Retro Gaming Culture

Pinball Antics at Timezone

March 20, 2015 By ausretrogamer

I am a persistent type of gamer, especially when it comes to pinball and when there is a prize at stake. I just wish I was persistent like this when playing RPG or adventure games *sigh* (Ed: not this again!).

In a previous post I mentioned that I was frequenting Timezone to set a high-score on the designated tournament pinball machine (Star Trek Pro) to book my place for The Australian Timezone Supanova Pinball Championship. Well, I returned to Timezone Forest Hill only to find that the Star Trek Pro table was out of action! I didn’t dwell on my disappointment for too long, so I just hightailed it to another Timezone to flip some balls of steel.

Nooooooo! Time to leave Timezone Forest Hill…..

Next stop, Timezone Chadstone! Instead of Star Trek Pro, the tournament table here was Metallica. My first impressions of the machine were quite negative, but after a few plays, I was hooked – love the music! With some positive encouragement from Ms. ausretrogamer, I was able to get my name on the tournament qualification high-score table, albeit in 2nd place.

With only a few weeks to go till the qualification period ends (March 29), I will be back to feed the snake and build the voltage to give Sparky a good charge. Long live pinball!

Hello me pretties

She is a beauty

Damn! That’s a massive high-score!

Metallica! Let’s get this baby started!

Getting into some flippin rhythm

Fill up that fuel tank! You don’t wanna run out of gas!

Feed the snake, he’s very hungry!

Ms Ausretrogamer getting some flipping action, while I rest my hands

Studying the instructions – gotta get that big score!

Sparky is gonna get some electric action

Finally, I am on the scoreboard. Gotta get that number 1 spot!

Good Chemistry: Video Game Periodic Tables

March 19, 2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

Chemistry was never my favourite subject – I preferred biology and physics. However, I did like learning the Periodic Table (especially singing the Periodic Table Song – scroll to the bottom of the post for a sing-along video). I must not be the only one fond of the Periodic Table as some very clever people have created video game themed versions, enjoy!

A Periodic Table of Xbox Games
Source: Herd of Cats via Geekologie
Complete list of the Xbox ‘elements’

A Periodic Table of Final Fantasy Characters
Source: Via Geekologie

A Periodic Table of Controllers
Source: Flickr via Geekologie

A Periodic Table of Video Game Characters
Source: I Heart Chaos via Geekologie

It’s-a Mario the Periodic Table
Source: Design By Humans

A Periodic Table of Pokemon
Source: Kuinala – DeviantArt

As promised, here is the sing-along video of the Periodic Table Song – There’s Hydrogen and Helium Then Lithium, Beryllium Boron, Carbon everywhere Nitrogen all through the air…

The Periodic Table Song

Source: AsapSCIENCE

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Ms. ausretrogamer
Editor and Researcher 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

Made In Australia: Mega Drive Games

March 18, 2015 By ausretrogamer

Following on from our look at Aussie made NES games, the Made In Australia series dives straight into the 16-bit era this time around, starting with Sega’s Mega Drive. The Mega Drive was an instant hit for Sega – it had a headstart on Nintendo’s 16-bit offering and it never looked back.

With a pedigree in arcade gaming, Sega’s 16-bit machine wasn’t short on awesome arcade conversions. Who could forget their first play on Golden Axe? It was like (Ed: almost) having the arcade machine in your bedroom! With sleek looks and a plethora of crtically acclaimed games, the Mega Drive went from strength to strength and smashed all kinds of sales records across the globe. Australian coders also jumped on the 16-bit development bandwagon (Ed: especially Beam Software!) and created a handful of Mega Drive games – some more well known than others. Do you remember playing any of these?

NBA All Star Challenge (1991) – Beam Software

George Foreman’s K.O. Boxing (1992) – Beam Software

Blades of Vengeance (1993) – Beam Software

Tom & Jerry: Frantic Antics (1993) – Beam Software

Radical Rex (1994) – Beam Software

True Lies (1994) – Beam Software

Australian Rugby League (1995) – Dreamtime Interactive (in conjunction with I-Space Interactive)

image source: Moby Games, Games Database, retro gaming australia

In the next Made In Australia feature, we will look at Super Nintendo games that were made down under. Till then, play hard and have fun!

Best. Cakes. Ever. Awesome Geeky Cakes

March 17, 2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

Cake is great, but geeky cake is even better. These specimens from Anne Heap’s Pink Cake Box (Denville, NJ) are simply amazing! (But maybe too good to eat…)

2600 Calories Per Slice!

Extermin-cake

25c Per Slice

Mario Party

No Occasion NES-cesscary!

Nintendo D(eliciou)S

This Cake Is AWESOME!!!

Cutting This Cake Requires A Steady Hand

This Is Living: PlayStation 3 Cake

Press X To Eat

Hold The Onions!

But it doesn’t stop there – here are more fantastic geeky cakes to make you drool.

Charmander Birthday Cake

Source: Laughing Squid, Pink Cake Box

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Ms. ausretrogamer
Content Manager at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion and TV. Player of games, old and new.

Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter

DigitalSoaps: Soap For Retrogamers

March 14, 2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

Chrystal Doucette started DigitalSoaps in January 2009, she was inspired to create her hand-poured retrogaming-themed glycerin soaps by memories of chocolate 5.25-inch floppy disks from her childhood. Although she didn’t find the chocolate disks, she found many molds shaped like electronics and the rest is history.

Check out Chrystal’s Etsy shop – it has enough soap and shampoo to even get Mario clean after a trip down the sewer! Here a few of the best (just don’t get them mixed up and try to use them with your precious consoles).

Chrystal and a SNES soap

The Legend of Zudsa Ocarina of Grime!

Press A to scrub

Gotta wash em all: Poke Ball with surprise toy inside

Soapemon Game Boy cartridge set

Soapy PlayStation

Bath time awaits! PS4

Genesis does what regular soap don’t

Soaper Mario Bros. 3

Soapic the Hedgehog 2

Mario Bath 64

Wetris

Jump in the bath: Xbox 360

Donkey Klean Country

Source: Geekologie, DigitalSoaps Etsy Shop

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Ms. ausretrogamer
Editor and Researcher 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

Jeri Ellsworth’s Fantastic Inventions

March 11, 2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

Jeri Ellsworth is a self-taught computer chip designer and entrepreneur best known for creating a complete Commodore 64 system on a chip within a (Ed: Comp Pro) joystick – the ‘C64 Direct-to-TV’.

Jeri and the C64DTV

Jeri’s YouTube channel is full of videos showcasing her fantastic inventions – here are just a few:

C64 Purse

Source: Jeri Ellsworth’s YouTube Channel

C64 Bass Guitar

Source: Jeri Ellsworth’s YouTube Channel

Half-Life Crowbar Controller

Source: Jeri Ellsworth’s YouTube Channel

Rubik’s Cube & Nintendo Controller Mouse Mods

Source: Jeri Ellsworth’s YouTube Channel

Source: Geekologie; Jeri Ellsworth’s YouTube Channel; Wikipedia

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Ms. ausretrogamer
Editor and Researcher 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

Syd Bolton’s Video Game Collection And Personal Computer Museum

March 7, 2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

Next time I’m in Brantford, Ontario I know where I’m going: Syd Bolton’s Personal Computer Museum!

According to the website, they have over 45 interactive computer displays and over 1,000 computers in total. The collection consist of a massive 25,000 artifacts (including computers, software, magazines and books) with approximately 5,000 items in the museum at any given time. Check out the lists of computers and software.

The museum is open on select dates as well as for school/group tours (best school excursion ever!).

Syd is Canada’s top video game collector – watch him and his partner Jenny Schween talk about what it’s like to have such a large collection of video games (15,000!) and computers:

Source: Syd Bolton’s YouTube Channel

Source: The Personal Computer Museum Facebook Page, The Personal Computer Museum Website, Syd Bolton’s YouTube Channel

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Ms. ausretrogamer
Editor and Researcher 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

Brutal 8-Bit Fatalities

March 6, 2015 By ausretrogamer

Could you imagine the media frenzy if our beloved 8-bit video games had gruesome fatalities just like in Mortal Kombat? Now that would be an awesome dream come true. You can never have enough fatalities in video games (Ed: settle down!). I would personally like to see those pesky Galaga bugs get obliterated in the most brutal way!

Hang on a second! Steven Lefcourt has made this dream come true in his great artwork depiction of 8-bit fatalities. Splat – take that Goomba! Damn the ignorant media!

source: Steven Lefcourt

Back To The Nineties: Magic Eye Pictures

March 3, 2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

I got excited again about magic eye pictures after reading about how they work and why some people can’t see them on Mental Floss. Here are some retrogaming-themed magic eye pictures for a dual hit of nostalgia.

Mario

Yoshi

Hopefully you’re not like poor Willam from Mallrats who just couldn’t see that sailboat!

Source: YouTube

…but maybe that’s because there WAS NO SAILBOAT!

Source: YouTube

Now I need to rest my eyes, I think it will be another 20 years before I’m ready to look at another magic eye picture!

Source: Magic Eye Retrogaming on Flickr, Mental Floss, Super Mario Broth

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Ms. ausretrogamer
Editor and Researcher 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

University Of Calgary’s Video Game Library: Time To Go Back To School

February 28, 2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

Established in 2010, the University of Calgary’s Taylor Family Digital Library (TFDL) Digital Media Commons contains (among other techy things) a unique collection of cutting edge gaming PCs, retro and contemporary gaming consoles, and software from the 1970’s to current gen.

The collection is open to students, staff and the public. They plausibly claim it is the largest collection of video games for academic studies in the nation.

The game catalogue consists of mainstream titles, educational games as well as unique and independent games – you can browse the catalogue HERE.

The University also offers a class in Computer Game Design, which includes a history of video games.

Watch the Games and Related Media Librarian talk about the collection:

Source: University of Calgary, UToday, YouTube

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Ms. ausretrogamer
Editor and Researcher 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

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