The Pop-Culture E-Zine
There is something about seeing people’s gaming rooms that invokes our inner voyeurism, in a good way.
We are always fascinated and intrigued of each unique games room setup we see, just like Nintendo_Master1’s – you’ll have to agree (once you check out all of the pics) that it is pretty darn awesome!
Let the drooling begin!
image source: Nintendo_Master1 on Facebook
The Thrill Of The Chase feels great doesn’t it? That buzz you get never gets old!
A little while ago, we went retro games and vintage hunting in Queensland’s capital, Brisbane, aka: BrisVegas! So what did we find? Well, we found the Woolloongabba Antique Centre & Cafe before it moved and became the Camp Hill Antique Centre.
Luckily Ms Ausretrogamer was on the case (she found this place!), as she dug up and found a heap of gems I would have missed. Rather banging on about it all, we’ll let the photos do the talking. Enjoy!
If you intend on using any of the photos within this feature, please credit them back to this article – thank you.
Ms ausretrogamer and I hit spa country in north western Victoria on a fine winter’s day a few weekends ago.
From the Daylesford Sunday Market to local vintage bazaars and The Amazing Mill Markets in Ballarat and Daylesford, we found vintage goodies that warmed our cockles.
Ah Vancouver, the city of many cruise ships and retirees boarding these massive vessels! This post has been a long time coming, but that’s because we’ve been distracted – till now!
Continuing on with cool places we visited while on our North American trip (like the Seattle Pinball Museum, Toy Shack and A Gamer’s Paradise in Vegas), the city of Vancouver delivered its own piece of gaming nostalgia via the Movieland Arcade!
There are some amusement centres that are stuck in a bygone era, a period of time when arcade parlours in the 80s were lined with machines, both of the arcade and pinball kind, checkered linoleum flooring, cheeky signage, an attendants booth for exchanging your notes for coins and of course, the smell. Well, it is safe to say that Movieland Arcade encapsulates this 80s era perfectly.
Situated at the hipster end of Granville Street in central Vancouver, Movieland Arcade cannot be missed – its distinct red tile facade enticing you to go in and experience some real gaming nostalgia. With pinball tables and arcade machines ranging from the 70s to the late 90s, you better exchange your notes for a shed-load of coins as you will want to play them all!
Movieland Arcade reminded us of the arcade joints we used to frequent in the 80s on Swanston Street and Russell Street in the centre of Melbourne. Unlike those arcade joints going the way of the dodo, Vancouver can count itself lucky with a place like the Movieland Arcade.
Whoa, we spot Movieland Arcade across the road!
You definitely can’t miss the distinct facade of this majestic arcade parlour
We better grab some more coins!
Here we go! Hmm, pinball or straight to the arcade machines?
We shall start from the left and work our way to the right..
You have to go slow when you are in here! Too many awesome distractions!
We can’t go past some Neo Geo action
Killer Instinct is next!
Whoa man, haven’t seen a Gauntlet Legends machine in almost 20 years!
Some single racing action on Daytona USA!
Inserting coins now!
Nothing beats some 8P head-to-head racing!
We spy Medieval Madness! Time to destroy some castle!
Needing some gun action, which Area 51 will satisfy
We enjoy gunning down zombies!
Hmm, not sure if these ‘movies’ and that ‘theatre’ are appropriate, but…
OMG, Raiden Fighters! There go all of our coins!
Our shmup senses have gone into overdrive! Get us some more coins!
We spent our last few coins on some Playboy action *wink*
Darn it, the booth attendant must’ve had a toilet break. We’ll be back.
What does one do on a lazy Sunday afternoon? They go hunting for some old school classic gear at the local vintage market in Brunswick East.
After a few goes on the Daytona USA and Tazmi’s TX-1 arcade machines, we got hunting. So, what did we find you may ask? Take a gander below…
Here we go!
One always starts their hunting by playing some Daytona USA
Then one must take it back a notch to playing the three-screen marvel, TX-1
Wish we could take this one home!
Cockpit is a bit worse for wear, but it’s still functional
Once we exhaust our coins, we get hunting. This is a pretty good start!
Now that is one cool framed movie poster!
The singing budgerigar – with a giant poster inside! Whoa!
Who you gonna call?
We wonder if we’ll see a The Last Jedi cup in the near future…
Master System games under $15! That is unheard of! *smiles*
Lights, camera, action!
The menacing King Kong Bundy!
Not the VHS tape we were looking for…
Skateboard anyone? Tony Hawk would be proud.
Liberace would’ve loved this phone!
A Fisher Price record player! No way!
Forget the Fisher Price record play, this is what you should play your vinyl on!
Those eyes!!!
Game of Nightmare, anyone?
G.I. Joe! Hang on, Sloth from The Goonies! *mind blown*
Duck Monster? Nah, that’s a P!
Affiliate announcement: Check out StudioPress’ new StudioPress Sites – the world’s first hybrid solution that gives you the ease of an all-in-one website builder with the flexible power of WordPress! Get Your StudioPress Site Now
We were driving along on a sunny Sunday afternoon and out of the blue what did we spot? An amazing little outdoor arcade outside a Fitzroy convenience store – no way!
