Retro Gaming Culture

Man Makes Real Life Space Invaders Game

March 26, 2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

Martin Raynsford from Just Add Sharks is a genius. He has created a real life Space Invaders game using a modified laser cutter – wow!

The game is controlled by a laptop and the player is given an overhead view from a webcam mounted on the laser cutter. Each paper Space Invader is attached to a paper clip and dies a fiery death when hit with the laser.

Be sure to visit Just Add Sharks for Martin’s in-depth explanation of how he built this awesome machine.

Source: msraynsford on YouTube

Source: Just Add Sharks via @DotChasers

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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

LEGO And Retrogaming: A Match Made In Heaven

March 25, 2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

LEGO plus retrogaming is a match made in geek heaven. Feast your eyes on these amazing works of brick art.

Chris McVeigh

As well as being an awesome LEGO builder, Chris McVeigh is an author, illustrator and photographer. Chris develops build guides which he offers freely (for personal use only), and has custom building kits for sale at Storenvy.

A selection of Chris’ build guides

Some of Chris’ kits for sale at Storenvy

Source: Chris McVeigh via Kotaku

Retrogaming Mosaic

This fantastic mosaic was built using 10,511 individual LEGO pieces (fixed to fifteen 15″x15″baseplates)! How many characters can you name?

Source: Etsy via Technabob

Super Mario Bros. Aquarium

This gorgeous aquarium was made by designer and blogger Kelsey Kronmiller and it took her about 336 hours in total to build – but I’m sure you’ll agree it was well worth the effort.

Source: Kelsey Kronmiller via Geek

LEGO Bob-omb Battlefield (Super Mario 64)

This LEGO Bob-omb Battlefield is super-cute.

Source: Matt De Lanoy on Flickr via @Nyleak

LEGO Game Boy by Dario Dipic

You have to look twice at this amazing LEGO Game Boy by Dario Dipic to tell it’s not real!

Source: Dario Dipic on MOCpages

I found plenty of other amazing works of retrogaming LEGO art (a few so great they deserve their own post), so stay tuned for more LEGO stories in the near future. In the meantime, get building!

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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

Retrogaming Toasters, The Best Thing Since The Breadbin

March 24, 2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

Retrogaming toasters – why not! Whether you want to play video games on your toaster, cook crumpets with your retro console, or decorate your bread with video game characters, there’s a product for you! Let’s start with the Super Nintoaster.

Super Nintoaster

As the name suggests, the Super Nintoaster is a Super Nintendo crammed inside a toaster – wow! Inventor Stupid Fingers explains it is ‘built from nothing more than a Super NES, a toaster, four different types of adhesives, magnets ripped from a broken hard drive, six orange LEDs, a bunch of resistors, plexiglass, and many many spare wires’.

Source: Stupid Fingers via Geekologie

Nintoaster and Nintoaster II

Just as awesome as the Super Nintoaster is its predecessors the Nintoaster and the Nintoaster II also made by Stupid Fingers.

Source: Stupid Fingers Nintoaster, Stupid Fingers Nintoaster II

But if you are feeling hungry, these actual toasters may be more to your liking – some are real products you can buy!

Super NES Toaster

How I wish the ‘Super Toast Retro Bread System’ was one of the real products, but alas – it appears to have been a 2012 April Fool’s Day joke.

Source: Spinning Hat via Bit Rebels

Space Invaders Toastie Machine

Chris Naylor designed this awesome Space Invaders Toastie Machine in response to a ‘retro Christmas gift’ brief during a one week industrial project in collaboration with M&S. Someone needs to manufacture this ASAP!

Source: Chris Naylor on Coroflot via Remove the Labels

Nintendo Console Toaster

While I’m happy with a toaster being sacrificed to house a console, I’m not sure I am happy about the reverse. It’s a good thing then, that this NES toaster is just a (fantastic) artwork (phew!).

Source: Deviant Art – My Burning Eyes via The DIY Adventures

Hello Kitty Toaster

At last, here is a real product you can actually buy! Your day is sure to go well if you start it with a piece of Hello Kitty toast.

Source: Via Japan Newbie

Darth Vader Toasters

Bread, give yourself to the Dark Side.

Source: Think Geek, Amazon

Keyboard Waffle Iron

And there’s even something for PC gamers – a keyboard waffle iron, yum! This is actually one of artist Chris Dimino’s works looking at giving new life the now useless typewriter.

Source: Chris Domino via Slippery Brick

VHS Toaster

Finally, if you are into DIY, you can make your very own cool VHS toaster. Just follow Instructables member Lemonie’s instructions. Lemonie was inspired by this clip from the classic British comedy ‘The Young Ones‘.

Source: Instructables

Watch it in action:

Source: 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

Preston Burt’s Minimalist Arcade Posters

March 21, 2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

While searching for a cool pinball-themed T-shirt for ausretrogamer, I stumbled across Preston Burt’s simply beautiful minimalist arcade posters on the Gameroom Junkies Podcast website. Interestingly, Preston is also a founder of the Southern-Fried Gameroom Expo (in Atlanta, June 19-21 2015) – if only I lived in the US!

Here are the posters for your enjoyment.

Bride of Pin•Bot

BurgerTime

Dig Dug

Double Dragon

Frogger

Funhouse

Ms Pac-Man

Pac-Man

Pin•Bot

Qix

Super Mario Bros.

Theatre of Magic

Source: Gameroom Junkies Podcast Website and Museum of the Game and International Arcade Museum Forums

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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

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

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