The Pop-Culture E-Zine
This miniature homemade pinball machine is so darn cute!
Don’t be deceived by its tiny looks – this little beast can play one of the greatest pinball games from the 90s, Pinball Fantasies, on its tiny screens! To make it even more like its bigger and heavier brother, it sports a working plunger and haptic feedback for added realism – mind totally blown!
For those of you that want to know the technical aspects of this creation, check out it out here.
source: Sprite_tm
story source: hackaday.com
When it comes to villains, we reckon no one tops Darth Vader. He has been our fave antagonist from the first time we saw him wield his lightsaber and force choke his underlings.
The story of Darth Vader has evolved since we were kids in the late 70s and early 80s, but that doesn’t diminish our love for the character, on the contrary, the latest Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series cemented Lord Vader as our favourite villain of all time.
With that said, here are some awesome Lord Vader artwork!
image source: Star Wars Always (Facebook) – Stern Pinball Inc.- Fine Art America – Pinterest – myhotposters – comicbookmovie – Artsper – disneyartonmain – Robert Voisenni
We love Lego Ideas that have a nostalgic link to our past, just like this Game Boy Colour Transformer “PRISMATIS” by Baron Von Brunk.
Built in 2017, this particular Lego Ideas entry is based on an iconic full-size 1990s Game Boy Color, with its crisp lime green colours, a battery case on the back that comes off to store two batteries that double as missiles – how clever! Baron tells us that the transformation process is straight forward without the need to remove parts. The Transformer arms and hands are articulated with individual fingers on each hand – talk about attention to detail! Oh yeah, how cool is that speaker vent – another great touch to this very cool Lego Ideas entrant.
It’s that time of the year folks, when Amazon tempts our hard earned money to fly out of our wallet and purse!
Not all is lost, as there are quite a few good deals if you are in the market for them, so get ready and scroll through our Twitter thread as there are quite a few good deals to be had!
Be quick as some items may not last! Keep checking the Twitter thread as we will be adding new deals as we find them!
PS: Prices are in AUD$ and till stocks (or sales) last!
🎉 #AmazonPrimeDay is on now peeps 🎉
Let’s start a thread with some cool items to check out at discounted prices…… 🧵1. SanDisk 512GB Ultra MicroSD Card $71.39 (RRP $159) https://t.co/stcBP5N6Za
2. Cyberpunk 2077 (PC) $19.95 (RRP $99.99!) https://t.co/O5sL4HRLB0 pic.twitter.com/LNh32XvOBJ
— ausretrogamer (@ausretrogamer) July 12, 2022
Disclaimer: These Prime Day deals may contain affiliate links. By clicking on an affiliate link and buying something, we may earn a small commission of the sale at no extra cost to you.
Retro gamers rejoice, you can finally put away your physical SNES game manuals as you can now use the SNES Manual Archive online library to check out any game manual from your smart device (or computer) anywhere in the world!
This amazing resource for nostalgic fans of videogaming history was painstakingly curated by a team of dedicated peeps lead by Peebs. To say we owe them all our gratitude would be a massive understatement!
PS: If you look closely, there are Super Famicom, N64 and Virtual Boy manuals too!
Story source: The Verge / image source: Reddit / Title image: Peebs
With the popularity reaching fever pitch for the latest season of Stranger Things (season 4), it was inevitable that major brands would jump on the partnership bandwagon.
The timing (pun intended) of the Timex X Stranger Things watch collaboration is perfect, just in time for the second part of season 4 kicking off this Friday, July 1 on Netflix.
It seems that Timex have captured the aesthetic of the show quite well with the 80s digital (and analogue on the Camper version) look and most importantly, a nod to the show with hidden features and alarm sounds that play the iconic Stranger Things melody – this perfectly completes the hair-raising sci-fi-horror-drama immersion.
We love the Timex X Stranger Things T80 digital watch with its stainless steel bracelet and overall silver tone. Oh yeah, it has the spine-chilling graphics on the watch face and a hidden Stranger Things logo when you activate the INDIGLO® backlight!
source: Timex x Stranger Things
Sorry Double Dragon, Final Fight & Streets of Rage, there is a new beat’me up contender that kicks your a***
As an enduring genre we have always loved beat’em ups, especially at the arcades! Starting with Double Dragon in 1987 where we could play with a buddy kicking two-shades out of the baddies, we were very excited to get our hands on Final Vendetta!
Final Vendetta harks back to the good ole days of arcade beat’em ups, like Final Fight, with hard-hitting action, packed with modern stunning pixel art visuals, thumping dance/techno soundtrack featuring exclusive tracks by Utah Saints (yep, Utah Saints!), and most importantly, being able to brawl with bad dudes and tough girls across (six) very dangerous environments.
