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Reset64 Presents – Chuckie Egg (VIC20)

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This is so awesome to see – Chuckie Egg can now be played on the VIC20! Oh yeah, it can also be played on the TheC64/TheVIC20 or your fave VIC20 emulator. So those ZX Speccy, BBC Micro and Dragon 32 folks can stop gloating, us Commdore gamers can now play this classic game too! Big shout out to Reset64 Magazine and Derek for keeping us gamers entertained with brilliant (and quite nostalgic) video games!

For more information on (and instructions on how to play) Chuckie Egg (VIC20), and to download the game, go to the Reset64 Magazine itch.io page now! What are you waiting for, Hen-House Harry needs your help!!!

image source: Reset64 Magazine itch.io



Review: EPOS H3 Hybrid Headset

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We are the type that get freaked out by noise cancelling over-ear headsets. This is a personal preference, so when we received our Ghost White EPOS H3 Hybrid headset, we were eager to try them out on multiple platforms, from our current gen gaming consoles, Windows 10 PC, to our Android and iOS devices.

The beauty of the EPOS H3 Hybrid headset is that it has multiple connectivity options, so no matter if you are using it on PC, Mac, Xbox (One or X|S), PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch or any other Bluetooth compatible devices, the H3 Hybrid can be your one stop headset, so no more carrying different headsets for multiple applications. Being an EPOS product, you expect a premium gaming audio experience, which we can safely say the H3 Hybrid delivers. The high quality digital audio extends to mundane uses, like those daily never ending Zoom calls – which we must admit, our colleagues were quite in awe of our headset and wanted to know more about them, which speaks volumes of the design.

The EPOS H3 Hybrid follows on from the success of the recently released H3 wired closed acoustic headset, but amps it up with multiple connectivity options, a removable boom arm, simultaneous Bluetooth® for audio mixing, and a very importantly, a long-lasting battery for on-the-go Bluetooth® audio – unlocking the Power of Audio anywhere. This is where the H3 Hybrid really shined – we took it to task during our 8+ hour work day, connected via Bluetooth to our PC, which we had multiple Zoom, WebEx and MS Teams meetings. We also had music pumping throughout the day, which was tremendous to listen to with amazing acoustic clarity and deep base (via EPOS’ 7.1 surround sound) – our ears were truly in aural heaven! Our work colleagues also commented on how clear we came across in our calls, so that is testament to the detachable boom arm (main mic, with the secondary mic in the ear cup – which can be used when the main boom arm is detached). Even after all that work day punishment, the battery was still green, meaning we had heaps of juice left to use our H3 Hybrid headset on our gaming systems. According to EPOS, the headset provides 37 hours of Bluetooth audio (between charges), which is great, as we loathe to be charging stuff every day.

The headset feels like a quality product in your hands, but how do they feel on your head and over your ears. Well, we can say that they felt pretty good. We did find that after 3 or so hours of continuous use, we had to take them off to give our ears a break, which again, is a personal preference. The headset can be adjusted via its built-in stainless steel headband slider, so no matter the size of head, it can be adjusted to fit accordingly.

There is no doubt the H3 Hybrid is designed and aimed at gamers that want one high-quality headset that has the versatility to be used both wired with their preferred gaming platform and simultaneously or separately connected via Bluetooth for other uses, like using a 3rd party chat app on their smartphone while enjoying latency free in game audio on their PC, which it does with ease and does it brilliantly. The headset is available in Onyx Black or Ghost White, so not much choice in the colourways – but who needs a turquoise headset anyway?! Inside the package, you’ll find the headset, USB cable, 3.5mm console cable and the boom arm cover plate.

With its renowned EPOS engineered high quality build, multiplatform compatibility, simultaneous Bluetooth connectivity, dual microphones, EPOS Gaming Suite (Windows 10) compatibility and the detachable boom arm, the H3 Hybrid does feel like a next-level headset which we highly recommend you try out! Now, to connect these babies to our pinball machines……

The Details:

  • Make/Model: EPOS H3 Hybrid (review unit – Ghost White. Also comes in Onyx Black)
  • Compatible with: 
    • Wired: PC, Mac, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch
    • Wireless: Bluetooth devices
  • Release Date: September 14, 2021
  • Price: $258.89 via Amazon

image source: EPOS

Disclaimer: The EPOS H3 Hybrid headset was kindly provided by Events Engine for this review.



History: The Birth of the Internet Archive

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25 years ago, the entire World Wide Web was only 2.5 terabytes in size. Most connections were dial-up, important records were stored on tape, and a young engineer named Brewster Kahle was working on a revolutionary project—a way to archive the growing Internet.

Filmed by Marc Weber for the Web History Project, this video showcases the Internet Archive’s very first web crawl in 1996. In 2001, the project was made accessible to the public through the Wayback Machine. Today, the Internet Archive is home to more than 588 billion web pages, as well as 28 million books and texts, 14 million audio items, and 580,000 software titles, making us one of the world’s largest digital libraries.

As the Internet Archive approaches their 25th anniversary, let’s take a look at the hardware and high hopes that drove the project from the very beginning—and hear from the man whose vision made it all possible – press play here!

story source: Internet Archive



Casio x Pac-Man Vintage Limited Edition Unisex Watch

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Casio sure knows how to tug on our nostalgic strings! Their vintage classic line of watches brings back the 80s, and nothing screams 80s more than a Casio Pac-Man watch!

The A100WEPC-1B Casio x Pac-Man watch is a collaboration between Casio Vintage and Bandai Namco which aims to immerse you in the nostalgia of one of the world’s first blockbuster video games. Details on the watch glass hint at the exciting chase about to unfold as Pac-Man, surrounded in the square LCD display ghost house, is poised to start running.

