The Pop-Culture E-Zine
Halloween may be over for another year, but that didn’t stop Daniel Ibbertson (Slopes Games Room) grabbing the Terror Mask and entering the West Mansion for a look at the complete history of everyone’s favourite slash’em up, Splatterhouse.
Daniel’s video looks at every single game in the franchise, Namco’s struggle against Nintendo and every movie reference found in the series so far. Go and grab some popcorn, leave the light on, and press play now!
source: Slopes Games Room
If you have been following our exploits here or on social media, you’ll know that we are massive fans of Technos‘ brilliant 1987 beat’em up arcade game, Double Dragon.
What’s there not to like, two brothers, Billy and Jimmy Lee, set out to rescue Billy’s girl, Marian, from the Black Warriors gang by kicking ten-shades out of every baddie that gets in their way! This co-op game also gave the player the opportunity to grab strewn items, like a whip or baseball bat (among others) to easily dispose of the Black Warriors members.
We could go on and on about this awesome game, but we thought we’d spare you and bring your attention to Double Dragon: The Complete History by Slopes Game Room’s Daniel Ibbertson. Insert coin and enjoy!
Ah, many a coin were pumped into this machine
Double Dragon was converted on myriad of home systems. Let’s not talk about the C64 version *grumble*
The NES conversion was one of the better ones
Even the Atari 2600 conversion was better than the C64 debacle!
source: Slopes Game Room
If you wanted to know why Nintendo became successful in the video games industry, then this ’employee sales manual’ from 1988 will go some way in showing how the Kyoto giant ensured it’s image and products were always front and centre in your nearest store.
Nintendo’s merchandising, ranging and point of sale displays managed to catch the eye of their target market (the kids of the 80s) and extract money out of their parents wallet. This may be sale and marketing 101, but Nintendo showed the rest of the video games market how it should be done.
Each Nintendo sales representative was issued their sales manual, covering all aspects of their day-to-day associations with authorised Nintendo dealers, merchandisers and distributors.
Inside the binder, there were colour brochures and pamphlets showcasing Nintendo’s systems, games, and information on Nintendo displays/kiosks that were featured in stores, like the M82 playable games demo unit.
Also inside, the Nintendo representative had information on the different gaming categories/series, like the ‘Black Box’ NES games in the ‘Action’, ‘Sports’ and ‘Robot’ series, to name a few.
If you can’t get your hands on this Nintendo sale manual binder, then here are the contents in full colour glory!
If you worked for Nintendo in the late 80s, then this was your bible!
Divide and conquer!
Yep, that kid understands the POWER of the Big N!
Oh wow, look at that NES display case!
This is effective merchandising
Planning to the Nth degree
Nintendo knew their consumers intimately
Nintendo owned the 8-bit console market in North America
Clever play on words! Boxing was huge and Punch-Out!! capitalised on it
The NES Advantage
Legendary games!
Nintendo knocked out the 8-bit console opposition!
source: ebay
Ah, OutRun! It was the first street racing arcade game where you drove a Ferrari Testarossa at breakneck speeds with a female passenger in tow, feeling the wind in your hair as you raced to your next checkpoint area to progress further in the game. It was as simple as that, thank you Mr. Yu Suzuki.
OutRun’s simplicity was its biggest drawcard – the flash red car, gorgeous woman, awesome graphics (especially the crashes!), great European tracks (with uphill and downhill gradients!), brilliant music (oh that Magic Sound Shower tune!) and the choice of path to take when confronted with a fork in the road!
It was this choice of which road you took in OutRun which ultimately lead you to five very different goals (endings), some more humorous than others. For those of you that weren’t aware or had not seen all of OutRun’s different endings, here they are for your pleasure! Don’t forget to lock the Testarossa!
Choose your course – it’s as easy as a, b, c, d or e!
Course: Vineyard (a)
End Goal: No wine here for the easy winner. After the driver is hoisted aloft by the crowd, they then get distracted by a bikini clad lady and drop the driver to the bitumen. That’s gotta hurt!
Course: Death Valley (b)
End Goal: How apt is the name of this route as your Testarossa literally falls apart the second the winning line is crossed. Instead of celebrating, your driver will need to wait for a while for the Ferrari roadside assist van to rock up.
Course: Desolation Hill (c)
End Goal: What could be the winning prize here? Perhaps the camels to take the driver back to civilisation as the Ferrari has ran out of fuel? Hang on, what will the driver wish for when rubbing that lamp? Oh, a harem!
Course: Autobahn (d)
End Goal: As the crowd gathers to see the driver receive the big gold trophy, he gets embarrassingly bypassed by the presenter, with the trophy being handed to his female passenger! ZING!
