The Pop-Culture E-Zine
We keep sounding like a broken record, but geez there are some really clever and talented people out there. Take djmdesign‘s awesome Pointless Arcade Cabinets gallery on Imgur as a prime example – all the Photoshopped cabs are so darn cool, exceptionally clever and most importantly, very funny! We love them all, but the ‘Can YOU make it work?’ MS Windows arcade cabinet and the Operation Wolf stylised Instagram cabinet are our faves. Which one is your favourite?
source: djmdesign on Imgur
This year will be the year of Virtual Reality (VR). If you have been gaming as long as we have, you’ll know that this isn’t the first time we have all gone gaga over VR!
Long before the Playstation VR, the biggest name in virtual reality gaming was the Virtuality Group. Their ‘Virtuality’ arcade gaming machines promised and delivered immersive gaming via their stereoscopic visor (aka: the visette) while standing on a platform in a huge round pod waving your hands around like you were swatting flies – ah, how we miss the good old days of VR.
The popularity and mass media coverage of VR meant that it would always make its way into our homes. In 1994, Virtuality signed an agreement with Atari to develop a head-mounted-display (HMD) unit for use with Atari’s 64-bit Jaguar console. The agreement was expected to lead to the production and sale of the Jaguar VR HMDs in 1995. Sadly, it all went belly-up between Atari and Virtuality, with all Jaguar VR prototypes headed for the scrapheap.
Alas, the salvaged Jaguar VR prototype(s) have now become the most sought after and holiest of gaming grails, with the last known prototype selling for $14,500 on ebay in 2013.
source: eBay
From the ashes of the Jaguar VR HMD technology arose Takara’s HMD DynoVisor and Philip’s Scuba Visor. The DynoVisor sported the Pupil Projection System with a ground breaking 120-degree field of view (FOV) display using Sony’s Active TFT and LCD lenses. Coupled with Hi-Fi stereo and Inter Pupil Distance (IPD) focus adjustment, these consumer products quickly sold-out upon release in Japan.
Even though the Takara HMD DynoVisor is considered to be laughable, their uniqueness and rarity in the wild makes them highly desirable among gamers and collectors alike. At a fraction of the cost of the Jaguar VR headset and being indentical in technology, Takara’s HMD DynoVisor has become a retro gaming grail itself.
To finally find the Takara HMD DynoVisor and be able to play the Atari Jaguar (and any NTSC console with composite / AV output) with a VR headset, has truly been a unique experience, one that every old school gamer should encounter! Viva la VR!
Holding tight onto the first retro gaming holy grail for 2016!
Takara’s HMD DynoVisor arose from the ashes of Atari’s Jaguar VR
Made from high impact ABS moulded components, this is one tough headset!
The DynoVisor can connect to any NTSC composite / AV console
Luckily Virtuality’s work wasn’t wasted
Contrast, Brightness and IPD control is within reach
Immersing myself in some old school VR on the PlayStation
Peeking into the VR abyss!
Christmas is always a great time to reflect. We usually reflect on the year that had just gone by, but for this year, let’s change that and go back a bit further, like back to the 80s when Atari was still king of the video gaming market.
Grab your eggnog and reflect on these early 80s Atari Christmas commercials compiled by haikarate4.
source: haikarate4
Just in case you wanted to know which commercials made up this great compilation, here they are:
• E.T. Commercial Atari 2600
• Atari 5200 Ms Pac Man and Jungle Hunt
• Atari 2600 Atlantis Commercial By Imagic
• Cosmic Ark By Imagic Featuring the kid from A Christmas Story
• Atari 5200 Super System Commercial
Dear retrogaming friends, wishing you a very geeky Christmas and nerdy New Year! Please enjoy these awesome Christmas trees as we hit the peak of the festive season, and seriously – best wishes to you and your family for a safe and happy holiday period.
An amazing Pac-Man Christmas tree
(Source: via Technabob)
C is for Cookie Monster Christmas tree
(Source: enhydralutris45 on imgur)
Christmas in 8-bit
(Source: via HyperVocal)
Have a super Christmas!
(Source: LighterCases on Etsy)
10 Points for whoever put together this beautiful Hogwarts Christmas tree
(Source: via Nerdist)
CEL-E-BRATE!!!
