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19th Century Nintendo Office Recreated by Fan To Store His Collection

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This is what we call fan dedication! Actually, French Nintendo collector, Fabrice Heilig is what we would call a dedicated SUPERFAN!

Not only does Fabrice have an extensive collection of all things Nintendo, he has gone the extra (massive) step to recreate Nintendo’s 19th century Kyoto office in his backyard. Fabrice has created what all collectors yearn for – extra space (to house his collection), which he has done in style and in keeping with his love of all things Nintendo.

We must say, the result is incredible! Fabrice has faithfully recreated the iconic Nintendo building, with a tasteful fit-out to match the traditional Japanese style. If he wanted to charge for visits, we’d be his first customer!

Read more about the process of recreating this amazing building (with a ton more pics!) at Before Mario. This is amazing stuff.

Let the planning begin!
Nintendo Office

Foundation done and now the framework!

Laying the traditional Japanese roof tiles!

The level of detail is unbelievable – bravo Fabrice!

Now, to re-home the massive Nintendo Collection!

The finished product – WOW!
image source: Before Mario

 

PSA: Free Fusion Retro Books

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Fusion Retro BooksThe good folks at Fusion Retro Books have announced that they have a number of their books and magazine PDF collections FREE of charge for a limited time!

Go and check out the freebies and download what you like. Be quick, as this won’t last much longer! Happy reading.

source: Fusion Retro Books

 

Funny April Fool’s Jokes

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Don’t you just love April Fool’s day? Well, it depends, if you are at the end of an elaborate April Fool’s joke, then the answer is probably no. We have fallen for a few April Fool’s jokes over the years, so we know how that feels.

But, today is a day to reflect on some pretty cool and very clever April Fool’s jokes from some well known brands from around the world.

We wonder if anyone fell for any of these…………

 

First cab off the rank, it’s EB Games’ The Drip Limited Edition Apparel! Actually, they plan to release this apparel to raise money for charity, so it’s all in good fun!

The next few are food based, so don’t get your taste buds too excited peeps!

Oh gosh, we would love this Tim Tam Spread! Sorry Nutella.
source: Imgur 

Introducing the Domino’s Bread – so yummy! Well at least you won’t have garlic breath 😉
source: Imgur

Um, would anyone like a Coriander Biscuit from Subway?
source: Imgur

Saving the best food based April Fool’s joke for last! Would you DARE to drink this?
source: Imgur

Ok, enough of the food based April Fool’s! Let’s see what else we found today!

Oh look, SBS is releasing 3 exciting features on their On-Demand service!
source: SBS

Introducing Jeep Chameleon, a new colourway with revolutionary nano-guanine molecular technology to blend seamlessly into the wilderness.
*If you find it, you can keep it.

One for gamers, match your PC RGB aesthetic with Razer’s Rapunzel Chroma Hair Dye—the world’s first RGB haircare product for a look that’s always lit!

source: Razer

And last but not least, our friends at Ikea Australia got creative with their new range, IKEA HUND COUTURE – Haute Couture Outfits for Dogs!

source: IKEA Australia

 

Awesome Drone Video of Pinball Machines at the Pacific Pinball Museum Annex

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Drone Video of Pinball Machines at Pacific Pinball Museum AnnexAfter clicking through the amazing images of pinball machines (below), you’ll be blown away by the drone videos by live streaming producer, Eddie Codel, of the mass of pinball machines at the Pacific Pinball Museum (PPM) Annex!

Eddie’s bird’s-eye view videos are mind boggling, as they show the sheer volume of machines the PPM house and preserve for all of us to enjoy. With the current health situation around the world, we truly hope that the Pacific Pinball Museum reopens safely in the not too distant future.

 

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A post shared by Eddie Codel (@ekai)

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Eddie Codel (@ekai)

 

June is Atari Month!

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Attention our fellow Atarians (fans of the old Atari),

The month of June is fast approaching and you all know what that means – it’s !

To celebrate 49 years of Atari, we are asking you to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and get writing about your affinity for this iconic brand.

This is your opportunity to let your writing juices flow! To get you started, check out Matt Lacey’s Atari story from the last time we ran for Atari’s 42nd anniversary.

