AUSRETROGAMER

The Pop-Culture E-Zine

You are here: Home / Archives for gamer

gamer

Retro Puzzler Chip’s Challenge Lands on Nintendo Switch Later This Month!

By

Classic Puzzle Game ‘Chip’s Challenge’ Returns on Nintendo Switch this January!

The 1989 classic made available for Nintendo Switch for the first time! Features display filters, suspend points and live gameplay rewind. Releasing January 25th, 2024.

Developed by Imagine Software and published by Pixel Games UK, this 1989 classic returns with over 140 levels to put your mind (and your fingers) to the test — available for the first time on Nintendo Switch via the Nintendo eShop.

In ‘Chip’s Challenge’, players take on the role of Chip — a puzzle obsessive who desperately wants to join Melinda the Mental Marvel’s computer club. His initiation takes the form of a series of increasingly difficult puzzles. To succeed Chip slide blocks, dodge hazards and collect the computer chips to pass each level. Are you up to the Challenge?

‘Chip’s Challenge’ for Nintendo Switch allows players to play this classic puzzle game with many modern features, including:

● Display filters, including an 80s-style CRT filter; and

● Suspend points – save and restore up to 4 suspend points per game

image source: Pixel Games UK



‘The Walking Dead’ Arcade Game

By

By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.

Over Christmas break, I discovered the arcade game “The Walking Dead” at a local Dave & Buster’s, a sports bar and video arcade. The object of the game is to shoot as many zombies as possible for a high score, and to get through the stages without getting nibbled on. As an enormous fan of the television series and comic book, the game was calling out to me when I bought a massive number of tokens.

When I’m playing the exciting game, shooting zombies with my crossbow, I’m not thinking about anything else in the world. My troubles and the bad news headlines all fall away. It’s an escape into a fun, fictional world, created by the great Robert Kirkman. You begin in the West Georgia Correctional Facility in Story Mode, and you’re fighting your way through the corridors and the expansive, open yard. One of the most thrilling parts when you’re in the yard is when you shoot a tanker with an arrow with an explosive on it, killing all the surrounding zombies. Some of them are just dazed, but it gives you time to escape from the starving herd.

The Raw Thrills, Inc. game is fantastic because you can easily reload your crossbow by pulling back on the handle to load again. The action is so hurried, you have about a split second to decide where to aim.

image source: Raw Thrills

It’s somewhat annoying when parents and kids walk by the outer doors, and they peek at my gameplay. Hours fly by when I’m enthralled in the combat of the game. I like it when you open a door of the prison and a zombie is right there behind it, ready to pounce on you and bite you if you’re not careful. “The Walking Dead” arcade machine is in a dark area of the arcade, so I have a feeling of isolation and total immersion when the place isn’t crowded.

I still go back and watch some of my favorite “Walking Dead” episodes, and they are usually centered around the character, Daryl Dixon. I really like the episode “Still,” that aired during the fourth season. Most of the episode is Beth and Daryl hanging out at a golf country club. It’s a haunting episode and the performances by Emily Kinney and Norman Reedus are superb. The episode is a rather dramatic one with some heft. The new Daryl Dixon series on AMC had one of the best pilot episodes I’ve seen in some time. It’s called “L’ame Perdue.”

As I finish writing this on a snowy, frigid night, I’m contemplating going to Dave & Buster’s to play “The Walking Dead” game again. Luckily, they’re open late.



GameGuide – Atari Lynx: The Perfect Lynx Companion

By

 

Just in time for Chrissy 2023, Zafinn Books’ GameGuide – Atari Lynx arrives in the Ausretrogamer Fun Factory!

We weren’t expecting this book for another couple of weeks, so for it to turn up well ahead of schedule, and all the way from Ireland, was a welcome surprise.

If you aren’t familiar with Zafinn Books, it is a one man (Karl Morris), self-publishing  house, with a great selection of limited edition books, just like this GameGuide for the Atari Lynx. The addition of some very cool stickers (sticking it up the Game Boy!) was another surprise and was totally unexpected.

Can’t wait to flick through this while enjoying the festive season.



