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Game Boy Modding and Repairs: A Step-by-Step Guide For Beginners

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Ever wanted to repair or modify your own OG Nintendo Game Boy? If you answered yes, then Björn Fogelberg’s Game Boy Modding and Repairs: A Step-by-Step Guide For Beginners (Kindle book) is for you!

This book has illustrated detailed guides for the most common mods for improved video and sound. You can read all about installing a backlight kit and bivert chip without breaking anything (that is good to know! – Ed), and all the how to guides, like the how to do the pro sound mod, how to get rid of background noise and how to build a kit for retrobrighting shells, among many more. There is a whole section dedicated to repairs, with easy solutions to the OG Game Boy’s most common problems. The best bit is that this book is for everyone, even those that have no prior knowledge or skill (That’s us! – Ed) in installing, soldering, modding or repairing the Game Boy.

Grab Game Boy Modding and Repairs: A Step-by-Step Guide For Beginners now!

image source: Björn Fogelberg



Unleash Your Creativity With Nintendo’s Game Builder Garage

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Game Builder Garage NintendoLEARN TO MAKE GAMES FROM THE MINDS AT NINTENDO WITH GAME BUILDER GARAGE FOR NINTENDO SWITCH



The Retro Gaming Vault – April 2021

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We are excited to start a new monthly feature, which we hope becomes a regular on ausretrogamer.com.

So what’s this newfangled feature we are so excited about? Well, as the title suggests, we’ll be delving deep into our photo vault full of retro gaming photos from years gone by. The aim is to give you all a dose of nostalgia and hopefully connect with new audience members.

For this very first edition, we dug through thousands of our images from the last dozen years and came up with a swag of nostalgia inducing photos; from the best joystick ever made, board games based on classic arcade titles, to our Commodore 64 smart watches and playing classic games on our Game Boy Micro – it’s all easy money 😉

Enjoy!

Original image copyright: ausretrogamer

 


19th Century Nintendo Office Recreated by Fan To Store His Collection

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This is what we call fan dedication! Actually, French Nintendo collector, Fabrice Heilig is what we would call a dedicated SUPERFAN!

Not only does Fabrice have an extensive collection of all things Nintendo, he has gone the extra (massive) step to recreate Nintendo’s 19th century Kyoto office in his backyard. Fabrice has created what all collectors yearn for – extra space (to house his collection), which he has done in style and in keeping with his love of all things Nintendo.

We must say, the result is incredible! Fabrice has faithfully recreated the iconic Nintendo building, with a tasteful fit-out to match the traditional Japanese style. If he wanted to charge for visits, we’d be his first customer!

Read more about the process of recreating this amazing building (with a ton more pics!) at Before Mario. This is amazing stuff.

Let the planning begin!
Nintendo Office

Foundation done and now the framework!

Laying the traditional Japanese roof tiles!

The level of detail is unbelievable – bravo Fabrice!

Now, to re-home the massive Nintendo Collection!

The finished product – WOW!
image source: Before Mario

 

Visiting The Gamesmen Retro Game Museum

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We are reminiscing about the time we were invited by the Weird and Retro crew to join them in Sydney for the 2015 EB Expo – it was such an amazing experience!

Before the EB Expo shenanigans, we took time out to visit The Gamesmen in Penshurst (NSW), to check out their awesome (Retro) Game Museum.

The Gamesmen has been an Australian game store icon for almost 40 years and it is still going strong. Back in the day, we used to love receiving their catalogues which we would pore over each page, drooling at the latest gaming systems and games – we just wish we had kept those catalogues! Oh yeah, luckily for us (and all of you), The Gamesmen folks have made electronic copies of their old catalogues, so go here now and enjoy some intoxicating nostalgia.

Anyway……… This pilgrimage was a long time coming and fulfilled our wish to go and check out the museum in person. We definitely weren’t disappointed and we were glad to have ticked this off our bucket list. The sixty plus photos we took below from the game museum does not do it any justice – to see it in person was amazing. However, the next best thing to going there was to share what we saw, and as you will see below, your nostalgic senses will not be disappointed.

There was no one favourite section, but the glassed cabinets were like a time machine looking back at our childhood, daydreaming about owning and playing the systems and games on display. The video games system timeline mural was another highlight, reflecting how far gaming has come. The Gamesmen Retro Game Museum had truly encapsulated our past, leaving a delectable mark on our 8-bit brain.

Make sure you scroll through each image slowly, as you do not want to miss anything!

Approaching the Mecca of Australian Video Gaming!

images remain the copyright of ausretrogamer

PS: Special thank you to the Weird and Retro team for inviting us to be part of their WaRrior crew for the 2015 EB Expo and for a memorable road trip!

