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Ann Arbor Pinball Show Is On In May!

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The good folks at Sparks Pinball Museum shared a tweet about the upcoming Ann Arbor Pinball Museum Show in Michigan, which only opens to the public once a year, so if you are nearby, then we’d say it is a must visit on May 6th and 7th, and for those that love tournaments, you’ll need to get there a day earlier on May 5th!

With over 500+ pinball machines from every era (check out the list here), every attendee is guaranteed to find one (or a plethora) of games to enjoy!

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LUSH x The Super Mario Bros. Movie Bath Products

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With the new The Super Mario Bros. movie out now in cinemas, of course there were going to be brands clamouring to license the world’s most famous plumber to use on their products!

A case in point is Lush, you know, the folks that make and sell those smelly soaps. Being a plumber and climbing in and out of sewer pipes, Mario gets a tad dirty on the job, so what better way to cleanse himself than to use the new Lush bath product line!

The Lush product line is of course inspired by the Super Mario Bros. film which includes a peach and pineapple-scented Princess Peach body spray, Mario (Cola) and Luigi (green apple) shower gels, Princess Peach (peach) and Bowser (cinnamon) shower jellies, a gold coin (honey) soap bar, and a question block bath bomb that includes one of six different power-up soaps inside!

So when heading to watch the movie, make sure you smell peachy by using these new Lush SMB film bath products!

story source: technabob



Taycan PONG Arcade Battle: Porsche X Atari

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Ready, Player One? Porsche Taycan Arcade Is Here!

Now here is a collaboration we never saw coming – Porsche and Atari! Say what?!

Porsche Cars Australia recently released a campaign featuring two Porsche Taycan electric sportscars playing an intense, high-speed, real-life version of Pong. In this life-sized adaptation of the 1970’s Atari classic, the paddles are two Porsche Taycan sportscars while the ball is a fast moving high-tech drone.


source: Porsche

Along with the video, Porsche Cars Australia have also created Taycan Arcade, an interactive web-based game inspired by Pong. Players can use their keyboard or mobile device to move their Taycan up and down on their side of the screen trying to deflect a fast moving ball towards their opponent. Get the ball past your opponents Taycan, and players score a point.

Porsche fans and PONG video game lovers can play Taycan Arcade here.



Hijinx Hotel – The Best Place to Play, Not Stay

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Now this is something different and quite cool – the Hijinx Hotel has now opened in Chadstone’s The Social Quarter – their new entertainment precinct.

So what is Hijinx Hotel then? Well, rather than us paraphrasing, here it is from the horses mouth:

Hijinx Hotel is an immersive interactive game experience housed within the theme, wonder and theatre of a quirky New York style hotel where the rooms are reimagined into quick play, challenge rooms. Leave the suitcases at home – these are rooms where you play, not stay.

Each of the hotel wings home highly fun & experiential, game-afied rooms made up of 5 different collaborative games. Hijinx is perfect for the young and the young at heart, for groups, on a date or just out with a mate.

As lovers of escape rooms, we are very intrigued by this take on the hotel game-fueled concept which drips a lot of nostalgia. The company behind the Hijinx Hotel is Funlab, who also operate Strike, Holey Moley and Archie Brothers Cirque Electriq, so they know a thing or two on how to create fun for adults!

If you are intrigued, like us, then check out the Hijinx Hotel website to see what you can experience at this very unique hotel.

image source: Hijinx Hotel



Cool Street Fighter vs Red Bull Stop Motion Ultra Combos

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Hot damn there are clever creators out there! We absolutely adore stop motion, so we had to share this one with you all!

Love Street Fighters crushing Red Bulls cans with their ultra combos? Then this vid is for you 😉


source: Animist



DOOM Ring: The Ring To Rule Them All

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Hot on the heels of DOOM running on a Commodore 64 comes the DOOM Ring – you’ll have to squint, but we assure you it’s DOOM!

The version of the game being run is RP2040 Doom (designed to be run on a Raspberry Pi Pico RP2040) that’s been modified to generate grayscale graphics. It runs on a tiny printed circuit board  along 4 score lines to wrap into a ring shape.

