The Pop-Culture E-Zine
Do you think your hobby can be all consuming? Take retro gaming for instance – if you deck out your home furnishings with your favourite video game, is that going too far or not far enough?
Looking at some of the below items, I reckon I could go crazy redecorating our house. Perhaps I draw the line at putting Super Mario on the toilet seat. How far would you go?
images source: Dude I Want That
There is no denying that there were some awesome games released towards the end of 1990. The below charts are testament to these great games that still endure till this day (Ed: well, some of them anyway).
So, take out those Amiga Operation Stealth diskettes and blow into that dusty Super Mario Bros. cartridge for some unabashed retro gaming experience. Nostalgia rules y’all!
 |
1) Golden Axe (Sega) |
| 2) Chase HQ (Sega / Taito) | |
| 3) Operation Wolf (Sega / Taito) | |
| 4) Battle Out Run (Sega) | |
| 5) Double Dragon (Sega / Technos) |
 |
1) Super Mario Bros 2 (Nintendo) |
| 2) Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (Nintendo) | |
| 3) The Legend Of Zelda (Nintendo) | |
| 4) Super Mario Bros (Nintendo) | |
| 5) Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (Konami) |
 |
1) Corporation (Core Design) |
| 2) Shadow Of The Beast 2 (Psygnosis) | |
| 3) Operation Stealth (US Gold / Delphine) | |
| 4) Shadow Warriors (Ocean) | |
| 5) Wings (Mirrorsoft / Cinemaware) |
 |
1) F-19 Stealth Fighter (Microprose) |
| 2) Their Finest Hours (US Gold / Lucasfilm) | |
| 3) Shadow Warriors (Ocean) | |
| 4) Operation Stealth (US Gold / Delphine) | |
| 5) Midnight Resistance (Ocean) |
Forget about the seven kingdoms of Westeros. If Game Of Thrones was set in Super Mario World, then this is exactly how it will pan out. Enjoy A Song Of Ice and Fire!
source: NicksplosionFX
If you had all the money in the world and were after a property to suit your (inner geek) needs, perhaps this house in South Florida would be ideal. Marc Bell, a successful financier, producer and former head of FriendFinder Networks is selling his palatial home for a cool $USD35 million. You better befriend your bank manager!
Instead of focusing on the normal things people look for in a home, you know, like how many bedrooms, the façade, the number of bathrooms and is the kitchen bench-top made from granite, let’s cut to the chase and head straight to the recreational areas that will get your heart racing. If you are like me, you better get some napkins to wipe away the drool.
The 2000-square-foot ballroom converted into an arcade paradise. Oh yeah baby!
Care for a game of Foosball? If not, then pick from any of the other 60 games
Great taste in pinball and arcade machines!
If Call Of Duty is your thing, then head into the bunker!
My kind of movie room
Captain’s Log: “I love this Enterprise-feel bridge”
Make it so Number 1!
If you are an outdoors person, then perhaps the backyard will appeal
source: Business Insider
This house is the stuff of dreams, and unfortunately that is where it will remain for a lot of us. But, it never hurts to dream big!
Have you ever struggled to buy a gift for a friend or family member? Do you need ideas? Well, this is your lucky day – we reckon you can never go wrong with getting a pop culture gift for that special someone.
Minotaur, the pop culture specialists store in central Melbourne caters for all pop culture tastes and needs; from cult TV shows, movies, music, comics, video games paraphernalia, books, toys to clothing, you name it, they sure as hell have it. If you don’t believe us, just take a look at some of the photos we took on our last visit.
When visiting Minotaur, prepare to spend a fair chunk of the day browsing the drool-worthy items. The hardest part will be carrying the heavy bag of goodies you are sure to walk out with from the store.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Minotaur Entertainment
Address: 121 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne
Store Hours:
Monday to Thursday: 9:00am – 6:00pm
Friday: 9:00am – 8:00pm
Saturday: 9:00am – 6:00pm
Sunday: 11:00am – 5:00pm
If you wanted proof that Nintendo’s mascot is the undisputed franchise heavyweight champion of the video gaming world, then look no further. Watch the below video, you might learn something new. The Mario juggernaut just keeps on rolling on!
source: Alltime Numbers
Got a cool £10,000 burning a hole in your pocket? Do you want to own a piece of computing history? If you answered yes to both questions, then you could be the proud owner of the iconic Jupiter ACE brand.
Take a look at the ebay auction to find out what you get for 10K (it may end up going for more!). You better hurry, the auction ends on May 18. Good luck!
