trucker’s hats, backpacks, to ties, socks, t-shirts and long-sleeve sweaters! Oh yeah, there are sizes for the little ones too!

So get “Off The Wall” and check out what we found at the Vans store on the Gold Coast…

Vans Gold Coast! What do we have here then…..
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Woohoo, the Vans X Nintendo Collection is ranged!
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So much to see and touch! What do we look at first?
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Cool runners (that’s sneakers for our American friends)
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Oo’er, we REALLY like these NES inspired runners!
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GAME OVER? Never!
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Tough choice: Donkey Kong or Duck Hunt…..
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Mario and Luigi’s personal parking spots!
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CIB – complete in box! Gotta try some!
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The level of detail is phenomenal!
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Gonna keep this!
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Whoa, the kids can don their Vans X Nintendo gear too!
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Vans X Nintendo is where the heart is…
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We didn’t walk away empty handed *wink*VansXNintendo_box

We had to get the cool NES runners!
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Oh yes, the collectable pins given away were a great surprise!
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It’s never GAME OVER!
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Brisbane Retro Hunting: Gametraders

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GametradersBris_HDRGametraders stores may have gone the way of the dodo bird in metropolitan Melbourne, but they are still going strong in the suburbs of Brisbane!

Hitting the Gametraders store at Westfield Chermside Shopping Centre brought back memories of how we used to enjoy hunting for retro gaming gear at the Highpoint store, which sadly closed a few months ago.

So what did we find at Gametraders Chermside? Take a peek down below. *winks*

Let’s get hunting!
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What do we have here then?
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The Perfect Mega Drive Street Fighter II weapon: The Honey Bee SF-3
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We spy more Nintendo controllers and Game Boy games!
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Oo’er, Mega Drive and Master System games!
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We want this game!
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Nintendoooooooooooo!
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Atari Lynx gear amongst the NES and SNES juggernaut!
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Look up, you never know what you’ll see!
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Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Is Coming!

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pacman-ce2-HDRPac-Man fever strikes back! Mark September 13 in your diary, as this will be the day that the yellow dot chomper digitally hits Steam®, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One!

Taking cues from its past games in the series, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 features new eye-popping 3D graphics and funky visuals where players will be chomping and chasing ghosts through mazes to a whole new level of addictive fun gameplay!

Players will experience brand-new ways of playing Pac-Man with numerous new features such as the Time Attack and Adventure modes. Gather as many points as possible by herding ghosts into ghost trains in a specified time thanks to the Chain Eating feature, chase fast fleeing fruits, fight big bad bosses, experience ridiculous remixed rules and much more! Get your fast twitch skills ready, as Pac-Man fever will take its hold on you!


source: Bandai Namco Enterntainment Europe

 

Low-Level Festival 2016

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LowLevel_HDRThe Low-Level festival is happening again this year on August 19th and 20th at The Muse in Brooklyn, NYC. This year’s unique event will bring together 14 live musical and visual performances, large scale installations and game cabinets. 

Among the talented exhibitors, Andy Reitano will be there to showcase his secret soviet weapon arcade game VEC9 and the latest build of his new NES game, Super Russian Roulette. Andy will be there both days testing the latest updates with players, so make sure you drop by and give him some constructive feedback. You never know, you may score some exclusive giveaways!

Just in case you don’t know what the Low-Level festival is all about, it is two days of lo-bit music, art and indie arcade games. Performers and exhibitors at this year’s Low-Level event will include: Make Up & Vanity Set, Chipzel, FearOfDark, Trey Frey, Partytime! Hexcellent!, Enerjawn, Death by Audio Arcade, Line Wobbler and many more!

If you are keen to hit Low-Level 2016 in NYC this weekend, check out the ticketing details here!

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image source: Low-Level and Andy Reitano

End Game: The Different Goals In OutRun

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OutRun_HDRAh, OutRun! It was the first street racing arcade game where you drove a Ferrari Testarossa at breakneck speeds with a female passenger in tow, feeling the wind in your hair as you raced to your next checkpoint area to progress further in the game. It was as simple as that, thank you Mr. Yu Suzuki.

OutRun’s simplicity was its biggest drawcard – the flash red car, gorgeous woman, awesome graphics (especially the crashes!), great European tracks (with uphill and downhill gradients!), brilliant music (oh that Magic Sound Shower tune!) and the choice of path to take when confronted with a fork in the road!

It was this choice of which road you took in OutRun which ultimately lead you to five very different goals (endings), some more humorous than others. For those of you that weren’t aware or had not seen all of OutRun’s different endings, here they are for your pleasure! Don’t forget to lock the Testarossa!

Choose your course – it’s as easy as a, b, c, d or e!
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Course: Vineyard (a)
End Goal: No wine here for the easy winner. After the driver is hoisted aloft by the crowd, they then get distracted by a bikini clad lady and drop the driver to the bitumen. That’s gotta hurt!
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Course: Death Valley (b)
End Goal: How apt is the name of this route as your Testarossa literally falls apart the second the winning line is crossed. Instead of celebrating, your driver will need to wait for a while for the Ferrari roadside assist van to rock up.
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Course: Desolation Hill (c)
End Goal: What could be the winning prize here? Perhaps the camels to take the driver back to civilisation as the Ferrari has ran out of fuel? Hang on, what will the driver wish for when rubbing that lamp? Oh, a harem!
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Course: Autobahn (d)
End Goal: As the crowd gathers to see the driver receive the big gold trophy, he gets embarrassingly bypassed by the presenter, with the trophy being handed to his female passenger! ZING!
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Course: Lakeside (e)
End Goal: As the driver screeches past this most difficult of all goals, he is finally rewarded for his most excellent driving skills! Now he is ready to party!
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image source: The Video Game Museum

 

The Commodore 64 Store

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Commodore will always be our first true (gaming) love. Yeah, we may have wanted an Atari (VCS/2600), but then we saw the C64 and the rest, as they say, is history.

You could imagine our delight when we came across a Lemon64 post showing a heap of photos from an Australian Commodore store from the late 90s (thanks Rob Caporetto!).

Lemon64 forum user, CronicBadger was kind enough to share the photos he took from the Korella Trading’s ‘The Commodore 64 Store’ in Belmont, N.S.W. Being a huge Commodore fan, CronicBadger shares some great stories that he had heard in the store , including how Commodore was still importing C64s in 1993 to fulfil demand for the venerable 8-bit micro! To read more of CronicBadger’s reflection (and see more awesome pics) from ‘The Commodore 64 Store’, head on over to the Lemon64 forum now.

C64 Store shopfront

C64 Store front

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C64 Store internet

C64 Store peripherals

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source: CronicBadger on Lemon64

 

Las Vegas Shenanigans: The Fun Dungeon At Excalibur

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LV_Shenanigans_FunDungeon_HDRIn this last of our Las Vegas Shenanigans feature series, we hit the Fun Dungeon at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino! If you thought that The Big Apple Coaster & Arcade looked awesome, wait till you see how much fun we had at the Fun Dungeon! Well, what are you waiting for, take a look down below! Viva Las Vegas!

The upside down Atari sign is pointing down! Let’s go!
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Oh no, not this guy! Nah, we don’t wanna know our fortunes!
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Ello, ello, ello, what do we have here then……Golden Oldies!
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Right-io, let’s fight then!
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Woohoo, silver-ball action!
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Where to go next? Aha, perhaps to a galaxy far, far away?
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The menacing T-Rex looks enticing!
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What’s this red bubble thing then……..
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Should we challenge this dude? Nah, we don’t wanna embarrass him 😉
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Oh man, so many choices – to fight or go off-road driving?
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No punching on this ice skating rink!
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Big rig drivin coming up!
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Ms ausretrogamer tries her hand at flying! Land that plane!
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Some snow action too!
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Rushing off to San Fran, baby!
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Love being a (crazy) taxi driver!FunDungeon16

Shoot! Dodge!
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Where play saves the day? Indeed it does!
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Found another Atari arcade machine in the desert!
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Batwoman, oops, we mean Ms ausretrogamer shows Batman how it’s done!
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All this play has made us work up a massive hunger (and thirst)! 
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Las Vegas Shenanigans: The Big Apple Coaster & Arcade

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Vegas_Shenanigans_NYNY_HDRWhat happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Pfft, if that were the case then we would not have told you about our exploits at Toy Shack and A Gamer’s Paradise while in Sin City. What we haven’t told you about (yet), is our arcade and pinball shenanigans at the resort casinos, like the The Big Apple Coaster & Arcade in New York New York.