Laser engraving on the black ion-plated metal band lays out the game maze. The game begins above the watch face with Pac-Man eating dots as he runs away from the ghosts and continues below the face after he’s devoured a power pellet and turned back to chase them!

The Casio x Pac-Man watch is retailing for AU$299.00! We bet these go fast!

 

source: Casio Watches



Parkour In The World’s Biggest Pinball Machine

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Does Red Bull give you wiiings? Well, according to Latvian freerunner and Red Bull Art of Motion champion, Pasha Petkuns, it certainly does!

Red Bull built a huge wall depicting a pinball playfield complete with flippers, ramps, drop-down target, bumpers, all angled at 45 degrees to provide some gravity-defying antics for Pasha to test his parkour and freerunning skills! Oh yeah, there is even a Harbour Bridge on the playfield!


source: Red Bull

For behind the scenes details on this Human Pinball, go here.

 



Vectrex Tournament: Vector War XI 2021

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Vectrex Tournament: Vector War XI (30th Oct – 6th Nov 2021)

Eleven years ago, a well known peep in the retro scene, Rob Maerz, started the Vector War. The Vector War is an annual Vectrex game tournament where Vectrex players all over the world compete. For this year, Vector War XI (VW11) runs for one week, from October 30 till November 6 2021.

The Vector War is for all player skills levels, from beginners to super expert players. In the Vector War you participate and compete with others. This is also a great opportunity to play the Vectrex games more extensively and get to know new games (and other peeps!).

For more information on the Vector War XI games list, competition rules and prizes, head over here and get ready! Good luck Vectrexians!

Thanks to RetroTuesday and Angela for making us aware of this Vectrex tournament!



The Retro Gaming Vault – September 2021

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It’s spring time! What better way to welcome the warmer weather than to delve into a deep corner of our retro gaming vault and dig up a few nostalgia inducing images from our past!

For September, we have your nostalgia covered with Neo Geo, Vectrex, PC-Engine, Commodore 64, Atari Jaguar and old school Nintendo items to name just a few! Enjoy the trip down memory lane and we’ll see you next month for more vault shenanigans!

All images are copyright of ausretrogamer



 

PAX Aus Online 2021 – Schedule Now Live!

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PAX Online (8th-10th October) schedule goes live and their sweet merchandise goes on sale from tomorrow (Sep 30)!

With less than 9 sleeps to go, we are very excited to let you know that the jam-packed PAX Aus Online schedule is now live.

There really is something for everyone with AAA content, the well-loved Omegathon, a virtual expo hall, legendary RPG anniversaries, dozens of amazing panels and events and a whole lot more that will blow your mind, so read on! Taking place across Twitch, Discord, Steam, and their website, you can jump in for panels, games, community events, games, and more games 😉

The three-day event will be kickstarted by Among Us developers, Innersloth, who will be delivering the keynote address at 11:30am AEDT on Friday October 8th – a talk that is bound to play witness to a bit of betrayal, sabotage and general hijinx.

RPG fans can tune in for a star-studded 40th Anniversary actual-play of Call of Cthulhu, a spicy “C” Team charity special and the return of PAX Quest, as well as a host of other dice-fuelled goodness.

Scratching a AAA itch? Don’t miss panels with developers including fireside conversations with DEATHLOOP’s Dinga Bakaba and The Elder Scrolls Online’s Matt Firor and Rich Lambert.

If that’s not enough, there’s dozens of other panels (dozens!) being shown across the three days of the show, with topics including the power of ethics in narrative choice, gaming accessibility, education, indigenous narratives, and esports.

A virtual expo hall and Discord channel provide the perfect roadmap for this virtual playing field, pulling dedicated community spaces for discussions, giveaways and a brand new PAX Explorer text adventure that will almost make you forget you are watching from home.

image source: PAX Aus

For those wondering how to literally drape themselves in PAX, they have you covered with the release of the official 2021 merchandise, available from 10am on Thursday 30 September at store-paxaus.myshopify.com. From cute camp-themed PAX tees to beanies, mugs and water bottles, PAX merch has everything you need to get that sweet, retail-driven serotonin hit!

With under 2 weeks to go until the show, it’s time to lock in that new attire, assemble the virtual crew, and buckle into that gaming chair because we can guarantee that PAX Aus Online is gonna be much more entertaining than that 1000th Zoom call you had to do. Because we’re all about achievable goals this lockdown!

Hopefully we’ll see you all in person in 2022!
image source: Ausretrogamer



Classic Xbox Games Specials!

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Checking in this morning, we noticed that Microsoft has unleashed their latest Xbox games sale, which has quite a few classic titles that piqued our interest! The beauty of the backwards compatibility of the Xbox means that no matter which console you have (after the X360), then these games will all work!

Go to the Xbox Games Specials to grab yourself a bargain. In case you were interested, these were our picks from this sale:

  • Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night ($4.97 / 50% off)
  • Castlevania Anniversary Collection ($8.03 / 75% off)
  • Contra Anniversary Collection ($8.03 / 75% off)
  • Metal Gear Solid HD Edition 2 & 3 ($7.48 / 75% off)
  • Namco Museum Archives Vol. 2 ($7.48 / 75% off)
  • Silent Hill: HD Collection ($12.61 / 75% off)
  • Final Fantasy VII ($12.07 / 50% off)
  • Resident Evil ($7.48 / 75% off)
  • Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection ($8.03 / 75 off)

 



Classic Atari 2600 Video Games in 3D

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Graphic artist Mauri Helme has quite amusingly created 3D animations of classic Atari 2600 video games, including Pitfall, River Raid, Frostbite, Keystone Kapers and the infamous E.T.

Imagine playing these on your trusty old Atari VCS/2600 😉


source: Mauri Helme



story source: laughingsquid