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Things That Go Bump in the Night: The Spooky Pinball Story

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From little things, big things grow. This is definitely the case with Spooky Pinball.

In a little rural Wisconsin town called Benton where the population is a smidgen under 1,000 people, we witness what the power of family, friends and community can achieve when they all work together towards a common goal. Charlie Emery’s vision of making his own pinball machines was a big risk, but he was never going to be swayed by all the people that told him he was mad for leaving his secure job of 20 years to pursue his dream.

Joel and Dana Reeves’ Things That Go Bump in the Night: The Spooky Pinball Story chronicles the story of how Spooky Pinball came to be, from its very humble beginnings with their podcast, its hardships in starting up the manufacturing of pinball machines to its eventual and continued success.

With unprecedented access to the Emery household, key folks from Benton and pinball industry luminaries, this documentary weaves a narrative that keeps you glued from start to finish. From Chuck’s re-theming of Firepower II to Godzilla and chance meeting with DIY extraordinaire Ben Heck (Heckendorn) at the Midwest Gaming Classic in 2011, to America’s Most Haunted, Domino’s Pinball Adventure and Rob Zombie Spookshow pinball table productions, you live through the ups and downs of being a pinball manufacturer.

If you are into documentaries that delve into the resilience and determination of people that strive to succeed in the boom-or-bust world of pinball manufacturing no matter what, then Things The Go Bump In the Night: The Spooky Pinball Story cannot be missed! Get on Vimeo right now and rent (or buy) this film – you will love it!

Oh yeah, we have our fingers crossed that Spooky Pinball will produce Ben Heck’s dream machine, Bible Adventures with its numbered modes; Adam and Eve 2-ball multi-ball where every shot scores except for the apple, 40 days and nights of flood, 40 years in the wilderness, 7 deadly sins, 10 Commandments and the 10 Plagues of Egypt – what’s there not to like!

Film: Things That Go Bump in the Night: The Spooky Pinball Story
Where: Vimeo
Released: June 30, 2017
Duration: 1 hour 4 minutes + bonus features
Price: Rent AUD$5.20 or Buy AUD$11.72

source: Things That Go Bump Movie

 

GoldenEra: The Untold Story Behind The N64’s GoldenEye 007

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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

 

Growing The 8-Bit Generation

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source: 8bit generation

We initially backed Growing The 8-Bit Generation Kickstarter campaign not knowing its troubled past. We were drawn to it because of it’s proposed subject matter – a documentary about the start of the home computer industry, which was right up our alley. Rather than getting bogged down in the windy road of how this documentary came to be, we thought we would concentrate on what the 8-Bit Generation / Junk Food team have delivered, and boy is it good!

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Like any documentary that delves into the history of a particular industry, it is the people that were there, recounting their experiences first-hand that is paramount to the success of telling such a story. Growing The 8-Bit Generation nails this part by featuring a roster of interviewees that reads like a computing and video gaming hall of fame, from Chuck Peddle, Al Charpentier, Bil Herd, Michael Tomczyk, Dave Rolfe, Richard Garriot, Jeff Minter, Andy Finkel, Lord British, Steve Wozniak, Nigel Searle, Chris Curry, John Grant, Nolan Bushnell, Al Alcorn to Joe Decuir and Leonard Tramiel among others. However, the biggest interviewee coup for the documentary was having the late and great, Jack Tramiel recount his days as the head of Commodore and his somewhat ruthless pursuit to build computers for the masses, not the classes – which he certainly did. It is staggering to think that the production team actually interviewed 64 key industry figures, not all appearing in this film, which means there will be future documentaries with the additional footage!

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The best way to describe Growing The 8-Bit Generation is that it is a visual and aural representation of Brian Bagnell’s book, Commodore: A Company on the Edge. If you have read this book, you will recognise the interviewees and know the subject matter quite well. Having said that, if you haven’t read Brain’s book, you will learn how Commodore battled it out with Atari, Sinclair, Texas Instruments, Apple and Tandy to reign supreme in the home computer hardware market.

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The documentary is given a sense of authority by having Bil Heard (former Commodore engineer) lending his voice as the narrator. There is also subtle chiptune background music which adds to the aural spectacle. If we were to be nitpicking (Ed: and we would hate to be!), we would have loved to have seen Bob Yannes (SID chip inventor) appear and perhaps someone from Amstrad, like Lord Sugar. Purists may argue that the documentary is too Commodore-centric, but you have to remember it was their MOS6502 microprocessor that gave birth to the home computing industry and it also had a profound impact on the video games console market.

What From Bedrooms To Billions documentary was to the history of home computer games development, Growing The 8-Bit Generation is to the history and evolution of home computer hardware – it is certainly compelling viewing!

NOTE: Retail availability of the documentary is yet to be confirmed. Keep an eye on the 8-Bit Generation site for more details.

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Grow8Bit_ZXSpecimage source: 8-Bit Generation

 

‘GAMEBOY’ Tells The Story Of Austrian Game-Expert Andranik Ghalustians

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The short-documentary ‘GAMEBOY’ by filmmaker Carlo Hofmann tells the story of Austrian game-expert Andranik Ghalustians and his amazing (and well used) video game collection – he estimates he has somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 games!

Source: Carlo Hofmann on Vimeo via Laughing Squid

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msausretrogamerMs. ausretrogamer
Editor and Researcher at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.

Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter