The Pop-Culture E-Zine
I am not much of an emulation fan. I prefer to play the classics on their original hardware. Then along comes the Multi Video Games System Two cabinet (MVGS2-Dream-Station) by PAT47200.
It is at times like these that even I, a staunch retro gamer has to concede that this is one awesome setup. Please take my order now!
source: PAT47200
It is no surprise that I love pinball! At the recent PAX Australia 2013 exposition, I had the pleasure of playing an Australian made video pinball machine. Impressed with the ingenuity of the table, I tracked down Sana Nolan from Infinity Amusements and asked him to tell us about this exciting product – from inception to the current state of play. This is Sana Nolan’s story.
source: Infinity Amusements
Pinball Evolved: Infinity Pinball Entertainment System
By: Sana Nolan
Pinball – if you are of the right vintage, that one word brings back a flood of nostalgia. For the last few years, pinball has been experiencing a renaissance of sorts thanks to incredible titles like The Pinball Arcade (Farsight Studios) and PinballFX2 (Zen Studios). Unfortunately, no matter how good the software is, nothing can replace the feel of playing on a real table. For a true pinhead, a touch screen or controller just doesn’t cut it.
Over the last few years, enthusiasts around the world have solved this problem by building video pinball cabinets, otherwise known as “Hyperpin” or “Pin MAME”. These were real cabinets, with real buttons and a real plunger with 3 LCD screens to emulate the playfield, back glass and dot matrix display – and all the joy of the real thing without any of the maintenance headaches.
During the past 18 months, a work colleague of ours was building a video pinball cabinet, slowly working on it in his spare time. To celebrate its “play ready completion” he decided to show it off at PAX Australia 2013. Although I had been following the project for months, this was the first time I could get my hands on it and realize its incredible potential.
Everyone that played the cabinet at PAX Australia had two questions: “How does it work?” and “Where can I get one?” The first question was simple – with lots of time, research, motivation and (most importantly) electronics skills, anyone could potentially build their own cabinet, as dozens of people around the world have done. The second question was a bit trickier. When you build something out of love, you quickly stop keeping track of the component costs, let alone the hours of labour!
The problem with most enthusiast projects is that they often start with restoring an original pinball cabinet and the rest of the time spent on setting up the PC and MAME software. However, you cannot spend six months building a retail product which would see you get sued at the end of it!
This is where the journey of Infinity Amusements comes into the story. With the PAX Australia inspiration fresh in our minds, my wife Jennifer and I proceeded to work out all the necessary components, finding suppliers and working out the cost of the units to ensure their feasibility. Luckily, the numbers added up and the Infinity Pinball Entertainment System was born.
Microsoft invited us to show off the enthusiast cabinet from PAX Australia at their TechEd 2013 event on the Gold Coast. This event allowed us to test the waters by showcasing a “proof of concept” unit to Australia’s IT industry. With less than six weeks to the event, we completed our website and crowd-funding campaign. This was achieved with little sleep, but we knew it would pay dividends.
The showcasing at TechEd taught us an important lesson – we needed to have prototypes of our final retail machines. Everyone that played the cabinet at PAX Australia and TechEd 2013 had an absolute blast, but the machine suffered from major heat issues and various technical problems. To ensure confidence in our products, we had to demonstrate that these problems had been resolved. That was one week ago!
Since TechEd, we have been quite busy sourcing the required hardware to construct our first prototype. Thanks to the generosity of the Pinball Spare Parts Australia team, we also had a Williams cabinet to assist in getting the finalised measurements. In the last few days, we have also procured a 3D printer. This 3D printer will be critical to produce components as well as being an invaluable tool during the rapid prototyping stage.
Both Jennifer and I are geeks – half the fun of this project is the opportunity to play with different types of technologies. We find all sorts of excuses to play with new toys – I just wish I had more time to play PinballFX2!
