The Pop-Culture E-Zine
We are hooked at trawling the LEGO Ideas site and finding wonderful creations, just like this Banjo-Kazooie action figure and the Planet Express delivery ship from Futurama.
We have voted and now have our fingers and toes crossed.
image source: LEGO Ideas
You’ve either heard of Jeff Minter or you haven’t. If you have, then that means you know he creates high-octane, psychedelic retro-style shoot’em up video games, usually with a camel, llama or some other ungulate. Perhaps you don’t know Jeff, but you have played Tempest 2000 on the Atari Jaguar, arguably Jeff’s best known game. It’s mind blowing to think that Tempest 2000 was released 25 years ago, when Jeff was already a decade plus into his game development career, which is still going strong today, with the impending release of Minotaur Arcade Vol 1 on the PlayStation 4.
A story of one game designer making video games for four decades deserves to be told. That’s the mission of Paul Docherty, a filmmaker who himself used to work as a graphics designer in the early days of video games. Paul is now making a feature documentary called HEART OF NEON, which centres around Jeff and Llamasoft. He talks about the documentary’s goals in more detail here.
Paul is currently raising funds to help put Jeff’s legend out into the world, and he’s gratefully accepting crowdfunding pledges right now!
You can follow everything about the Heart of Neon documentary on Twitter, Facebook, Twitch and Instagram.
image source: Paul Docherty – Heart of Neon
Hey peeps, it is that time of year that you sharpen your reflexes and get your twitchy fingers ready for the PAX Aus 2019 Classic Gaming Tourneys!
From tournaments on the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, PC-Engine, Sega Saturn, Atari Jaguar, to some Doom II FPS action on an old school MS-DOS computer and pinball, we have your nostalgia covered! Check out the PAX Aus 2019 Classic Gaming tournament schedule below and make sure you come around to the Classic Gaming Area nice and early for your chance to become a retro gaming champion!
The PAX Aus 2019 Classic Gaming Tournaments are brought to you by these awesome community partners: Bayside Pinball Club, Press Play On Tape Podcast, Weird And Retro and us at Ausretrogamer.
This is a call to action for all lovers of Lego and retro gaming to head to the Lego Ideas site and vote for the Lego Outrun and Lego Pac-Man Action Figure!
What are you waiting for, go and vote!
image source: Lego Ideas
This is a cool video from the early 1990s which has the TV show, Wild Chicago visiting the Williams factory. The video shows the making of The Addams Family pinball machine, which also includes a brief chat with Roger Sharpe and Steve Kordek amongst other pinball peeps at Williams. Ed Boon also makes an appearance where they show the making of Mortal Kombat!
source: Arcade Hunters
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Casting our mind back to November 1990, we recall walking into our local family run Home and Entertainment Centre with our hard earned money (from pushing trolleys at our part-time job) to be faced with a dilemma of what new gaming console to buy for the new decade. This decision wasn’t taken lightly, as we had been 8 and 16-bit computer gamers till that point. We remember paying $399.99 for the Sega Mega Drive (Altered Beast pack-in) that day and another $100 for Golden Axe. Let’s just say that it was the best decision we ever made. We instantly fell in love with Sega’s 16-Bit console and that love affair is still as strong as ever.
Fast forward to the present day and the excitement of bringing home a mini version of Sega’s venerable console feels just the same as it did almost 29 years ago! Cracking open the box, we found a super cute shrunken Mega Drive Mini console, about 55% the size of the original Model 1 Mega Drive, two 3-button USB controllers, one HDMI cable and one USB to Micro-B power cable.
Being a genuine made Sega product, everything feels high quality. You can tell that Sega took a lot of care and poured their heart and souls into crafting this sleek and miniaturised Mega Drive. We love the attention to detail, like the cartridge flaps retracting, but obviously they are there for aesthetics, so you can put away your game carts. The headphone volume slider feels the same, albeit on a smaller scale, as do the reset button and on/off switch – it all feels very familiar, which is a good thing. The 3-button controllers are identical to the ones we had in 1990, except these are USB, not D-Pin connected. On that front, it would have been great if Sega had included 6-button controllers so that we could play games like Street Fighter II right out of the box. But don’t dwell on this, as you can use the Retro-Bit® 6-button controllers on this Mini.
