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Happy Star Wars Day and May The 4th Be With You

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Star Wars

Happy Star Wars Day!

No, I am not your father, but from one Star Wars geek to another, May the 4th be with you!

When it comes to pop culture franchises, none are bigger than Star Wars. As a kid, I was consumed by it – Masters Of the Universe was a close second though 😉

I was lucky enough to be there when the original trilogy was playing in cinemas (late 70s to early 80s) and following on from that, begging my parents for anything Star Wars related, from the Kenner action figures to Return of the Jedi t-shirts to wear to school.

As an adult, the love of Star Wars has not diminished one bit, but my tastes for Star Wars related collectable content has definitely expanded. The pick of my current fave Star Wars related memorabilia is our Stern Star Wars Comic Art Premium pinball machine.

This year’s highlight for me was being honoured on a Walter Day’s Video Game & Pinball Trading Card with our beloved Star Wars pinball machine – check it out below!

If you have any favourite Star Wars items, please share them with us all either via Twitter or Facebook!

 



C64 Joystick and Keyboard Diagnostic Tool

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Thanks to clever folks like Christian Rene Larsen (aka: CRL), the development of cool software for the venerable Commodore 64 continues, some 39 years after the greatest 8-bit system’s release!

CRL’s test and diagnostic suite of software tools now cover diagnostics for the most heavily used parts on the micro computer, the keyboard and its joystick. So grab the CRL Joystick and Keyboard Test and Diagnostics tool (it’s less than 5kb!) to ensure your 8-bit beauty stays healthy for years to come!

 

 



The Retro Gaming Vault – April 2021

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We are excited to start a new monthly feature, which we hope becomes a regular on ausretrogamer.com.

So what’s this newfangled feature we are so excited about? Well, as the title suggests, we’ll be delving deep into our photo vault full of retro gaming photos from years gone by. The aim is to give you all a dose of nostalgia and hopefully connect with new audience members.

For this very first edition, we dug through thousands of our images from the last dozen years and came up with a swag of nostalgia inducing photos; from the best joystick ever made, board games based on classic arcade titles, to our Commodore 64 smart watches and playing classic games on our Game Boy Micro – it’s all easy money 😉

Enjoy!

Original image copyright: ausretrogamer

 


EVERCADE Retro Games Console – Review

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Evercade review
  • Product: EVERCADE Premium Pack – handheld + 3 classic gaming collections (37 titles)
  • Price: AU$159.95
  • Store: PixelCrib

A couple of years ago, we were quite excited to tell you all about a mysterious new handheld console that was like no other – the EVERCADE!

The EVERCADE handheld system was touted to be able to play multi-game retro games on physical cartridges from leading games publishers and console platforms. Since this news broke in early 2019, the EVERCADE has gone on to become quite popular since its release, garnering fanfare and glowing reviews from reputable online media outlets. Now it was our turn to take the EVERCADE for a spin and tell you what we think! First and foremost, some good news for our Australian readers, the EVERCADE is now locally stocked at PixelCrib!

PROS

 CONS
+ Officially licensed games on cartridges
+ Priced competitively
+ Expanding library of game carts
+ Collectability
+ Build quality		 – Arcade games (so far) are console ports
– Wait is too long for new cartridge releases
– Screen needs to be angled at times in poorly lit areas
 – Wish it came in black

Upon opening the package and holding the unit, our first impression of the intriguing EVERCADE was that it looked and felt like a much more expensive handheld – not quite like the Nintendo Switch, but that system commands a much steeper price. For the introductory price (AU$159.95), the EVERCADE Premium Pack definitely packs quite a lot; great build quality and three gaming cart compilations included to get you playing right away!

The EVERCADE Premium Pack is exceptional value

From a physical perspective, the D-pad and four face buttons feel great – with the buttons spaced well apart with no lag. We didn’t experience any hand fatigue or cramping while playing on the EVERCADE, so the experience was quite positive. The shoulder buttons weren’t used in any of the games we played, so we can’t really comment how well they fair with extensive gameplay – they definitely felt good when pressed, with a satisfying tactile click.



No handheld is complete without a good screen, and the EVERCADE’s 4.3″ display is no exception, with bright vivid video. However, we did find that we had to angle it at times when playing in a darker or a poorly lit room, but this small niggle was improved somewhat by bumping up the screen brightness to maximum. Oh yeah, the other screen option is the aspect ratio, with the EVERCADE providing both 4:3 (traditional ‘square’) 16:9 (scaled widescreen) – we found both screen ratios to be playable, with no discernible stretching when going from square to full-widescreen, so choose what best suits you.

The cartridges slot in from the top, behind the unit, with their top rounded shape completing the look of the EVERCADE. There is something quite satisfying when inserting and clicking in a cartridge. The EVERCADE’s volume buttons, 3.5mm headphone jack and mini-USB port are on the bottom, which are all well within reach. The top of the unit has the slide on/off switch, cartridge slot, shoulder buttons and mini-HDMI which allows for connectivity to a new TV with up-scaled graphics to HD (720p), making the old school games look pretty good on any new big screen TV. Obviously Full HD or higher would’ve been even better.

Specs

  • CPU: 1.2GHz Cortex-A7
  • Display: Horizontal 4.3-inch LCD screen, 480 x 272 pixels
  • Power: 2,000-mAh rechargeable battery
  • Ports: 1 x mini-HDMI out, 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack, 1 x micro-USB (charging)
  • Media: cartridges

Once you insert the game cart and turn on the unit, the interface is quite easy to use and follow. Games are started by pressing the start button and then within the game, you have the in-game menu which allows the user to load (a saved game) or save your current game, change the aspect ratio, language or quit the current game. The save game is a welcome feature, as it gives you the ability to see more of those harder retro classics without the need to restart from the beginning – it doesn’t feel like cheating. You can keep playing for up to 4 – 5 hours on the EVERCADE before it needs recharging – we just we wish it lasted longer.  But hey, you can play and charge if you want to keep going!

As eluded earlier, the Premium Pack comes with three cartridges; Namco Museum Collection 1 (11 games), Interplay Collection 1 (6 games) and the Atari Collection 1 (20 games). With 37 games to select from, you’ll definitely be kept busy right off the bat. We were quite chuffed to see that Blaze Entertainment secured the first ever western localisation of Mappy Kids on the Namco Museum Collection 1. There are now some 18 cartridges you can either buy or pre-order for the EVERCADE, so there is something for everyone! For the record, we can’t wait to grab the Atari Lynx and Data East Collections for now, as they are packed with games we know and love. The newly announced Codemasters Collection will be a winner too (released later in 2021).

With a number of well known publishers onboard, the EVERCADE isn’t short on game carts, with many more to come. Add the newly announced EVERCADE VS console into the mix and an ever-growing user base, and all of a sudden the value proposition for the EVERCADE becomes quite attractive. In the world of digital downloads, it is great to have a system that you can buy official physical game carts, with their cool game boxes and actual colour manuals – remember those?! The collector in us is quite giddy and satisfied with the collectable elements that the EVERCADE provides.

Verdict

The EVERCADE may not be for everyone, but its secret is in the use of officially licensed games released on physical media. With this key differentiation, we feel that the EVERCADE sits on its own in a category full of emulation-capable handhelds with not-so-official licensed games. With an enticing price point for the unit and games, the EVERCADE provides great value. If you haven’t done so, check out the EVERCADE and its growing library of games and then decide if it is for you – we bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

 

 

Disclosure: EVERCADE Retro Games Handheld System was provided by PixelCrib for this review.



Recalbox 7.2 – The Awesome New Update!

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Recalbox 7.2 – released on April 23 at 9pm (GMT+2)!

Hey peeps, here is some awesome news that the Recalbox folks have shared with us – this Friday, April 23rd, at 9:00pm (GMT+2), they will finally launch their long awaited 7.2 update, packed with heaps of new features, new systems, functionalities and optimisations!


source: Recalbox via YouTube

To recap what is new and improved in Recalbox 7.2, which there are many, we thought we’d share the major highlights right here:

MAJOR NEW FEATURES:

Light-Gun Games!

Play more than 250 lightgun games on many different systems (Arcade, Megadrive/MegaCD, Dreamcast, and Playstation to name just a few), no configuration needed! Now gathered under a new “LightGun” virtual system.

Better 3D performance on Raspberry Pi 4!

The team has optimised Recalbox, allowing almost all N64, Dreamcast, Naomi & Atomiswave games to run at full speed on Raspberry Pi 4!

Overclock the Raspberry Pi 4!

And for even more performance, we’ve tested and chosen 4 optimal overclock settings on the Raspberry Pi 4. Overclocking your Pi will increase the frame-rate on CPU and GPU intensive games.

Improved PSX/N64/PSP performance on ODROID-GO Advance/Super

Play almost all PSX, N64, and PSP games at full speed on both ODROID-GO Advance & ODROID-GO Super!



NEW FEATURES:

New systems!

5 new supported systems are added to the nearly 120 systems already supported in Recalbox:

  • Watara Supervision: This cheap Game Boy clone was manufactured by Watara in 1992. It was later licensed to several third-parties, and released under many different names. 69 games have been officially released.
  • PICO-8: A virtual console similar to the TIC-80 with over 4000 games available, largely popularised by the incredible success of “Celeste”, the famous platformer initially developed by Noel Berry and Maddy Thorson on Pico-8 in 2015, before being released on all modern platforms in 2018!
  • Pocket Challenge V2: A Japanese handheld console that specialises in educational games.
  • Elektronika BK: BK (БК), Russian abbreviation for “бытовой компьютер” – “home computer” is a series of Soviet 16-bit home computers, developed under the brand Electronika by NPO Scientific Center. Elektronika BK was the only “official” Soviet home computer. The BK-0010/BK-0011 and Terak 8510/A were manufactured from 1984 to 1993 and sold at the price of 650 Rubles, which was… almost 4 months of average salary!
  • EPOCH SuperCassette Vision: The 2nd generation EPOCH console released in 1984 and counting a total of 30 officially released games and 3 unreleased. The porting of this Japanese emulator to Libretro is a Recalbox exclusive!

Dual JoyCon support (Nintendo Switch controllers)

Recalbox now supports both left and right JoyCons! In addition, you can use both JoyCons as a single combined controller!

Bluetooth Audio

Connect your Bluetooth headphones or speakers! (just pair them like you would a controller, for now).

New cores

3 new emulators are also available, depending on your hardware:

  • Libretro NeoCD added as NeoGeoCD core: loads CDs so much faster!
  • Libretro DOSBOX Pure: Don’t struggle with complicated DOS setups anymore! These games
    have never been more plug & play!
  • Libretro-craft: A Minecraft clone available on x86 & x64 platforms only.

Hide pre-installed games

Pre-installed games are no longer copied into the user share. They stay on the system and can be hidden/shown using an option from the settings menu.



IMPROVEMENTS:

Main menu

The main menus have all been rewritten. They’re now faster, consume less memory, and are more intuitive. The most useful options have been moved so they’re faster to access. Reboots can now be delayed. This way, you can configure everything you need to before having to restart.

New options have been added:

  • Swap A & B buttons: change the way you validate and cancel actions.
  • Factory reset: reset all configurations (only keeps your games, saves, and scraped data)

Sound

In-game video sound/music is now available! You can choose between the following sound mode:

  • Background music only (EmulationStation music)
  • Video sound only (scraped videos)
  • Background music AND video sound mixed
  • Background music OR video sound (when playing videos in the new Gameclip screensaver)

Internal Scraper

The internal scraper has been greatly enhanced:

  • Improved menus. Now more intuitive, less clicks required to get things done.
  • Better region priority management: get better metadata for your region.
  • Ignore file referenced from .cue/.m3u and other multi-file roms: no more scraping the same
    game twice!

System

  • Check image integrity when updating Recalbox
  • Added a new Reset to Factory Settings option to reset all Recalbox & emulator settings
    without losing any user data: games, saves, screenshots, music, etc.

Emulators

Many emulators have been updated and/or reconfigured for new features, or to achieve better performance.

  • Dolphin updated to version 5.0-13178.
  • Stella (A2600) updated to fix lots of bugs (eg: Pitfall II)
  • Supermodel updated to version 839
  • UAE updated to support CHD
  • Np2Kai (PC98) updated to fix several issues
  • Odyssey² updated to add Europeans/French models (new RetroArch options)
  • Mupen64plus-next updated for better compatibility and performance! This core is now available on almost all platforms and performs very well!
  • FBNeo updated to support latest game additions
  • Libretro Duckstation is now available on all platforms!
  • Beetle-Saturn updated to improve compatibility (PC only)
  • Amiberry updated to version 3.3 for better performance & new options
  • Libetro-Parallel-n64 updated and fixed on almost all boards (except low-end PIs)
  • VIC20 is now shown as its own system, instead of only being available under C64
  • Videopac+ is now available as its own system, instead of being available as Odyssey² sub-model
  • Libretro MAME has been optimised to run full-speed on low-end PCs.
  • ScummVM updated to v2.3.0 and merged with ResidualVM



BUG FIXES:

Lots of bug fixes, as usual:

  • Fixed the ODROID-GO Advance v1 controller
  • Fixed the 8bitdo NES30 Pro rev1 controller mapping
  • Fixed missing BIOS MD5 & other minor errors in BIOS database
  • Removed useless BIOS files (PalmOS)
  • Fixed the Retroarch shortcut on ODROID-GO Advance
  • Fixed shaders on ODROID-GO Advance
  • Fixed lost support of open and WPA-PSK-SHA256 WiFi keys
  • Correction a fan problem with the NESPi 4 Case

TECHNICAL FEATURES:

Buildroot

Buildroot has been bumped to version 2020.11.