 

LEGO Ideas: Pikmin – Planter of Growth

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Another day, another cool Lego Ideas pitch based on a much loved video game franchise!

This time round it is Pikmin’s turn, with the Pikmin – Planter of Growth Lego Idea. If you are a fan of Pikmin (or Lego), then there is only one choice really – vote now!

source: Lego Ideas – Pikmin

 

Happy Anniversary, Nintendo 64

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By: Alex Boz (Sort of Final Boss @ ausretrogamer)

Every time March 1 rolls around, I am reminded of the day I got my Nintendo 64!

It was March 1 1997 that us folks in Australia received Nintendo’s 64-bit wonder. I had done something that I had only done once before (with the Sega Mega Drive), and that is, I plonked down $400 and bought the N64 on day one! It was a special feeling getting the latest and greatest console on day one, but the realisation that the games were sold out and new stock was still a few weeks away, was a painful experience. Once Super Mario 64 hit the shelves, I could not throw my $100 fast enough to the cashier and get back home to fire up the system to see what the fuss was all about. Let’s just say that I was not disappointed.

Thankfully (or embarrassingly) someone captured my excitement upon receiving the Nintendo 64!
image source: From the Boz Family photographic archives

Even though I have fond memories of the SNES, it is the N64 which tugs more on my nostalgic heartstrings, which till this day I can’t explain why. Perhaps it is the late night Mario Kart 64 sessions with four friends or the 2P battles I had with my cousin playing Wave Race 64, or going dinosaur hunting in Turok (fog included). Whatever it was, I am thankful for the N64 giving me thousands of hours of fun, especially playing with others sitting right next to me, not on the other side of the planet via some wires. Oh yeah, the controller cops a lot of flak, but to be honest, it is one of my favourites, which made gaming on the console even better.

What are your memories of the N64 – share them with me or via Ausretrogamer on Twitter and/or Facebook.

image source: Kelamy



The New Yorker Interview with Shigeru Miyamoto

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Simon Parkin’s The New Yorker interview with Nintendo’s legendary Shigeru Miyamoto is an interesting, insightful and wide-ranging, reflective conversation. Seldom do we hear or read anything so candid or beyond Shigeru’s amazing creations in his four decade long career with the Big N.

So kick back and read Simon’s refreshing interview with Miyamoto-san, as he speaks openly about his video games design philosophy, being the boss, guns in video games, his kids love of Sega (Ed: what?!) and the new Super Nintendo World theme park at Universal Studios in Japan.

image source: The New Yorker

 

We Love Our 35th Anniversary Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros.

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It took a while for our 35th anniversary Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. to arrive, but we are so glad that it did!

Nintendo sure knows how to tug at our nostalgic strings, as we pre-ordered this as soon as it was revealed in early September. We recall how excited we were at the time and couldn’t wait for November 13th to come around! Well, November 13th come and went, with the dreaded postage notification advising us that good ole Aussie Post would deliver our Game & Watch (G&W) some time between Nov 16 – Nov 19, which was like a pixel dagger thrown right into our 8-bit heart. As it turned out (and luckily for us), Aussie Post took the median value and delivered this precious cargo today (November 17). At the time of writing, we still had a number of our friends that hadn’t received their units.

Enough with the negativity regarding pre-orders not arriving on the day of release (although, this should be fixed!), this Game & Watch has exceeded our expectations by a country mile. The see-through sleeve on the gold packaging was an indicator that this thing was going to be special. Upon opening and holding the G&W, it was like being in the playground at primary school, being wowed by this little contraption made by Nintendo and showing it off to our friends. The look, the feel – including the D-pad and buttons, has been nailed by Nintendo. We didn’t need any LR-44 cell batteries to power this unit, so that was a plus. The only niggle we had, this new G&W did not come with the little tuck-in stand that the old school ones have. But like we said, it’s a very very small niggle. Of course we compared it to a number of our original Game & Watch units, including its namesake, and we can say, this new one fits right in!

The only wish we have at this stage is for people interested in this 35th anniversary G&W game (that missed out on the pre-order) get an opportunity to get one, at a non-scalped price! Oh yeah, we also wish for a Donkey Kong Multi-Screen G&W next, with the original Donkey Kong and perhaps Donkey Kong Country – surely that’s not too much to ask for!

 

The World’s Largest Playable Game & Watch Octopus Is For Sale!

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This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to own the Guinness World Records’ largest playable Game & Watch device!

Back in 2018 we told you all about Dr. Tom Tilley’s massive Game & Watch Octopus creation which absolutely blew our minds! Well guess what, now is your chance to own this unique creation and be the talk (and envy) of the town.

If you are interested in this MEGA Game & Watch, head on over to Tom’s for sale page to get more details about the sale and to register your interest.


source: WithProfessorTom