The Pop-Culture E-Zine
The ausretrogamer team was recently interviewed by Adam Turner for the Sunday Age M lift-out cover story which was all about the revival of retro gaming and the classic gaming area at PAX Australia!
If you didn’t get the chance to read the article in print, then you can read it all online right now on The Age website!
The full story can be read online on The Age website now
image source: PAX Australia
We are back, baby! Not much more needs to be said!
We are proud to be bringing the Classic Gaming area yet again to PAX Aus in 2017. Together with our fellow retroholics, Weird and Retro and Press Play On Tape, this will be our 5th (consecutive) year that we will be bringing you a hit of nostalgia at PAX!
But that’s not all! Bartronica, Bayside Pinball Club, Pinmem, Zax Amusements and Melbourne Silverball will also have their arcade and pinball machines for you to indulge your nostalgic senses. We hope to see you all there (and don’t be shy, come and say hi!).
If you want to get your classic gaming competitive juices flowing, then check out our tournament schedule. If you want to attend a great retro gaming panel, then diarise Saturday 5:30pm in the Gamespot theatre for a Blast from the Past!
Watching the ABC’s Classic Countdown on the weekend, we saw a music clip that triggered a torrent of nostalgia. The music clip in question was Mi-Sex’s Computer Games.
Released in 1979, Computer Games was way ahead of its time, both in the context of the nascent computer and video gaming age, and the use of Control Data Corporation’s data centre to film their music video, which features a number of arcade games from 1979 – can you name them all? The answers are further down below – don’t you dare cheat!
For those of our vintage that remember this hit song, here it is for you to enjoy once again. And for those that haven’t heard this before, kick back and enjoy!
source: saynotonowave
Answer: Computer Games features Vectorbeam’s Speed Freak, Atari’s Basketball and Exidy’s Star Fire! Did you get them all right?
We may have missed out on the NES Classic Mini, but we were determined not to repeat the same mistake twice!
When the SNES Classic Mini was announced earlier in the year, we jumped in early to lock in our pre-order. Well, the wait is finally over and we have our grubby mits on Nintendo’s latest (and best) Classic Mini system.
Our initial impression is that it is so small and cute! Leaving the aesthetics aside, the console connects easy to any newer TV (via HDMI) with the correct aspect ratio. You can power your SNES Classic by connecting it to your TV’s USB interface – no more worrying about a power outlet. The most important part of this whole Classic Mini thingy are the games, and what a stellar list! The bundled SNES Classic Mini games reads like a who’s who of the greatest games of all time. Just when you thought Nintendo could not top this, they have also thrown in the previously unreleased Star Fox 2!
Did you get yourself a SNES Classic Mini? If you did, we would love to know what you think – hit us up on Twitter or Facebook!
Anyway, enough chatting, time to play!
*** THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED ***
Wanna go to PAX Aus 2017? Do you want an easy way to enter a ticket giveaway? If you answered yes to both of these questions, then you are in luck!
Thanks to our great friends at PAX Aus, we have 3 x double passes for Sunday (October 29) to attend one of the biggest and best gaming events in the southern hemisphere. To score one of these double passes all you have to do is tweet us your favourite retro gaming item(s) – be it a console, computer, game or accessory, we want to see what tickles your nostalgic nerve. Don’t forget to tag us in your tweet and use the hashtags #PAXAus and #ausretrogamer.
It doesn’t get any easier than that! So get cracking on photographing those retro gaming items, as entries close on October 4th at 8:00pm!
If you need convincing of how great PAX Aus is, then check out last year’s event.
For those of you that like to read T&Cs, here are the finer details of this most awesome giveaway:
PAX Aus 2017 is on from October 27 to 29 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Tickets / Badges are available here.
Hold onto your swords peeps, Limited Run Games will be releasing physical copies of Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap on the PS4 this Friday (August 4) – North American time (midnight Friday in Australia) !
There will be 5,000 copies of the Standard Edition and 3,000 of the Collector’s Edition with limits (per customer) to ensure everyone has a fair chance of grabbing this wonderful game!
Standard Edition: 5,000 copies, with a limit of two per customer!
Collector’s Edition: 3,000 copies with a limit of one per customer!
source: Limited Run Games
In 1988 Atari Corporation’s Jack Tramiel ordered work to begin on the successor to the Atari 7800 and XEGS. Work quickly begun on the Panther and Jaguar consoles – yes, the Jaguar! The Atari Panther was being developed by Flare Technology (Flare One and Konix Multisystem) and was scheduled for release in 1991, directly competing with Nintendo’s SNES and Sega’s Mega Drive.
