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The Commodordion: The C64 SID Piano Accordion

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It’s great to have friends that look out for you that bring stuff to your attention when you may have missed while being bombarded with stuff on social media.

Our very good friend Cam informed us of this rather cool C64 piano accordion creation, dubbed cleverly as The Commodordion, which turns two Commodore 64 computers into a single darn awesome instrument! But wait, there is more! The bellows are made out of floppy disks! Ok, our mind has well and truly been blown – wow!

image source: Linus Åkesson

Just listen to the gorgeous SID chiptune coming out of that acoustic aerophone! Forget about folksy music, this is our kind of piano accordion.

PS: Learn more about the project: https://linusakesson.net/commodordion/index.php


source: lftkryo



MOTU Origins Eternia Playset: The Call To Battle Continues

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Masters of the Universe Origins Eternia Playset: The Call To Battle Continues

Bah, who needs Kickstarter or IndieGoGo when you can setup and run your own successful crowdunding campaigns!

That is exactly what Mattel Creations have done (and are doing)! Their Masters of the Universe Origins Eternia Playset campaign has reached its funding target in record time, and it still has quite a few weeks yet to run (campaign ends on November 10th). The campaign is fast approaching 7,000 backers, meaning all the bonus tiers are in play to get unlocked!

Early Backers get a bonus King Grayskull figure

We bet these will be unlocked before this campaign ends!

If you are a MOTU collector and need this playset in your life, then be prepared to fork out USD$550.00 (plus shipping)! Considering the original Eternia Playset goes for thousands of dollars, perhaps this isn’t a bad deal after all 😉

If you become an Early Backer (by 11.59PM PT, October 19), you get the bonus King Grayskull figure (see above)! We really really want this playset and are betting that once it is sold out, the scalpers will hit the regular selling sites with ridiculous prices – so the moral of the story is, if you are 100% keen, back it now to save yourself some tears and regret aftewards.

This thing is HUGE!

image source: Mattel Creations



Make Your SSD Sound Like An Old Hard Drive

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Do you miss the old sounds that your hard drives used to make when reading or writing data to disk? Ah, the platers making such a great sound – actually, we do miss that aural extravaganza.

With the advent of solid state drives (SSD), there are no moving parts, so sadly, that means no clickety clackety sounds being emitted. Alas, now you can, thanks to the HDD Clicker! This circuit board makes your SSD (or CF and/or SD cards) sound exactly like your old hard drives!


source: root42



By The Power Of Grayskull: Passing the Sword!

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Celebrating its 40th year of existence, the Masters of the Universe has brought a lot of happiness to generations of peeps, including us Gen X’ers.

For those of us with young kids, we need to pass the baton (Power Sword) to the next generation to ensure MOTU lives on for years to come!


source: Masters Of The Universe via Facebook



Star Wars Halloween Pumpkins

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Now this is our kind of Halloween pumpkins! If you are a Star Wars fan, feast your peepers on these!!!

The FORCE is strong in these pumpkins (and turnips). Jack-o’-lantern would be proud 😉

image source: Star Wars always via Facebook



PAX Aus 2022 – It Was Awesome

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After a 3 year in-person hiatus, the biggest gaming event in Australia was back, bigger and better as ever!

It was so awesome to see crowds flocking to PAX Aus 2022, just like they had between 2013 and 2019. Don’t get us wrong, the virtual PAX Aus events were great to have, but nothing beats the in-person experience.

Masked up and stocked with hand sanitizers, Ms. Ausretrogamer and I were glad to be back, or just like the sign said, “Welcome Home”. PAX Aus definitely feels like home, with its inclusive and diversity rich setup, the event and spaces were safe for all to enjoy.

It’s great to be back at PAX Aus!

Greetings!

Whoa, that is a big map! This is where we will end up….

Even though Melbourne experienced a torrent of rain during the course of the weekend (just like it did in 2013!), it didn’t dampen spirits, with cosplayers doing their thing, cosplaying like a boss. In the Expo Hall, we noticed that the big guns were missing (PlayStation, Nintendo and Microsoft, to name a few), but once you immersed yourself in what was on show (especially in the impressive PAX Rising area), you hardly noticed that these AAA companies weren’t there.

DarkWeb Streamer_ was our pick for best in show!

