The Pop-Culture E-Zine
Well now that we have seen everything that 2023 has to offer, let’s get to 2024!
Seeing this amazing creation on Twitter this morning totally blew our mind. The engineering feat is off the charts. We wonder if this is Duke Nukem’s games room…….
And before you start screaming about aspect ratios, just chill, relax and be in awe of this crazily awesome thingamajig!
Ce truc de dingue 😱 pic.twitter.com/F2PAm29rE8
— Lulu&Berlu -PC Engine & Evercade- (@VolcanoGriffon) January 16, 2023
The Arcade1Up Pinball machines have recently received a new lease of life with community enhancements, like Team Encoder’s brilliant A1Pinner software, which allowed owners of these machines to install other Arcade1Up pinball packs (Marvel, Star Wars and Williams) and the Pinball Arcade and Zen Pinball applications (Android versions) with their plethora of pinball tables. Team Encoder went as far as creating a custom launcher and the ability to change the display to 1080p, which was a bit of a hit or miss due to the limited hardware spec inside these pinball machines.
We came across IntecGaming’s Nintendo Switch DIY Pinball kit about a year ago and have been eagerly awaiting its release. Once IntecGaming had this kit up for pre-order, we immediately jumped on it. The improvement is great value with this low cost kit, and of course, playing video games, especially the pinball (and shoot’em ups) variety in 1080p is exactly what this machine should have had from the start.
The IntecGaming Switch DIY Pinball kit is a physical modification to the Arcade1Up Pinball Machine, so we had to get our hand dirty so to speak. With no soldering required, this was as easy as unplugging the old and replacing them with the new! Of course the control panel with its ball-top joystick provides the arcade experience we were missing when playing Switch games.
Without further ado, here are the steps (with photos) that we took to operate and modify our A1Up Attack From Mars pinball machine:
Time to commence Operation Switch!
Unboxing the contents of the IntecGaming Switch DIY Pinball Kit: We need to replace 3 boards (marked A, B and C)
One last look at the machine before we start operating
Popping the hood
Popping the rear to get to the smaller (DMD) screen
Following the instructions to unplug the controller wiring from the old board and connect them to the new (A) board
Board A attached and controller connectors rerouted to plug into the new board
Next, is the sound and solenoid driver board (board B)
Second board is totally removed from the A1Up and replaced by IntecGaming’s Board B
The metal casing is replaced with a breathable plastic cover for Board B
The main board hiding in its metal casing attached to the LCD
Last of the board updates – replace the main board with IntecGaming’s Board C
The original main board is unplugged
Got to follow the instructions carefully here, as any wrong move will render the machine an expensive doorstop!
Wiring up the replacement main board (Board C) and putting it back in the casing. Having two HDMI out ports is a godsend!
With the boards replaced and connections all plugged in, it’s the control panel that the last thing to add
The new replacement lockdown bar is beefier than the original!
All modifications completed!
Instructions to sync the control panel and kit to the Switch
The plastic stand is perfect to keep the Switch and dock tucked away
Switch is docked, 3.5mm sound jack & HDMI are plugged in too
Success! All powered up and ready to go! The DMD LCD acts as our selection screen
First game we boot up, Zen’s Pinball FX 3!
Going to put the original boards & other parts in a safe place
While endlessly scrolling through social media posts during the great void (the period between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve), we came across these darn cool van Gogh inspired Star Wars ‘Starry Night’ artworks!
Happy New Year peeps!
image source: Star Wars always on Facebook
As 2022 draws to a close, we wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas / Happy Festive Season and all the very best for 2023!
It’s been another tough year for everyone around the world, so we hope you can all take some time for yourself to recharge and spend it with those that mean the most to you.
We have recently moved our subscription service to Substack, so if you haven’t already subscribed, go here now and never miss any of our posts. Thanks again for supporting and engaging with us at Ausretrogamer.com and on our social channels.
We will be taking a break and be back in the new year with more awesome content! Stay safe and hope Santa brings you lots of presents!
See you in 2023!
By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.
The most exciting moment for me during The Game Awards 2022 was the reveal of Idris Elba playing a new character in “Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty.”
Idris Elba is one of my favorite actors. Watching him on the award show address gamers about his “Cyberpunk 2077” role was a surprising breath of fresh air. If Elba puts as much passion and skill into his role in the game as he does in his film work, fans of the game are in for a treat.
Elba is perfect for the hit spy-thriller. He will play a character named Solomon Reed. Reed is a veteran New United States of America agent, and a character players can trust to help them achieve an impossible mission of espionage. The teaser didn’t show much, but the graphics looked incredible.
Elba’s performance in his last two films, “Beast” and “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” were excellent. “Beast” was sort of brushed off by critics for being a generic, creature attack film, but I found the film entertaining. There were moments of real tension and terror that were heightened by Elba’s exceptional, hopeful performance.