Back on April 25, we reported on the discovery and recovery of Andy Warhol’s digital artistic works from 30 year old Amiga diskettes. The Trapped: Andy Warhol’s Amiga Experiments documentary was shown this past weekend (May 10) at the Carnegie Lecture Hall in Pittsburgh. If you happen to have missed the première, don’t worry, we have it right here for you. Press play and enjoy.
source: nowseethis
Forget about wearable tech wristwatches like Sony’s Smartwatch or Samsung’s Galaxy Gear. If you want a cool retro timepiece on your wrist, then look no further than ThinkGeek’s Retro Arcade Watch.
Once we received the Retro Arcade Watch, we knew a review was in order to let you know what we thought of the watch and most importantly, if it is worth shelling out your hard earned cash. Read on.
Design & Function
The Retro Arcade wristwatch is chunky. Don’t let the chunkiness dissuade you though – it sits comfortably on the wrist with no nagging bits poking and prodding your arm or hand. This is no flimsy timepiece. Made from stainless steel, the case is made to withstand normal day to day punishment. The case (arcade cabinet) is adorned with Galactic Defense decals and also has a joystick and fire-button to add to the arcade machine realism. For pure awesomeness, when the fire-button is pressed, it lights up the hour indicators and marquee in red and also makes pew pew firing sound effects. To power all this awesomeness, the watch requires a CR2032 and SR626 button cell batteries, which are included.
ThinkGeek didn’t skimp on the band either, they partnered the cool case with a black leather band with white contrast stitching. The end result being a unique timepiece that is a throwback to the golden age of arcade gaming.
Display
In keeping with the arcade theme, the analog-style time is displayed with a combination of dials – space rocks for the hours and minutes, and a spaceship for the seconds hand. Did I hear you say Asteroids? Well, you said that, we didn’t. As mentioned previously, when the fire-button is pressed, the hour indicator dots are lit up in red, so if you find yourself in a dark alley and you need to know what time it is, just press the fire-button.
Coolness
It’s an arcade machine on your wrist that can tell the time and has awesome lighting and pew pew sound effects. How much cooler can it get? Well, if you could play Asteroids or Galaga on it, then I guess it would have been on the super side of cool. However, for under 50 smackers ($49.95USD) you get a watch that can tell the time and provide a coolness factor for free.
Verdict
If you are an Omega or Tag Heuer kind of watch wearer, then the Retro Arcade Wristwatch may not be for you. If you like to show-off your inner geekiness, then you cannot go wrong with this watch on your wrist. At the least, you will send tongues wagging!
If seeing arcade, Commodore 64, and console retro game classics like Frogger, Asteroids, Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. immediately bring you back to great times, then wall art would really rock for incorporating those gaming themes into a modern home.
People often ask me about the best way to incorporate retro gaming art for kids’ rooms, so I thought it’d be great to provide a few of the sources that I’ve come across.
Do It Yourself
The first and obvious option is the do-it-yourself route which includes;
Let’s face it, making your own ‘classic’ design may not always really be, classic.
Decals or paint?
Back in the day, I knew a great guy who would airbrush some fine art on whatever you gave him; doors, walls, cupboards, or even clothing. However, if you’re not ready to pay high rates for such masterpieces, or want to be able to upgrade the kids’ rooms when they eventually tire of your endless ranting about your childhood fascination with Yie Ar Kung Fu, decals are probably a more cost-effective, and easily-modified solution. This is especially true if you just happen to have bought 20 arcade cabinets while renting a place.
Something that occurred to me after putting up my retro gaming wall art, is that it would have been awesome to plan out a history series, starting with say Pong, and progressing through to later games. Luckily, they are re-usable, so this may some day become a reality for me.
Wall decal suppliers
You may or may not remember the Space Invaders decals on the set of the TV show, The IT Crowd. I certainly did, and eventually found that these were available from online stores such as Blik, Wallstickershop, and Amazon. These are mostly purposely pixel-styled images, which are accurate and licensed.
A number of people online have mentioned Blik, who seem to have varied their range over the years, but still have a nice selection of the classics:
source: Blik
Wallstickershop also have some licensed designs, but also offer the non-pixelart versions; which can sometimes work well, especially if your place is on the cozy side where you’ll view them from a closer distance:
source: WallStickerShop
As most retro gamers are keen to find those elusive items that aren’t immediately obvious, I also managed to dig up a few more:
source: Stickaz
Custom and cool:
source: Etsy
Humourous:
source: Etsy
Finally, here’s one that seems to be no longer available, but looks fantastic and hopefully will become available again at some stage:
source: Amazon
As usual, make sure you get permission from your family before embarking on redecorating your walls.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
diaf23
Retro, science fiction, horror movie fan and breaker of things.
Follow diaf23 (dieinafire23) on Twitter