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No Coins Required For This Phantasy Arcade Game Exhibition!

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Phantasy Arcade Exhibition is on from December 11 through January 9, 2022 at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, CA!

Born out of quarantine, Phantasy Arcade is an art project / unique exhibition that gives artists the chance to create their own custom (and very realistic) mini arcade cabinets! Although there are no working games, each artist has collaborated with a musician to create unique original songs or chiptunes as well. All cabinets are assembled by hand and contain a battery-powered light and optional mini bluetooth speaker for your aural pleasure.

There will be over 40 of these unique mini arcade cabinets on display and available for sale for a limited time. An exhibition soundtrack of all original music will also be available online.

To commemorate the occasion, there are cool enamel pins to adorn as well. To see the custom cabinets from the previous Phantasy Arcade, check them out here!


source: Gallery Nucleus



Tetris Waffle Maker

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Now this is our kind of thing! Firebox is selling an officially licensed Tetris Waffle Maker (£29.99), which can produce seven different cute Tetrimino-shaped waffles in just a few minutes. This would be a great Xmas gift for that special someone that loves Tetris, which is about 40+ million peeps around the world (including us!) 😉

image source: Firebox



Recreated Commodore 64 User’s & Programmer’s Reference Guide

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We all owe Iain Bennie a lot of gratitude for painstakingly recreating the Commodore 64 User’s Guide and Programmer’s Reference Guide (and the Quick Reference Card)!

We recently had a notification in one of the Commodore 64 Facebook Groups that immediately piqued our interest. It was a post by Iain Bennie that advised the 24,000+ members that after restoring his breadbin 8-bit beauty, he wanted to complete the set with new copies of the (old spiral bound) C64 User’s Guide and the Programmer’s Reference Guide.

Instead of scanning the original guides, Iain re-wrote them from scratch, reconstructing every graphic, including the front and back covers, every register map, block diagram, and every table to then have a wonderful and pristine final result.

This whole process took Iain a number of months, which clearly shows in the end product. Iain also had his re-written guides printed, which we must admit, look amazing – see pics and stop drooling already!

Not surprising, these guides have garnered a lot of interest from the community, which took Iain by (a pleasant) surprise. Iain has kindly made the PDF guides freely available (here) for all of us, which is darn awesome if you ask us. Oh yeah, he even has tips on getting them professionally printed! We and the rest of the C64 community thank Iain for all of his hard work and generosity in making these guides and proving them for free! What are you waiting for, go get them now!

source: Iain Bennie via Facebook



LEGO IDEAS – Pac-Man

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We love all things PAC-MAN! The yellow dot-muncher gave us PAC-MAN Fever 40 years ago, so of course we love this Lego Ideas entry!

If you love Lego and you love PAC-MAN, then you know what to do – hit that SUPPORT button now!

source: Lego Ideas – Pac-Man



 

Street Fighter II Arcade Game Coin

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Round 1, fight! This awesome limited edition 1oz silver coin celebrates the iconic 1991 arcade game, Street Fighter II™. The first Street Fighter was released by the Japanese game manufacturer Capcom Company in 1987 and gave rise to an entire genre of fighting games and spawned a multitude of sequels.

This precious collectable incorporates the game logo on a mirror finish background, above a coloured image of Ryu and Ken, mid-battle, with Ryu executing the special attack Hadoken. The obverse of the coin features the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, confirming it as legal tender.

image source: NZ Mint

The coin is housed inside a specially designed Street Fighter II-themed box which replicates the arcade cabinet – which is pretty darn cool! It features the coin’s battle image on the display screen and shows the main protagonist of the game, Ryu, on the sides. Confirmation of the coin’s authenticity is printed on its base. Lifting the “cabinet” off the base reveals the coin inside cushioned in black velvet.

Officially licensed, there are only 2,000 available worldwide. This is a perfect memento for those who grew up playing Street Fighter™ or indeed any gaming enthusiasts!

Check it out at NZ Mint here!



Conducting Our Reconnaissance on the Recon 500 Gaming Headset and Recon Controller

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Objective reviews are always tough! What we love may be absolutely loathed by someone else. But, we are always up for a challenge, especially when it is to convince us that a set of products we’ve never used would blow our minds. This was the case with being urged to review the Turtle Beach Recon 500 headset and the Recon Controller on our Xbox Series S – let’s say that we didn’t need too much convincing to accept the challenge!

Now if you are not one for wired gaming peripherals, then you may want to stop reading here and go and play some video games. If you are intrigued and want to know our thoughts on the headset and controller, then read on!

Recon Controller (Wired) – Xbox (Series X|S & Xbox One) & PC (Win 10)

There is a lot to love about the Recon Controller. Firstly, it is versatile to be used on the latest Xbox consoles (Series X|S), Xbox One and also on any PC running Windows 10! The other very obvious one is the additional buttons and controls on the face that manage all of the audio controls – this was probably our favourite aspect of the controller, as we could easily mute/unmute ourselves instead of fiddling the same controls on our headset. The four EQ presets were also cool, which you can choose to suit your own aural tastes. The mic monitoring and control was a welcome feature, as we could manage and adjust our own voice for clear online chat comms.

From an ergonomic perspective, we actually preferred using the Recon Controller over the Series S pack-in controller – which we didn’t expect! The grips, which are purported to have micro-cooling channels and are a comfy shape to hold, did feel good in hand, especially when playing Forza Horizon 5 for a few hours. Even after a couple of hours, we didn’t suffer any sweaty hands or fatigue, which meant we could game longer without giving our poor hands a break. The analogue sticks were a tad clickier than the Xbox Series S controller, but that didn’t deter play and we got used to their smooth control pretty quickly. On the other hand, we immediately loved the D-pad on the Recon as it wasn’t as harsh with its clicking as the Xbox controller – it was way quieter,  meaning we can use it at night when the household is asleep.

The 3 metre (10 foot) cable is a nice length, but it depends how you have your gaming system setup – if you are sitting 4 metres away, then you may need to move your chair (or couch) a tad closer. Since our gaming chair is within a metre of our console, the cable didn’t really hamper our play. Another very welcome addition are the two (Pro-Aim) mappable quick action buttons underneath the controller. These buttons can be used to program your favourite functions, which you can also save up to four profiles.

The Recon Controller took us by surprise as it blew our expectations by a long long way. It is now our go to controller on the Xbox Series S. Having our Windows 10 laptop nearby, it is versatile to unplug from the Xbox and into our laptop to play on it. If you are in the market for another controller for your Xbox (Series X|S and XBOne) or PC, then you should seriously consider this one!

Recon Controller (Wired) by Turtle Beach retails for $99.95 on Amazon AU.

Recon 500 Multiplatform Gaming Headset – Xbox (Series X|S & Xbox One), PS4/PS5, Nintendo Switch & PC

It is always welcome to have a gaming peripheral that can be used across multiple devices, and let’s face it, we all have a mix of gaming system, from green, blue to red!

We used the wired Recon 500 headset with our Recon Controller on the Xbox Series S and let’s just say, they go together like hand in glove. However, the strength of the Recon 500 being wired with a 3.5mm jack, is that it can be used on pretty much all modern day consoles and PCs. Since we had recently reviewed the EPOS H3 Hybrid headset, we could pit the Recon 500 against it and see which one we preferred.

The Turtle Beach over ear headsets we have previously tried, all seem to have large cups, which for us, is great. Perhaps the shape of our head and ears are perfectly suitable for this, as the cups sit nicely over the ear, meaning they are comfortable and you get the best audio blast from the larger cup. Pitting these against the EPOS H3 Hybrid, we found the Recon 500 to be a lot more comfortable on ear. The headband is nice and soft, ensuring the top of your head is well looked after, especially if you don’t have too much hair to provide cushioning!