Once the Mega Drive Mini was fired up, we were keen to start playing one of the 42 pre-loaded games (full list of games further down). The menu we were presented with was quite easy to navigate, with an awesome catchy tune created on the YM2612 sound chip by legendary composer Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage and Beyond Oasis). Knowing that the pre-loaded titles from both first-party and third-party development teams were all handled by the premier developer, M2 (SEGA AGES and SEGA 3D Classics Collection), a team renowned for high attention to detail and accuracy, we knew the games ported to the Mega Drive Mini were in good hands – the M2 team should be commended for their brilliant effort. Oh yeah, both Tetris and Darius make it in the overall games list, which means the Mega Drive Mini is the only console where you’ll be able to play these two newly published Mega Drive games – how cool is that?!
Just like in 1990, the first game we fired up was Golden Axe. The hit of nostalgia was purely intoxicating. Our muscle memory didn’t let us down, so playing the game was just as fun as it was back then. However, unlike back then, we could now save our game at any point to come back to it later – so no more pesky pausing for 24 hours and running a high power bill. The game playing experience felt authentic, even if playing on a modern television. Having said that, there are settings available to change the aspect ratio (4:3 or 16:9) and for those of you that want the same visual experience from three decades ago, there is a CRT filter, which adds scan lines and adjusts the colour of the display to emulate the look and feel of a CRT television (see photos of this further below) – it’s pure magic.
Lovingly crafted from the ground up, the sleek and miniature SEGA Mega Drive Mini is for all retro gamers, especially those that have fond memories playing the original 16-bit console back in the day. Sega have truly delivered a high-quality, plug-and-play, collectable version of their awesome console. As their famous slogan once said, and it still rings true now, “To be this good takes AGES, To be this good takes SEGA.”
If you want to see the Sega Mega Drive Mini in the flesh, we will have it available in our Classic Gaming area at PAX Aus 2019. The Sega Mega Drive Mini will be released on September 19 at a retail price of AU$139.95.
The Mega Drive Mini 42 pre-loaded titles:
1. Sonic the Hedgehog
2. Ecco the Dolphin
3. Castlevania: The New Generation
4. Space Harrier 2
5. Shining Force
6. Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
7. ToeJam & Earl
8. Comix Zone
9. Altered Beast
10. Gunstar Heroes
11. Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
12. World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck
13. Thunder Force III
14. Super Fantasy Zone
15. Shinobi III
16. Streets of Rage 2
17. Earthworm Jim
18. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
19. Probotector
20. Landstalker
21. Mega Man®: The Wily Wars
22. Street Fighter II’®: Special Champion Edition
23. Ghouls ‘n Ghosts®
24. Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
25. The Story of Thor
26. Golden Axe
27. Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium
28. Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball
29. Vectorman
30. Wonder Boy in Monster World
31. Tetris®
32. Darius
33. Road Rash II
34. Strider
35. Virtua Fighter 2
36. Alisia Dragoon
37. Kid Chameleon
38. Monster World IV
39. Eternal Champions
40. Columns
41. Dynamite Headdy
42. Light Crusader
Disclosure: The Sega Mega Drive Mini was kindly provided by Five Star Games for this review.
Don’t blame us for showing you this, it is all Since Spacies fault!
When we saw Brian’s (aka: Since Spacies) tweet about this Game Glorious Mega Drive watch, we were literally throwing money at our screens, about AUD $19.50 (to be exact).
Don’t get too excited though, Game Glorious has opened pre-sale orders for this watch (and other Mega Drive related items) which will be showcased in their booth at the Tokyo Game Show 2019 event starting this week (September 12th – 15th).
16 Bit time piece…#sega #megadrive #genesis #retro #RetroGaming #videogames pic.twitter.com/z8tY8yCwNs
— …SINCE SPACIES | 3️⃣3️⃣ days till PAX AUS (@sincespacies) September 8, 2019
image source: game.watch.impress
This Nintendo (NES) M-82 store display kiosk on eBay is rare as rocking horse poop, hence the hefty price!
For those that never saw one in the flesh, the Nintendo M82 was a demo kiosk to showcase the NES and its games. The kiosk held 12 games and was used to let people play the latest games in store before they made a purchasing decision. The kiosk also had functionality to time limit play to ensure everyone got a chance to play some 8-bit console awesomeness.
Now, where did we leave that $51,000……
source: eBay
Yes, another pinball related post. Ohhhh c’mon, it’s not that bad, we promise you’ll enjoy this one too!
