ausretrogamer

For Sale: House Of Dreams

May 19, 2014 By ausretrogamer

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!

Minotaur: The Pop Culture Specialists

May 18, 2014 By ausretrogamer

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.

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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

Super Mario By Numbers

May 16, 2014 By ausretrogamer

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

Jupiter ACE: You Could Own The Brand

May 15, 2014 By ausretrogamer

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!

Trapped: Andy Warhol’s Amiga Experiments

May 13, 2014 By ausretrogamer

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

Review: Retro Arcade Watch

May 12, 2014 By ausretrogamer

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!

Retro Gaming Wall Art For Your Home

May 11, 2014 By ausretrogamer

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;

Getting a friend with access to a vinyl cutter to cut out designs;
Putting together your favourite retro artwork on Zazzle; or
Printing out designs on transparencies.

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.

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diaf23
Retro, science fiction, horror movie fan and breaker of things.

Follow diaf23 (dieinafire23) on Twitter

Retro Nostalgia and Collectables Fair

May 9, 2014 By ausretrogamer

On this past rainy and cold Sunday there was some nostalgic warmness emanating from the Flemington Racecourse. This hallowed turf, usually reserved for the sport of kings, was transformed into a nostalgists haven – the Retro Nostalgia and Collectables Fair.

The Fair had everything from football cards to video games and lots of Star Wars memorabilia – perfect timing with the ‘May The 4^th Be With You’ Star Wars celebration day. With a $5 entry fee (for adults), you were greeted with tables full of the happy stuff – items from a bygone era, an era that gave us lots of happy memories. The stall holders were open to discussion about their items and collecting in general. Their enthusiasm was genuine and infectious. There was the usual haggling on price, but that is your god given right to do at such gatherings.

The Fair atmosphere was pleasant and the crowd numbers were just about right – there was no pushing or shoving. Luckily the Fair was held indoors, as Melbourne turned on its charm with some typical crap weather! Bring on the next Retro Nostalgia and Collectables Fair!

images source: ausretrogamer

Retro Video Gaming Championships and Exhibition

May 8, 2014 By ausretrogamer

Attention Retro Gamers! Get your diaries out and mark June 1 2014 as “I am busy”.

The Amazing Mill Markets in Geelong will be holding the first ever Australian Retro Video Gaming Championships! First prize is a whopping $500 voucher to spend on retro gaming goodies – it doesn’t get any better than that! Entry is free, so you have no excuse! If tangling in gaming championships isn’t your thing, don’t worry, the exhibition should keep you occupied.

So what will you be doing on Sunday, June 1 2014? Hope to see you at the Amazing Mill Markets!

source: The Amazing Mill Markets

Steampunk Video Gaming

May 7, 2014 By ausretrogamer

Forged from the mechanical aesthetics of steampunk fiction, we give you the best of steampunk inspired video gaming systems.

So what do you think – Do you want your NES to look like it came out of the 19^th century steam-powered industrial revolution? I like it! Anyway, I think I’ll take them all, especially that steampunkish arcade machine.

NES Toploader