Modern Gaming

Double Dragon IV: Billy and Jimmy Lee Are Back!

January 4, 2017 By ausretrogamer

Just in time to celebrate their 30th anniversary since kicking ten shades out of the Black Warriors gang, Billy and Jimmy Lee are back in Double Dragon IV! This time, the Lee brothers are bringing back the gritty 80’s with them, however the battleground has moved from New York City to Japan!

This instalment of one of the greatest co-op beat’me ups will be coming to the PlayStation®4 and Steam (PC) at the end of January (Jan 30 in North America). We have yet to hear if that is a worldwide release date – we hope it is! Either way, all Double Dragon fans should rejoice as key members from the 1987 arcade version including Original Planner, Yoshihisa Kishimoto, Designer, Koji Ogata, and Composer, Kazunaka Yamane, have teamed up to recreate the next chapter in this awesome saga.

Details about this sequel are sketchy, but the screenshots show that the game will follow Double Dragon‘s old school pixelated visuals and will offer both a story mode and a two-player duel. The catchy Double Dragon theme song has also been remixed for your aural pleasure.

To say we are excited for Arc System Works’ Double Dragon IV would be a gross understatement! Get your baseball bats ready!

video & image source: Arc System Works

Dialed In: Meeting Jersey Jack Pinball’s Jack Guarnieri

December 9, 2016 By ausretrogamer

If you weren’t aware, there is more than one player in the pinball manufacturing business. Jersey Jack Pinball started in January 2011 and immediately took the pinball scene by storm, creating and releasing innovative, fun and quality pinball machines. This trailblazing pinball company was founded by Jack Guarnieri, an amusement veteran of some forty years and a visionary that understands that pinball must break new ground in features and technology to keep players interested and to attract new ones to this wonderful game we call pinball.

In their short history, Jersey Jack Pinball (JJP) has introduced a number of pinball innovations; the high quality backboard LCD-HD screen, RGB-LED playfield lighting, rich audio, QR codes with social media integration and exquisite playfield toys to name just a few. Keeping this ground breaking momentum isn’t easy, but JJP understands that it is crucial to their continuing success.

JJP definitely took a leap of faith with their latest machine, Dialed In – it is refreshing to see a pinball company take a risk and be at the bleeding edge of pinball design and technology! Pinball designer extraordinaire, Pat Lawlor jumped on board and has integrated a number of mind-blowing features, like Bluetooth connectivity enabling additional player capabilities through a smartphone and a camera that emblazons player selfies on the backboard LCD screen. You would think that Dialed In’s original concept may not attract players to it, but we reckon Pat Lawlor and Jersey Jack Pinball have absolutely nailed it! With the game being meticulously developed over a number of years, it shows that no stone has been left unturned for an engrossing and engaging experience. With only the software left to be completed by the legendary Ted Estes, we can’t wait to see the final result!

Dialed In undercover! Waiting for the Australian unveiling

The unveiling of Dialed In! The anticipation was unbearable!

This past weekend, Mr Pinball and Bayside Pinball Club hosted the Jersey Jack Pinball event, with JJP founder and CEO, Jack Guarnieri as the guest of honour. Jack’s Australian unveiling of Dialed In drew a capacity crowd at the Sandbelt Hotel in south-east Melbourne. Eager onlookers could not wait to get their first glimpse of the machine and have a play. Once the machine was available for play, it was like moths to a flame – the queue to play the machine became longer by the second! We were glad that we waited for our turn, as playing Dialed In was a mesmerising experience that left us wanting to play it over and over again. The playfield was inviting, the ‘feel’ of the flippers felt right, the flow of the silverball was precise and that rich thumping audio was just so visceral! Dialed In is already a winner from our brief experience!

Meeting Jersey Jack Pinball’s Jack Guarnieri was both an honour and a humbling experience

The crowd is abuzz awaiting Jack’s inaugural Australian keynote speech!

The other highlight of the event was meeting Jack. Greeted by a warm hug, we knew that Jack was the kind of person we could immediately call our friend. Jack’s eagerness to get to know people, his intellect and humour made him very endearing. He made himself available for people to approach him, even going without food all day to ensure that he got to meet as many folks as possible. Jack’s keynote speech at the unveiling of Dialed In and the Q&A session were great insights into the man and the JJP company, from his fascinating beginnings in Manhattan and the Jersey Shore, to pinball operations, manufacturing and distribution. We hope that Jack returns to Australia in the not too distant future!

Many thanks to Wayne Gillard from Mr Pinball and Lucas Bardin from Bayside Pinball Club for putting on such a great event!

Jack introduces Pat Lawlor’s original concept game, Dialed In! And it’s a beauty!

The crowd gathers to take a closer look!

Always drawing a crowd – Martin Robbins gets dialled in!

Check out Marto’s selfies on the backboard!

Finally, it was our turn to play!

We were mesmerised by the playfield

The Hobbit – Black Arrow edition made its Australian debut at the event too!

Australian IFPA Co-Director, Luke Marburg is taken by The Hobbit

Getting ready for Jack’s fireside (Q&A) chat

Even with technical problems, Jack managed to power through and keep the crowd entertained!

Grant Levy shows off his Battle Pinny homebrew pinball machine

Always available for a chat

Jack and his magic TEXTA!

Last call of duty – autographs!

Bayside Pinball Club were raffling off this Judge Dredd beauty

There were other pinball machines to be played!

Stacey Borg (aka: DRC) and Martin Robbins go head-to-head

Pinball was the winner on this day!

We’ll definitely keep flippin & tweetin’

SEGA 3D Classics Collection

November 18, 2016 By ausretrogamer

RELIVE YOUR FAVOURITE SEGA MOMENTS WITH SEGA 3D CLASSICS COLLECTION!

Let’s start this review by saying that we prefer our games on physical media! Nothing beats holding something tangible in your hands. We already downloaded some of the games from the SEGA 3D CLASSICS COLLECTION, but having all games bundled on the one cart, some that had never been released outside of Japan, was a temptation too great to pass.

This highly anticipated COLLECTION is available now at all good gaming stores around Australia. The compilation consists of nine classic SEGA titles, all beautifully remastered in stereoscopic 3D with some extra bells and whistles (features) thrown in for good measure.

The CLASSICS COLLECTION hosts SEGA favourites like Sonic The Hedgehog, Thunder Blade, Galaxy Force II, Altered Beast and never-before-released Nintendo 3DS games including Puyo Puyo 2, Power Drift, Maze Walker and Fantasy Zone II (W and The Tears of Opa-Opa).

The big question now is, how do these SEGA classics play on Nintendo’s 3DS? Well, let’s just say that SEGA has not disappointed. With pretty much every genre covered, from driving, platforming, shoot’em up, to side-scrolling beat’em ups, maze crawlers and head-to-head puzzle games, there is something for everyone. You may have heard or read that Altered Beast and Thunder Blade are the weakest of the 3D remastered SEGA games, but let us assure you, they are faithful arcade conversions, that play, look and sound even better than their arcade counterparts! You’ll be hard pressed to find a weak game in the lineup, with your only problem being, what to play first. With that said, the stand out game of the COLLECTION for us is Power Drift! It is as close to having the real arcade driving experience without having the bulky machine in your living room – and you can play it on the go!

With 9 classic games remastered in 3D, multiplayer (local 2-player) mode on Puyo Puyo 2 and Altered Beast, pack art design by Ken Sugimori (Pokemon Art Director), plus Power Drift (and Puyo Puyo 2) making their Western debuts, there is only one logical conclusion, the SEGA 3D CLASSICS COLLECTION is a must get for your Nintendo 3DS!

source: SEGA Europe

Review copy supplied by Five Star Games.

PAX Aus: It’s All About The People

November 15, 2016 By Ms. ausretrogamer

Sure, there’s always heaps to see and do at PAX Aus (more and more each year it seems!), but the best part is always the people – meeting new people and catching up with old friends. We had many laughs, hugs, handshakes and great conversations over the course of PAX Aus 2016 – here a just a few of the wonderful people we caught up with.

Many of the great people from Ausretrogamer, Retro Domination, Weird and Retro, Bartronica, Zax Amusements, Pinmem and the Bayside Pinball Club who worked with PAX to bring you the CGA

The CGA enforcer team was fantastic (again) this year – here are just a few

A special thanks to the fabulous CGA Enforcer Team Leader – Zailee (thanks also to Spyder!)

Look who stopped by the CGA to chat with Glenn – none other than Guy ‘Yug’ Blomberg, PAX Aus Content Manager

… or is it Gabby Boreland?