Elba never gives a bad performance. I first discovered his talent on the HBO series “The Wire.” He was terrific as the cunning antagonist Stringer Bell. He was authentic as Bell, and he was enthralling every time he was in a scene.
He was also great in Guy Ritchie’s “RocknRolla” with Gerald Butler and Tom Hardy. He’s a talented character actor who moonlights as an action star as well.
I’m curious to see what Idris Elba brings to “Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty.” Understated or over-the-top, he’ll bring something unique to the franchise.
Well, that’s exactly what our good friend, Noel Wheatley, did this past weekend. Noel (aka: FurySevenSix) shared photos of the amazing retro gaming centre he found in Canberra on his Twitter and Instagram accounts. The Canberra Vintage & Collectible Centre is one of those places that will wow and indulge you in some very intoxicating nostalgia.
Sneaky weekend trip to Canberra yielded some spectacular surprises at @CanberraVCC.🤩
And yes you better believe I’ll be going back there again.😊#RetroGaming #Gaming pic.twitter.com/qeD5QvAe9x
— Noel Wheatley 🎮 (@FurySevenSix) December 18, 2022
The below photos attest to the amazing collections found at the Canberra Vintage & Collectible Centre (Canberra VCC), from iconic gaming systems, classic video games, to mouth-watering collectibles that have been lost to time. Make sure you add the Canberra VCC to your must visit list now!
PS: Check out Noel’s Instagram for more pics and vids of this amazing place!
image source (used by permission): Noel’s Twitter and Instagram accounts
No one wants or likes water ring stains made by drinks on their furniture, so why not make yourself some cool Pac-Man coasters made from wood and epoxy resin to solve the problem!
While you are at it, please make us a set too 😉
Just in time for Christmas comes Bitmap Books’ I’m Too Young To Die: The Ultimate Guide to First-Person Shooters 1992–2002 book, making the perfect gift for those that are into video games history of the First Person Shooter variety.
There is no doubt the 1990s laid the foundation of one of the most enduring gaming genres, the First Person Shooter, or as we lovingly call it these days, FPS. We recall in high school getting a 3.5″ floppy with the shareware version of Wolfenstein 3D. To say the game blew our mind, would be the understatement of the century! Even with our humble low-spec PC, the game ran at a phenomenal speed. DOOM and DOOM II (and their many many community made WAD files) kept us very busy during the mid 90s, which almost cost us a few exam results at college! Once Quake hit our computers, followed by GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo 64, the FPS genre had embedded itself in gaming folklore, with many fans around the world enjoying the gaming experience. Ah, those were the days.
I’m Too Young To Die: The Ultimate Guide to First-Person Shooters 1992–2002 by Stuart Maine captures the fledgling days of FPS during its experimental and formative years, from 1992 till 2002. The book captures everything there is from the FPS golden age, covering some 180+ titles, from 007: Agent Under Fire through to Zero Tolerance and ZPC!
For the uninitiated, the book has a great intro by the author, Stuart Maine and a Foreword from one of the pioneers of the genre, John Romero. It then breaks down the genre in its constituent parts, so if you had never played an FPS, you most probably will after reading the overview and breakdown. Whether obscure oddities or genre-defining behemoths, first-person shooters transported players to alien worlds, alternate universes and the shores of Hell itself, and in doing so helped to trigger the 3D-graphics arms race.
The meat of this heavy book is the coverage of 180+ FPS titles, containing in-depth research and hundreds of eye popping screenshots. I’m Too Young To Die covers it all, from the classics that defined the genre, including DOOM and Quake, Half-Life, Deus Ex, GoldenEye 007 and Halo; multiplayer-only games such as Starsiege: Tribes, Unreal Tournament and Quake III, along with mods like Counter-Strike and Team Fortress; experimental games that pushed the genre in new directions, including Gun Buster, Codename Eagle, Assassin 2015 and Trespasser; forgotten games like ZPC and ReVOLUTION; and hidden gems like Dust, Wrath of Earth and Azrael’s Tear.
But wait, there is more! Even though the focus of this book is from 1992 to 2002, it acknowledges the precursors to first-person shooters, by charting the genre’s inception and evolution through maze and role-playing games, from Maze War, Spectre and 3-D Monster Chase, through to MIDI Maze, The Colony and Corporation to name just a few.
The in-depth interviews with industry legends such as Ian and Chris Andrew (the Freescape games), Scott Miller (Apogee and 3D Realms), David Doak (GoldenEye 007 and TimeSplitters), Randy Pitchford (Gearbox Software), Karl Deckard (Metroid Prime and Valve’s Prospero), plus many more is a huge highlight of what is an outstanding book. There is always something new that we learn in interview from people that were there at the time.
As we mentioned from the top, this book would be a great Christmas gift for yourself or someone that is into first-person shooters. We’ve read lots of gaming related books over the years – all being quite good, but this one is our current favourite – it’s brilliant!