The hardcore fighting action pulls no punches in Final Vendetta, with heaps of enemies to take down with one of three playable heroes (characters) that have varying fighting styles with fresh beat’em up mechanics like the ability to block and strike downed opponents and a plethora of other moves and combos to master. Oh yeah, to ensure your character’s health bar is always in tip top shape, there is succulent street food to sample across each level.
With only having time to play the arcade mode before this review, FV has four exciting game modes in total, with the aforementioned Arcade mode, Survival, Versus and Boss Rush – enough to keep you brawling for ages!
Goddamn this is a top class game. There honestly isn’t enough superlatives to describe the luscious visuals, the amazing sound effects and soundtracks, and of course, the gameplay with its usual moves and combos. But what sets Final Vendetta head and shoulders above anything else that came before it are the newly minted beat’em up mechanics/moves like blocking, striking downed opponents and performing juggle combos – these truly are the cherries on top of an already delicous cake!
Here is the final word on Final Vendetta – it is simply the complete beat’em up video game package, and we would go as far as saying this is the genre’s magnum opus – it’s that bloody good!
Details:
There is nothing like the buzz of a new pinball machine being announced. Did you see what we did there? No? Ah, never mind.
After what has been one of the worst kept secrets in pinball (but very highly anticipated), Jersey Jack Pinball has announced their latest pinball machine, Toy Story 4!
Designed by the one and only Pat Lawlor (celebrated designer of the best selling pinball machine of all time, The Addams Family), Toy Story 4 from Jersey Jack Pinball will be released in two model options, the Limited Edition and Collector’s Edition.
For the Toy Story fans out there, this is the world under glass that will bring the magic of Toy Story like never before, playing pinball with Woody, Buzz, Bo Peep, and more of your favourite toys as they come to life in this new pinball adventure.
Longer video (26 Minute) going through all the features
Source: Jersey Jack Pinball
All your fave character voices are in this game, from Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Bo Peep, to Duke Caboom and many more! Custom call outs from Buzz and Woody, coupled with the original soundtrack that includes a special rendition of Randy Newman’s “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”, completes the Toy Story immersion.
Some of the cool features and toys include sending the silver-ball flying off the Duke Caboom jump ramp — just don’t let the Bensons block your shot! Blast into the jet bumpers to collect a super jackpot in Buzz Multiball, and aim for the stand-up targets to light Rescue Forky. Hurry up and bash Gabby Gabby into a pinball frenzy on the way to scoring Grand Champion. Take a chance on the spinning wheel to earn different awards like Extra Ball, Tiki Party, Super Loops and more! Start interactive carnival games like Star Adventurer, Dragon Zone, Squirrel Derby, and Flipball on the 10-inch playfield frame display, and don’t forget to smile for the camera – a special high-tech digital photo booth feature that takes pictures while you play!
Oh yeah, the Toy Story 4 pinball machines come fully equipped with Bluetooth audio for wireless listening and Wi-Fi connectivity for seamless over-the-air software updates. Scorbit, a competitive pinball platform and social network, is also included in the package.
So that’s it, that is the buzz, folks!
Cost:
** Australian prices and availability for TS4 CE and LE are not confirmed at this point in time. This post will be updated once the AU$ price and availability are confirmed.
Toy Story 4 Collector’s Edition
Toy Story 4 Limited Edition
image source: Jersey Jack Pinball
We cast our vote in the ABC Classic’s 2022 Classic 100: Music for the Screen countdown and we are happy to report that our top vote, John Williams’s music for the Star Wars series, is now officially Australia’s favourite music for the screen!
With over 215,000 votes, this was the biggest countdown yet. The top 100 soundtracks spanned beloved music for film, TV and video games across genres and generations. On the video games music front, Kojo Kondo’s The Legend of Zelda came in at no. 23!
Check out the rest of the interesting statistics from the ABC Classic 2022 Classic 100: Music for the Screen countdown:
story source: ABC Classic
We have many talented friends around the world. One local multi-talented friend, Sean Tagg (aka: ) is not only an accomplished Donkey Kong player, but he is also an arcade restorer, OutRun expert and an amazing artist (amongst many other talents)!
Out of all of Sean’s accomplishments and creations, it is his meticulous artistic skill and flair that always captures our attention and astounds us with each of his amazing creations. Sean’s artwork (like on his Shinobi runners) and model builds of iconic video games are simply stunning to say the least. If you don’t believe us, check out the video below!
source: Sean Tagg – Arcade Modeller
Want to see more of Sean’s amazing Arcade Model builds? If you said yes (as you should have), then go to his Arcade Modeller site right now!
Here a video collection of my Model building and art of Video Games (with cheesy background music ) #chaseHQ #OutRun #Rtype #Ghoulsnghosts #Alteredbeast #Hangon #sega #arcade pic.twitter.com/G4o68E4b7a
— (@sean_tagg) March 27, 2020