(Source: via Geekrant)
The Christmas cake is a lie
(Source: via TheGrue)
Minecraft IRL is perfect for making Christmas trees, but don’t forget to build a chimney too!
(Source: IgniteMotion.com on YouTube)
Oh LEGO tree, oh LEGO tree…
(Source: SMH)
The festive spirit is strong with this one
(Source: The Daily Mail)
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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
The talented guys from CineFix are back with the 8-bit cinema video we have been waiting (looking?) for – the Star Wars Original Trilogy! This is one of their best videos yet, how many different game references can you spot?
Source: CineFix on YouTube
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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
My affinity for Masters Of The Universe has no limit! Just when I thought I grabbed my MOTU holy grail at the Toy Shack store in Las Vegas back in August, BAM, the MOTU Limited Edition Collector Series vinyl gets gazumped by The Power Of He-Man video game!
Yep, you read that right, the holy grail of my MOTU collection is not a board game nor a limited edition vinyl, it’s a (damn awesome) video game. MOTU: The Power Of He-Man video game (Intellivision) has been elusive to find complete (Ed: and at a reasonable price). This game, and its Atari 2600 counterpart, are the crown jewels of MOTU video games. The key motivator to obtain this game was my absolute affection for MOTU, and secondly, it is a pretty decent video game based on the franchise. Oh yeh, the Mattel link between the console and toy line was a nice touch too. Game on!
Long before Walter Day established his Twin Galaxies scoreboard and way before eSports were created, there were video games competitions taking place all over North America, with the first tournament staged in New York City in 1980 by Atari. The First National Space Invaders Competition proved quite popular with 10,000 participants, with regional events taking place in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fort Worth, Chicago, and New York City. The tournament had widespread print and television coverage, ensuring that the video gaming craze reached the masses.
Space Invaders competition, circa 1980–1981
Following on from the success of the Space Invaders tournament, Atari enlisted Tournament Games Inc. (TGI was a successful foosball tournament organisation) to help it establish the Atari $50,000 World Championships to be held in Chicago at the end of 1981. To say that this tournament ended up being a total disaster for all parties, including the handful of participants, would be a gross understatement.
The event was promoted as a major sporting contest which would attract 10,000 to 15,000 of the world’s best video game players to go head-to-head on a single arcade game, Centipede. Well, the event only attracted 138 players, well under the projected participation levels expected. The low participation rate was due to contestants expected to foot the bill for their own transportation, accommodation to the event, and then pay a $60 entry fee and feed their own quarters to play the tournament Centipede arcade machines – the cost being way out of reach for the typical video game player of the day! Adding insult to injury, many of the contestants were not advised that Centipede would be the only game in the Championship, many of whom were there to compete on Asteroids and other Atari arcade games (Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone, Warlords and Red Baron).
Sadly, there were no winners at the Atari $50,000 World Championships, not even the eventual winners, with their cheques bouncing, they left empty handed and totally jaded. The championship was an unmitigated disaster, a blight on the history of video gaming tournaments.
The Atari $50,000 World Championships farce flyer
source: The Golden Age Arcade Historian
Space Invaders competition image source: International Journal Of Communication
Researchers from the Game Technology Center at Zurich’s ETH University have created an awesome modified NES to allow panoramic output via 8 projectors and collaborative multiplayer gameplay via 8 controllers.
‘We propose a hardware and software system that transforms 8-bit side-scrolling console video games into immersive multiplayer experiences. We enhance a classic video game console with custom hardware that time-multiplexes eight gamepad inputs to automatically hand off control from one gamepad to the next… With this system, side-scrolling games unfold across the walls of the room to encircle a large party, giving the feeling that the entire party is taking place inside of the game’s world.’ – Wow!
Video source: ETH Game Technology Center on YouTube
Source: via Cheezburger
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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
Scott Bradlee (of Postmodern Jukebox fame) gives us a smokin’ hot jazz cover of the Pokémon theme song, featuring Sara Niemietz on vocals – we can’t stop listening!
Video source: Scott Bradlee on YouTube
Source: via Laughing Squid
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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
In this adorable and fascinating video from Eurogamer, Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo designer Takashi Tezuka explain (with much enthusiasm) how Super Mario Bros.World 1-1 was made.
Video source: Eurogamer on YouTube
Source: Eurogamer via Laughing Squid
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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