Kernels

Linux kernels have been bumped to:

  • 5.4 for the ODROID XU4
  • 5.8 for both x86 and x64
  • 5.10 for all Raspberry Pis
  • Both ODROID-GO Advance & GO Super use a special Rockchip 4.4 kernel.

PulseAudio

We’ve moved from a purse ALSA audio backend to PulseAudio! Recalbox now supports more audio devices — and even Bluetooth audio!

image source: Recalbox

 

There you go peeps, to say we can’t wait for Recalbox 7.2 would be a massive understatement!



The New Pinball Hall Of Fame in Vegas

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We have fond memories of our times in Vegas. Travelling to the US was never complete for us without popping into the desert city to catch a show, fly over Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon, and of course, hit the Pinball Hall of Fame (PHoF).

Since our last visit at the Pinball Hall of Fame in 2015, a lot has changed! Pinball Hall of Fame’s Tim Arnold bought a large parcel of land on the strip (4925 Las Vegas Blvd South), which allowed for a huge building to be erected (25,000 square feet to be exact!) to house the many many pinball and arcade machines that the PHoF had in their old location (on and in storage. When we stumbled upon Debbie Courson Smith’s Facebook post about her visit to the new Pinball Hall of Fame, we were quite chuffed to see how far along Tim and his crew had come since we saw an empty lot that long ago.

According to Debbie, this was a soft launch, with the grand opening scheduled for July. Once air travel is safe, we know where we are going again 😉

PS: If you want to see how the old Pinball Hall Of Fame looked like, check out this post.

image source: Debbie Courson Smith via Facebook

 

 

TinyTV DIY Kit – Build Your Own Tiny Television

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We are suckers for cute tech, so this TinyTV DIY kit hits the bullseye!

This super cute DIY TinyTV Kit complete with a vibrant full-colour OLED screen, assembles in less than 5 minutes and lets you load up to 5 hours of videos using a special conversion tool to convert MP4 files. Once done with converting the videos, you load the files on to the included MicroSD card and then you just grab some popcorn and sit back (Ed: or close, the screen is tiny!) and enjoy!


source: TinyCircuits

 

Freakin Frankie’s Home Video Store

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We have featured a number of Blockbuster Video stories on here, so it is friggin cool to see our very good friend, Freakin Frankie, emulate his very own Blockbuster Video Store right in his dining room!

Before we start drooling over his setup, we have been aware of Frankie’s love of movies and his growing collection ever since we met many moons ago, but to see his vast collection in the below pics has totally blown us away – but wait, there is more……

Once Frankie put out his initial tweet about embarking on the massive task of presenting his collection of 3,500+ titles, we put down our our bowl of Cheezels and took note! The follow up tweet thread of his home video store setup was impressive to say the least! As collectors ourselves, we can quite easily say that Freakin Frankie’s Home Video Store setup is darn awesome and impressive. Frankie mentioned that he opted against double stacking (as he wanted the authentic video store feel) and decided to sort his collection in alphabetic order, which works very well for our OCD brain – now where is that Akira DVD at?!

Ok, now you can start drooling!

Frankie’s old setup

The tough part – sorting through the massive library!

Experimenting with the video store setup!

And now, the finished product – welcome to Freakin Frankie’s Home Video Store!

images used with permission from Freakin Frankie

 

Rare Atari Lynx Handy Development System Documentation

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It’s amazing what you find when trawling eBay late at night!

During one of our insomnia induced evenings, we stumbled upon a rare piece of history, a listing for an Atari Lynx / Epyx Handy Specifications, Development System and Schematics document from the late 80s! Looking at the listing, it seems that this folder belonged to or came from Atari Corporation Executive Producer, Richard (Rich) Robbins, who was responsible for developing and managing products for the Atari Lynx.

We see a lot of eBay listings that purport to be rare, but this one definitely deserves that moniker, even if it is a pricey bit of history!

As with any eBay listing, they do disappear after a while, so we thought we would preserve this listing by saving the images here for posterity (click on each image to see them in their full glory).

PS: If you procure this rarity, please let us know (privately or via social media)!

Atari Lynx Handy Specs Doc

source: eBay

 

The Mini Vectrex VideoSystem

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We know this is OLD news, but who doesn’t like seeing this again?

Back in late 2018, the National Videogame Museum (NVM) in Texas (USA) tracked down the much rumoured Mini Vectrex VideoSystem. Once it was found that this was a working system, the NVM secured it as part of their Vectrex archive, ensuring all could see this lost treasure on display!

GCE designed and developed the Mini Vectrex just after being purchased by Milton Bradley in 1983. The mini system was to offer a slim alternative, much like contemporary mini console revisions of video games systems from the past. Now imagine if this actually made it to retail stores……….

We definitely could never get sick of watching the Mini Vectrex in action!


source: National Videogame Museum