It has been a fantastic journey and we look forward to demonstrating our retail prototypes within the next few weeks. You can follow our endeavours via the development diaries section on our website and our Instagram feed. We will also have the ausretrogamer team play test our prototypes – very exciting times!
Infinity Amusements is 100% Australian owned and we use Australian made components wherever possible. You can find out more, or contribute towards the project at IndieGoGo.
When Ram Man was asked by his friend He-Man to go to the local arcade centre, little did he know that the most powerful man in the universe was going to show him up at Galaga.
Their friendship is now frosty.
The DYKG crew have done it again! This time around, Nintendo’s Donkey Kong gets the Did You Know Gaming treatment. I confess, I am a huge fan of their site and love finding out stuff I had forgotten about or did not know at all. Press play and enjoy the history.
source: DYKGaming
The year is 1985. You walk into a smoky arcade parlour and the sounds of Galaga, Robotron:2084, Pac Man and Asteroids fill your ears. Dire Straits is blaring from the crackling sound system singing something about “Money For Nothing”.
You make a beeline to your favourite arcade machine. Coins are lined up on the screen as you eagerly await your turn. Once you get hold of the joystick and your fingers are poised on the fire button, excitement and joy fills your heart as you dash towards the last remaining aliens, pew pew, pew. The machine rocks and vibrates as you attempt to beat the high score. Just one more level, one more ghost, one more kick, one more blast and you will be the star of the arcade and immortalised forever on the high score table.
Those were the days before game-saves and redemption machines, when every game cost 20 cents and every life was important – an era that required true skill and nerves of steel to play.
Sony has unveiled their latest PS Vita model and the new addition to their hardware family, the PS Vita TV. I think i just heard Microsoft quaking in their boots.
Sony PS Vita
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Sony PS Vita TV
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Does this Sony announcement excite you? I am not much of a PS Vita fan (I still use my Nintendo DS and Sony PSP), but the PS Vita TV does get me quite excited!
I don’t know about you, but I still get that ‘butterflies in the stomach’ feeling whenever I stumble upon an amusement parlour (Ed: It is called an entertainment centre!).
During our recent trip to Queensland, not only did we stumble upon an amusement parlour, but we hit the jackpot – we found the largest Timezone in the world! A gaming paradise spanning over 5,000 square metres. This multi ‘Gold Coast Business Excellence Award’ winning entertainment centre knows how to cater for all gamers – young and old.
Timezone Funtasia has been part of the Surfers Paradise fabric for many moons. No visit to Cavill Mall is complete without going up the escalators and entering this great funhouse. There are the usual redemption machines, arcade machines based on smarthphone games (Ed: Doodle Jump!), lots of shooting and driving games, fighting games (Ed: I love a bit of Tekken), sports games (Virtua Tennis 4 is pure bliss), pool tables, slot car racing, miniature bowling alleys, air hockey and pinball tables, laser skirmish, merry-go-rounds, and even a dodgem (bumper) cars rink.
I know what you are thinking – were there any old arcade machines from the late 80s and early 90s? Sadly, there wasn’t. The oldest machines were Sega’s 8-player Daytona USA and Namco’s Point Blank. However, there were enough machines and tables to keep you occupied for hours, literally!
The two videos below give you a glimpse of this Timezone. Nothing will beat being there in person and immersing yourself in a game; savouring the game play, hearing the sound effects, music and most importantly, the feel of playing on a machine. If you do find yourself on the Gold Coast, give Timezone a visit, you will not regret it!
If you would like to feast your eyes on more arcade machines from TimeZone, check out our album.
If you thought the 8-bit rendition of Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ was cool, wait till you hear jeonghoon95’s arrangement of the song using Mario Paint Composer! Let your ears enjoy the tune.
source: jeonghoon95
On the back of Guizdp’s awesome Duck Hunt + Mega Man 2 amalgamation comes the heavyweight mashup; Super Mario Bros. 3 + Contra! There is something endearing seeing Mario blasting away with a gun.
source: guizdp