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Jon Hare’s Sociable Soccer Now Live On Kickstarter

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ss_dev_TitleIf you have been living on another planet and just returned to our blue marble, you may have missed the big news – Jon Hare, the coding genius who created Sensible Soccer, is back with a Kickstarter campaign to make Sociable Soccer, a worthy spiritual successor to one of the greatest footy (Ed: soccer) games of all time. With the pedigree of Sensi Soccer, you know this new game will be an absolute beauty.

Jon Hare’s Sociable Soccer will be kicking off on your  PC, Steam, XBox One and Playstation 4 at the end of 2016. To say we can’t wait for this game, would be a gross understatement. Kick some goals for Sociable Soccer by backing it right now on Kickstarter!

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ss_splashimage source: Tower Studios

 

Rebooting Shadow Of The Beast

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SOTB_PS4_PreBeta_04Logo_1445975732Back in 1989, Shadow Of The Beast (SoTB) wowed us gamers on Commodore’s 16-bit powerhouse, the Amiga. With its impressive graphics, awesome parallax scrolling and David Whittaker’s atmospheric score, Reflections/Psygnosis had produced another winner. The game was so successful, it was ported to a number of 8-bit and 16-bit systems.

The original SoTB has aged pretty well and still gets a lot of play time, so when we heard that Heavy Spectrum Entertainment Labs were going to bring this classic to the modern era (on the PS4), our nostalgic senses went into overdrive. Who would have thought that 27 years after it was released, SoTB would now be enjoyed by a new generation of gamers, while providing some heavy-duty nostalgia for gamers that enjoyed the original all those years ago.

Having recently played the demo and watched the trailer, Weird and Retro’s Aleks ‘Serblander’ Svetislav told us he was excited to see what the finished game would be like. I know we are not alone in saying that we are super excited that SoTB has been brought into the 21st century on a powerhouse system of this era. How will it compare to the original? Only time will tell. Roll on January 2016!


source: Sony Playstation

Now drool over these screenshots!
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SOTB_PS4_PreBeta_02Logo_1445975721image source: “supplied”

 

PAX Australia announces return of the Classic Gaming Area at PAX Aus 2015

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The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is proud to announce that the Classic Gaming Area will be returning for the third time, bigger and better than ever, at PAX Aus 2015. The Classic Gaming Area joins the dozen of areas on the show floor catering to PAX Aus badge holders over the three-day event including Tabletop, Console, PC, eSports, and more.

PaxAus_ClassicArea_2015Image source: Blow The Cartridge

The Classic Gaming Area will feature a plethora of playable retro consoles and computers from the 1970s to the early 2000s, and for the first time, arcade machines and pinball tables! This will also include the new and much anticipated Game Of Thrones pinball tables!

gotImage source: IGN

A joint initiative between PAX and Melbourne-based retro gaming experts Ausretrogamer, Retro Domination, Weird and Retro (all providing retro consoles and computers), local barcade Bartronica (providing arcade machines), and pinball enthusiast Scott Kellett with Amusement Machine Distributors, Bayside Pinball Club, and Pinmem (providing pinball tables), the Classic Gaming Area will transport PAX Aus attendees young and old to the golden age of video gaming.

Consoles on display will be NES, SNES, Dreamcast, Saturn, Master System, Mega Drive, GameCube, N64, PC-Engine, C64, Amiga, Atari ST, Atari 2600, Atari Lynx, Game Boy, Wonderswan, PS1, PS2, and Xbox.

The classic arcade section will include Mortal Kombat 2, Time Crisis, and even an original Donkey Kong cabinet.

dkImage source: Prima Games

Ausretrogamer’s Alex Boz explains “besides freeplay consoles, computers, arcade machines, pinball tables, and friendly retro gaming experts, the Classic Gaming Area will be running tournaments all weekend with some great prizes!”

Guy ‘Yug’ Blomberg, PAX Aus Content and Community Manager adds “the Classic Gaming Area has been a very popular and successful part of PAX Aus since we began in 2013, we are thrilled it is back for 2015 and excited about this year’s expanded range of activities.”

More information about the Classic Gaming Area, including tournaments, can be found at http://www.ausretrogamer.com/paxaus-2015-classic-gaming-tournaments.

Friday and Sunday badges and 3-day international badges are still available and can be purchased online at www.paxaustralia.com.au/registration.

For further information visit paxaustralia.com.au or follow PAX Australia updates via Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Source: PAX Australia

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msausretrogamerMs. ausretrogamer
Co-founder, editor and writer at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.

Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter

 

 

Pinball Frenzy At PAXAus

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PinballFrenzy_PAXAus_TitleWho said that pinball was dead? Well, it may have taken a back seat a decade and a half ago, but boy, has pinball come back in a big way. There has been a resurgence of flipping the silver ball with companies like Stern Pinball making contemporary tables based on the hottest bands and pop culture franchises on the planet, from AC/DC, Metallica, KISS, to Iron Man, The Walking Dead, Star Trek and WWE Wrestlemania, there surely is no shortage of great pinball machines to tilt and bump on.

Since pinball has once again become cool (Ed: it never lost its cool!), it was a no brainer to start thinking about including pinball machines in the PAX Aus Classic Gaming area. After meeting Scott Kellett at Supanova earlier this year, we had a brief chat and that is when Scott mentioned how cool it would be to have pinball machines at PAXAus. A few discussions later, Scott’s idea was given the greenlight to pursue having pinball machines in the Classic Gaming area. Through sheer determination and dedication, Scott has round up the big names from the pinball community (Bayside Pinball Club, PinMem and AMD) to deliver us an array of amazing pinball tables (Ed: there will be 10 pinball tables!) for all of you to enjoy and compete on. In a major pinball coup, Scott has arranged to have the first Game of Thrones pinball table available for play in Australia at PAXAus 2015 – even more reason to see you all at PAXAus 2015!

