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Power Up At The UK’s Science Museum

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160 consoles. Five decades. Game on!

The UK’s Science Museum has a new interactive gallery, POWER UP, which is on right now in London’s South Kensington district.

Immerse yourself in a hands-on gaming experience, featuring the very best video games and consoles from the past 50 years!

Back in the early 1970s, Pong, a simple tennis-themed game, took the world by storm as one of the first commercially successful arcade games. From there, the gaming industry continued to grow, introducing us to iconic titles such as Space Invaders, Pac-Man, and Donkey Kong.


source: Science Museum

From its humble beginnings with Pong to the immersive VR worlds of today, gaming has been an integral part of our lives. It has evolved, adapted, and thrived, capturing the hearts of both the young and the young at heart. Whether you’re a seasoned gamer, a nostalgic enthusiast, or a casual player looking for some fun, the gaming world has something extraordinary to offer you.

Day and annual passes for POWER UP are available now. Book your tickets here.

source: © Jody Kingzett, Science Museum Group

source: © Science Museum Group



MS Excel In 1990 – It’s Oh So Cheesy!

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Oh wow, the cheesiness of this long-form 1990 Microsoft Excel commercial is absolutely dripping!

The cringe factor is off the charts too. It’s like a slow-moving train-wreck, you can’t keep your eyes off it!


source: Wall Street Oasis



The Definitive History of SEGA WORLD Sydney

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Who knew that Sega OziSoft convinced Sega (Japan) to pump AU$80 million dollars into the world’s largest indoor theme park (at the time), SEGA WORLD Sydney in Darling Harbour! We still regret not visiting Sega World in Darling Harbour (Sydney) while it was still open. We’ll never get to cross that off our bucket-list.

This SL Films’ half hour documentary provides interesting insights into the history of the site, and an analysis into why it closed down, touching upon the local industry and local conditions.

If you are like us and never got to visit Sega World, this definitive history of the theme park/amusement centre is the next best thing!


source: SL Films

image source: SL Films



My ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ Weekend

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By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.

Here is a little secret about entertainment: if something is good, people are usually going to find it and make it a success.

I’ve stayed away from buying a “Sonic the Hedgehog” game for all my life, but one recent weekend, I decided to purchase “Sonic Forces” and “Sonic Mania” for Nintendo Switch.

I’ve always played “Sonic” in a friend’s dorm room or at an arcade when I was younger, but I never bought a “Sonic” game; and I had a Sega when I was a teenager. All weekend long, I went back-and-forth playing the two Sonic games. I played “Sonic Mania” a little more because I like the retro look and feel to it.

The main thing that I’ve always enjoyed about “Sonic” games is the speed. I’m not the greatest at collecting tokens, however, I’ll get through each stage in a speedy fashion. When I land on some spikes and lose all my tokens, I’m never fazed by it. My focus is always trying to get to the end of the stage. I’m always trying to break my previous record; my time is my focus.

Before buying the games, my last interaction with “Sonic the Hedgehog” was the first film, back in 2020. I tried watching “Sonic the Hedgehog” with Jim Carrey; I got about an hour in, and said to myself, “This movie wasn’t made for me.” I hear kids love the film franchise. Worldwide, both films made $725 million combined. A third film is in the works for 2024.

When I went into my Sonic cave for the weekend, I couldn’t stop playing, I was enjoying myself so much. Yes, the game is hugely popular and iconic, but the game play, like the original “Super Mario Bros.,” is still thrilling and engaging.

And, like “Mario,” there are many iterations of “Sonic” to come. In the future, I may buy a third “Sonic” game.

image source: Ausretrogamer



All English-Language SNES Manuals Are Now Available Online

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Retro gamers rejoice, you can finally put away your physical SNES game manuals as you can now use the SNES Manual Archive online library to check out any game manual from your smart device (or computer) anywhere in the world!

This amazing resource for nostalgic fans of videogaming history was painstakingly curated by a team of dedicated peeps lead by Peebs. To say we owe them all our gratitude would be a massive understatement!

PS: If you look closely, there are Super Famicom, N64 and Virtual Boy manuals too!

