The Pop-Culture E-Zine
We are suckers for these time lapse based graphs. Press play an be in awe as you see your favourite video games rising in the top 10 and then falling before the winner takes it all!
A word of warning, it becomes quite grim for us retro gamers once the 2010 decade hits!
source: Gamology – The Best of Gaming
The Video Game History Foundation (VGHF), a nonprofit that brings old video games back to life by preserving, celebrating, and teaching their history, has recently unveiled the Video Game Source Project, an effort to save and study source code and related development materials before the stories around these games’ creation are lost forever.
“For a video game historian, an archaeological dig through source material is the next best thing to time travel,” said Frank Cifaldi, founder and co-director of the VGHF. “Unfortunately for us, most of that material — especially from our earliest days — has been lost forever. The Video Game Source Project will help us surface more of this material and normalize its use as an educational tool.”
To jump-start this initiative, the VGHF is putting out a call to developers, publishers, and anyone else in possession of source code, documentation, concept art, demo builds, or other materials that can help tell a game’s origin story. Donated materials will be maintained in the VGHF’s Northern California archives and made available to video game historians.
The first games to benefit from the Video Game Source Project will be Lucasfilm Games’ legendary point-and-click adventure The Secret of Monkey Island, which celebrates its 30 year anniversary this month, and its sequel Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge.
The VGHF’s staff and volunteers have spent the past several months studying the Monkey Island games’ source code, uncovering unshipped secrets, and even reconstructing cut rooms and cinematics. Much of this content will be shown for the first time on October 30 when Ron Gilbert, the creator of Monkey Island and of the SCUMM game engine, joins Cifaldi for a livestreamed “fireside chat” and Q&A. Tickets for “The Secrets of Monkey Island” are available for $10 with sales benefitting the VGHF.
“Monkey Island is a special game to me and the creation of the SCUMM system is a large part of that. Looking at the source always jogs my memory and now gives me a chance to answer questions people didn’t even know to ask,” says Ron Gilbert. “As a developer, I see real value in preserving and learning from the work that we never imagined people in the future would care about. I’m glad the Video Game History Foundation is making this a priority while there’s still time to salvage history that’s becoming scarcer by the day.”
Beyond Monkey Island, members of the VGHF are currently studying source material from a beloved 16-bit RPG, abandoned Sega hardware from the 1990s, and a never-before-seen follow-up to a legendary arcade game. Historical analysis and content related to these games and others will be unveiled in the coming months. The VGHF has also established an advisory committee of developers, publishers, academics, and historians to tackle the problems related to source conservation and to encourage industry participation.
To learn more about the Video Game Source Project and sign up to receive email updates, visit the Video Game History Foundation website.
image source: VGHF
What do you get when you dig out a huge playfield with Caterpillar heavy machinery and then play one of the most iconic arcade games of all time celebrating its 40th anniversary?
You get Cat Trial 9: PAC-MAN, an awesome real life PAC-MAN game with huge Caterpillar earth movers. Who wouldn’t want to play this?! This just oozes coolness!
source: Cat® Products
Straight from the planet Funkotron comes the funkiest, custom SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive game ever to hit your CRT TV! Complete with light-up LEDs, moving arrow, and sound effects, this brass elevator replica will amaze your friends on the included display stand or played in a real SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive!
You now have the chance to grab this one of a kind creation via the current charity auction on eBay. This charity auction will see 100% of the sale proceeds going to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. So not only could you win this super funky cartridge, but you can also help a great charity!
Happy bidding!
source: MID49
The LEGO Ideas keep marching on with more and more cool new ideas which we hope will garner enough support for them to become products we can purchase off store shelves.
This Classic Two Player Arcade Racer LEGO Ideas entrant by BricksDownUnder is another that piqued our interest. The 80s era classic arcade aesthetic and intricate attention to detail is pretty impressive, from the player steering wheels to move their racer left and right on the racing track, to the motorised track moving under the racers to simulate motion, this is pretty darn cool. Oh yeah, there is also a speed changing lever to really get your heartrate going in ludicrous mode – twice the speed for twice the excitement!
Impressed? If you are (and we reckon you should be), go and vote for this pretty cool LEGO Ideas entrant!
image source: LEGO Ideas
We must say, the AtGames Legends Arcade Family suite of products have piqued our interest due to their versatility and now, the collaboration with TAITO Corporation, an arcade manufacturing powerhouse, bringing us some awesome classic arcade titles!