Once you are satisfied with your written masterpiece, just submit it to us here. The most entertaining submissions will be immortalised on ausretrogamer.com!

There is no word limit, so go for your life (just keep it clean)! Article submissions are opened from now till June 25 2021. That means you have (almost) 3 months for your submission, so get cracking you awesome Atarians!

 

 

NeoGeo Pocket Color Selection Vol.1 – Nintendo Switch

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First impressions of games is always difficult. There is the initial excitement phase of playing something new and the more obvious one, you just need more time to play the new game to fully experience it’s features (and shortcomings) before you can be in any position to pen some sort of subjective review.

Well, lucky for us, our first impression of playing SNK’s NeoGeo Pocket Color Selection Vol. 1 (NGPCS Vol.1) on the Switch is an overall positive one! To set the scene, we particularly played the two NeoGeo Pocket Color games, Metal Slug 1st Mission and Metal Slug 2nd Mission on both the real hardware and via the NGPCS Vol.1 on the Nintendo Switch.

Playing the Metal Slug games on the original hardware is great, especially using the clicky control stick on the NeoGeo Pocket Color handheld. However, playing it for any length of  time without the unit being backlit is a chore on your eyes. The same games on the Switch retain their original blasting charm, beefed up with a plethora of additional features, modes and ways to play and of course, the Switch screen is just so easy on the eyes. The Switch is suitable for these kinds of games, especially in handheld mode, but it’s flexibility in the way you play just makes this very compelling.

Our first impressions of the Metal Slug 1st and 2nd Missions on the NeoGeo Pocket Color Selection Vol. 1 are very positive. You could go and look for a NeoGeo Pocket Color system and then hunt the the Metal Slug carts online, or you can save yourself the time and lots of $$ by grabbing this for your Switch!

image source: SNK Corporation

 

A Brief History of Women in Gaming: The 1980s

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It is awesome to see that The Strong (National Museum of Play) has a Women in Games Initiative and their International Center for the History of Electronic Games creating brilliant history exhibits, like A Brief History of Women in Gaming.

You can check out A Brief History of Women in Gaming: The 1980s on Google’s Arts and Culture forum, which showcases a plethora of amazing and talented women in the gaming industry, from the assembly line to the marketing department, this exhibit highlights how women have shaped the games industry through hard work, creative coding, artistic imagination, and business savvy. This exhibit tells this vital but underappreciated part of history!

source: Arts and Culture – Google

From Carol Shaw at Atari and then Activision, creating her best-selling game River Raid, Hope Neiman leading the Vectrex home game console manufacturer General Consumer Electronics’ marketing efforts in the early 1980s, to Gail Tilden creating and editing everyone’s seminal favourite magazine, Nintendo Power, this exhibit is brimming with amazing and talented women in gaming.

Check it out right now!

 

2021 World Video Game Hall of Fame Finalists

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We have featured The Strong’s ‘World Video Game Hall of Fame‘ finalists from previous years on here, so for 2021, we were quite chuffed to see a number of our favourite video games make the final 12 cut!

From FIFA International Soccer, Tron, Mattel Football, to Pole Position, StarCraft and Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?, we would say that most retro gamers would be quite satisfied with this year’s hall of fame inductees.

Oh yeah, gaming fans can vote for their favourite finalists from now until March 25 (US time) as part of the Player’s Choice ballot at World Video Game Hall of Fame.

image source: The Strong

 

Over 700 PS2 Prototypes And Unreleased Demos Unleashed by The Hidden Palace

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Whoa, this is mind blowing – last night, the video game preservation group, The Hidden Palace, released over 700 PlayStation 2 prototypes, early builds, E3, and press release demos in a massive (900GB) dump the group referred to as Project Deluge.

You can read more about this massive undertaking here.

 

Watching Tenet on the Game Boy Advance at 4fps

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Sometimes you have to ask why – why would someone jam a movie into a Game Boy Advance cart to watch it on an ill-fitting screen (for movie viewing)?

The answer is, because they can and are clever enough to achieve this feat! Our eyes are already in panic mode just at the thought of watching a movie on the Game Boy Advance screen at 4 frames per second, but we are so glad that Wulff Den took the initiative and time to create these darn cool and unique GBA movie cartridges.


source: Wulff Den