Wahoo, Super Mario Bros. Wonder Has Arrived!

By

It’s-a Me, Mario!

Woohoo, or should that be Wa-hoo? Either way, we are rapt that our Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo Switch) game has arrived!

Can’t wait to get stuck into this new Super Mario game and explore all the new stuff, like new power-ups, mysterious transformations and customising our powers to each course’s features!

So much to discover! Oh well, at least you’ll know where we’ll be today and for the rest of this weekend. Happy gaming peeps!

This little cart will be stuck in our Switch for a while!



Chironex Studios’ GRIST Game Seeks To Recapture The PC Gaming Experience From The 1980s

By

We are now even more hyped for PAX Aus 2023! If you are asking why, then let us tell you……

Growing up in the 80s, our first encounter with a desktop PC was a chunky beige box with a green monochrome CRT monitor. The keys were as loud as the disk-drive accessing the sectors on the 5.25″ floppy, and without any GUI, we had to explore this (what now seems archaic) machine through trial and error using commands that were quite foreign to us at the time. Like any kid back then, we found games to play on these old school computers, which got us hooked. Bathed in the green glow we explored different worlds, made tough decisions, and became different characters – it unleashed our imagination.

Well, an independent Australian game developer, Chironex Studios is seeking to recapture those early days of PC gaming with their new game, Grist!

GRIST is a digital boardgame-slash-rpg about surviving as a Starship Commander in a universe where the secrets of faster-than-light-travel have been lost to time and conflict. Voyage across the galaxy sending out your crew on missions, recovering artifacts of the pre-collapse civilisation, and pushing back the terrors that lurk in the dark between worlds. All the while deciding which parts of your humanity you will keep, and which will be traded for one more year of life among the stars.

GRIST combines vintage ascii terminal style graphics with a synthwave soundtrack for an iconic ascii-wave aesthetic. Gameplay features include a unique positioning based combat system, multiple-choice events with long-tail outcomes, strategic hand-optimization, and a variety of different scenarios to test your abilities.

Currently in development by Chironex Studios, GRIST is planned for an Early Access release in late 2023, so add it to your Steam wishlist right now! And if you are going to PAX Aus in a few weeks, then make sure you head to Booth 16 in the Indie area (Expo Hall) to speak to the developer and check out GRIST!

image source: Chironex Studios



I Bought a Video Game Poster!

By

By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.

For the many years that I’ve been playing video games, I did something the other day that I’ve never done as a gamer.

I was at a local store, and they had a pretty cool poster collection. Most of them were popular television shows and films, like “Stranger Things,” and the blockbuster “Barbie”. One particular poster caught my eye. At first, I couldn’t tell what it was, but something about the artwork intrigued me. I’ve never been a big fan of the “Call of Duty” game series; I’ve played it maybe five times over the years. The wall poster for “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II” with the skeleton soldier with his headphones on just appealed to me for some reason. I had seen the image before, probably around the time the game was released last October. There was a great deal of promotion for the hit game during NFL games last year.

I’m sure Infinity Ward, the company that developed the game, knew they had a hit when celebrities were posting on their social media how excited they were for the release of the game. I think I saw the wall art for “Modern Warfare II” when I was in Best Buy, and it piqued my interest. I haven’t even played “Modern Warfare II”, but I now have the poster on my wall in my garage. I can’t say that my girlfriend likes it, but she’s hardly in my garage and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

The poster is the sort of art that would make a fantastic film poster. When video games start having better posters than movies, what’s happening in movie studio’s art and promotion’s departments. I haven’t bought a movie poster since college. It was a poster for “Judge Dredd”, the Sylvester Stallone film from 1995. Oddly enough, the “Modern Warfare II” poster and the “Judge Dredd” poster are very similar. Both have a close-up image of a character staring right at you, looking menacing. Both are just a face and the title of the game and film.

The marketing team for “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II” did an amazing job of getting images of the game in the public eye and conscience. The game earned $1 billion dollars in its first 10 days of release. “Modern Warfare II” is the fastest-selling “Call of Duty” game of all time.

image source: playstationlifestyle.net



The Legend of Super Mario: The Zelda X Super Mario Bros. You Must Play

By

The Legend of Zelda takes on Super Mario Bros. in this cool mashup!