For those with a competitive streak, the ‘PAXAus 2015 IFPA Pinball Tournament’ (proudly brought to you by AMD) will be on Saturday, October 31 – more details here. There will be great prizes on offer, including showbags full of Stern goodies and an awesome Game Of Thrones backboard translite! Get your flippin fingers ready for some pinball frenzy at PAXAus 2015.

Event: PAX Aus 2015
Date: Oct 30 – Nov 1, 2015
Where: Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC)
Tournaments: PAXAus 2015 Classic Gaming Tournaments

GoT_Pro_pinballimage source: Amusement Machine Distributors (AMD)

 

Kickstarted: An Illustrated History of Game Controllers

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PlayerOne_HDRNow here is a Kickstarter campaign we can get excited about! Player One Books is planning on releasing three volumes in the illustrated History of Game Controllers series, kicking off with volume 1 (which is currently on Kickstarter!).

The books will detail the history of joysticks and game controllers beginning with 1972’s Magnavox Odyssey controller, through to the joystick boom of the early ’80s and the emergence of game pads as the dominant force by the late ’80s. The book will feature photographs, detailed descriptions, reviews and technical information on over 120 different joysticks and game controllers released between 1972 and 1989. 

If this is your kind of thing (Ed: it sure is!), then hit the Player One: An Illustrated History of Game Controllers Vol.1 Kickstarter now and pledge to make this happen!

PlayerOne_1source: Player One: An Illustrated History of Game Controllers Vol.1

 

Sponsored Video: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Hearts of Stone

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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Hearts of Stone

Step again into the shoes of Geralt of Rivia, a professional monster slayer, this time hired to defeat a ruthless bandit captain, Olgierd von Everec. This expansion to “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” packs over 10 hours of new adventures, introducing new characters, powerful monsters, unique romance and a brand new storyline shaped by your choices.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Hearts of Stone launches on October 13, 2015!

For more information about The Witcher visit:

Buy now: http://buy.thewitcher.com
Facebook: https://www.fb.com/thewitcher
Twitter: https://twitter.com/witchergame
Homepage: http://thewitcher.com/witcher3
Instagram: https://instagram.com/cdpred

 

Rebooted: The Amiga 1200 Case Kickstarter

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A1200_reboot_7Following on from their first crack at a Kickstarter campaign to create new Amiga 1200 casings, Philippe Lang and his team have listened to all the feedback and went back to the drawing board. The A1200.net team have come back with an enhanced campaign which they are hoping will please the most ardent of Amiga 1200 fans (Ed: us included!).

So what’s new in this campaign you ask? For starters, the Amiga 1200 casings will be fully licensed and will include the official AMIGA logo! There is a raft of other improvements and additions which you can read up on their Kickstarter page. We hope this one gets funded second time around!

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A1200_reboot_6image source: A1200.Net

 

On The Road To EB Games Expo 2015

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EB_Expo_Titleimage source: techradar

This time of year is always the best! The weather starts warming up, trees start blossoming, the major sporting codes play their respective finals and the biggest gaming event hits Sydney – it is, EB Games Expo 2015 time!

For the first time ever, ausretrogamer will be attending EB Games Expo 2015, assisting the Weird and Retro (WaR) crew in the Retro Central Park area. As you may (or may not) have known, Weird and Retro have been running the Retro Central Park area (formerly known as the Retro Gamer Garden) within the Freeplay City attraction at EB Games Expo for the last two years.

After hearing about all of the fun the WaR team has had at previous EB Games Expo events, we knew we wanted to be part of the action. We begged and groveled till they relented and allowed us to hit the road with them to Sydney (Ed: Um, this may not have been how it went down!).

To say we are looking forward to EB Games Expo 2015 would be a great understatement – we can’t wait! It will be great to travel with awesome friends and experience this event first hand. If you are attending, please come by the Retro Central Park area and get a hit of nostalgia by playing some old classics, or come by to check out the Interactive History Museum – you’ll have a ball! Hope to see you there!

The essentials are packed!
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Details:
Event: EB Games Expo 2015
When: October 2 – 4, 2015
Where: Sydney Showground, Sydney Olympic Park

 

PAXAus 2015: Classic Gaming Tournaments

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PAXAus2015_Tourny_TitleSo who here likes gaming tournaments? There are a lot of hands going up – which is great to see! Well, you are all in luck! The Classic Gaming area will be running tournaments all weekend at PAXAus 2015. You can compete for fun or for the glory.

There will be high score challenge tournaments on arcade machines, consoles, 8-bit computers and pinball tables to show off your prowess. Speaking of pinball tournaments, Saturday’s competition will be fully sanctioned by the IFPA! We suggest that you diarise the following Classic Gaming tournament schedule:

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You still have time to practice and sharpen your gaming skills. You never know, you just may end up being a Classic Gaming champion! Are you game to compete?

 

The Pinball Revolution Continues: Real Meets Virtual

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SternFarSight_Titleimage source: Stern Pinball Inc.

What do you get when two titans from the leisure entertainment industry join forces? You get excitement, that’s what! Stern Pinball, the force behind modern day real pinball machines, and FarSight Studios, the force behind virtual pinball games like The Pinball Arcade, have announced a new expanded partnership to connect the real with the virtual when it comes to pinball gaming.

This partnership will see FarSight Studios develop a new digital platform called The Stern Pinball Arcade that will feature exact virtual replicas of Stern Pinball’s hottest pinball machines. If The Pinball Arcade is anything to go by, then we are all in for a treat! The full announcement can be read here.

It’s time to get excited pinball wizards! Let the pinball revolution continue!