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ABC News – This Day Tonight: Pinball Parlours (1976)

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We absolutely love archival footage from television broadcasters, especially footage from amusement centres (or as we used to call them, parlours) from back in the day!

The below video is from the popular segment on ABC News’ ‘This Day Tonight’, with this particular occasion focusing on Pinball Parlours in Australia in the mid 70s. This is very intriguing with some very enlightening discussions with Malcolm Steinberg (from Leisure & Allied Industries (LAI) and Timezone fame) about video gaming and pinball entertainment that are apt to this day.

So, how much did you spend on gaming back in the day? In 1976 a player might’ve spent as much as $5 (approx. $35 in today’s money) on amusement machines!


source: ABC NEWS via Facebook

 

Free Retro Gaming Encyclopaedias

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Who doesn’t like free stuff? We sure do and that is why it is our duty to tell you about these latest retro gaming freebies!

PDF publisher, DaddaRuleKonge, have a swag of their popular retro gaming systems encyclopaedias all for free! No matter if you are an arcade, Atari, Nintendo, Sega, PlayStation, SNK, Vectrex or toy fan from any era, there are enough free encyclopaedias here to satisfy anyone’s interests!

Oh yeah, even though these are free (for now), you can also pay/name your price to say thank you to DaddaRuleKonge for their hard work.

So what are you waiting for, go and get downloading!

 

Introducing the WiiBoy Color – The Awesomely Portable Wii

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If you were impressed with Pixeljunkie’s playable mechanical LEGO Street Fighter II arcade machine, then there is no doubt you will be fully gobsmacked by Ginger Of Mods’ WiiBoy Color creation – a portable Wii, which is similar in size to the Game Boy Color!

This creation took 9 months of meticulous work, from printing the shell, to fitting all of the components, like the motherboard and display, resulting in the superb and unique WiiBoy Color!

The ‘Shut up and take my money’ meme would be a massive understatement right about now!


source: Ginger of Mods

 

LEGO Star Wars Helmets Collection

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While enjoying some much needed time off during the summer break, we finally got around to completing a fun project that had been on our plate for months!

With the way 2020 turned out, we really had no excuse of procrastinating on our already lengthy to do list. So when the Festive Season rolled around, we unboxed and started to build our Lego Star Wars Helmets! The experience of building these Lego sets had a calming effect, which was a great and unexpected by-product! We didn’t build these in one sitting, we basically did about an hour each day for about a week. Oh yeah, the instruction were awesome and a breeze to follow!

As mentioned, the build didn’t take as long as we imagined, but that may have something to do with the excitement and fun we were experiencing while completing each Star Wars helmet. Once they were all done, we found the perfect home for them – right on top of our Star Wars Comic Art pinball machine!

We reckon this custom pinball topper compliments the pinball’s Star Wars villainous artwork just perfectly – but we are biased 😉

 

Rob Hubbard’s SID Chiptunes Reconstructed in TrueStereo

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If you are a fan of the Commodore 64’s SID chip and the brilliant music and sounds it pumps out, then you’ll also know the works of one, Mr. Rob Hubbard! The SID Maestro created countless classic chiptunes for some of the biggest games on the Commodore 64, from Commando, International Karate to Monty On The Run and Sanxion to name just a few.

This album reconstruction of Rob’s classic SID music in full stereo was painstakingly (and lovingly) assembled by Jason Page (aka: No Other Medicine). Jason had previously worked with Rob on the Project Hubbard KickStarter campaign, so this reconstruction was a homage to Rob.

The best thing about this album is that the 11 chiptunes are not remixes or hacked versions of Rob’s work, rather they have gone through a process called “True Stereo” to highlight the brilliance of the original tracks.

We reckon the best way to enjoy this album is via a pair of good headphones (or stereo speakers), so kick back and crank up the volume and enjoy some classic chiptunes in full stereo!

Thank you to Jason Page and Rob Hubbard for this aural pleasure!