There is one way to make us play the original The Legend of Zelda, mash it up with one of our fave NES games, Super Mario Bros.!

Hacking games and mashing them up isn’t anything new, but when the hacked sum is greater than the individual games, we take note. Swedish ROMHacking user NESDraug has hacked together two of the greatest NES games, The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. to create an awesomely playable The Legend of Super Mario mashup game. Featuring Super Mario elements set in the original world of Hyrule might just make us experience a Zelda-like game on the NES – yes, we are one of those in the minority that never were into or wanted to play Zelda games.

If you want to experience The Legend of Super Mario, you can get the game patch from ROMHacking right here. Oh yeah, you will need a patching tool (like Lunar IPS) to patch the original rom file with the .ips patch file – that’s all we can tell ya without incriminating ourselves.

Go on, what are you waiting for?!


source: Hack Games Longplay Channel



Analogue Pocket – Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

By

Analogue Pocket – is the best thing since sliced bread!

It may have taken 11 months from ordering to receiving the Analogue Pocket, and let us tell you all, it has totally been worth the wait!

With multiple handhelds on the market that emulate classic systems from yesteryear, we honestly didn’t know what we were missing out on till the Analogue Pocket arrived! The FPGA (OpenFPGA) based system is like playing on the original hardware, and this is where the Pocket shines – rising well above the myriad of handhelds on the market which use software emulation to play our beloved old video games. Comparing FPGA to software emulation is like comparing a Formula 1 race car to a Totoya Camry racing at Monaco – both will get you to the finish line, but one will get you there far far quicker (and in style).

By now you would have worked out that we are fans of our new gadget from Analogue. Yeah, the wait was excruciating at times, but we are glad we hung in there, as this has now become our choice for handheld gaming. We were very impressed with the quality and premium feel of the Pocket (and it’s packaging), being on par with Apple Inc. – yep, it’s that good!

The Analogue Pocket looks and feels like a premium piece of electronics – which it is, but it’s components are what makes it impressive. The Pocket is designed around a 3.5”, 615 ppi, LCD, which is a first-in-class. With a 1600 x 1440 resolution, the Pocket has 10x the resolution of an original Game Boy. The display is even made from Gorilla® Glass, with pro level colour accuracy, dynamic range, and brightness. We’d argue that the Analogue Pocket is the best piece of handheld hardware to play video games, bar none.

But wait, there is more to this amazing piece of kit! Not only does this Analogue product play games,  it’s for making music too! The Pocket has a digital audio workstation built in called Nanoloop. It’s a synthesizer and a sequencer. Designed for music creation and live performance. Shape, stretch and morph sounds. Capture music or play and sculpt live – you too can be a chiptune maestro! You can also connect the Pocket to your Mac, PC or other hardware with MIDI & Sync cables.

Remember how we said to wait as there is more? Well, there is more to this device, that’s what makes it impressive. If you like to tinker in game development, then you’d be pleased to know that you can bring your gaming ideas to reality with zero programming knowledge with GB Studio! GB Studio is an easy-to-use drag and drop retro game creator, allowing you to generate proprietary .pocket files and then run them off your SD card.

The Dock is a must-get accessory for the Analogue Pocket!

The pièce de résistance of the Pocket is that it’s designed for FPGA development. Analogue added a second dedicated FPGA just for developers to develop and port their own cores. With access to Analogue’s proprietary hardware and scalers, it opens up the platform for developers to create amazing feats on the system.

At the time of writing, there have been quite a few cores created specifically for the Pocket, from classic gaming consoles like the Atari 2600/7800 and the Odyssey 2, to the Master System, NES, SNES, Mega Drive and everything in between. Getting these cores and setting them up has never been easier – we used RetroDriven’s Pocket Updater to do all the fiddly stuff like finding the right cores, downloading and configuring them. If you are a masochist, you can go and find the individual cores and set them up, or you could make things easier for yourself by bookmarking the OpenFPGA Cores Inventory site.