The build quality is pretty good and durable for a $130.00 headset, but it does not compare to the higher quality of the EPOS H3 Hybrid, but then again, the EPOS headset is 120% more expensive – so don’t forget that. More importantly, how does it sound? Well, the patented 60mm Eclipse dual-drivers that separate the high and low frequencies gives you an immersive and ultra-detailed gaming audio – It’s like having a massive soundstage between your ears. As mentioned earlier, the precisely engineered earcups (injected with wood pulp composite) deliver rich and natural sounds that need to be heard to be believed. We keep going on about the earcups, but that is because they are supremely comy and suit our head and ears so well – they are amazing!

Coupled with the Recon Controller, we were able to use the EQ presets (on the controller) to change the sounds, which the headset happily obliged. We did find an EQ preset that we liked, so we stuck to it. Playing modern games with such personalised sounds is a great immersive experience. We also tried the headset on our Switch, and just like the Xbox Series S, the sounds were crystal clear and meaty for us to fully enjoy our gaming experience.

We aren’t eSports professionals, we found the TruSpeak removable, noise cancelling mic delivered reliable and super clear voices in online chats. Having a removable mic meant that we could also use the headset with out smartphone to listen to some tunes.

If you are in the market for a gaming headset that you can use on pretty much on all current gaming platforms, and you don’t want to spend more than $130.00, then we’d say you can’t go too wrong with the Turtle Beach Recon 500 (wired) headset.

Recon 500 Gaming Headset (Wired) by Turtle Beach retails for $129.95 on Amazon AU.

image source: Turtle Beach



Disclaimer: The Recon Controller and Recon 500 headset were kindly supplied by Five Star Games for this review.

Sinclair Book of Remembrance (SBOR)

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We received the following message from a friend on behalf of Jim (from SBOR – Sinclair Book of Remembrance) so we thought we would share with you all as we think it is a great idea for the community to share their memories of Sinclair’s computers and also remembering Sir Clive Sinclair.

The Sinclair Book of Remembrance (SBOR) is a project dedicated to the memory of Sir Clive Sinclair who sadly passed away on the 16th September 2021.

Moved as I was, SBOR has been a personal labour of love, to do something in honour of “Uncle Clive”. It is not a business project. It’s completely free and non-monetised.

The objective is to create a unique digital monument, composed of our shared Sinclair memories encoded together so that the final product represents each and every one of us.
For those thinking this is an NFT thing – it is definitely not! It is an opportunity for each of us to share a memory, and together create a unique dedication to Sir Clive.

I am asking that each of us contribute a Sinclair memory, by simply sending an email with your story (with up to 4 image attachments). By sending your email to [email protected] it will trigger the system to automatically create an entry to the SBOR site – for example: https://sbor.uk/m/1?code=41ce. You will receive a reply containing the link to your contribution, which I would urge you to share far and wide!

At a pre-determined date, say the 1-year anniversary of Sir Clive’s passing, all of the entries will be combined and encoded into a single unique value. This will be unique in the universe and will represent all of our combined memories of what Sinclair meant to us and something we can all share in.



Review: PAC-MAN: Birth of an Icon

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There has been one aspect of classic gaming that we’ve always enjoyed, and that is books! There have been a number of awesome classic gaming books released over the years which we have covered on this site, and we are quite chuffed to review the latest book from Cook and Becker, PAC-MAN: Birth of an Icon.

The iconic PAC-MAN (and his ghostly foes, Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde) needs no introduction, as the arcade game captured the hearts of millions around the world upon its release 41 years ago, and has been played many times over on home systems during the intervening years. There is a reason that the arcade machine is still the number one highest-grossing arcade machine of all time – it was and still is an amazing action maze chase game. Once PAC-MAN crossed over from niche fascination to mainstream appeal, there was no stopping this gaming juggernaut.

The Standard Edition

The Collector’s Edition

PAC-MAN’s appeal has transcended generations of gamers, and this officially licensed (by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc.) book, PAC-MAN: Birth of an Icon, is the ultimate tome that is filled with historical facts about the yellow dot muncher, including; origins of the game (and going from Japan to America), design philosophies, original arcade source code, concept designs, art, archival imagery, marketing campaigns, merchandise and its impact to popular culture to name just a few. PAC-MAN’s story spans decades, touching everything from video games, pop culture to our world today, and PAC-MAN: Birth of an Icon captures it all beautifully in a quality book that has fast become the definitive work on the iconic dot muncher.