The Panther platform was going to be a mash up of the Atari ST and Transputer “Blossom” video card, once again blurring the lines of “is it 16 or 32-bit?”. For the record, the Motorola 68000 CPU was going to run at 16MHz (compared to the Mega Drive’s 8MHz and the SNES’ 12MHz) which was going to be paired with a 32-bit graphics card running at a whopping 32MHz! On paper, Atari was doing their math(s) right!
As the Panther and Jaguar were being developed in parallel, Atari Corp. started favouring the Jaguar as it was progressing quickly and presented far more impressive and superior technology. Atari eventually decided to scrap the Panther and forge ahead with their 64-bit console. The cancellation of the Panther meant that Atari had no hardware presence in the home console market between the discontinuation of the Atari 7800 in 1992 and the launch of their Jaguar in 1993. This gap weakened the Atari brand and likely contributed to the failure of the Jaguar console.
The cancellation of the Panther was poor timing, which in retrospect Atari wishes they had pursued it to market, as it would have given both the SNES and Mega Drive one hell of a fight!
The Atari Panther blueprint!
Looking good – front, back with nice sides!
The press release that got us drooling!
image source: Atari-Explorer via Wayback Machine
Be warned peeps, this tips and tricks video will void your old console’s warranty!
The Ben Heck Show team go under the hood of the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) for a complete teardown with tips and tricks on how to breathe new life in the venerable Ninty console.
The team start by disabling the lockout chip (yay!) and also give the cartridge loading bay care and attention as it’s one of the common failures, partly because it functions like an old VCR player! Ben also provides anecdotes from his time at Funcoland (now Gamestop) and also gives us other possible mods for the NES.
So what are you waiting for, grab the screwdriver and start taking apart that grey Nintendo shoe box!
source: The Ben Heck Show
Hands up those of you that haven’t played GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo 64. If you have put your hand up, then we strongly urge you to rectify the situation and play this game at this instant – it is that damn good!
For the rest of you, we all know how awesome and revolutionary Rare’s game was on the N64. GoldenEye 007 was so good, that it created the template for all First-Person Shooter (FPS) games that proceeded it, even till this day!
We would love to know more about the team and what went on in making this landmark game, but we all know how secretive Rare is, especially its enigmatic founding brothers, Tim and Chris Stamper. But, we are happy to report that our prayers have been answered!
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of GoldenEye 007, Melbourne based, Roller Coaster Productions is aiming to create a documentary on this influential console shooter, with the aim of exploring the untold story behind the game. The film, aptly titled GoldenEra, will examine how a young and inexperienced team were trusted to work on such a huge licence, how the game continued in spite of its cancellation, and most importantly, how they motivated each other to surpass all expectations and create a game that would shape the genre and delight players for years to come. GoldenEra will also delve into personal anecdotes from the game’s developers, critics, fans and celebrities – discussing how it shaped them and their lives. This documentary will celebrate the game that revolutionised the way we play together, in our lounge rooms and bedrooms with friends and family around the world. GoldenEra’s crowdfunding campaign and teaser trailer have already launched on IndieGoGo, so go and take a look and back it if you can!
GoldenEra – The untold story behind the game from Drew Roller on Vimeo.
We are quite confident in the pedigree of the GoldenEra filmmakers, Drew Roller and Narayan Pattison, with both having extensive content creation and film making experience, so this documentary is in very good and experienced hands. We’ll eagerly watch this IndieGoGo campaign!
source: GoldenEra Documentary
For this year’s PAX Aus we had the privilege of participating in the Geek Trash or Treasure: Finding Collectibles With Real Value panel, facilitated by CNET Editor, Seamus Byrne. The panel consisted of yours truly, Weird and Retro’s Stacey Borg and Bethesda Community Manager and mad collector, Noel Wheatley.
Keeping it retro: the panel in action!
We discussed why some games, consoles, computers, accessories, trinkets and ‘collectors editions’ become genuinely collectible. We provided helpful tips on where to find treasures and how to work out how much to spend. We also touched on preservation – basically everything you need to know about collecting retro goodies!
If you missed seeing it live, don’t worry – you can watch the recording via GameSpot’s YouTube channel.
(Image from PAX Aus website)