According to James,

“I wanted to see if this was a useable technique. It isn’t. The result was very fragile, and I lost the connections to the capacitive pads and USB port during encapsulation.”


source: Ancient

story source: technabob



DOOM on the Commodore 64 is so RAD!

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DOOM has been run on a multitude of devices – if it has a screen, then DOOM has ran on it! With this being the case, why not have DOOM run on the trusty 8-bit micro, the Commodore 64?

As you can see from the video below, that is exactly what we have here – a DOOM tech demo going by the title of RAD-DOOM which enables gamers to play DOOM on their Commodore 64 via the RAD Expansion Unit by Frenetic.

The RAD Expansion Unit contains a Raspberry Pi that takes the role of a CPU replacement for the Commodore 64. The graphics are still rendered by the original VIC-II chip. All technical details of RAD-DOOM can be found in Frenetic’s GitHub repo.

The gameplay starts off with keyboard controls, with the 1351 mouse control enabled later on. The special settings menu is visible from time to time where graphics rendering options and screen presets are available.

It’s amazing (and darn awesome!) what is still possible on the 41 year old 8-bit computer! Long live the C64!


source: emulaThor



The Official Real-life Boots of Super Mario Bros.

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With the imminent release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Nintendo’s popular plumber now has his own real life boots!

Minnesota-based Red Wing Shoes (their logo is very reminiscent of Honda’s) has teamed up with Nintendo to create pixel-for-stitch-perfect Mario boots which will be on display at the Nintendo World New York store at Rockefeller Center from now till April 30th!

Even the “making of” video of these boots is cool, so check it out below, wa-hoo!


source: Illumination

image source: Red Wing Shoes



Zen Studios’ Pinball FX now on Xbox and PlayStation

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Being in a future timezone, we in Australia had to wait a few extra hours for Zen Studios’ Pinball FX to hit Xbox and PlayStation consoles!

The latest in the FX series, Pinball FX has graduated from early access to full release at the Epic Games store, as well as making its debut on PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One! Nintendo Switch fans will have to wait a bit longer.

This is a new era of digital pinball from Zen Studios, including a day-one, ever-expanding lineup of 86 tables, plus an impressive suite of new features, the revolutionary pinball platform is inching ever closer to the real silverball game. If you love playing pinball video games, then jump on this right now and enjoy the Wild West Rampage table at no cost, and check out the trial modes for all other tables.

All returning tables from previous editions have been fully remastered in Unreal Engine, with ray-tracing-enhanced, 4K-HDR visuals, as well as upgraded Pro Physics. Not lacking plentiful fresh downloadable content, Pinball FX also introduces three brand new releases: Borderlands®: Vault Hunter Pinball, Brothers in Arms®: Win the War Pinball and The Addams Family (itself including a never-before-seen enhanced play, as with all Williams classics). At the same time, console players can get their hands on more than 15 tables for the first time that Pinball FX Early Access players enjoyed in 2022, such as Star Wars Pinball: The Mandalorian, World War Z Pinball, DreamWorks Pinball, five Zen Originals, plus Williams classics World Cup Soccer and The Machine: Bride of Pin-Bot. Zen will release new tables regularly, many involving exciting new licensed IPs – most immediately, Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla vs. Kong.

Go on, get flippin’ peeps!


source: Zen Studios



Super Mario Bros. Plumbing TV Commercial – Let’s A Go!

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Got to admit it, the Super Bowl always features amazing ads, and considering the fortune they cost, they need to grab your attention immediately!

It was great to see the marketing of the Super Mario Bros movie in full swing at the Super Bowl! Not only do we have the movie coming, but there is also a plumbing website, https://www.smbplumbing.com/, complete with testimonials, careers, services offered and a phone number to call either Mario or Luigi! The cheesy ’90s smell is wafting through the internet here!

If you don’t want to watch almost 4 hours of this year’s Super Bowl to get a glimpse of the ad, here it is! WA-HOO!


source: Illumination