The Pop-Culture E-Zine
It is quite dangerous working near cool pop culture stores in Melbourne. Within a stones throw from the office, we have Minotaur, All-Star Comics Melbourne and ZiNG Pop Culture tempting us with their wares.
With mid-year sales going on right now, the temptation is unbearable – sorry wallet…
There is something about seeing people’s gaming rooms that invokes our inner voyeurism, in a good way.
We are always fascinated and intrigued of each unique games room setup we see, just like Nintendo_Master1’s – you’ll have to agree (once you check out all of the pics) that it is pretty darn awesome!
Let the drooling begin!
image source: Nintendo_Master1 on Facebook
Let’s reflect and gloat for one second – it was great to be alive during the Golden Age of Arcade video games and experience arcade joints first-hand; from the clean franchised ones to the decrepit dark and scary independent ones – we loved them all.
Oh yeah, we loved the games too, from coin dropping in Galaga, Bomb Jack, Pac-Man, Tron, Double Dragon, DragonNinja to Sega’s beasts like Space Harrier, Super Hang-On, OutRun, After Burner and Thunder Blade – we spent up big and loved every single second of it.
The 1990s started with us hammering coins into Atari’s Pit-Fighter, Capcom’s Final Fight and Street Fighter II. However, it was Sega’s Daytona USA that emptied our piggy bank of coins – we just could not get enough of it.
source: The Arcade Flyer Archive
Looking at the top 10 highest grossing arcade games (below), we can tell you that we played them all during their heyday and understand why the dot munching Pac-Man is perched right up top – the game was a breath of fresh air (for its time), as it wasn’t a derivative of the then plethora of space shoot’em ups. Pac-Man was truly a revolutionary title which had universal appeal, both male and female gamers loved chasing Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde.
source: A-1 Arcade Gaming
So what of Atari’s Pong then? Well, the 1972 game did very well for Atari, they sold somewhere between 8,500 to 19,000 units (1972 to 1973) grossing them around $11Million US dollars – not bad for 1973!
The revenues generated were quite staggering, reaffirming the Golden Age of Arcade video games period as the most prosperous of them all, with Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam flying the flag for the 1990s.
This is an old one, but we thought it was still worth repeating, in case you missed it the first time around.
If you were lucky enough to have had a meal at Burger King in 2000, you may have been handed a plastic replica of the Game Boy Color which had analogue games built in.
Fast forward a decade and a half and that cute little Burger King Game Boy Colour toy with its analogue games has been DIY hacked with a Raspberry Pi Zero stuffed inside, morphing it into an awesomely cool and working Game Boy Colour emulator! Wish we were this clever.
[original story and images via Technobob]
Just in case you missed this, we thought we’d bring it to your attention!
Have you ever wanted to race against Mario or Luigi while collecting stars to win amazing prizes? ‘Real Life Mario Karting’ – Go Karting with a Twist will be headed to Sydney and Melbourne soon!
A unique experience that combines your favourite characters, friends and new friends for a driving experience that will take you back in time.
On the race day, you’ll be able to pick your favourite character, drive courses dressed as them, and have the opportunity to collect stars to win prizes.
Tickets for this event are extremely limited, so sign up now.
Get ready for a ride of a lifetime!
image source: Mushroom Racing
Let’s get something straight off the bat, there is definitely room for two pinball video games on the Nintendo Switch! The gamer is the winner here as both pinball games on the Switch are unique in their own way to warrant them being in your games library.
Stern Pinball Arcade is distinct from Pinball FX 3 as it allows playing real world pinball machines on your Switch. And with the latest digital update allowing portrait mode (TATE) play and full in-game touch control, Stern Pinball Arcade is currently our go to pinball game on the Switch (sorry Pinball FX 3).
Look, you can now play Stern Pinball Arcade in TATE mode!
Oo’er, TATE loveliness
As mentioned earlier, playing real world pinball machines is this game’s main drawcard. We are huge fans of Stern’s real world machines, so to be able to play the likes of AC/DC, Ghostbusters, Star Trek, Mustang and Starship Troopers is pretty damn cool. For those of you that want to know exactly which tables you can play in Stern Pinball Arcade, here is the complete list (tables can be purchased in add-on packs):
Each table has leaderboards to chase for bragging rights whether you compete against friends or players around the world. There is also a Stern Challenge mode that sees you hitting a target score on each table to earn challenge points before moving on to the next. If you want to get to grips with a table and understand how to play it or dig deeper in its ruleset, then hit the instructions and table goals to get you up to speed.
Speaking of speed, Stern Pinball Arcade has got you covered. Ball trajectory and flipper aim is accurate, so hitting targets and ramps is easier, giving you that satisfied feeling when you make your shot! The greatest satisfaction of playing Stern Pinball Arcade on the Switch is that it has the fundamental concepts of gravity, force and acceleration down pat. If you can’t find these Stern pinball machines to play in real life, then Stern Pinball Arcade is your next best bet! Get flipping and tilting (actually, don’t tilt!).
Should we play Stern’s Ghostbusters in YOKO (horizontal) mode; OR …
TATE (vertical) mode? Hmm….
Better luck next time!
Let’s learn the Star Trek ruleset
Woohoo, full in-game touch control!
Stern Pinball Arcade add-on packs were kindly provided by Stern Pinball for this review.
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A bit of fun for your Wednesday!
Don’t thank us, thank Russian filmmaker, Mike Tivikoff for this awesomely cool special effects video where Super Mario Cat co-ops with his human bro to save the Lost Cat Princess!
source: Mr.TVCow
A very cool video of the evolution of Nintendo consoles by our good friends at GameSpot Today I Learned!
Before some of you say, “But where is the Game Boy, DS and 3DS?”, relax, this is the evolutionary line of their consoles, not their handhelds. Having said that, it seems like the Virtual Boy doesn’t fit in any category 🙁
How many Nintendo consoles have you owned since their Color TV-Game 6?
source: GameSpot Today I Learned
We’ll keep this short and sweet – if you want to realise your childhood dreams of making a new (cartridge based) playable game for the NES but don’t have the necessary coding expertise, then hit the NESMaker Kickstarter immediately. Hurry up, ’cause there are only a few hours left to secure this awesome bit of dev-kit!
Go on, unleash your inner game developer without the need of coding skills!
PS: Don’t worry about funding, the project has already blown waaaaay past its goal and has unlocked a number of stretch targets!
source: The New 8-Bit Heroes
Hack or not to hack the SNES Classic Mini: that is the question and my dilemma! On the one hand, I want the SNES Mini to remain as it was intended by Nintendo, and on the other, I want to load it up with more games than you can poke a stick at!
Apart from entering the murky waters of gaming rom legalities, I also don’t want to risk bricking my cute little SNES. I am aware that the hack to load more games is well tested and there are easy to follow instructions out there, but I choose to leave my SNES Classic Mini as is – with its 21 legal video games!
I’ll admit that in the past I dabbled in the shadows of piracy by exchanging C64 games on tape in the schoolyard. Even though I thought it was cool to do this back in the day, I am now filled with regret that I had cheated the creators of making a pretty penny for their creation. The other and less moralistic reason for not wanting to hack my SNES Classic Mini is that I’ know I would suffer from being spoiled for choice. When faced with a choice of hundreds of gaming roms, I know I’d skim past a fair few of them, thus missing out on playing some real gems, and worse still, not play a load of games due to the sheer volume of choice.
Whatever your choice, you can do whatever you see fit with your SNES Classic Mini. I just chose to leave mine alone.