The Pop-Culture E-Zine
The legendary fighting franchise with over-the-top action, a wild cast of combatants, rocking reactive music, and C-C-C-COMBO BREAKERS is now free to play on Steam!!!
If you are an existing paid owner of the Killer Instinct (2012) game, you’ll be automatically upgraded to the Anniversary Edition (which is A$39.95).
Go on, what are you waiting for – go and break out some killer combos!!
image source: Steam
It is always quite interesting when stumbling upon footage of an old arcade game that many of us either didn’t experience or had long forgotten about it. One such game is Atari’s arcade driving game, Hi-Way. Hands-up those who saw or played this game in an amusement centre? We bet not many of you did – but if you did, count yourself lucky, as this was and still is a hard game to find!
Atari’s Hi-Way (aka: Highway and Hyway!) is a black and white vertical driving game where players avoid oncoming cars – just listen to that glorious sound! Produced in 1975, this (almost 50 year old) Atari game was built with discrete logic chips, using transistor–transistor logic (TTL) chips!
source: Andys-Arcade via Facebook
If you thought the contemporary F1 Spirit video game, a remake of the classic MSX title by Konami, was awesome, wait till you play Retro Reloader’s Project D – F1 Spirit, a tweaked version of Brain Games‘ remake with Initial D arcade style elements, from the music, sound effects, to the enemies, graphics and menu.
Go and burn some rubber, drift or blast a berm in Project D – F1 Spirit!
source: John Retro Reloader
Last year’s NZ Mint commemorative Space Invaders 40th Anniversary Silver Coin totally blew us away. Luckily for us, there is another classic video game anniversary this year which NZ Mint will help us celebrate and commemorate with one of their beautiful and special silver coins.
35 years ago, a puzzle game was born from the imagination of computer programmer, Alexey Pajitnov. That puzzle game was Tetris! Inspired by Alexey’s favourite puzzle board game, Pentominos, Pajitnov created an electronic version that let players arrange puzzle pieces in real time as they fell from the top of the playing field. The resulting design was a game that used seven distinctive geometric playing pieces, each made up of four Tetriminos. The genius of Tetris is in its simplicity which hooks you in immediately, but to master it you need the precision of a skilled surgeon and the reflexes of a cat.
Tetris was dubbed the first ‘killer app’ when it was bundled in with Nintendo’s Game Boy handheld system. We easily spent thousands of hours playing Tetris all those years ago and the passion to play it till this day still burns brightly as the first time we made four lines vanish on screen! That fun little puzzle game from 1984 has been responsible for hooking people into playing video games.
To commemorate the 35th anniversary of Tetris on June 6, NZ Mint has released a limited edition 1oz silver coin. The silver coin features the Tetris game’s iconic Tetrimino shapes on a chequered, proof background, arranged in a way to make it appear as if they are falling, much like in the game itself – very clever and iconic! The coin is housed inside a specially designed Tetris-themed arcade cabinet and includes a colourful image of the Kremlin, paying homage to the game’s Russian origins. The cushioned black felt base which holds the coin can be slipped out by lifting up the arcade cabinet, revealing the gorgeous coin. The entire package, from the coin, the felt cushion and arcade cabinet housing oozes quality and gets the nostalgic juices flowing.
If you are a coin collector or you loved (and still love) playing Tetris, then the Tetris 35th Anniversary limited-edition silver coin is the perfect memento for you.
Disclaimer: NZ Mint kindly provided the Tetris 35th Anniversary silver coin for this article.
The 2017 C64 GOTY, Galencia is now on Steam! So for those that missed out on Jason Aldred’s brilliant shmup on the C64, you are in luck, just head to Steam and buy it immediately!
If you are asking yourself, what is Galencia, then let us enlighten you – Galencia is a tribute to the great ‘stars and space’ shooters from the 1980’s, a love letter to Galaga and similar games from the golden age of arcade games.
Thanks to the awesome Jason Aldred, we have 5 x Galencia Steam keys to giveaway! All you have to do is tell us what your fave shoot’em up is on Twitter or Facebook (you must follow us and/or Like our page to be in the running).
The Galencia Steam keys giveaway will close at 4:00pm on July 31 (Australia Eastern Standard Time). Giveaway winners will be announced on August 1! So go on, what are you waiting for, hit Twitter and Facebook!
The lowdown:
Oh yeah, Galencia on Steam is enjoying a 40% launch discount, so go and get pew, pew, pewing!
PS: Jason has informed us that there is a sequel in the works, Galencia: Khaos Sphere that you can back right now on Indiegogo!
Ah good ole ToeJam & Earl – we loved these two funky dudes when they landed on our Sega Mega Drive all those years ago. Well guess what, they are back!
ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove, the upcoming fourth entry of the beloved, funkadelic action roguelike series, releases later this year on consoles and PC.
Greg Johnson, founder, HumaNature Studios, has stated that, “We ARE releasing this year! Right now we have our sights set on a fall (spring in Australia) release. We will be making a specific release plan announcement in regards to dates as soon as we have that nailed down”. Greg went on to say, “We are also going to be opening a closed beta within the next couple of weeks for our early-access backers, and we’ll be looking for your feedback! Also, the Nintendo Switch version of the game is just about ready to be submitted for certification by Nintendo, and the other console versions are not too far behind”.