Current owners of the Legends Arcade Family products as well as those who have an interest (like us!) in classic arcade games are in luck! To compliment the AtGames’ already large selection of built-in video games, gamers can now add another 47 classic TAITO arcade games via a simple firmware update. This is the first time so many Taito arcade games have appeared at the same time on a single product! Check out the full list of games below which we guarantee will whet your nostalgic appetite!
The 47 TAITO arcade games are:
These 47 TAITO arcade games are part of the growing number of built-in, licensed games on the Legends Arcade Family products like the Legends Ultimate and Legends Gamer series. Other current and future Legends Arcade Family products feature a similarly impressive mix of licensed arcade and console titles. We love the flexibility of adding games (legitimately!) to a home arcade system.
image source: AtGames Legends Family Arcade
We love finding obscure mini documentaries from the early 80s, just like this What’s Up America! mini documentary, titled Video Warriors, which provides an insight on the state of the arcade video games industry circa 1980.
This documentary features a fresh-faced Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, Lyle Rains (Atari VP of Engineering, Coin-Operated Games Division), and Roger Hector (Atari Manager of Advanced Products) to name a few. The focus is primarily on Atari Coin-Ops games, but arcade games from other manufacturers are also shown. We really love the part where Roget Hector discusses his co-creation, Atari’s (unreleased) Cosmos holographic handheld games system!
For those of you outside of North America, the What’s Up America! TV series ran on the Showtime channel from 1979-1981. Now go and enjoy this hit of nostalgia!
source: Scottith Games
Thanks to the competitors, judges, sponsors and everyone in between for making the Reset64 2020 4kb Craptastic Game Competition our most successful yet! Also, a special thank-you to Richard Bayliss for once again compiling the official compilation disk. It was an amazing competition with a record 38 entries making the deadline. Each of these games are an outstanding achievement and it was great to have both novice and experienced coders participating and exploring their ideas.
The expert judges this year are Rob Caporetto, Andrew Fisher, Raj Singh, Richard Tappenden, Paul Koller, Louie Dimovski and Andrew Hayes. We couldn’t have done it without the judges, who extensively played, critiqued and reviewed each of the 38 games. There was a lot of variation between scores from each judge, which illustrates just how different concepts appeal to different people! Overall, it was a very close competition and there wasn’t much separating each placing.
The Winner: Fall by Megastyle!
Thanks again to the compo sponsors – Bitmap Books, Protovision, Fusion Retro Books, Freeze64, K&A Plus, Puddlesoft, Megastyle, and Ready64. Please visit and support the competition sponsors. A big mega special thank-you to Ausretrogamer for hosting and publishing the compo updates and continued support!
Judges’ comments and more information about each game will be published in the near future. Until then, enjoy the games (which can be downloaded from the 2020 Craptastic page) and congratulations again to all of the entrants and winners.
1. Fall – Megastyle (28.71)
2. Dots – James (28.57)
3. Jumpin Jalopies – Megastyle (27.71)
4. RodMän Jr – Misfit (27.43)
5. Bring Back My Bones – Commocore, Hose It Out – Oziphantom (27.29)
6. Orcapult – Puddlesoft (26.86)
7. Avoid – James (26.71)
8. Star Lair – Malcontent (26.43)
9. SWYD – Megastyle (26.29)
10. Blockheads – Carleton Handley (26.14)
11. Rainbow Edge Run – Geir Straume (25.29)
12. Makealevel – Monsters Go Boom (24.57)
13. Jump4k – Megastyle, Kung Poo Fighter – Megastyle (24.43)
14. Al-Bert – Derek (23.86)
15. Ewe Woz Ere – DESIGN/chaos, WYR – Malcontent (23.57)
16. Mini Danmaku 64 – Cogitare Computing (23.43)
17. Stacks – Derek (23.29)
18. A Day in the Life of a Teleporter (BASIC 10 Liner version) – Roman Werner, Flappy Space – Megastyle (22.86)
19. Spunk v.s. The Rest – Twain Pain Games (22.57)
20. Plazzle – Goerp (22.29)
21. Dodonuts – DESIGN/chaos (21.71)
22. Make Them Jump 2K – map/Plush (21.57)
23. Snout About – Nick Sherman (21.29)
24. Fight – Megastyle (21)
25. MeteorMath – fancollector1980 (20.57)
26. Parking Ticket – Ruerob (20.29)
27. A Day in the Life of a Teleporter – ZeHa (19.71)
28. Customs – Vk4mx (19.29)
29. Zzaped in the Butt! – TND (18.71)
30. Kugelblitz – Haplo (17.43)
31. Cover Fire! – Jammer (17.29)
32. Country Pop – Tomaes (16.17)
33. 1991 USSR deep space probe control centre janitor – Goerp (15.71)
34. Rescue64 – Syed (12.43)
Dots
Jumpin Jalopies
RodMän Jr
Bring Back My Bones
Hose It Out
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Unkle K / Reset C64
Father, husband, teacher and retro gaming/computer enthusiast! Editor of Reset64 C64 magazine.