Story source: The Verge / image source: Reddit / Title image: Peebs



Retro Gaming Inspired Bathrooms

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With Casa Ausretrogamer going through some renovations at the moment, it has dawned on us just how difficult design decisions are, from paint colour, flooring, to what tiles to use in the bathroom, kitchen and laundry.

Speaking of tiling, perhaps we should take some inspiration from this lot!

image source: Pinterest

image source: houzz



The Tabletop Retro Gaming Royal Rumble

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There is no doubt that we are still in the honeymoon period with our gorgeous Taito EGRET II mini tabletop arcade, but there are a few seasoned classics that could easily knock it off its perch!

Of course the Sega Astro City mini is another beautiful little arcade in the mould of the EGRET, just a tad smaller in stature and without a number of bells and whistles that its bigger brother enjoys.

The arcade mini contenders face-off!

Going toe to toe!

Then there are the tabeltop  heavyweights that have withstood the test of time, Grandstand’s seminal Astro Wars (1981) and Nintendo’s Game & Watch tabletops from 1983. We would’ve added the Vectrex too, but we thought otherwise 😉

Now don’t get us started about superior graphics and sounds on the Sega and Taito arcade minis, that is a given, however there is something quite charming about VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display) displays and simple pew pew pew sound effects – they never get old!

We have wasted too many batteries to count playing Astro Wars, Mario’s Cement Factory and Donkey Kong Jr., which we still keep coming back to till this day – that’s 4 decades, and counting! Let’s see if we will be saying the same about the new arcade minis from Sega and Taito in the 2060s.

Let the Tabletop Royal Rumble begin!

For now, the EGRET II mini with the trackball & paddle controller is consuming our gaming time!



Transforming a 90’s Hot Wheels PC into a Modern Gaming Beast

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We have always been impressed by Shank Mods’ creations, like transforming the Virtual Boy in the Real Boy handheld!

Hold onto your hats folks, cause Shank Mods’ has now transformed a 1999 Hot Wheels PC into a high performance gaming beast! The eye-watering specs are impressive as they are expensive.

Before Specs:

  • Intel Celeron 500MHz processor,
  • 10GB hard drive,
  • 64MB of memory,
  • 56k modem,
  • 40x CD ROM drive,
  • 15″ CRT monitor and ran Windows 98

After Specs:

  • AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor,
  • Gigabyte X570 Aorus Mini-ITX motherboard,
  • ASUS X570-I ROG Strix Mini-ITX motherboard,
  • EVGA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 XC graphics card,
  • G.Skill Trident Z Neo Series RGB 128GB (4 x 32GB) RAM,
  • Samsung 980 Pro 2TB SSD, and an
  • LG WH16NS40 16x Internal Blu-Ray Rewriter.

This is pretty darn awesome!


source: Shank Mods



SEGA Genesis Interactive Plush Console

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Sega Does What Nintendon’t!

Another nostalgia inducing product from Kidrobot for those Sega 16-bit and Sonic fans! Kick it oldschool with this cool retro plush! The beloved classic SEGA Genesis (we prefer, Mega Drive!) gaming console gets a plush makeover with interactive elements.

This Genesis/Mega Drive console is a 12″ / 30cm plush which includes a plug-in plush Sonic game cartridge and an original 3-button type plug-in plush controller.

image source: Kidrobot



Star Wars:The Magic of Myth Exhibition

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It may have closed a long, long time ago in our current galaxy, but the Star Wars: The Magic of Myth museum still lives on in cyberspace!

Thanks to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM), the Star Wars: The Magic of Myth exhibition has been saved for posterity via an online tour as it was originally displayed at the NASM. Just think about this, the Star Wars: The Magic of Myth was on display at the National Air and Space Museum from October 31, 1997 to January 31, 1999 – that was a long time ago indeed and before the prequels started!

Speaking of Star Wars exhibitions, Ms. ausretrogamer and I were lucky to visit the Star Wars Costumes exhibition at the EMP Museum (now called MoPOP) in Seattle back in 2015, which we will publish our photos from that exhibition in a future post – so keep an eye out for it!