Glenn and Zailee

The ausretrogamer team – Alex Boz, Kerith (ms ausretrogamer), Alan Ly and Brant Raven

Alex with Weird and Retro‘s Serby

Greg and Josh from Bartronica

Retro Domination’s Matt and Daz…

…and Mark and Peter

‘We’re just making sure they work!’ Weird and Retro‘s Dr Curlytek with Scott Kellett and Pete

Bayside Pinball Club President – Lucas Bardin

Lucas with pinball wizards Nick Hamhougias and Wal Dickie

Group shot with some of our interstate friends – MeezerMummy and Lord Panek from Sydney plus artist, DM, retro game developer and top hat wearer Mr Ant Stiller from Brisbane

Ant with bro Grant, or ‘Granthony’

Nick with Melbourne Silverball League‘s Martin Robbins

Paul and Hoa – Weird and Retro

Aaron from Press Play on Tape Podcast and the adorable Phoebe

Aaron and Phoebe with fellow Tasmanians Tehkella and Damian

Chris Van Graas very kindly loaned some amazing items for the CGA retro museum, including Mel Croucher’s ZX Spectrum used to code ‘Deus Ex Machina’ and Chris Huelsbeck’s MIDI sampler used to create the famous music for ‘Turrican’

Chris also introduced us to three metre pizzas!

Alex with passionate classic gamer, Harmik

Retrogamer and artist Sean Tagg with the awesome Henry

Pinball prodigy Jordan ‘JTH’ Tredaway and family

The talented costume and prop-makers from Combustible Props

Bethesda ANZ Community Manager Noel Wheatley, CNET Editor Seamus Byrne and Stacey Borg (Dr Curlytek) with Alex pre-panel (‘Geek Trash or Treasure? Finding Collectibles with Real Value‘)

Seamus also stopped by the CGA for quick game

Some friendly faces in the ‘Geek Trash or Treasure’ audience – Serby, Skye, Alan, Aaron, Damian and Tehkella

Selfie with Frank and Lauren from Mana Mojo
(Photo from Mana Mojo)

Great pic of tech journalist Adam Turner and son

Shane Rubans, Marcus Sezenov (Rosstown Retro Pinball Arcade) and Luke Marburg

John and Ryan Sozanski

Alex with Hal, Kale and Kevin Tilley (Reset magazine)

Sairuk with Aaron

Alex with Kelly (Weird and Retro) and Andrew Owen

Tamagotchi!

Alex with Adam Renardson, Content Services Manager PlayStation Australia

Developer and YouTuber Rob Caporetto with programmer and CGA enforcer Rajesh Singh

Raj, Rob, Kevin and Chris

Rob in super-cool mode!

The most triumphant moment of PAX Aus 2016 – collecting our ‘PAX XP’ PAX Aus towels (thanks to Alan for doing most of the legwork):
(Photo from Meezergal)

PAX Aus 2016 was a blast – and spending time with awesome people was really what made it. We’re already looking forward to 2017, can’t wait to see you there!

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Ms. 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

PAX Aus 2016 – I’m Making A Note Here: HUGE SUCCESS

November 12, 2016 By Ms. ausretrogamer

So… we’re calling it – PAX Aus 2016 was a triumph (it’s hard to overstate our satisfaction).

This year’s PAX Aus was bigger and better than ever – including a huuuge Tabletop Area, a speed running stage, a VR Freeplay Area, awesome speakers like Larry ‘Major Nelson’ Hryb (Director of Programming for Xbox Live, Microsoft) and live performances by 7bit Hero and Axis of Awesome. But best of all was the massive Classic Gaming Area (of course!).

(Maps from the PAX Aus website)

We met heaps of cool people (look out for our upcoming article about that), saw masses of amazing cosplay, and basically spent three full days on our feet helping man (and woman) the Classic Gaming Area or wandering around, taking in all that PAX Aus had to offer (which was a lot!).

Let’s start by celebrating the Classic Gaming Area. Back for the fourth time, the CGA was bigger than ever. The CGA is 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 Zax Amusements, Pinmem and Bayside Pinball Club (providing pinball tables). We also had an awesome museum of retro treasures and rarities this year.

The PAX Aus Classic Gaming Area – Stay a while… stay forever!

The arcades were as popular as ever

The consoles, computers and handhelds provided much nostalgic fun

Competition was fierce but friendly in the CGA tournaments

Pinball tables were a hit!

A new addition to the CGA – the retro museum

But PAX Aus 2016 had more to offer than just the Classic Gaming Area…

The Expo Hall

The Tabletop Area

PC and Console Freeplay

The Handheld Lounge

Queuing for merch

The six rules of PAX

Noms

Pin-pressive!