Rather than write about this experience infinitum, we’ll let our photos tell the story. What we will say is that The Big Apple Coaster & Arcade is damn awesome! It has that Coney Island (seaside) amusement feel, which makes the experience even more authentic. To top it off, there is a roller coaster whizzing around on the top of the resort for that ultimate adrenaline rush! Enjoy the ride!

All stairs lead to The Big Apple Coaster & Arcade at New York New York!
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We have reached amusement nirvana!
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Locked and Loaded!
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Time to have some flippin fun!
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What to play first?
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Ms ausretrogamer chooses wisely!
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While Metallica is in use, AC/DC gets a workout by yours truly
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What should we play next? Oo, gun games!
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Gonna hunt us some dinosaurs!
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From one Jurassic Park to another!
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Whoa, Max Flight – VR 2002 style!
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Ms ausretrogamer tries out some old school Virtual Reality!
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Ticket Track? Ahhh, why not….
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Oo’er, very glowy!
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Raw Thrills? Count us in!
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Some NITRO action coming up!
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Decisions, decisions! Let’s Go Jungle then!
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All roads lead back to pinball!
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When in Vegas, you gotta check out The Wizard Of Oz: 75th Anniversary pinnie!
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There is no way I’ll be dragged off this pinball machine!
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Alright, we need our adrenaline rush! Let’s ride the Manhattan Express!
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Gotta grab a feed before we get back into more gaming!
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In the next of our Las Vegas Shenanigans series, we’ll feature the Fun Dungeon at Excalibur!

 

Film Review: Wizard Mode

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WizardMode_DMDThere is something enticing about pinball – the flashing lights, pop bumpers, drop targets and the challenge of playing better in each game seems to draw people from all walks of life. Among the top tier pinball players in North America, there is one name that constantly stands out, Robert Emilio Gagno. Through his dedication to pinball, Robert has won many a tournaments and competitions and now strives for the ultimate pinball reward, Wizard Mode. Oh, and Robert happens to have autism.

Wizard Mode is a candid personal perspective on autism through the life of the current world champion of pinball. The film follows Robert as he seeks to balance his quest to become a world pinball champion and his growing real world responsibilities, culminating in the largest pinball tournament at the world, Pinburgh, in Pittsburgh, PA.

We laughed, we cried, we cheered, we applauded, and most importantly, we were inspired by Robert Gagno’s story to become (spoiler alert), the pinball champion and a champion in life! Robert has definitely achieved Wizard Mode and the filmmakers from Vimeo and Salazar Film have hit the Super Jackpot!

Currently available on Vimeo in the U.S. and Canada. Wizard Mode will be available worldwide later this year.

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Wizard Mode

WizardMode_Postersource: Wizard Mode Film

 

Wish We Were At San Diego Comic-Con 2016

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As massive fans of everything Masters Of The Universe (MOTU), this year’s San Diego Comic-Con (starting July 21) proves yet again that it is the paradise for exclusive MOTU gear for collectors!

If you are like us and cannot attend this Con of all Cons, here are a few cool MOTU items (from Super7) we wish we could get our hands on! Oh yeah, the NECA Toys TMNT Arcade action figures are on our wishlist too!

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SDCC2016_SL_SkeletorGlow

SDCC2016_MOTU_MUSCLE_24pack_Green

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SDCC2016_SL_8bitHenchmen

SDCC2016_Skeletor_Lair_MOTU_MUSCLE_cansource: Super7