Follow Reset C64 on Twitter
Well, well, well, wonders never cease to amaze us! If you are yearning for your stuff to look more like they did in the mid 80s, then this Commodore 64C beige spray paint is for you!
The clever peeps at Retrohax are behind this nostalgia inducing spray paint, so if you want to get all artistic and go nuts on painting stuff all beige, then hit their store (~the spray paint is approx. AU$36.25).
Oh yeah, with this ongoing COVID-19 situation, spray paints are flight restricted items so they won’t get past the origin border, so unless you are situated in Poland, you may have to wait a bit to get some.
Just in case the C64C beige paint isn’t your thing, Retrohax also has Amiga 500 Beige and Atari XE/ST Grey spray paints to ensure you get creative! Now, if only they had a C64 breadbin brown spray paint 😉
image source: Retrohax
We love stumbling upon awesomely cool DIY projects, just like David Schwab’s Mini Virtual Pinball machine creation! What makes David’s construction even more amazingly cool, is that it was his first attempt – wish we were that clever! Oh yeah, David has also created a Space Invaders themed tabletop, but we’ll tell you about that cool creation in another feature in the not too distant future.
Scrolling through all of the photos of the build and final product, it is hard not to be impressed. We asked David to provide his thoughts and inspiration behind his Mini Virtual Pinball machine, so we hope this gives you all an insight on how to go about embarking on such a project.
David Schwab’s thoughts on gaming nostalgia and on his Mini Virtual Pinball build:
You can break it all down to 3 areas of competency; Software, hardware and construction. You need to be able to converse across all three disciplines. I think the attraction to this hobby is in the building and tinkering. To be able to assemble all parts, select hardware and build to a final and satisfactory presentation.
This is a work in progress as there are improvements I want to make. I don’t think anyone who sets to build one of these gets it right the first time, and that’s part of the fun.
In my design, I was going for pure nostalgia and very 0ld school. I would not say I was a big pinball player back in the day, as I was more the type of kid who nagged his mum for 20 cents to play Space invaders or Galaga. Those endless family holidays at caravan parks where there were tabletop arcade games demanded a feed of coins every day. I also majored in the Atari 2600, which was a great source of fun for both my brother Matt and I.
I went for the music and the ‘feel’ of some of the pinball tables, not necessarily staying with a purist collection of games. Everything I placed in this cab evokes emotion. The music, the aesthetic and the visualisation of the games. I have a Blues Brothers pinball table. This classic movie invokes great memories and a lot of fun. There are other pinball tables that others like – Doom, Crysis and Half-Life, although modern recreations bring a sense of nostalgia from the 90s and early 2000s.
This mini virtual pinball uses an Intel NUC 8i5 for the necessity of space and has an onboard 655 graphics processor, 250GB storage and 8GB of RAM. The 8i5 plays VP10 tables well, with no perceivable lag that I could notice. The back-glass is running a 1024 x 768 display which may also help the graphics processor. The playfield is a 1920 x 1080 IPS screen which holds a great resolution for a rig this size. 4K should never be considered with a small PC like a NUC and in any case you won’t need 4K unless you increase the size of your CAB past 32”!
So how did David get started on this project?
I did a lot of research online and asked questions. The best way to start is by typing ‘Virtual Pinball’ in Google and then head over to VPForums – which has a wealth of resources.
You can spend anywhere from $500 to $1500 depending on what you already have lying around, and how perfect you want it to look when finished. Some just plonk a couple of monitors in a box, others, just a couple of desktop screens to an existing PC while others want the full ‘this has got to look’’ fair dinkum.
The build process in (very droolworthy) photos:
images used by permission from David Schwab
We really really love this mini virtual pinball machine by David. If he took orders, we’d be getting in line 🙂