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Commodore Club: Under the Hammer

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Carrying the tradition of August being Commodore month, the Commodore Club held their annual auction at the weekend. There was a fair bit of loot on offer, from the C64 and Amiga, to the Atari 2600, N64, SNES and other classic systems.

Paul the auctioneer kept the formalities to a minimum and ensured the smooth running of the bidding processes – once the gavel dropped, there was no mucking around. What transpired was some friendly bidding wars amongst the modest crowd. Weird and Retro’s Serby cleaned up with the winning bid on the C64 cassette games, but I ensured I got in on the action with winning the C64 Breadbin andC64 compilation game pack auctions. The usual suspects (Stacey, Rob and Pedro) also got in amongst the action and scored themselves some impressive vintage goodies. By the end of it all, everything that was up for grabs was gone.

Once the auction wrapped up, it was down to business of playing some old school classics. The Commodore Club day is one of those monthly events that you should not miss! Are you coming to the next one?

Let the auction begin!
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Paul whips the crowd into a frenzy
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The Commodore 64 cassette loot
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Sussing out what to bid on
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Oo’er the 1942 – never seen one in the flesh, till now!
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Amiga represent
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Mmmmm, juicy C64 compilations
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I really really wanted to win this lot! Alas, Serby did
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Smash that gavel on Rolf!
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I wonder if I could just borrow these for a while….
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My winning lot!
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Serby’s WaR chest!
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Oh that gorgeous A3000 is begging to be played
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Auction over. Game on!
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Digital Art: Video Games vs Real Life

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Let’s get this straight, I love video games being mashed into real life locations. I was super impressed with Aled Lewis Studio’s video gaming artwork, and now we have Lee Vidal coming to the party with his artistic effort.

Lee has done a fabulous job at placing iconic video games in very apt real life locations. If you don’t believe us, just take a peek below. If you would like to see more of Lee’s artistic works, head on over to his deviantArt page.

Spooky Yoshi’s Island
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Barrel roll
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Exciting motocross!
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Scenic route
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Brrrrrrrrrrr, ice climbing
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Go Mario!
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Advancing! Tank attack!
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Hunting castles
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Kicking ten shades out of Ken!
IRL_SFII

image source: retronoob

Hipster Retro Gaming

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Hardcore Pong Action!! Dual With Your Friends!! Fun to Play!!

Now this Pong clone is a nice piece of video gaming history. Made in New Zealand by C.V.T. Industries, Videosport comes packed with four Pong variants: Solo, Tennis, Squash and Ice Hockey. You get all of this Pong goodness wrapped up in a gorgeous woodgrain veneer. Hipsters rejoice!

All you need to play Pong!
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Dial-a-game!
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C.V.T. Industries should be proud of this beauty
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Not much to the controllers
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Perfect for Pong control
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Oo’er, woodgrain veneer
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Hook me up Scotty!
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Australia’s Top 100 Video Games

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GGTV_top100_HdrAustralia, you have spoken. More to the point, Australian gamers have voted for their top 100 video games of all time.

Presented on our favourite national video games based TV show, Good Game, Steven O’Donnell (aka: Bajo) and Stephanie Bendixsen (aka: Hex), together with Gus Ronald (aka: Goose) and a ragtag of industry luminaries counted down our favourites in an hour long special that aired on August 12.

So what was the game that beat them all?  If you missed the show, don’t stress, you can stream or download the episode (episode 28) from the Good Game TV website. 

Without spoiling it too much for you, here are the highlights:

  • there were a few retro games in the top 100, mainly from the Nintendo stable (ahem, N64 represent!)
  • my all time favourite game, Super Mario Bros. anchored the list at 100 (Ed: Boo!)
  • the Irrelevant Tosser’s pick, Clowns (Commodore 64) was a nostalgic trip. Too bad it didn’t make the top 100
  • Zelda games featured better than Mario (Ed: another boo!)
  • The mayhem of Goldeneye 007 for the N64 made it into the top 20
  • There was no love for Sonic nor Shenmue (Ed: sorry for spoiling that for you!)
  • The show’s Rubber Chicken award provided some light relief from the seriousness of counting down Australia’s top 100 games of all time

RubberChicken

One thing was for certain, this list did spark some frantic discussion on social media (), but hey, that’s exactly what lists do – they create engagement, good and bad.

It seems that my votes counted for two out of my three games, but I must admit I was shocked not to see Super Mario World anywhere on the list. Ah well, I guess the voting demographic may have been in nappies when that game was rocking our socks. Did your favourite games make the top 100?

image source: Good Game

 

Super Mario Warfare

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Inspired by the Mario Warfare videos, the artist known as Hakashidnrc has brought these characters to life in digital art form!

It is great to see both Mario and Luigi all battle hardened. Browsing through these artworks, your eyeballs will definitely thank you.

If you would like to further overload your optic nerve, check out some more Hakashidnrc artwork over here.

warfare_mario_warfare_by_hakashidnrc-d5g41w5

warfare_mushroom_kingdom_defense_force_by_hakashidnrc-d5gn5sh

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image source: Hakashidnrc

Bender’s 8-Bit Brain

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Bender_6502_titleThere was a microprocessor arms race in the early seventies. Both Intel and Motorola lead the way, but that all changed in 1975. MOS Technology (MOS) introduced us to the 6502 microprocessor – the world’s first affordable 8-bit microprocessor. An interesting fact about the 6502 is that the designers were ex-Motorola employees.

The trusty 6502 became the brains of seminal computer systems like the Apple II, the Commodore PET, the BBC Micro, and the Commodore VIC-20. It was also the precursor to the Commodore 64’s 6510 microprocessor!

The 6502 microprocessor also went on to power a very famous fictional machine: Bender Bending Rodriguez, or simply just, Bender –  the belligerent robot from the sci-fi animated comedy Futurama.

Long live the 6502!

Image source: Futurama TM and © 2009 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

 

Unleash Your C64 Game Creativity

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cartridge-C64-16k-COMPODo you have a C64 game idea burning inside of you? Do you have what it takes to make a C64 game? Unleash your game creativity (and possibly win some prizes!) in the annual RGCD C64 16KB Cartridge Game Development Competition.

The competition is open till December 1 2014 for all you budding developers. Enter now! You never know, we may be playing your game in the near future!

image source: RGCD

 

Montage of Computer Hacking In 80s Films

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HackingSupercut-2
From Real Genius, War Games and Weird Science, to TRON, Spies Like Us and Cloak & Dagger, how many other 80s movies can you spot from this montage of computer hacking in films?

The team at Found Item Clothing have done a stellar job in collating and presenting the silliest, best and iconic hacking scenes from the big screen. Oh the nostalgia!


Source: FoundItemClothing

 

MVGS3: Use Your Retro Gaming Controllers On Your Smartphone or Tablet

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1-Mvgs3-AusretrogamerAttention retro gamers! Do not throw out your much loved old joysticks (or gamepads)!

Patrice Daubaire’s new invention, the MVGS3 (Multi Video Games System Three), allows up to 95 different retro gaming controllers to be used to navigate and also play games on your new smartphone and tablet! With the patent still pending, let’s all hope this awesome creation gets a commercial release soon (Ed: Perhaps Kickstarter could help?)

Just in case you were not aware of Patrice’s inventing pedigree, his previous creation, the MVGS2-Dream-Station made jaws drop all around the world a year ago (Ed: I am still picking up mine off the floor.)!

We will be keeping a close eye on this one and will hopefully be getting our grubby mits on it very soon!

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source: PAT47200