For us, PAX Aus is all about the great panels, indie developers and of course, the Freeplay area, which is still going strong and getting bigger each time we come back! From the tabletop gaming to the merch and tournaments on offer, this area is the heart of PAX Aus. The Freeplay area is also home to our beloved Classic Gaming Area (CGA)! Unfortunately we had to step back in being part of the CGA for this year, but we were so proud to see the amazing teams from Weird and Retro, Press Play On Tape, Mr. Pinball, Reality Games, Bartronica and the Pinball community create another amazing space for folks to get a hit of some intoxicating nostalgia.


source: Alex Kidman

For those of you that couldn’t make it to PAX Aus this year, we thought we’d share some photos from the event (see above and below, including the above video of the Classic Gaming Area from the equally awesome, Alex Kidman) to hopefully bring the event home to your screens and make you feel like you were there too!

Expo Hall

Freeplay Hall – including the Classic Gaming Area

 



A Case for a Joe Louis Video Game

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By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.

Why has there never been a Joe Louis video game? Buster Douglas has his own video game and his only rise to fame was being the first boxer to defeat Mike Tyson.

You could play as Joe Louis in Entertainment Art’s “Knockout Kings.” And the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 “Fight Night Champion” gave you the option of fighting as Louis as well. Both are exceptional boxing games. On so many nights in college, I played “Knockout Kings” until 2 a.m. with my friends.

Many young people don’t know how dominate Joe Louis was throughout his career. The “Brown Bomber” had a lifetime boxing record of 66-3. He has the longest single reign as champion of any boxer in history; from 1937 to 1949. There should be a video game centred around Louis for that long reign as champion alone. People under thirty know his name, but do they know how exceptional he was in his boxing prime?

One of the worst sports films I ever watched was “The Joe Louis Story.” The 1953 film was a turkey of a biopic on Louis’ life.

It has a horribly acted, cheesy opening where a depressed sportswriter is sitting at his desk and he cradles up to his typewriter and says, “I’ll write the real story.” He does an atrocious job narrating the film.

Coley Wallace, who plays Joe Louis, smiles a lot throughout the film. He is unprofessional and his delivery of dialogue sounds like he memorized it just before the cameras started rolling. He may’ve been cast just because he resembles Louis; it certainly wasn’t for his acting chops. There are moments during the film when it appears Wallace doesn’t know where his mark is. It’s awkward. You would think a producer or studio executive would’ve noticed that while watching a final cut?

The boxing scenes are not well crafted, choreographed violence like in “Raging Bull” and “Creed,” they’re documentary-like footage of Joe Louis’ fights. I guess that’s because the film had a small budget. It totally takes you out of the narrative of the film; a narrative that is already weak and unsteady.

In the middle of the movie, there is also a strange musical number that takes place in a nightclub that comes out of left field. It’s so kitschy; it makes you wonder if someone on the production owed the singer a favour.

There was nothing boring about the “Brown Bomber’s” life. We need a great video game and film about the Detroit native’s life.



The Super Mario Bros. Movie Teaser Trailer

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Just in case you have been living off the grid lately, check out the latest teaser trailer for The Super Mario Bros. movie! It’s a bit Game of Thrones-ish, which isn’t a bad thing.

Are you excited? We sure are! WAHOO!


source: GameSpot



Star Wars Classical Artworks From A Long Long Time Ago

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The amazing artist Scadarts, has created very cool classic art portraits (and icons) of our beloved Star Wars characters!

Here are a few that we loved, but there are plenty more here.

PS: If you want any of these on a t-shirt, hoodie or even a baby onesie, then check out Scadarts’ storefront!

images used with permission via Scadarts



LEGO Unveils An Ultimate Collector Series of The Mandalorian’s Razor Crest

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*GULP* LEGO teased us earlier this week (see the below mind-blowing tweet) with the Ultimate Collector Series version of The Mandalorian’s Razor Crest set!

All you need to know is that it will be made up of 6,187 pieces and will be rich in details! The LEGO Star Wars Razor Crest set will include removable engines and a cockpit, an escape pod, and a minifigure-size carbon-freezing chamber, as well as minifigures featuring the characters of Grogu™, the Mandalorian™, Mythrol™, and Kuiil™ on a buildable Blurrg™ model.

Once built, you can proudly (play with it, or) display your creation with an innovative stand and information plaque. This ultra cool Collector Series Lego Star Wars Razor Crest set will set you back US$600 (~ AU$950.00)! Now hurry up and release it now, please!!!!!!!

source: technabob