 

PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 and PC-FX Anthology

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When it comes to publishers of classic video gaming tomes, there is none better than the French Geeks-Line Publishing! With a stable full of awesome retro gaming anthologies, you can trust in these guys developing and delivering a high quality page turning book.

Their latest campaign on Kickstarter is for an anthology on the NEC gaming systems that wowed us back in the day, the PC-Engine and its many iterations, aliases and also, the PC-FX. Check out the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 and PC-FX Anthology Kickstarter now and if you are a fan of their books or the PC-Engine family of gaming systems, then this we’d highly recommend you jump on this right now!

image source: Kickstarter

If you are undecided, read our review of Geeks-Line’s PlayStation Anthology to see what you could expect with their upcoming PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16 & PC-FX Anthology.

 

LEGO Ideas: Pikmin – Planter of Growth

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Another day, another cool Lego Ideas pitch based on a much loved video game franchise!

This time round it is Pikmin’s turn, with the Pikmin – Planter of Growth Lego Idea. If you are a fan of Pikmin (or Lego), then there is only one choice really – vote now!

source: Lego Ideas – Pikmin

 

Happy Anniversary, Nintendo 64

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By: Alex Boz (Sort of Final Boss @ ausretrogamer)

Every time March 1 rolls around, I am reminded of the day I got my Nintendo 64!

It was March 1 1997 that us folks in Australia received Nintendo’s 64-bit wonder. I had done something that I had only done once before (with the Sega Mega Drive), and that is, I plonked down $400 and bought the N64 on day one! It was a special feeling getting the latest and greatest console on day one, but the realisation that the games were sold out and new stock was still a few weeks away, was a painful experience. Once Super Mario 64 hit the shelves, I could not throw my $100 fast enough to the cashier and get back home to fire up the system to see what the fuss was all about. Let’s just say that I was not disappointed.

Thankfully (or embarrassingly) someone captured my excitement upon receiving the Nintendo 64!
image source: From the Boz Family photographic archives

Even though I have fond memories of the SNES, it is the N64 which tugs more on my nostalgic heartstrings, which till this day I can’t explain why. Perhaps it is the late night Mario Kart 64 sessions with four friends or the 2P battles I had with my cousin playing Wave Race 64, or going dinosaur hunting in Turok (fog included). Whatever it was, I am thankful for the N64 giving me thousands of hours of fun, especially playing with others sitting right next to me, not on the other side of the planet via some wires. Oh yeah, the controller cops a lot of flak, but to be honest, it is one of my favourites, which made gaming on the console even better.

What are your memories of the N64 – share them with me or via Ausretrogamer on Twitter and/or Facebook.

image source: Kelamy



Play Freecell64 on your Commodore 64

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UPDATE: Fritz has informed us that FreeCell64 version 2.2 is out now! Fritz has also advised us that this awesome game is now complete, which is now more colourful, has mouse support and comes with time counter and statistics included. Grab this latest version and enjoy!

Whoa, developer Friedrich “Fritz” Philipp has released his first version of Freecell, titled Freecell64, for the Commodore 64!

What is so impressive is that Freecell64 has been totally written in BASIC! So don’t just sit there, go and download Freecell64 via GitHub right now! Oh Fritz, what have you done to us, our productivity will surely take a tumble!

For those that need some quick instructions, to move cards, click anywhere on the respective pile and then onto the destination pile. Double-clicking is also possible where cards are moved to the Aces pile (as a priority) or to the repository. When you think you have won, click on the “Game” menu item and select “Check” – good luck!

Being version 1.0, Fritz advises that Freecell64 still requires:

  • A time counter;
  • High scores; and
  • Sound

To say we’ll be watching this eagerly will be a gross understatement!



Iconic TAITO STATION To Close In March

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Not the arcade gaming news we wanted to see in 2021 – another iconic arcade building is set to close.

First it was Sega’s (GiGo) Building 2 that closed in August last year, and now as reported by SoraNews24, Taito Station’s iconic Nishi Shinjuku branch is set to close its doors on March 21st, 2021.

If you are anywhere near Shinjuku, go and check this out before it closes. Unfortunately we will never get to tick this one off our bucket list 🙁