Australia's Retro Gaming and Pinball E-Zine
A very cool video of the evolution of Nintendo consoles by our good friends at GameSpot Today I Learned!
Before some of you say, “But where is the Game Boy, DS and 3DS?”, relax, this is the evolutionary line of their consoles, not their handhelds. Having said that, it seems like the Virtual Boy doesn’t fit in any category đ
How many Nintendo consoles have you owned since their Color TV-Game 6?
source: GameSpot Today I Learned
If we had a dollar for every time we have been asked to list our favourite Atari Jaguar games, well, we’d be able to buy a few Snickers bars. Jesting aside, you can stop Googling for the ‘best atari jaguar games‘ as we present to you, the definitive list (in no particular order) of the best Atari Jaguar games of all time*
*List may change when another awesome Jag homebrew title is released!
Before you get all, “But where the hell is AVP?”, relax, it’s a great game, so it makes the honorary list:
So there you have it. What do you reckon, agree or disagree? What are your fave Atari Jaguar games?
PS: If you want to have a robust discussion about our choices, hit us up on Twitter or Facebook.
The video game industry has become an entertainment titan with budgets comparable to Hollywood blockbusters being funnelled into AAA releases and new ways to play.
From those that made gaming more accessible and affordable to the entrepreneurs who made it possible to make money live streaming and even those just in it for the cash, several incredibly savvy individuals have made a name for themselves in an increasingly saturated market.
Like them or loath them â you can find out more about the biggest gaming moguls below:
Video Game Moguls by ABC FINANCE LTD.
If you have been with us since we began our retro gaming journey, youâd know that we are huge Double Dragon fans, especially the arcade game!
Speaking of the arcade, would you believe that Double Dragon is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year! Itâs amazing that after three decades, this game is still being talked about with such affection.
Kung-Fu Master and Renegade may have preceded it, but Double Dragon was the first co-operative beat’em up on the arcade block. Who could forget the two Lee brothers punching, kicking, elbowing Black Warrior thugs to get to their damsel in distress. Let’s not spoil it for those that haven’t finished the game, but let’s just say that brotherly love doesn’t count.
Being the first co-op beat’em up game, Double Dragon paved the way for all that came after it and kickstarted the golden age of the beat’em up. Long live Double Dragon!
Interesting fact: Double Dragon’s arcade board is quite complex – instead of utilising an expensive 16-Bit CPU, the game runs on two 8-Bit CPUs with a third CPU dedicated to sound! How ingenuous!
Forget the PC-Engine LT, apparently there is the PC-Engine Duo Monitor! Yep, you read that right!
NEC engineers werenât just sitting around high-fiving each other once they released the LT version, oh no, they wanted to create something similar for the dual CD/HuCard console – enter the PC Engine Duo Monitor!
These monitors are so rare, you will have a very hard time finding one and when you do, you will have to negotiate on selling a limb (or two) and a kidney â yes, these things are very very expensive!
source: eBay
Back in February 2015Â we told you about the Commodore 65 (C65) that sold for a then record of AUD$26,915.
Fast forward to today (November 9, 2017), and the latest C65 on eBay (serial number 000016) has sold for a whopping (and now new record price) AUD$123, 449! Geez we could buy a lot of pinball machines with that money.
Interestingly, the listing was deleted from eBay after the auction ended – time to speculate starts now!
image source: eBay
ausretrogamer.com Editor-in-Chief, Alex Boz, had the privilege of being a panelist on GameSpot’s ‘Blast From The Past: How Yesterday’s Heroes Became Today’s Icons’Â panel at PAX Aus 2017.
The panel discussed the obvious gaming icons, Nintendo’s Mario and Sega’s Sonic and what exactly makes them and other well known characters so timeless and appealing to every generation of gamers.
There is some chat about Sonic Mania by Christian Whitehead which leads to a discussion in what (forgotten) gaming characters should make a return to our consoles – watch for Alex’s choice towards the end of the video!
source: GameSpot @ PAX Aus 2017
The Panelists await their questions!
Alex The Comeback Kidd!
Watching the ABC’s Classic Countdown on the weekend, we saw a music clip that triggered a torrent of nostalgia. The music clip in question was Mi-Sex’s Computer Games.
Released in 1979, Computer Games was way ahead of its time, both in the context of the nascent computer and video gaming age, and the use of Control Data Corporation’s data centre to film their music video, which features a number of arcade games from 1979 – can you name them all? The answers are further down below – don’t you dare cheat!
For those of our vintage that remember this hit song, here it is for you to enjoy once again. And for those that haven’t heard this before, kick back and enjoy!
source: saynotonowave
Answer: Computer Games features Vectorbeam’s Speed Freak, Atari’s Basketball and Exidy’s Star Fire! Did you get them all right?
By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.
From the first time I played the arcade version of Midwayâs NFL Blitz at a movie theatre arcade, I was hooked. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of the colorful, over-the-top football game in arcades. And yes, that makes me feel old too.
Before there was Madden, there was Blitz if you were an NFL fan and gamer. Blitz wasnât as technical and stylized as a year of Madden, but it was just as fun and competitive to play with your friends. When Nintendo 64 released Blitz, the game was so different than any other football game on the market.
Blitz had a blown up exaggeration to it with the humorous violence when you tackled an opposing player. The explosive crunching sounds and the streak of light behind the ball when you threw it deep elevated the gaming experience. The graphics and play popped off the smallest of television screens.
The âlate hitsâ after plays were a bit much; so much so, itâs one of the reasons, along with some of the graphic collisions, the NFL almost offered to refund Midwayâs licensing fee. Iâm sure the NFL was pleased when they saw the early numbers of units sold.
Everyone I knew who had a Playstation or Nintendo 64 system owned Blitz. Like Madden or Goldeneye, playing Blitz was a happening at a friendâs house. I canât count how many times in high school I participated in an NFL Blitz tournament. No money was ever involved, but a friend had to wash my Jeep after I humiliated him in a rout.
On weekends, I would play an entire season (usually with the Cowboys or Broncos) in a single day. And I loved the pitch play. My go-to-play was always âDa Bomb,â or the pitch to my running back down the right sideline. The reverse pass play was always a must on a difficult drive as well.
As much as Iâve enjoyed years of Madden, I think I have fonder memories of playing Blitz. It wasnât as formal as Madden, but the action was just as enthralling and challenging. When you scored a touchdown against a really good opponent, it was just as gratifying as when you scored in a competitive Madden duel. And, I would know, Iâve played against some exceptional Madden players.
Twenty years ago, Midway created one of the most enjoyable football games ever. It still holds up, and when I play it, Iâm flooded with bittersweet memories of close wins and crushing defeats.
I hope, somewhere in a lively arcade, kids are still playing and discovering a version of NFL Blitz.
source: The Arcade Flyer Archive
By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.
When I was a kid, I was so ecstatic when I read that Nintendo 64 was releasing a Superman game. I couldnât wait to get my hands on it and play it.
Fortunately, my friend down the street bought Superman 64 before I did. I was lucky enough to never spend a dime on the controversial game made by Titus Software.
Superman 64 begins with Lex Luther telling you âYou will never find your friends in this worldâŠâ That confused me. The game isnât set in Metropolis, it’s set in Lutherâs âvirtual world.â You would think that the natural setting for a game starring Superman would be Metropolis. Too many cooks in the creative kitchen at Titus Software perhaps?
The dumb, unimaginative plot of the game has you (as the Man of Steel) go through a simple maze in Lexâs âvirtual worldâ to save Supermanâs friends. All you do for most of the game is fly through an unbearable number of rings that get tedious after ten seconds. Why did anyone think that this would make for an appealing game? It has the kiss of death for a console game: itâs boring.
Itâs incredibly hard to control Supermanâs course of flight at times. If you have Superman at the centre of your game, you would think developers wouldâve had a surplus of ideas that they could incorporate into the game to make it exceptional. The game was released in 1999; there were a lot of back issues of Superman for them to pull appealing ideas from.
At one point in Superman 64, you have to pick up a police car and carry it to the end of a streetâŠreal exciting stuff. During one mission, you have to blow random tornadoes away with your super breathe. And yes, I just wrote that sentence.
âLEX WINS.â I got so sick of âLEX WINS.â And you hear Lex do some creepy, stoner-like chuckle every time he wins. Then, in all of that excitement, you have to fly through more rings. There are no instructions for how to fly or breathe your super breath. There are moments in the game where you have a timer, and then, during other stages, thereâs no timer at all. It also takes a long time for Superman to get back up when he is knocked down. That was frustrating, and nothing about Supermanâs ability to take a punch should be frustrating.
There were moments during Superman 64 where you would get stuck in corners of the game and it would take a moment to find a way to fly again. When I played this frustrating game, I had no idea that Titus Software hadnât actually finished it. I found that out much later. But just from the confusing game play and the strange, green haze in Lexâs âvirtual world,â it was obvious that Titus developers had a little trouble in the developing stage of Superman 64.
If flying through rings surrounded by a green haze sounds like a fun gaming experience, you may enjoy Superman 64? As a huge Superman fan and gamer, this game was a big disappointment. Titus should have never let this game see the light of day.