Strange things are afoot at the Foodies Express
Shaq Attaq and World Cup Soccer pinball tables, 60-in-1 vertical multicade and Cruis’n USA
Time to play at this outdoor arcade
We even scored some free credits on the Shaq Attaq – excellent!
Slam dunk!
We left credits for the next pinball wizard. That’s the pinball etiquette
Goooooooaaaaalllllll!
He shoots! He scores!
The control deck is inviting
Park and play!
It’s amazing what you’ll find when you go cruis’n
Mario is everywhere!
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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
For this year’s PAX Aus we had the privilege of participating in the Geek Trash or Treasure: Finding Collectibles With Real Value panel, facilitated by CNET Editor, Seamus Byrne. The panel consisted of yours truly, Weird and Retro’s Stacey Borg and Bethesda Community Manager and mad collector, Noel Wheatley.
Keeping it retro: the panel in action!
We discussed why some games, consoles, computers, accessories, trinkets and ‘collectors editions’ become genuinely collectible. We provided helpful tips on where to find treasures and how to work out how much to spend. We also touched on preservation – basically everything you need to know about collecting retro goodies!
If you missed seeing it live, don’t worry – you can watch the recording via GameSpot’s YouTube channel.
(Image from PAX Aus website)
There is nothing better than going to a weekend market and finding a stall that sells retro gaming gear, and lots of it!
That was the case when we found the Retro Buzz stall at the Carrara Markets on the sunny Gold Coast. What we found there was a treasure-trove of old school systems from Nintendo, Sega, Atari, Commodore, Sony and Microsoft. To complement these retro systems, Retro Buzz also had a vast array of game cartridges, CDs and other games media from every era – you would have been hard pressed not to have found the game you were after!
Once we were done with the retro hunt, we enjoyed a few games of Alex Kidd In Miracle World on the Master System and then dropped a few coins on the arcade machines. If you do find yourself on the Gold Coast and need your retro hunt fix, then you can’t go wrong with hitting the Retro Buzz stall at Carrara!
Welcome to Carrara Markets! Woohoo!
Aha, found what we were looking for!
Trade, Buy AND Sell! They have every system covered!
No retro stall is complete without a Mario and Luigi display!
We spy some N64 and SNES consoles over Luigi’s shoulder!
We could have a ComLynx party with these beauties!
Mario crashes the Sega party!
Pro-tip: Grab some Atari Lynx games while they are cheap!
Stacks of Sega Mega Drive games to choose from!
Not to be outdone by its bigger 16-bit Sega brother – stacks of Master System games!
The SNES games demand your attention!
Whoa, more SNES games!
Game Boy games galore!
*GULP* It was hard to resist this Pokemon N64 console!
Found the NES treasure! Don’t worry about Zela, look at that P.O.W cart!
NES games always demand premium prices
Old school computer games! VIC-20 represent!
Oo’er, Game Gear games!
After a fruitful hunt like this, an arcade session is in order!
It is great being on holiday – nothing beats being relaxed and away from your every day concerns! On our recent trip to Queensland’s Gold Coast, where it is beautiful one day and perfect the next, we happen to stumble across the Vans store at the Pacific Fair Shopping Centre. To our surprise, the store featured a complete Vans X Nintendo range by having an eye catching display at the front of their store.
We obviously didn’t need much coaxing to enter the Vans store once the exclusive 8-bit Nintendo graphics inspired gear caught our attention. The Vans X Nintendo range includes all of your fave Nintendo characters in an assortment of streetwear; from shoes, trucker’s hats, backpacks, to ties, socks, t-shirts and long-sleeve sweaters! Oh yeah, there are sizes for the little ones too!
So get “Off The Wall” and check out what we found at the Vans store on the Gold Coast…
Vans Gold Coast! What do we have here then…..
Woohoo, the Vans X Nintendo Collection is ranged!
So much to see and touch! What do we look at first?
Cool runners (that’s sneakers for our American friends)
Oo’er, we REALLY like these NES inspired runners!
GAME OVER? Never!
Tough choice: Donkey Kong or Duck Hunt…..
Mario and Luigi’s personal parking spots!
CIB – complete in box! Gotta try some!
The level of detail is phenomenal!
Gonna keep this!
Whoa, the kids can don their Vans X Nintendo gear too!
Vans X Nintendo is where the heart is…
We didn’t walk away empty handed *wink*
We had to get the cool NES runners!
Oh yes, the collectable pins given away were a great surprise!
It’s never GAME OVER!
Gametraders stores may have gone the way of the dodo bird in metropolitan Melbourne, but they are still going strong in the suburbs of Brisbane!
Hitting the Gametraders store at Westfield Chermside Shopping Centre brought back memories of how we used to enjoy hunting for retro gaming gear at the Highpoint store, which sadly closed a few months ago.
So what did we find at Gametraders Chermside? Take a peek down below. *winks*
Let’s get hunting!
What do we have here then?
The Perfect Mega Drive Street Fighter II weapon: The Honey Bee SF-3
We spy more Nintendo controllers and Game Boy games!
Oo’er, Mega Drive and Master System games!
We want this game!
Nintendoooooooooooo!
Atari Lynx gear amongst the NES and SNES juggernaut!
Look up, you never know what you’ll see!