Course: Lakeside (e)
End Goal: As the driver screeches past this most difficult of all goals, he is finally rewarded for his most excellent driving skills! Now he is ready to party!
image source: The Video Game Museum
Commodore will always be our first true (gaming) love. Yeah, we may have wanted an Atari (VCS/2600), but then we saw the C64 and the rest, as they say, is history.
You could imagine our delight when we came across a Lemon64 post showing a heap of photos from an Australian Commodore store from the late 90s (thanks Rob Caporetto!).
Lemon64 forum user, CronicBadger was kind enough to share the photos he took from the Korella Trading’s ‘The Commodore 64 Store’ in Belmont, N.S.W. Being a huge Commodore fan, CronicBadger shares some great stories that he had heard in the store , including how Commodore was still importing C64s in 1993 to fulfil demand for the venerable 8-bit micro! To read more of CronicBadger’s reflection (and see more awesome pics) from ‘The Commodore 64 Store’, head on over to the Lemon64 forum now.
source: CronicBadger on Lemon64
There were a number of big name publishers back in the day that had multiple chart toppers with an equal share of stinkers on the Commodore 64. The exception to this rule was Hewson Consultants (or simply Hewson as we affectionately called them). With absolute classics like Uridium, Paradroid, Ranarama, Cybernoid (this list could get quite exhaustive, such was their pedigree), Hewson was always going to leave a delectable and an ever lasting legacy on the C64. Their games had an undeniable quality to them which is probably why they are still spoken of so fondly even to this day, which is testament to the top notch software they pumped out for the 8-bit Commodore behemoth.
With a ton of games to choose from, our favourite Hewson title was the 1987 hit, Nebulus! We were suckers for brain teasing platform games, and Nebulus provided a mind bending experience in spades. The central character, Pogo was so damn cute and yet so very deadly – once we took control of him, we were addicted. Moving Pogo and jumping over obstacles to try and get to the top of each tower felt as natural as breathing. We remember the first time we saw the tower spin as Pogo walked left and then right, we were all wide-eyed with mouth open as if we were swallowing flies! This innovation was refreshing and executed inch perfect, which only Hewson could pull off.
To read the rest of this story, grab Reset #9 now and turn to page 28! Oh yeh, Reset is totally free!
For the latest on Hewson Consultants projects, check out their Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight now!
You know the free information paraphernalia you get when a new system or game comes out – make sure you hold onto them! If you are in the media, it is even more imperative to keep those press kits you usually turf away, even if there is no t-shirt or other trinkets on offer.
This 1991 SNK Neo Geo AES (USA) press kit is a prime example of how sort after press kits have become, especially the ones for older systems. They definitely spared no expense creating a bling media kit to peddle their awesome (and quite expensive) systems. What’s with SNK, even there press kits are damn sexy!
Before you go hunting for gaming related press kits, including this one, be informed that these items fetch a pretty penny. For now, we’ll just drool over this SNK Neo Geo presser!
Even the box looks expensive, just like their consoles!
Let the drooling begin!
Definitely bigger, badder and better!
Flicking goodness
SNK spared no expense with this press kit!
Oh wait, there is game info in the kit too?!
OK, we may need to sell a kidney or two now!
source: eBay
With E3 2016 being the biggest news this week, we thought we’d rewind the clock twenty years, back to 1996 when Nintendo, Sega and the newest player on the console block, the Playstation were the headline acts.
After wowing the crowds with their hardware the previous year, Playstation ensured that the 1996 E3 event was going to be even bigger and better by announcing a price drop to get the console into more homes, sending shivers down the spines of the old guard, Nintendo and Sega. Not to be outdone in the gaming stakes, Sony Computer Entertainment introduced everyone to Crash Bandicoot, who would go on to become a PlayStation mascot (and get remastered for the the PS4 20 years later!) and Lara Croft, whose appearance in Tomb Raider was the first step towards becoming a cultural icon.
At this second ever Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Sega was showing off the latest and greatest games for their Saturn in the hope of making a dent in the Playstation’s armour. With games like Virtua Fighter 3 (which was ultimately cancelled), Fighting Vipers, Virtua Cop 2, NiGHTS into Dreams, Panzer Dragoon II Zwei and Daytona USA (among others) from their own stable, Sega was ensuring that heads would be turned towards their 32-bit beast.
Third-party Saturn games were also announced by Acclaim (Alien Trilogy, Battle Monsters, The Crow: City of Angels, Dragonheart and Space Jam), Ubisoft (Rayman 2), Capcom (Marvel Super Heroes), Crystal Dyanmics (3D Baseball, Ghost Rider and Legacy Of Kain) and Konami (ISS Deluxe and NBA Hangtime).
Sega also wanted to show that there was still (some) life left in their 16-bit Mega Drive (Genesis) by showing off Arcade Classics, Sonic 3D Blast, Vectorman 2, X-Perts and X-Women (which never saw the light of day!). Perhaps Sega should have given up on their 16-bit console (and it’s many add-ons) and concentrate their might on the 32-bit battleground. Ah hindsight, it’s always 20/20.
And then there was Nintendo. The Kyoto giant chose the 1996 E3 event to showcase their latest hardware, the Nintendo 64. Nintendo chose to up the ante in the ‘bit’ wars by leaping over their two main rivals with their 32-bit systems. Basking in the glory of their 16-bit success with the SNES and full of confidence, Nintendo chose to stick with cartridges rather then the now-accepted CD format. To ensure that the Nintendo 64 was going to pull-in the crowds at E3 that year, Nintendo had a number of launch titles available to experience – Wave Race 64, Pilotwings 64, Star Wars: Shadows Of The Empire and Super Mario 64. New hardware needs a ‘killer app’ that captures the public’s imagination and makes consumers snap up a machine – Super Mario 64, just like Super Mario Bros did for the NES, did exactly that! With Mario entering 3D for the first time, Nintendo no doubt were the best in show at E3 1996.
What product will wow us and become best in show at E3 2016?
sources: [IGN | Sega Retro | Playstation.blog]
We roll the clock back 17 years to see what games were hot on the Playstation, N64 and the humble PC. As you peek at the games charts below, you’ll notice some very well known gaming franchises that are still going strong till this day. But what makes it great to look back at old charts like these is the more obscure and long forgotten games, like Rollcage for the Playstation, Virtual Pool 64 on the N64, and The Simpsons: Virtual Springfield on the PC.
What ever tickled your fancy back then, scour through the top 5 games from May 1999, you never know, you still may be playing some of these gems!
 |
1) Metal Gear Solid (Konami) |
| 2) Rollcage (Psygnosis) | |
| 3) A Bug’s Life (Sony) | |
| 4) FIFA 99 (EA) | |
| 5) Populous: The Beginning (EA) |
 |
1) South Park (Acclaim) |
| 2) Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Nintendo) | |
| 3) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time (Nintendo) | |
| 4) WCW/nWO: Revenge (THQ) | |
| 5) Virtual Pool 64 (Crave) |
 |
1) Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri (EA) |
| 2) Sim City 3000 (EA) | |
| 3) South Park (Acclaim) | |
| 4) The Simpsons: Virtual Springfield (Fox) | |
| 5) Premier Manager 99 (Gremlin) |
It was the 1980s, Dick Smith Electronics (DSE) stores were packed with people and stocked to the gills with an extensive range of components and electronic gadgets. We’re going back to a time when the brand’s adventure-seeking namesake was setting records with his helicopter, or pulling practical jokes on the nation with plans to bring icebergs to Sydney harbour. Video gaming hadn’t crashed yet, and during this time the home computer market was also starting to take root, with Commodore, Acorn, Apple and friends all competing for market share.
Due to the “off the shelf” nature of a lot of these early systems, you’d often see electronics manufacturers clone a popular system and release them under their own brand. DSE weren’t immune to this, ranging a number of rebadged or clone systems like the Dick Smith Cat (an Apple IIe clone), the System-80 (a Hong Kong made clone of the TRS System-80 Mark 1), or the VZ200 (VTech System 200), all sharing shelf space with juggernauts like the Commodore VIC-20. And beside them all was a system I never knew existed until recently: the Dick Smith Wizzard.
Released in 1982 for $295, the Wizzard was a rebadged version of VTech’s CreatiVision games system. At a glance the two integrated controllers and general design make it similar to Mattel’s Intellivision, which was still going strong at the time. One part joystick and one part keypad, the Wizzard’s two controllers fit neatly into recessed slots on top of the system when not in use. However a major difference is that when clipped in, the controllers form a fully-functioning QWERTY keyboard (although “functional” is debatable – the full-sized keyboard add-on was a must if you wanted to do any typing!). The unique controllers look great, but much like the Intellivision, the awkward shape and the ‘floating’ nature of the joystick make for a poor experience.
Even though it was predominantly cartridge-based, $89 would land you a tape drive add-on and was essential for any budding BASIC programmers who weren’t masochistic types that enjoyed re-typing their code each and every time! In addition to the tape drive, other add-ons included a 16KB RAM expansion and a serial/printer port adapter, but with VTech discontinuing the system around 1985, planned add-ons like the disk drive and modem never actually materialised.
Press Play On Tape!
Going under the covers, you’ll notice that the bulk of the components powering the Wizzard also drove a number of other popular computers and consoles of the time. In addition to 1KB of system RAM, processing duties are handled by the ubiquitous Rockwell 6502A running at 2Mhz, which is based on the same 6502 chip found inside the VIC-20, Apple II and BBC Micro! Video output is covered by another stalwart of the time, the Texas Instruments TMS9929, coupled with 16KB of video RAM. Found in systems like the Sega SC-3000, Colecovision and variants of the MSX, this chip enabled the Wizzard to push a respectable 32 sprites on screen at a maximum resolution of 256 x 192 pixels, all in 16 glorious colours (or 15 colours plus transparent if you want to get technical). For the sound and music, VTech chose a Texas Instruments SND76489 chip, which offers a fairly rudimentary 4 channels for software to play with, and whilst it’s no SID chip, it does the job.
The heart of a Wizzard
Another hardware oddity is the power supply. My first introduction to the Wizzard was a friend talking about how he was getting parts to rebuild a supply for this “Dick Smith thing”. The power supply is unlike any other system of the time, as it runs both 9v and 16v to the console! This means that if you break it or need to repair one, it’s going to make your life difficult – something to keep in mind if you want to hunt a system down!
Between the Wizzard, Atari 5200 and 7800, you’ve got obscure power supplies covered!
It’s only fair that given the Wizzard’s design influences the games library would also clone other popular arcade games of the time. All of the cartridge games were designed and developed in-house by VTech, although DSE did release a number of simple games of their own on cassette that required the BASIC interpreter to run. If you’re a completionist, then you’ll be happy to know that the Wizzard has only 16 cartridges in total – 14 games, a music maker and the BASIC interpreter.
The cartridges forgo complex art for a straightforward, but effective look
Retailing for $39.95 each, the line-up featured games like Crazy Chicky (Pac-man), Auto Chase (Rally X), Sonic Invaders (Space Invaders), Chopper Rescue (Zaxxon), Police Jump (Donkey Kong) and Locomotive (Burger Time). The quality varied, although most are still fairly serviceable versions of the games they’re based on. One difference worth mentioning is that several of the games (like Sonic Invaders and Crazy Chicky) actually feature cooperative multi-player modes, something Space Invaders and Pac-Man didn’t offer! Every game also came with game themed overlays for the joypads, which helped show which buttons on the joypad were required (and to drive collectors crazy in the hunt to find them!).
Mouse Puzzle challenges you to keep moving and avoid the cat. Easier said than done!
Cloning computers or games wasn’t without risk though, as sometimes the copy ended up being just a touch too close to the original for comfort. VTech discovered this with their release of Crazy Pucker, which features a round yellow blob travelling around a maze eating dots, avoiding ghosts and trying to do everything possible to avoid Namco’s attention. They failed. To avoid further legal issues, VTech would re-release the title as Crazy Chicky, turning the main character into a chicken who now laid eggs to fill the maze while avoiding the foxes trying to eat you.
Crazy Pucker on the left, Crazy Chicky on the right. Any similarities to Pac-Man are entirely intentional!
These days there’s a few ways to get your hands on a Wizzard, and none of which will get Luggage angry with you. Despite being a locally released system, they’re surprisingly uncommon to find for sale in decent condition with a working power supply (or at a reasonable price!). Games are a little more common, although tracking down both the cartridge, box, and overlays can prove to be a feat of magic in itself.
The overlays add flair, although aren’t essential
That leaves only one other option: emulation. If this interests you, I’d recommend spending some time looking at Luca Antignano’s excellent website CreatiVEmu, which is dedicated to all things CreatiVision (aka. The Wizzard). Luca has a wealth of information on the various versions of the CreatiVision, including emulators and everything else you’ll need to know to get running.
FunnyMu makes emulating the Wizzard easy, with plenty of built-in info for every game
As a Wise Man once said, “Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?”, and I’m a firm believer that this also applies to classic computers and consoles. The Wizzard stands as a unique and interesting piece of Australian video gaming history, and owning, emulating, or even just reading about it ensures the Wizzard’s legacy lives on.
Thanks for keeping it alive!
Police Jump is an enjoyable take on Donkey Kong
Adding 2 player co-op to the well known classic, Sonic Invader was the Wizzard’s pack-in game
Air/Sea Attack
Featuring a drain comparable to Pin·Bot, Astro Pinball has your silverball fix covered!
Two panels either side allow usage of the controllers while the keyboard is attached
The Wizzard’s voice
Additional images and higher quality versions of the images from this article can be found here.
Special thanks to Tim H. for helping with photos, and Damian A. for his loan of additional hardware.
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Aaron Clement
Tassie based retro gaming guy. Father of 3 and married to the very tolerant Kellie Clement. Coffee powered!
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