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GoldenEra – A Documentary about GoldenEye for the N64 will screen at the Astor for 1 night only!

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For all Nintendo 64 GoldenEye 007 fans in Melbourne, mark yourself busy, as Melbourne produced documentary, GoldenEra, will be screening at the prestigious Astor Theatre on the 10th of September for one night only!

Just in case you have been living off the grid, GoldenEra is a documentary film about one of the most influential video games of all time – Goldeneye 007. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo 64 holds a special place in history and defined a generation of gamers. Made in the mid 90s at the birth of the 3D era, GoldenEye sold over 8 million copies, making a huge cultural impact on a generation of gamers due to its innovative mechanics and beloved multiplayer features.

The game was made by an inexperienced group of graduates from countryside England and went on to be a system seller for the Nintendo 64, outselling 1st party titles like Zelda. Most notably Goldeneye would set the stage for the FPS genre to dominate the gaming industry, ushering in a new era of console gaming.

This film celebrates a watershed moment in gaming history and explores the creative process behind the game, the culture in which innovation thrived, and the team from countryside England whose ambition, innovation and ingenuity resulted in countless hours of joy for players around the world.

Get your tickets now before they sell out!



40 Years Of Masters Of The Universe

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40 Years of MOTU

We still remember the day when we visited Treasureway (defunct now) store in 1982 and seeing He-Man and Skeletor on the shelf for the first time – we were immediately drawn to the action figures and the MOTU universe in general. It would seem that Mattel knew exactly how to market these muscle-bound toys to kids. We begged to get one and after some incessant begging, we were told that we could choose one that day. It was a tough choice, but our very first MOTU action figure was He-Man! Our second one was Zodac, closely followed by Stratos. We didn’t get Skeletor till well after.


source: Masters Of The Universe on Facebook

Over the course of the early to mid 80s, we had a modest collection of MOTU action figures, so when we finally got Castle Grayskull for Christmas in 1984, we felt like we had completed our MOTU journey. Upon hearing that there was going to be a cartoon based on Masters Of The Universe, we couldn’t contain our excitement. The cartoon couldn’t come fast enough! Saturday mornings on the couch with the doona (duvet to our UK friends) over us, watching He-Man battle Skeletor and his evil minions was a perfect way to start our weekend!

40 years on and Treasureway may no longer exists, but we still have our collection of original He-Man and the Masters of the Universe action figures – long live MOTU!

Some of our original MOTU collection



Darth Vader: Artworks of the Dark Lord Of The Sith

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When it comes to villains, we reckon no one tops Darth Vader. He has been our fave antagonist from the first time we saw him wield his lightsaber and force choke his underlings.

The story of Darth Vader has evolved since we were kids in the late 70s and early 80s, but that doesn’t diminish our love for the character, on the contrary, the latest Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series cemented Lord Vader as our favourite villain of all time.

With that said, here are some awesome Lord Vader artwork!

image source: Star Wars Always (Facebook) – Stern Pinball Inc.- Fine Art America – Pinterest – myhotposters – comicbookmovie – Artsper – disneyartonmain – Robert Voisenni



Interesting Stats From the ABC Classic’s 2022 Classic 100: Music for the Screen

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We cast our vote in the ABC Classic’s 2022 Classic 100: Music for the Screen countdown and we are happy to report that our top vote, John Williams’s music for the Star Wars series, is now officially Australia’s favourite music for the screen!

With over 215,000 votes, this was the biggest countdown yet. The top 100 soundtracks spanned beloved music for film, TV and video games across genres and generations. On the video games music front, Kojo Kondo’s The Legend of Zelda came in at no. 23!

Check out the rest of the interesting statistics from the ABC Classic 2022 Classic 100: Music for the Screen countdown:

  • Total votes: 215,486 (the biggest Classic 100 to date!)
  • Winner: Star Wars series (John Williams, 1)
  • Highest voted standalone film: The Mission (Ennio Morricone, 3)
  • Highest voted TV series: Game of Thrones (Ramin Djawadi, 10)
  • Highest voted video game: The Legend of Zelda series (Koji Kondo, 23)
  • Highest voted animated film: Howl’s Moving Castle (Joe Hisaishi, 21)
  • Highest voted female composer: Doctor Who (Delia Derbyshire, 12)

story source: ABC Classic



History of The Addams Family Pinball Machine

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Ask anyone that played pinball in the early 1990s to name their favourite machine, we reckon The Addams Family will be right at the top of the list.

Without a doubt, The Addams Family pinball machine is one of the greatest machines of all time. Not only was it the best-selling solid state pinball machine of all time (selling over 20,000 units worldwide) TAF, as it is affectionately known, is still beloved by many and enjoyed some 30+ years after its release. This Pat Lawlor and Larry DeMar designed pinball machine is an absolute masterpiece.

Enjoy this cool history about The Addams Family pinball machine!


source: Kevin Carrington



The Tainted Recreated ZX Spectrum

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There are some crowd-funded projects that have a sordid and tainted history, like the darn Atari GameBand watch that never eventuated (Ed: we got burnt by that one!). Then there is Elite Systems’ Recreated ZX Spectrum (aka: Bluetooth ZX Spectrum), which was successfully funded on February 1, 2014 (via Kickstarter), but since then it has been nothing but heartache. Fast forward 8+ years and there are backers that have yet to receive their rubber-keyed beast. Back in 2016, Eurogamer documented the plight of this troubled campaign, which leaves us deflated even now, with the knowledge that another retro-inspired project had become a dumpster fire.

When we recently were donated a swag of retro goodies, amongst the absolute gold was a shiny ZX Spectrum which we thought looked brand new! There was a reason it looked brand new, it was indeed the elusive (and quite tainted) Recreated ZX Spectrum keyboard! Upon inspecting this recreation, we were quite impressed with its build and its close resemblance to the real deal from Sinclair. But that is where the good impressions stopped. This is nothing more than a glorified Bluetooth keyboard which you actually can’t even use as a keyboard as it sends ‘op codes’ when trying to use it on Windows, Android and iOS. It has an A and B layer switch, with A putting the keyboard into game mode and selecting B setting it to keyboard mode – but it doesn’t!

Surprisingly, the Recreated ZX Spectrum companion app is still available on the Google Play and iTunes stores, with a load of ‘free’ games to play. We eventually paired it to our Galaxy Tab and played Chuckie Egg. The experience was somewhat gimmicky, as using the keyboard to control Hen-House Harry proved to be sub-standard, with the keys feeling mushy or not responsive without a heavy push. We are still stunned that this made it in the donation we received and we must admit, we feel dirty about it.

Don’t even bother pairing it with Windows – it is useless!

The underside gives it away – it is or trying to imitate a classic Sinclair computer!

The only major switch on the back is the Layer A and B – which switches between game (control) or keyboard mode

The only redeeming feature (if we can even say that!) is we played Chuckie Egg on the companion Android app!



20 Years of PlayStation: 1994 – 2014

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We say better late then never!

This 8 year old infographic by Reddit user Adiost (aka: Dmitry Pankin) celebrates the PlayStation timeline from its beginnings in 1994 with the groundbreaking PS, all the way through to the PS Vita Slim in 2014 – 20 years of awesome play (well, 28 years, but who is counting)! 😉

image source: imgur



The Internet Archive Console Living Room

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If you don’t want to stuff around with finding, downloading, configuring and tearing your hair out in making video gaming emulators work on your computer, then check out the Internet Archive’s Console Living Room.

The Internet Archive Console Living Room harkens back to the revolution of the change in the hearth of the home, when the fireplace and later, the television, were transformed by gaming consoles into a centre of videogaming entertainment. Connected via strange adapters and relying on the television’s speaker to put out pew pew pew sounds, these games were resplendent with simple graphics and simpler rules.

Via the use of the JSMESS emulator system, this allows direct access to different emulator programs in your browser with no additional plugins or settings, meaning that these games can be enjoyed again without mucking around in looking for emulators or games. Simply click on the screenshot or “Emulate This” button for each individual cartridge, and on modern browsers the games will just start to run. As nostalgia, a teaching tool, or just plain fun, you’ll find hundreds of the games that started a billion-dollar industry.

NOTE: These games are best enjoyed in an up to date version of a modern browser. Currently, there is no sound in the games, although that feature will be added soon.

image source: Internet Archive – Console Living Room



Blast From The Past: A Video Of A 1980s Arcade

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What an absolute blast from the past this is! We absolutely love raw VHS video footage, especially the kind from the early 1980s!

We commend the Bally’s Aladdin’s Castle employee that had the foresight to film inside the arcade centre, filled with absolute classic arcade and pinball machines, that one day this video would be cherished by a generation (or two) of gamers across the globe! This is what a throwback Thursday should be like every week.

Sit back and enjoy this 15 minute trip down nostalgia lane…..


source: Jon Exidy Jamshid



Documentary: Lemmings 30th Anniversary

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For all of you that are fans of Lemmings (us included!), set aside 2 hours and watch this awesome free documentary, Lemmings: Can You Dig It?

This true story of the creation of Lemmings features all the talented people involved in bringing this classic title for us to enjoy. From the computer rooms in Dundee to the world-changing UK games scene that exists today; through the voices of those who were there at the time and those who grew up playing it, watch and enjoy Lemmings: Can You Dig It?!


source: Exient