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Williams Defender Source Code Posted To Github

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Fancy checking out some assembly code of a classic arcade game from 42 years ago?

Thanks to Rob Hogan, you can now check out Eugene Jarvis’ (and his fellow Williams programmers’) assembly code from one of the most successful arcade titles from the golden age of the arcades, Defender!

Oh how we wish we had the necessary skills to comb through the code to find Easter eggs and amusing comments, as we are quite sure Eugene and co. would have inserted in this tough 1980 scrolling blaster!

If you do find some surprises in the code from ‘Dr J’ (aka: Eugene Jarvis), please let us all know either via Twitter or Facebook!

PS: This Defender code is for the ‘Red Label’ version of the game, which was one of four versions (the others being: White, Blue and Green) that were distributed to arcades.



Ausretrogamer Is 10 Years Old!

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Who would have thought that when we first started ausretrogamer.com in January 2012 that 10 years later we would still be here! Time certainly flies when you are having fun.

Today marks a major milestone for us at ausretrogamer as we have reached the magical decade mark! When starting our site and social media channels in 2012, we honestly didn’t have any expectations that we would still be around in 2022 – but we are glad that we are!

We have been pleasantly surprised over the years to find so many like-minded people who enjoy playing and talking about all the stuff we love, from obscure video games from the 1970s to those schoolyard-type discussions on which 8-bit computer was best (we all know it was the Commodore 64!).

Ausretrogamer has also allowed us to meet a lot of you in real life, either at events like PAX Aus or local pinball competitions or computing club events – which have been a priceless experience. We are humbled to call all of you our good friends. Nostalgia is a powerful force that binds us all – long may it continue!

To all the awesome folks that have contributed and to those that are still contributing content and everyone that engages with us, thank you very much – you all rock our world!

Looking forward to another decade full of retro gaming (and pinball) goodness! 😉



Sinclair Book of Remembrance (SBOR)

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We received the following message from a friend on behalf of Jim (from SBOR – Sinclair Book of Remembrance) so we thought we would share with you all as we think it is a great idea for the community to share their memories of Sinclair’s computers and also remembering Sir Clive Sinclair.

The Sinclair Book of Remembrance (SBOR) is a project dedicated to the memory of Sir Clive Sinclair who sadly passed away on the 16th September 2021.

Moved as I was, SBOR has been a personal labour of love, to do something in honour of “Uncle Clive”. It is not a business project. It’s completely free and non-monetised.

The objective is to create a unique digital monument, composed of our shared Sinclair memories encoded together so that the final product represents each and every one of us.
For those thinking this is an NFT thing – it is definitely not! It is an opportunity for each of us to share a memory, and together create a unique dedication to Sir Clive.

I am asking that each of us contribute a Sinclair memory, by simply sending an email with your story (with up to 4 image attachments). By sending your email to [email protected] it will trigger the system to automatically create an entry to the SBOR site – for example: https://sbor.uk/m/1?code=41ce. You will receive a reply containing the link to your contribution, which I would urge you to share far and wide!

At a pre-determined date, say the 1-year anniversary of Sir Clive’s passing, all of the entries will be combined and encoded into a single unique value. This will be unique in the universe and will represent all of our combined memories of what Sinclair meant to us and something we can all share in.



What A Japanese Arcade From The 1970s Looked Like

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We love finding old raw footage from the golden age of arcade gaming. This time, it is from a Tokyo arcade parlour from 1979.

As we wind back the clock some 40+ years, this news story features Tokyo’s arcade parlour, World Game, as it stood in 1979! It is so awesome to see patrons pumping coins into arcade machines, like Space Invaders, just like we did all those years ago!


source: btm0815ma



 

History: The Birth of the Internet Archive

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25 years ago, the entire World Wide Web was only 2.5 terabytes in size. Most connections were dial-up, important records were stored on tape, and a young engineer named Brewster Kahle was working on a revolutionary project—a way to archive the growing Internet.

Filmed by Marc Weber for the Web History Project, this video showcases the Internet Archive’s very first web crawl in 1996. In 2001, the project was made accessible to the public through the Wayback Machine. Today, the Internet Archive is home to more than 588 billion web pages, as well as 28 million books and texts, 14 million audio items, and 580,000 software titles, making us one of the world’s largest digital libraries.

As the Internet Archive approaches their 25th anniversary, let’s take a look at the hardware and high hopes that drove the project from the very beginning—and hear from the man whose vision made it all possible – press play here!

story source: Internet Archive



The Retro Gaming Vault – August 2021

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As we come out of a long (southern hemisphere) winter, we look long and hard into the vastness of our retro gaming vault and come out with a number of juicy nostalgia-inducing classic gaming bits and pieces, starting with a couple of pretty cool, but useless NES peripherals!

We also have the mighty Neo Geo featured this month, with its interchangeable console and arcade memory card that we use on our AES and MVS. For the Nintendo fans, we have DK on the NES and a snippet of Super Mario World (you gotta look hard). For the really old school fans we have the Futuretronics Galaxy Invader 1000 tabletop and the cool Space Shuttle Game Watch we used to love strutting at school. The Contra lads make an appearance as well, as does the DynoVisor VR headset we use on the PC-Engine. Last but not least, our all time fave C64 compilation.

Enjoy the nostalgia and we”ll see what we find in the vault next month!

All images are copyright of ausretrogamer



Classic Hudson Soft Games You Need To Play

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We must admit, it was a sad day when Hudson Soft (HS) was absorbed by good ole Konami (Digital Entertainment) almost a decade ago. However, before the company with the cute bumble bee logo was bought, they produced some iconic games on a multitude of systems from the early 1980s all the way through to the 2000s!

We look back fondly at a few Hudson Soft developed titles you should definitely play again, because they are still darn awesome! Before anyone says Bomberman, yes, that makes the list of course, but there were plenty of others too. This curated list of HS’ developed video games spans some 4 decades, so surely there will be one or a few games that will induce some nostalgia for you.

Here we go!

Stop The Express (ZX Spectrum, 1983)

Who would have thought that Hudson developed games for the ZX Speccy! Stop the Express was one of the best action games on the micro, so check it out!

 

 

 

Hudson’s Adventure Island (Famicom/NES, 1986)

Before you say it, yep, Adventure Island is an adaptation of Wonder Boy. Nevertheless, this game is a superb side-scrolling platformer, filled with 32 stages for Mr Higgins to traverse through to save Princess Tina from the clutches of the Evil Witch Doctor.

 

Star Soldier (Famicom/NES, 1986)

Hudson’s distinguished shoot’em up was a refinement of Tecmo’s Star Force, which they had ported for them in 1985. With that said, Star Soldier was impressively superior on all levels, which Hudson then went on to create awesome sequels, many of them appearing in their ‘Caravan’ competitions.

 

Bonk’s Adventure (PC Engine, 1989)

Bonk (aka: BC Kid or PC Genjin) was Hudson’s answer to Nintendo’s Super Mario. The caveman theme with cool set-pieces was a refreshing take on the platform genre, with Bonk becoming a much loved defacto mascot for the PC-Engine / TurboGrafx-16.

 

Soldier Blade (PC Engine, 1992)

The fourth and last game in the Star Soldier series for the PC Engine, Solider Blade amps up and polishes the vertical shmup action to gold standard. The pace is ultra fast and the action is relentless, making Soldier Blade one of Hudson’s greatest ever games. This is a must for any shoot’em up fan!

 

Saturn Bomberman (Saturn, 1996)

Let’s face it, we could have picked a dozen Bomberman titles, but the wise choice here is its 32-bit version on Sega’s Saturn. Its 10 x multiplayer mode is insanely fun, with a plethora of power-ups to pick up. Grab a multi-tap for your Saturn and blast 9 of your friends!

 

DoReMi Fantasy (Super Famicom, 1996)

This highly collectable platformer for the SuFami has the perfect mix of fun, charm, colour and run and jump action to keep you coming back again and again.

 

 

 

Vertical Force (Virtual Boy, 1995)

We know what you are thinking, WHAT THE HECK is this doing on the list? When it comes to shoot’em ups, Hudson Soft has a gold standard pedigree, with Vertical Force being a brilliant Star Solder like game on Nintendo’s ill-fated Virtual Boy.

 

 

Ninja Five-O (GBA, 2003)

Ninja Five-O is another obscure Hudson release for the GBA which nowadays is highly sough after and extremely expensive. The hack and slash ninja action is reminiscent of Ninja Gaiden, which isn’t a bad thing at all.

 

 

Lost In Shadow (Wii, 2010)

Shortly before Hudson was shuttered and swallowed up by Konami, they developed one last darn cool and innovative platformer for the Wii – Lost In Shadow. The Wii had a ton of shovelware titles, but this one was not one of them. If you manage to find Hudson Soft’s last great video game, give it a go!

 

If the above Hudson Soft titles didn’t tickle your nostalgic nerve, then hopefully these honourable mentions will:

  • Victory Run (PC Engine, 1987)
  • Neutopia (PC Engine, 1989)
  • Military Madness (PC Engine, 1989)
  • Final Soldier (PC Engine, 1991)
  • Mario Party 3 (N64, 2000)

Well, there you have it peeps, Hudson Soft may no longer be with us, but their legacy is forever etched in video gaming history with their iconic titles. Go play some now!



image sources supplied

Keeping San Francisco’s Musée Mécanique Open to the Public

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We last visited Musée Mécanique in San Francisco in 2012, which was a major highlight for us, so when we heard that this antique arcade was doing it tough, it was definitely difficult to hear.

We had a blast when we last visited Musée Mécanique! To view the album of our visit, go here
Musée Mécanique

The below ‘Nostalgia Museum’ short documentary by Sofie Kodner and Eleonora Bianchi, provides an intimate portrait of owner Dan Zelinsky as he struggles to keep the legacy of this iconic San Francisco institution alive in the face of economic loss and mechanical deterioration.


source: KQED Arts



The Retro Gaming Vault – July 2021

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Going deep into our vault for more intoxicating nostalgia for the month of July, we uncover some cult classic JCVD LaserDiscs, tabletops that go pew, pew, pew, a Neo Geo AES, a Sonic VHS tape (remember those!), some old school gaming patches, a Star Wars rip off for the Bally Astrocade and everything in between!

Go on, take a look, but scroll slowly to take it all in! Happy Retro Gaming to you all!

 



The Pokémon Pinball DS Game That Never Was

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Since last year’s Nintendo Gigaleak, aka: Data Leak (Ed: or more accurately, hacks that lead to the leak!) that brought attention to some Pokémon source code, 3DS debug ROMs as well as the full source code for the Nintendo Wii from the BroadOn’s servers (BroadOn worked with Nintendo on the Wii hardware and software), there has been further leaks emerging in the last week.

From the many recent mouth-watering leakage news (not looking at you Wii prototype games!), the major one that grabbed our attention was the Pokemon Pinball game that was slated for a 2006 release on the DS. As massive pinball fans, this game would have been right up our alley, especially when gaming on the go with the Nintendo DS’ touch and dual screens.

Considering the original Game Boy Color title became a cult classic, this one would have been well received. The game would’ve been developed by Fuse, best known for Super Mario Ball and Metroid Prime Pinball, so we are quite sure Pokemon Pinball on the DS would have been an absolute blast!



More news about the Nintendo data leak on Resetera