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DOOM Ring: The Ring To Rule Them All

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Hot on the heels of DOOM running on a Commodore 64 comes the DOOM Ring – you’ll have to squint, but we assure you it’s DOOM!

The version of the game being run is RP2040 Doom (designed to be run on a Raspberry Pi Pico RP2040) that’s been modified to generate grayscale graphics. It runs on a tiny printed circuit board  along 4 score lines to wrap into a ring shape.

According to James,

“I wanted to see if this was a useable technique. It isn’t. The result was very fragile, and I lost the connections to the capacitive pads and USB port during encapsulation.”


source: Ancient

story source: technabob



Book Review – Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-’Em-Ups

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If there ever was a book made for us, then Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-’Em-Ups is it! As massive fans of side-scrolling beat’em ups (Ed: Double Dragon and Final Fight are still two of our all time faves), this book screamed for us to read it!

Relishing each turn of the page and soaking in all that beat’em up content found in this book, the adrenaline rush we felt was off the charts.

Back in the late 80s going to the local arcade involved checking out the latest and greatest beat’em up games. When the first 2-player co-op beat’em up, Double Dragon, showed up at our local arcade in 1987, we were smitten. We pumped so many 20c pieces in that machine (each credit was 40c), the coin box must have been quite heavy when taking them to the bank! Double Dragon felt fresh, with an amazing array of weapons to use on baddies (we loved swinging the baseball bat!), plus the punching, kicking, backward elbowing and our fave, the knee to the head, all felt visceral at the time.

It was a pleasant surprise to read my hero, Yoshihisa Kishimoto’s foreword! For those that don’t know, Yoshihisa-san was the original creator of Double Dragon – he was only 26 years old when he created the groundbreaking game. Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-’Em-Ups is one heavy tome, so you’d be forgiven to think that it could also double up as a weapon in real life! Of course we jest about the weapon part, but we are dead serious about the weight of the book.

Packed with delicious beat’em up content (there are over 450 pages!), Go Straight covers all the major eras of the beat’em up genre, including the golden age from the mid 80s to the early 90s. Each decade from the 1980s onwards, has its own section, documenting all the games that were released during that period. The book documents every beat’em up that has ever graced a video game system (arcade and console) from 1980 all the way up to 2021 – that’s over 200 games!

There has been no stone left unturned in Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-’Em-Ups. Dave Cook and the team at Bitmap Books has created a tome for all fans of beat’em ups, and if you aren’t a fan of this genre, we urge you to check this book out, as it is a great guide for first timers wanting to dip their toes in playing some iconic and fun side-scrolling beat’em ups! GO and read it now!!

  • Price: $79.99 AUD / Where to buy: PixelCrib

Specifications

  • 456 pages.
  • 210mm × 297mm. Hardback.
  • Gatefold pages.
  • Spot-varnished cover.
  • Edge-to-edge high quality lithographic print.
  • Sewn binding for enduring quality and the ability to lay flat for ideal double-page image viewing.



Disclaimer: Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-’Em-Ups book was kindly provided by PixelCrib for this review.

Jirard Bought EVERY Nintendo Wii U & 3DS Game Before the Nintendo eShop Closes

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Jirard “The Completionist” Khalil has spent a smidgen under US$23,000 (~ AU$34,300) buying EVERY available Wii U and 3DS game before Nintendo shutters these respective eShops at the end of this month (March 2023).

This is definitely one way to preserve games, but let’s face it, we don’t all have tens of thousands of extra dollars sitting around, waiting to be used to buy up every game for these now deprecated Nintendo systems. We can’t even imagine the storage required to save and store all of these games – that’s a lot of microSD cards and solid-state drives!

Jirard should be commended, as he could have easily chosen the dark path, piracy, to achieve a similar result.

Completionist by name, completionist by nature, we salute you Jirard!

PS: When you are done watching the vid, read Kelsey Lewin’s Twitter thread on how this could solve the whole “preservation of games” puzzle.


source: Jirard The Completionist on Twitter



Introducing the Lego Nintendo GameCube and Controller

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YouTuber Peter Knetter has built a fully functional Lego Nintendo GameCube with a matching GCN controller!

The hardware inside the console and controller of course aren’t made from Lego, Peter has repurposed an existing GameCube’s internals for both the console and controller, but everything else, including the case, power light, controller buttons and joysticks are all a mixture of standard Lego and Technic bricks.

Game on!


source: Peter Knetter

story source: technabob



DOOM on the Commodore 64 is so RAD!

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DOOM has been run on a multitude of devices – if it has a screen, then DOOM has ran on it! With this being the case, why not have DOOM run on the trusty 8-bit micro, the Commodore 64?

As you can see from the video below, that is exactly what we have here – a DOOM tech demo going by the title of RAD-DOOM which enables gamers to play DOOM on their Commodore 64 via the RAD Expansion Unit by Frenetic.

The RAD Expansion Unit contains a Raspberry Pi that takes the role of a CPU replacement for the Commodore 64. The graphics are still rendered by the original VIC-II chip. All technical details of RAD-DOOM can be found in Frenetic’s GitHub repo.

The gameplay starts off with keyboard controls, with the 1351 mouse control enabled later on. The special settings menu is visible from time to time where graphics rendering options and screen presets are available.

It’s amazing (and darn awesome!) what is still possible on the 41 year old 8-bit computer! Long live the C64!


source: emulaThor



The Official Real-life Boots of Super Mario Bros.

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With the imminent release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Nintendo’s popular plumber now has his own real life boots!