Disclaimer: I’m Too Young To Die: The Ultimate Guide to First-Person Shooters 1992–2002 book was kindly provided by PixelCrib for this review.
If you are a Kirby fan, then you need to head to Lego Ideas right now and put your vote in for Kirby’s Dream Collection by By _Ish_.
Looking at the photos of this Kirby Lego creation, the set will most definitely look good next to the Super Mario one. Now go and vote for it!
By _Ish_ says:
This set includes many iconic locations from the Kirby games including: Green greens the first stage, Castle Dedede Home of the evil King Dedede and his Waddle Dee minions, And Metta Knight’s battle-ship, Halberd.
This set works well for display or you can play with it using the props and alternate face-plates. I made this set because Kirby and Lego have both been huge parts of my life for years. Ever since I discovered Kirby I’ve been creating my own Kirby characters and stories. When I discovered Lego I started building all kinds of crazy locations for my figures to roam around in. When I put the two together.. It made this. I think this would be a phenomenal Lego set because it’s a colorful family-friendly game that kids will enjoy and a classic that’s sure to bring back memories for adults too.
source: Lego Ideas
Thanks to Google and the Lawson family, we can all celebrate what would have been Jerry Lawson’s 82nd birthday.
Gerald “Jerry” Lawson passed away in 2011 aged 70, but his legacy as the father of the videogame cartridge while he worked on the Fairchild Channel F console as a Computer Engineer lives on and will always be celebrated.
If you haven’t already, check out the Jerry Lawson Google Doodle here and enjoy the awesomely cute pixel games and find out more about this incredible man.
Behind-the-scenes of the Jerry Lawson Google Doodle!
Courtesy of the Google Doodle team & Lawson family:
Today’s interactive game Doodle celebrates the 82nd birthday of Gerald “Jerry” Lawson, one of the fathers of modern gaming who led the team that developed the first home video gaming system with interchangeable game cartridges. The Doodle features games designed by three American guest artists and game designers: Davionne Gooden, Lauren Brown, and Momo Pixel.
Lawson was born in Brooklyn, New York on this day in 1940. He tinkered with electronics from an early age, repairing televisions around his neighborhood and creating his own radio station using recycled parts. He attended Queens College and City College of New York before departing early to start his career in Palo Alto, California. At the time, the city and its surrounding region had become known as “Silicon Valley” due to the explosion of new, innovative tech companies starting up in the area.
Upon arriving in California, Lawson joined Fairchild Semiconductor as an engineering consultant. A few years later, Lawson was promoted to Director of Engineering and Marketing of Fairchild’s video game department where he led the development of the Fairchild Channel F system (the “F” stood for fun!). This was the first home video game system console that featured interchangeable game cartridges, an 8-way digital joystick and a pause menu. The Channel F paved the way for future gaming systems like the Atari, SNES, Dreamcast and more.
In 1980, Lawson left Fairchild to start his own company, VideoSoft—one of the earliest Black-owned video game development companies. The company created software for the Atari 2600, which popularized the cartridge Lawson and his team developed. Although they closed five years later, Lawson had solidified himself as a pioneer in the industry and continued to consult multiple engineering and video game companies throughout the rest of his career.
In 2011, the International Game Developers Association recognized Lawson as an industry trailblazer for his contributions to gaming. The University of Southern California also created the Gerald A. Lawson Fund to support underrepresented students who wish to pursue undergraduate or graduate degrees in game design or computer science. Lawson’s achievements are memorialized at the World Video Game Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York.
Here’s to you, Jerry!
Special thanks to Jerry Lawson’s children, Anderson and Karen Lawson, for their collaboration on this project. Below they share their thoughts on today’s Doodle and their father’s legacy.
Gerald Anderson Lawson was an engineer, always curious, critical in his thinking, and logical in how he solved problems. He challenged us to extend beyond our limits and encouraged young people to pursue careers in science and technology.
As a child in the 1940’s, he was inspired by George Washington Carver. That inspiration provided the spark that ignited his desire to pursue a career in electronics. He loved what he did and did what he loved. Considering the obvious challenges for African-Americans at the time, his professional achievements were quite remarkable.
Due to a crash in the video game market, our father’s story became a footnote in video-game history. However, over the past few years, there have been numerous awards, scholarships, and media that have recognized him. Our family is eternally grateful to those who have worked tirelessly to bring his story to the public.
Today, we celebrate what would’ve been Dad’s 82nd birthday with the world. We would like to thank Google for working with us to share our father’s story in this Doodle. May his story continue to inspire numerous young people around the globe to achieve something remarkable.
Dad, you were our provider, motivator, teacher, inventor, mentor and friend. We are incredibly proud of you and miss you. The planet knows your story and you will never be forgotten!
Happy Birthday, Pop! We love you!
