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Shadow Ninja – Awesome C64 Chiptunes by SID Ninja 64

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What can we say, we are suckers for sweet, sweet C64 SID chiptunes!

We were recently stumbled upon the Shadow Ninja chiptunes concept-album on Bandcamp by the mysterious musician SID Ninja 64. What we heard was quite impressive and literally music to our ears. The original SID tunes on this album are stylised after great C64 maestros like Tim Follin, Jonathan Dunn, Matt Gray, Ben Daglish, Jeroen Tel and Chris Hülsbeck to name just a few – a pretty good darn pedigree.

If you are into SID tunes or chiptunes in general, check out SID Ninja 64’s Shadow Ninja album right now!

image source: SID Ninja 64



Sinclair Book of Remembrance (SBOR)

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We received the following message from a friend on behalf of Jim (from SBOR – Sinclair Book of Remembrance) so we thought we would share with you all as we think it is a great idea for the community to share their memories of Sinclair’s computers and also remembering Sir Clive Sinclair.

The Sinclair Book of Remembrance (SBOR) is a project dedicated to the memory of Sir Clive Sinclair who sadly passed away on the 16th September 2021.

Moved as I was, SBOR has been a personal labour of love, to do something in honour of “Uncle Clive”. It is not a business project. It’s completely free and non-monetised.

The objective is to create a unique digital monument, composed of our shared Sinclair memories encoded together so that the final product represents each and every one of us.
For those thinking this is an NFT thing – it is definitely not! It is an opportunity for each of us to share a memory, and together create a unique dedication to Sir Clive.

I am asking that each of us contribute a Sinclair memory, by simply sending an email with your story (with up to 4 image attachments). By sending your email to [email protected] it will trigger the system to automatically create an entry to the SBOR site – for example: https://sbor.uk/m/1?code=41ce. You will receive a reply containing the link to your contribution, which I would urge you to share far and wide!

At a pre-determined date, say the 1-year anniversary of Sir Clive’s passing, all of the entries will be combined and encoded into a single unique value. This will be unique in the universe and will represent all of our combined memories of what Sinclair meant to us and something we can all share in.



It’s Going To Be An 8-Bit Christmas!

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If you think you have had enough of video games related movies, then you may want to look away. For those that lap up these types of nostalgia-inducing films, 8-Bit Christmas starting Neil Patrick Harris as a father looking back fondly at the late ’80s Christmas where he desperately did everything he possibly could to get an NES, will be right up your alley! Since we can relate to this tale (we also wanted a NES for Christmas in 1988, alas we didn’t get one then), we are definitely keen on giving this a watch and getting right into the Christmas spirit!

Check out the trailer below to see if 8-Bit Christmas will be on your viewing list his festive season.


source: Warner Bros. Pictures



 

The Rubber-Keyed Wonder: 40 Years of the ZX Spectrum

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If you are fans (like us!) of the From Bedrooms to Billions film series then you will absolutely love their latest documentary film, The Rubber-Keyed Wonder: 40 Years of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. To make Anthony and Nicola Caulfield’s film come true, go and check out their Kickstarter!

Coinciding with the ZX Speccy’s 40th anniversary next year (2022), Anthony and Nicola are aiming to release the film by Christmas 2022 – make sure you let Santa know! The Caulfield’s are aiming to make a thorough and definitive film on the ZX Spectrum, going into all the finer details of how and why the ZX Spectrum was created, what impact the computer had as well as the various versions that followed right the way through to the latest iteration of the system with the ZX Spectrum Next.

The film aims to reunite as many of the original ZX Spectrum hardware team and of course many legendary game developers, artists and musicians, and also talk to fans of the ZX Spectrum as to understand the significance of the machine with the masses.

This Kickstarter campaign once again has some stunning artwork from Oliver Frey available as well as some wonderful posters and other add-ons to get your nostagia gland pulsating!

Now, we are Commodore fans, but we are also aware of the significance of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, so we are quite excited to support Anthony and Nicola on their new project!

image source: The Rubber Keyed Wonder – 40 years of the ZX Spectrum



Casio x Pac-Man Vintage Limited Edition Unisex Watch

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Casio sure knows how to tug on our nostalgic strings! Their vintage classic line of watches brings back the 80s, and nothing screams 80s more than a Casio Pac-Man watch!