Minnesota-based Red Wing Shoes (their logo is very reminiscent of Honda’s) has teamed up with Nintendo to create pixel-for-stitch-perfect Mario boots which will be on display at the Nintendo World New York store at Rockefeller Center from now till April 30th!

Even the “making of” video of these boots is cool, so check it out below, wa-hoo!


source: Illumination

image source: Red Wing Shoes



Pulp Fiction Pinball – The Bad Mother Flipper

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When Ms. Ausretrogamer gets excited for a new pinball machine, you know it is going to be a special one!

One of the most requested themes in the pinball world has been Pulp Fiction, the cult classic 1994 crime film by Quentin Tarantino. Almost 30 years since the movie was released, Chicago Gaming Company and Play Mechanix Pinball have answered our prayers with a lineup of Pulp Fiction pinball beauties!

The Pulp Fiction lineup!

image source: Chicago Gaming Company (prices in $USD)

The Bad Mother Flipper LE

Designed by Mark Ritchie, who also designed classic pinball machines Fish Tales and Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure in the early 1990s, this new machine is in keeping of the era,  reminiscent of the alphanumeric / early solid state machines, which translates well with this theme. Checking out the below trailer, there is no doubt that Pulp Fiction translates well into the world of pinball.


source: Chicago-Gaming Company

From their website, Chicago-Gaming Company state:

Pulp Fiction is a retro-inspired full-featured modern pinball machine. Developed at the request of Quentin Tarantino who wanted an 1980’s style Pulp Fiction themed pinball machine for his home. Tarantino’s continued involvement throughout the project shaped the final game. Tarantino rarely licenses his intellectual property, it is a unique privilege to produce a game which pays tribute to this masterpiece.

Legendary pinball designer Mark Ritchie masterfully crafted a playfield which on its surface appears comparable to games from this era but outside of initial perception features more mechanisms and greater depth than most games produced today. David Thiel forcefully pulls the player into this world utilizing over 250 iconic lines from Pulp Fiction’s legendary cast, five licensed songs from the original movie soundtrack, and a number of original compositions. Josh Sharpe developed an approachable rule set that is both intuitive and deep enough to engage even the most skilled player. Scott Pikulski’s vintage inspired art package is both stunning and perfectly cohesive.

The Limited Edition (LE) will surely sell out quite quickly, are you getting one?

image source: Chicago-Gaming Company



My ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ Weekend

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By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.

Here is a little secret about entertainment: if something is good, people are usually going to find it and make it a success.

I’ve stayed away from buying a “Sonic the Hedgehog” game for all my life, but one recent weekend, I decided to purchase “Sonic Forces” and “Sonic Mania” for Nintendo Switch.

I’ve always played “Sonic” in a friend’s dorm room or at an arcade when I was younger, but I never bought a “Sonic” game; and I had a Sega when I was a teenager. All weekend long, I went back-and-forth playing the two Sonic games. I played “Sonic Mania” a little more because I like the retro look and feel to it.

The main thing that I’ve always enjoyed about “Sonic” games is the speed. I’m not the greatest at collecting tokens, however, I’ll get through each stage in a speedy fashion. When I land on some spikes and lose all my tokens, I’m never fazed by it. My focus is always trying to get to the end of the stage. I’m always trying to break my previous record; my time is my focus.

Before buying the games, my last interaction with “Sonic the Hedgehog” was the first film, back in 2020. I tried watching “Sonic the Hedgehog” with Jim Carrey; I got about an hour in, and said to myself, “This movie wasn’t made for me.” I hear kids love the film franchise. Worldwide, both films made $725 million combined. A third film is in the works for 2024.

When I went into my Sonic cave for the weekend, I couldn’t stop playing, I was enjoying myself so much. Yes, the game is hugely popular and iconic, but the game play, like the original “Super Mario Bros.,” is still thrilling and engaging.

And, like “Mario,” there are many iterations of “Sonic” to come. In the future, I may buy a third “Sonic” game.

image source: Ausretrogamer



Clever Geeky (and Sarcastic) T-Shirts

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Woohoo, gotta love the end of the working week (unless you work on weekends, which may or may not suck)!

Anyway, what’s better than hitting an online store to grab some very clever (and quite sarcastic & ironic geeky) t-shirts while the weather is still warm in the land Down Under?!

We trawled through heaps of pretty darn clever tees on GEEKSOUTFIT™ to select some of our favourites – what do you think?

image source: GEEKSOUTFIT™

 



STILL STANDING (2023) – A Must Watch Documentary!

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Just in case you have been living off the grid, welcome back! Now, hop to it and watch the Still Standing documentary film!

Still Standing is a journey back in time, a time when arcade and pinball were the hottest entertainment in town. Adelaide producer and cinematographer, Brad Gilbertson, has shot this beautifully, inducing the kind of nostalgia that is intoxicating for the generation of kids that experienced the arcade and pinball golden era. The emotive and amazing stories and histories will have you gripped like a Darth Vader choke-hold right till the end.

Be ready for some heart-wrenching stories
Jeff Grummel – The Pinball Dog House

Still Standing is a first of its kind Australian documentary film, peeling back the curtain on what it truly takes to create and run iconic arcades, past and present. We admit, we shed a few tears (of joy mainly), but we will not spoil it for you, so you can experience this authentic and beautiful documentary for yourself.

Why are you still reading this? Go on, watch Still Standing now, and remember, game over is not an option!

Still Standing is now streaming worldwide – more details here.

PS: We eagerly await the physical release of this wonderful documentary!

★★★★★


source: BGVC