D20

Sanic

Game over – until 2017

And just like that, PAX Aus is over for another year, but we had a blast – and we have so many great memories. We hope you do too. See you all again next year!

Photos: ausretrogamer.com and Alan Ly

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Ms. 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

First Impressions: PlayStation VR

October 18, 2016 By ausretrogamer

We’ve had our fair share of Virtual Reality (VR) experience, albeit, from the 1990s. We’ve even written about our walk-through the VR graveyard from two decades ago. When PlayStation announced that they were going to produce a VR add-on for their PS4 console, we reserved judgement till its release. Well, the PS VR is now out and we got our trusted friend and VR aficionado, Alex (aka:Alexpletives), to give us his first impressions based on the ease of setup, design, comfort and most importantly, performance and gaming experience.

Ease of setup:
The first thing that struck me about the PS VR was how easy it was to setup. Once switched on, position your head in the centre of the camera, and that’s it! Doesn’t get much easier than that!

Instructions! Bah, seems easy enough, and it is!

Design:
The design is genius, making the plugging in of the bits and pieces an absolute breeze. Just in case there are some of you that want to know how all this VR’ing hangs together, here we go: the VR headset plugs into the extension with the inline remote which features the volume, mute and VR on / off buttons. The other clever design are the raised volume buttons and sunken mute on/off buttons – you’ll always know, by feel, which buttons you are interacting with.

Turn me up!

All leads lead to the Processor Unit. Each lead is numbered which makes it damn simple to get all plugged in. The best part is, you can connect other systems via HDMI, like the Xbox One!

Easy as 1, 2, 3!

Comfort:
Right off the bat, the PS VR was way more comfortable to wear than the Oculus Rift. When using my Oculus Rift I tend to get quite sweaty, but with the PS VR, I didn’t have such a problem. The strap tightness is cleverly independent of how near the actual headset is to your face. The button under the visor enables it to be moved forward and back independent of the strap. This provides superior comfort as you can have the strap nice and tight, with the the visor just resting against your face. In comparison, the Oculus feels like wearing a diving mask.

Strap me in baby!

Lenses and surrounding rubber – very soft and lovely, oo’er

The PS VR aural experience is provided by in-ear headphones which clip in the inline remote on the main cord running from the PS VR. Volume still comes out of the TV so your guests can hear and see what you’re doing.

And I can’t go without mentioning the lens cloth that comes with the PS VR – it is beautifully embossed with the triangle, circle, X and square buttons, a very nice touch indeed.

psvr_cloth

Performance and gaming experience:
The very first game that I tried was DRIVECLUB VR. I noticed immediately that the VR version had lost a fair bit of detail compared to its non-VR graphical tour de force counterpart. The vehicle detail was still as good, but track-side detail was vastly cut down (with reduced lighting). You don’t really notice it when racing, but you do if you look around. I’m sure the casual DRIVECLUB VR player will not notice these little niggles, as it doesn’t impact the racing.

DRIVECLUB VR

Scavengers Odyssey

source: Playstation

The next experience was provided from VR Worlds, via Scavengers Odyssey – it was damn good! I did suffer some motion sickness, which was generated by moving back and forth and side to side within the game but not in the real world. The brain was seeing you move but no feeling to match it, so that stuffs up spatial awareness. It didn’t make me stop playing (it was that good), but its effects did linger for a few hours.

Ocean Descent

source: Playstation

Also from VR Worlds, I hit Ocean Descent, where you are lowered in a cage deep into the sea. I didn’t do the shark attack part though, as I knew it was scary (it was that real!). The experience was intense – you felt like you were right there in the cage with full 360 degree views, with fish everywhere and an absolutely beautiful manta ray with a 9-foot wing span leisurely gliding about. It was very impressive. There was a nice touch with the light on your helmet spilling light on wherever your head turned.

VR Luge

source: Playstation

The other VR Worlds game I tried was VR Luge. This one was a bit of hit and miss. There was a nice sensation of speed, but for some reason the 3D felt flat. Having limited depth perception made it difficult to judge how far things were. Apart from this issue, VR Luge was as good as it could be given the power (when compared to a high-end PC rig with an Oculus Rift).

Overall the performance was as expected, nothing more, nothing less. What PS VR really needs (to succeed) is a VR killer app. Just like Tetris on the Game Boy, the PS VR needs its own special bit of software that can provide its unique experience that would not work without VR.