As we are (a tad) obsessed with pinball, when we found out that pinball and LEGO go really well together, we had to let you know what we had found. If you are a talented and mechanically minded LEGO creator, like Teun de Wijs (aka: YouTuber TonyFlow76), you build a fully kinetic depiction of a pinball player flipping one of the greatest machines of all time, Attack From Mars!
For those that want to delve under the covers, Teun states that he used a few new techniques to build this awesomeness:
Hopefully Teun submits this to LEGO Ideas – we’d vote the heck out of it. Anyway, all we can say is, press play and return to battle soldier!
source: TonyFlow76
Have you ever wondered how much Iron Man would be worth if you combined his New York skyscraper home, collection of flash cars and plethora of ultra-high-tech gadgets? Or do the financial implications of the Joker’s havoc-wreaking habits fill you with intrigue?
We looked at the assets of six high-profile comic book heroes and villains to calculate their net worth. We generated these figures in two ways. Assets grounded in reality were compared to their real-world equivalent. In the case of fictional assets, estimates were made based on the value of a similar item in the real world.
Weaponry, gadgets and transport are the obvious contributors to a comic book character’s financial worth, but there’s a selection of underlying factors that may not instantly come to mind. Expensive qualifications and high-maintenance image upkeep, for example. Remember, Harley Quinn was a trainee psychiatrist prior to her life of crime and Captain Marvel is a qualified fighter pilot.
Topping the rich list, of course, is Black Panther. He’s the rightful guardian of a £9 trillion reserve of vibranium after all. Not to mention he resides in a royal palace and boasts an advanced gadgetry collection.
Other characters featured in our list include the notorious Marvel villain, Thanos, and DC tormentor, the Joker. Scroll down for the financial breakdown of each character with supporting imagery created by artist and graphic designer, Marta Colmenero.
Prior to his tragic demise in Avengers: End Game, this billionaire inventor turned superhero was far from cash strapped. Tony Stark aka Iron Man called an imposing New York skyscraper home, drove a selection of flash cars and boasted a wardrobe bursting with designer suits. Not to mention his high-tech collection of gadgets.
Assets:
As King of Wakanda, T’Challa aka Black Panther not only resides in an extravagant Royal Palace, but he is the rightful guardian of the city’s £9 trillion reserve of vibranium (a fictional rare metallic ore). He boasts an extensive collection of gadgets and technology – largely invented by his younger sister Shuri – and travels from A to B in nothing less than his own personal fighter jet. The iconic nanotechnology suit he sports is woven from vibranium, making it impenetrable and capable of absorbing energy.
Assets:
As it stands, Thanos has been the most powerful villain in the Marvel universe to date. For a significant chunk of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: End Game he was the bearer of all six infinity stones – precious gems that brought great power to their owner. He displayed them in pride of place on a gold gauntlet, coordinated to match his armour. He gets about in an epic star ship entitled ‘Sanctuary II’, which is comparable to a colossal military warship.
Assets:
Arguably one of the most powerful Marvel characters on the roster, Captain Marvel boasts a number of superhuman abilities, including ultra-strength, endurance, stamina, lightning-fast speed and flight.
She may be less cash-rich than her peers, but she’s received a lot of government money to train as a fighter pilot and she commandeers an enormous star-ship worth a cool £10 billion.
Assets:
The Joker is Gotham’s most notorious resident. He robbed a bank just to set the cash alight, so clearly money is not a motivating factor in his crimes. It’s unclear what his background is or where he lives, but he comes across as well-educated and well-spoken.
It appears a chunk of his spare cash goes on his appearance – donning thick clown-like makeup and green dyed hair that complement a unique sense of style. His weapons are his prized possessions, many of which resemble clown props with a sinister twist.
Assets:
Partner in crime – and life – to the Joker, Harley Quinn (originally Harleen Quinzel) is another of Gotham’s troublemakers. Much like the Joker, details of Harley’s home life are shrouded in secrecy, and any money she has is likely a result of the crimes she commits.
She is, however, a trained psychiatrist and shares the Joker’s love for heavy caricature-esque makeup and tattoos – which are quite an investment!
Assets:
Currency conversions calculated based on a conversion rate of AUD$1.46 to every US$1.00
source story: techtalk.currys.co.uk