Welcome to the family

Setting up the cores on the Pocket is a cinch with RetroDriven’s Pocket Updater tool

The flexibility, power and premium componentry is what sets the Analogue Pocket apart from other handheld systems. The fact that it is FPGA based is a total game changer – pun fully intended. With a thriving development community, we are starting to see what this machine is capable of. The future does look quite bright for the Pocket, and that’s us saying that while we await our PC-Engine, Neo Geo Pocket and Atari Lynx adapters to arrive! Coupled with the Dock, the Analogue Pocket is truly the best thing since sliced bread in the video gaming world.

Tech Specs – Pocket:

  • Compatible with Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance game cartridges (and Game Gear, PC-Engine, Atari Lynx and Neo Geo Pocket via separate adapters)
  • 3.5″ LCD. 1600×1440 resolution. 615ppi
  • 360° display rotation (tate mode)
  • Variable refresh display
  • Rechargeable lithium ion 4300mAh battery (6-10 hour gameplay time & 10+ hour sleep time)
  • All buttons mappable/reconfigurable
  • Stereo speakers
  • micro SD card slot
  • USB-C charging
  • Original-style link port (woohoo, link action!)
  • 3.5mm headphone output

Tech Specs – Dock:

  • 1080p HDMI output
  • Bluetooth and 2.4g support for wireless controllers
  • 2 USB inputs for wired controllers
  • Up to 4 player support (4p Bluetooth, 2p 2.4g, 2p wired USB)
  • DAC compatibility (coming soon)
  • Power Dock on from controller



5 Terabytes Of Old School Gaming

By

If you are pressed for time or don’t really want to muck around with setting up emulators to play old video games, this post is for you!

Emulators have come a long way with their (relative) ease of setup and use, however, they still have a number of quirks that need tweaking to their configuration to get them humming properly. There is also the question of storage and having your local workstation polluted with a mass of different emulators.

Having setup multiple emulators on our Windows PC, we know how time consuming they can be to setup properly. Once they are setup, you then realise the precious storage they have consumed. The solution would have been to leave the myriad of emulators on our PC, but move all the backed up games to an external drive – again, more time sunk in setting up, than playing our fave retro games! So what is the answer?

Let us introduce you to the plug and play Hyper Base Mix 5TB external drive, with perfectly configured emulators and absolutely packed to the brim with pre-installed games – almost the entire 5 terabyte drive is full! So if you have a Windows PC, it’s as easy as plug the drive into a spare USB port, and then fire up your desired emulator.

The pre-configured emulators include LaunchBox, RetroBat and Playnite, arguably the best emulators/front-ends currently available. What, no RetroArch? Nope, not needed at all, as RetroBat (and LaunchBox) do the job admirably. Wish we had bought this drive earlier, as it would have saved us a lot of time (and headaches).

The details:

  • Product: Hyper Base Mix 5TB HDD
  • Price: AU$277.37 (as at publication date)

Packed full!

What should we play first……

RetroBat it is! And then straight to the Neo Geo MVS!

54,055 games on RetroBat! Surely we’ll find a few we’ll want to play…

Testing out a few arcade classics

The lovely LaunchBox – great for games from the 5th generation and onwards!

Playnite is a great platform to consolidate all of your fave PC games!



My Retro TVs – Channel-surfing the 80’s

By

Channel-surfing the 1980’s📺

Teleporting to the 80s TV decade in 3, 2, 1……. My 80’s TV is your one stop shop for everything that you loved on TV from the best decade of the 20th century!

But wait, there is more! For those that are yearning for TV shows from the preceding decades (50’s, 60’s and 70’s), then you are catered for as well! For the younglings amongst us, there is a ton of 90’s and 00’s TV show content to sink your teeth into.

We love the depiction of the different CRT TVs (and also fonts), depending on the decade chosen – a very cool feature! A huge thanks to the creator, Joey Cato, for this nostalgia inducing My Retro TV portal!

So, what are you watching first?

source: My Retro TVs