Final thoughts:
One point that keeps plaguing VR is the inducement of nausea. Whether that goes away the more you use it, I don’t really know. Do astronauts get used to zero gravity? Well, they learn to live with it, don’t they?

Every person I have shown PS VR has been blown away by it. VR is something that can only be appreciated by experience. I could talk until I’m blue in the face about the immersion and instinctive feelings it generates whether they be fear, exhilaration or just plain enjoyment. But experiencing it really is believing.

These are pioneering days of VR, if you discount the crude shenanigans of the 90s. Developers will need time to harness the power of VR which will hopefully lead to wonderful games and experiences. We just have to be patient.

The future is here
psvr_isometric

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Alexisms (aka: Alexpletives)
UK based gamer with a taste for the bleeding edge in gaming. Cystic Fibrosis sufferer, 15 years post heart and double lung transplant, diabetic. You’ve got to laugh, er I think!

Follow Alex on Twitter and Twitch.

Review: Western Press

July 28, 2016 By Aaron Clement

Taking you back to an era when the duel abided, Western Press is a fast-paced duelling simulator best enjoyed with a bunch of friends, or by people with super-human reflexes.

When I was growing up, one of the Commodore 64 games my circle of friends used to like playing as a group was Law of the West. A single-player only game, you were tasked with attempting to Sheriff a lawless town, but gave you the chance to start a gun duel in order to settle a discussion. We’d often sit there as a group taking turns to insult people, then try to get the draw on them to shoot first, only to suffer through a long load time when we failed for the next person to have their go. That’s probably as close as the similarities go, but for me Western Press’ pixel-art graphics and gun duelling invoked memories of this nearly forgotten retro-title.

The first release from Melbourne-based indie studio Bandit-1, Western Press calls itself “the most historically accurate frontier duelling game ever (probably)”. And to be honest? While I’m unsure if the gunslingers of the wild west needed to press 10 random buttons in order to shoot, I’m more than happy to accept this claim. Featuring 12 unique characters, several different local and online multiplayer modes for up to 16 players, Steam Workshop support (for creating your own duellists or stages), and a single player Skill Tester mode, there’s a reasonable amount of content on offer here.

Matches in Western Press play out in a fairly straightforward fashion: pick your character, select what input method you want to use, then get set to reel off 10 commands as fast as humanly possible. First person to complete their key combination in the fastest time, or with the least amount of mistakes wins. While it sounds deceptively simple, you’ll need insanely good reflexes to beat your opponent – press first, think later! One thing that is surprising is the different variety of controllers Bandit-1 have included support for. Allowing you to choose from keyboard input to XBox or Playstation joypads, and even Dance Mats (but sadly no steering wheels or Power Glove), the game will even automatically change the on-screen icons depending on what you’re using!

As with similar games in this genre, I found the most fun I had with Western Press was against other people, and not trying to outsmart the AI. My attempts to best the skill tester left me angry and frustrated, as my poor old reflexes just aren’t up to the task of beating a perfect, immortal machine! If you’re someone who digs local co-op competitive multiplayer games and wants something else to add into the catalogue of games to play with mates, you won’t go too far wrong with giving Western Press a shot.

trailer source: Bandit-1

Western Press is available now from Steam for Mac and PC. Review copy provided by Surprise Attack Games.

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Aaron Clement
Tassie based retro gaming guy. Father of 3 and married to the very tolerant Kellie Clement. Coffee powered!

Follow Aaron Clement on Twitter and Instagram

May 26, 2016 By ausretrogamer

Cast your mind back to a woman announcing, “On the gween!” as your golf ball lands close to the hole in Nazca’s classic, Neo Turf Masters – oh the memory! Well guess what, French retro gaming revivalists, DotEmu are bringing the Neo Geo classic golf game to your iOS and Android mobile devices. So stay out of the rough and tee off with Neo Turf Masters on June 30!

source: DotEmu

Sponsored Video: ‘The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt BLOOD AND WINE’

May 26, 2016 By ausretrogamer

Become professional monster slayer Geralt of Rivia and explore Toussaint, a remote land untouched by war, where you will unravel the horrifying secret behind a beast terrorizing the kingdom. With all trails leading to dead ends, only a witcher can solve the mystery and survive the evil lurking in the night. Introducing an entirely new realm to traverse, new characters and monsters, Blood and Wine is a 20+ hour adventure full of dark deeds, unexpected twists, romance and deceit.

This second expansion is available May 31st on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.