This is great news peeps. We’ll keep a close eye on this and provide updates as they come to hand via our social media channels (Twitter and Facebook). Gen funky!
image source: ToeJam & Earl: Back In The Groove
Special occasions like anniversaries usually come about a few times in a lifetime, so what better way to commemorate and remember a special anniversary than a beautiful and awesome memento to mark the occasion!
There were a few arcade games that came before it, but in 1978 Taito’s Space Invaders single-handedly propelled arcade games into mainstream popular culture and helped kick off the golden age of arcade video games.
When Tomohiro Nishikado created Space Invaders we bet he wouldn’t have thought that it would become such a global hit. With its legacy well and truly cemented in arcade video gaming lore, we wonder then what Mr Nishikado-san would make of New Zealand Mint’s commemorative Space Invaders 40th Anniversary 1oz Silver Coin? If we were to guess, he would be most impressed, just like we were.
The first thing that struck us when opening the package was the beautifully recreated (to scale) Space Invaders arcade cabinet. The base of the cabinet carries the numbered (out of 3,000 units) Certificate of Authenticity. The precious cargo is housed inside the arcade cabinet, which can be opened by lifting the cabinet off its base to reveal the gorgeous 1oz silver coin, cushioned in black felt.
Removing the coin we were impressed with its size – it is bigger than we imagined! On one side of the coin you will find Space Invaders engraved on a proof background and lenticular printed coloured aliens that move as the coin is rotated at different angles. The other side of the coin has Queen Lizzie (just like on all of our Australian and NZ legal tender). Holding the coin feels special as it connects us via nostalgia for the video game that kickstarted the arcade scene in the late 70s.
Rotate the coin to move the aliens, just like in the actual game!
image source: NZ Mint
If you do want this beautiful and officially licensed limited edition memento to commemorate one of the greatest arcade games, then you may want to act fast, as there are only 3,000 coins available worldwide! This coin is a great investment for any gaming fan. Long live Space Invaders!
Specifications:
Disclaimer: NZ Mint kindly provided the Space Invaders 40th Anniversary silver coin for this article.
A bit of fun for your Wednesday!
Don’t thank us, thank Russian filmmaker, Mike Tivikoff for this awesomely cool special effects video where Super Mario Cat co-ops with his human bro to save the Lost Cat Princess!
source: Mr.TVCow
Fire up your trusty Commodore 64 and grab Jason Aldred’s brilliant new shoot’em up Galencia.
For those that have been away on Mars and have just landed back on Earth, Galencia is a fast action shoot ’em up for the C64 in the mould of Galaga, but even better! Yes, it is that good that we reckon it is even better than Galaga – there, we said it.
Galencia features 50 action packed levels with asteroid fields, challenging stages, boss battles, ebb and flow difficulty curve and siren enemy with tractor beam for double ship action (Ed: oo’er!). The game includes gorgeous intro, launch and completion sequences, coupled with 6 unique SID chiptunes for your aural pleasure.
Blast-Off!
But wait, there is more! In-game options include:
There are many great people behind great games, just like the peeps that had a hand in creating Galencia. We can all thank these talented group of people for making such a wonderful and sublime game:
Even the great Julian ‘Jaz’ Rignall gives his sizzling approval!
You can grab the digital version right now via itch.io for US$4.99 (which is an absolute steal!), or for the more traditionalists among us, Galencia will be available on physical media from Friday, November 17 via Protovision Games, just take a look at these tangible temptations:
All boxed editions of Galencia will come in a fully printed cardboard box with custom inlays to hold the disk, tape or cartridge, which will also include:
With the Disk and Cartridge special edition, both physical media will be in the one box with all of the above inclusions, plus a space amulet that is much needed in higher levels of Galencia, as it has been reported to promote good fortune!
Oh yeah, the game works on both PAL and NTSC C64 computers, with all physical editions containing the tape and disk digital images. If you don’t have a C64, then emulation is fully supported through VICE.
So what are you waiting for, go and pilot the 1981 Galencia Fighter to restore order, before it’s too late!
The game is never over!
The eyes have it!
Credit where credit is due
Tough choice – will you grab Galencia on cart?
On disk?
Or on tape? The choice is yours (you can’t go wrong!)
Time to squash some bugs!
Go on, get blastin’
image source: Jason Aldred – Galencia HQ
BOOM SHAKALAKA! Boss Fight Books latest collection Season 4: Creator Access Edition has conquered Kickstarter!
With the successful crowdfunding now finished, we can’t wait to read about Final Fantasy V, Shovel Knight, NBA Jam, Star Wars: KotOR and Postal. If you missed the Kickstarter, don’t worry, just keep an eye out on how to order this collection on the Boss Fight Books website.
These books are making us drool in anticipation, but it is Reyan Ali’s chronicling of Midway’s arcade hit NBA Jam, that we are most looking forward to reading. With inside information on the game’s creation and interviews with key development people and industry leaders, this tome will definitely be a slam dunk!
source: Boss Fight Books