The A100WEPC-1B Casio x Pac-Man watch is a collaboration between Casio Vintage and Bandai Namco which aims to immerse you in the nostalgia of one of the world’s first blockbuster video games. Details on the watch glass hint at the exciting chase about to unfold as Pac-Man, surrounded in the square LCD display ghost house, is poised to start running.

Laser engraving on the black ion-plated metal band lays out the game maze. The game begins above the watch face with Pac-Man eating dots as he runs away from the ghosts and continues below the face after he’s devoured a power pellet and turned back to chase them!

The Casio x Pac-Man watch is retailing for AU$299.00! We bet these go fast!

 

source: Casio Watches



Vectrex Tournament: Vector War XI 2021

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Vectrex Tournament: Vector War XI (30th Oct – 6th Nov 2021)

Eleven years ago, a well known peep in the retro scene, Rob Maerz, started the Vector War. The Vector War is an annual Vectrex game tournament where Vectrex players all over the world compete. For this year, Vector War XI (VW11) runs for one week, from October 30 till November 6 2021.

The Vector War is for all player skills levels, from beginners to super expert players. In the Vector War you participate and compete with others. This is also a great opportunity to play the Vectrex games more extensively and get to know new games (and other peeps!).

For more information on the Vector War XI games list, competition rules and prizes, head over here and get ready! Good luck Vectrexians!

Thanks to RetroTuesday and Angela for making us aware of this Vectrex tournament!



The Karate Kid Action Figures TV Commercial with Extra Cheese

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As owners of some of the 1986 Remco ‘The Karate Kid’ action figures, this commercial is infused with nostalgia and that cool 80s ingredient, cheesiness!


source: Vintage Toy Emporium



Leonard Nimoy Is Introduced to the Magnavision VH-8000 LaserDisc Player in 1981

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Ah, love seeing one of our fave Trekkies, Spock (the late Mr. Leonard Nimoy) getting in amongst it when it come to video games, even if it is quite cheesy!

A long time ago, in our own galaxy, Leonard Nimoy – the Magnavox spokesperson, is guided and introduced to the Magnavox Magnavision VH-8000 LaserDisc Player by a cheesy white rock that blinks and beeps as a means of communication in this 1981 demonstration.

The mustachioed Nimoy, his white clothing and the Star Trek inspired theme music just ooze that 1980s vibe! Say cheese!


source: Watcher3223



New He-Man related Documentary, ‘Faking Filmation’ is now LIVE on Kickstarter!

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Faking FilmationWhen we got the email from Rob McCallum about a new MOTU related doco, we sat up and took note. We had previously backed the Power Of Grayskull documentary, which was darn awesome. So when Rob’s email advised us of the new Faking Filmation Kickstarter, we knew we had to jump on it right away!

The Faking Filmation documentary delves in the history of cartoons, with lots of attention to Filmation – the pioneering animation studio that helped start ‘Saturday Morning Cartoons’ and revolutionised weekday afternoon cartoons with He-Man and She-Ra.

But wait, there is more! This new project tackles all that cartoon goodness and wraps it around the story of He-Man mega fan, James Eatock, who has spent the last 3.5 years crafting his own unofficial He-Man cartoon called, “The Return of Faker.” James was just about to release the unofficial cartoon when he was hit with a cease and desist letter preventing him from doing it. Now, he’s on a mission to overcome this obstacle and share it with the world – how awesome is that! 

If you want more Masters of The Universe documentary content, or a look at cartoon history, or you just want to see James’ amazing work (and his process to pull it off), then jump on the Faking Filmation Kickstarter right now!

Faking Filmation Kickstarterimage source: Faking Filmation via Kickstarter

 

Pac-Man: The Complete History

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As Daniel Ibbertson (aka: Slope’s Game Room) so eloquently puts it, it’s time to drop a coin into one of the highest grossing video game franchises of all time – Pac-Man!

In this history documentary, Daniel discusses the inspiration and creation behind Namco’s flagship mascot, the troubled development between Namco and Midway when bringing him to western shores as well as the interesting backstory behind the controversial Atari 2600 port.


source: Slope’s Game Room