Lots of great chapters on all things PAC-MAN!

Go Toru!

Pac-Man Fever!

With every page filled with eye popping art and images, it is the stories told that capture your attention and keep you glued to each and every page till the last word. We absolutely loved reading the journey from creator Toru Iwatani’s “pizza slice” inspiration to the actual game and its inevitable success. The road from Japan to America is another fascinating insight into how Puck Man became PAC-MAN. Oh yeah, to read about Toru’s early life and love of pinball was another cherry on top of an already amazing layered cake. Another aspect that was a pleasant surprise which our inner geek loved, was the PAC-MAN Gameology. This portion of the book lists details about every PAC-MAN related video game from 1980 to today – we were gobsmacked to see (and learned something new!) that PAC-MAN features in so many games!

The design philosophy behind the golden age arcade hero!

The art inspiration of the yellow dot-muncher

The co-authors of this special tome,  Arjan Terpstra (Sonic the Hedgehog 25th Anniversary Art Book) and Tim Lapetino (Art of Atari and other books), have captured every aspect of PAC-MAN and translated it all into an amazing, hefty and beautifully presented book which every PAC-MAN fan and video games historians need on their bookshelf. PAC-MAN: Birth of an Icon will reignite your PAC-MAN Fever, so you have been warned!

Pac-Man invades popular culture!

There are two versions of this book that can be pre-ordered right now; the PAC-MAN: Birth of Icon standard edition (AU$89.95) and the limited to 2,000 copies Collector’s Edition (AU$169.95), which includes:

  • The PAC-MAN: Birth of an Icon book;
  • A unique PAC-MAN shaped box and level 256 glitch shaped slipcase, celebrating the visual history of PAC-MAN;
  • An exclusive PAC-MAN arcade token; and
  • A limited, brand-new 7” vinyl pressing of the 1981 smash hit “PAC-MAN Fever” by Buckner & Garcia!

You don’t get too many opportunities to get something special like this book, so if you have the opportunity, we highly recommend either of these editions. And if you were bitten hard by the PAC-MAN Fever back in the day, then we highly recommend you grab the Collector’s Edition – it is amazing!

PS: Australian readers can order either PAC-MAN: Birth of an Icon edition via our friends at PixelCrib!

No matter your language, PAC-MAN: Birth of an Icon has you covered!
image source: Cook & Becker



Disclaimer: The ‘PAC-MAN: Birth of an Icon Collector’s Edition’ book was kindly supplied by Cook and Becker for this review.

It’s Going To Be An 8-Bit Christmas!

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If you think you have had enough of video games related movies, then you may want to look away. For those that lap up these types of nostalgia-inducing films, 8-Bit Christmas starting Neil Patrick Harris as a father looking back fondly at the late ’80s Christmas where he desperately did everything he possibly could to get an NES, will be right up your alley! Since we can relate to this tale (we also wanted a NES for Christmas in 1988, alas we didn’t get one then), we are definitely keen on giving this a watch and getting right into the Christmas spirit!

Check out the trailer below to see if 8-Bit Christmas will be on your viewing list his festive season.


source: Warner Bros. Pictures



 

Super Mario Bros. Light’em Up

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Remember the Tetris light you could build from tetrominos? Well, now there is a Super Mario Bros. light you can build too!

The Super Mario Bros Build A Level Light is a stackable 16 light-blocks set that features a host of familiar icons and characters from the much-loved Mario saga, which you can arrange as you wish. Each pixelated cube is double-sided and can be stacked in a whole host of combinations to create your own unique Mario level.

With Christmas around the corner, this is the perfect gift for gaming geeks and nostalgia junkies alike, that will brighten up their home or gaming space.

source: Firebox



story source: technabob