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Old School

Celebrating the Sega Genesis

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When Sega’s 16-bit beast was first released in Japan, it made a big enough splash that it got everyone around the world to sit up and take notice of the future in console gaming. On this day (August 14) in 1989, it was our North American friends’ turn to get their hands on the shiny new Sega Genesis console.

A leap from the Master System, the Genesis brought home (almost perfect) arcade conversions, especially those from Sega’s own arcade stable. While most of the western world was still in the micro computing craze with their C64s, Amigas and Atari STs, Sega stamped their authority with their latest, and as history would record it, their most successful console ever. Why would you play Golden Axe on any other system when the Genesis version was like having the arcade in your bedroom?

The Sega Genesis went on to sell more than 18 million consoles in the U.S. alone, which definitely put a dent in Nintendo’s party. Speaking of which, Sega of America’s advertising was brutal and effective, always taking subtle (and not so subtle) shots at their main competition. Who could forget the legendary, “Genesis Does What Nintendon’t.” ad campaigns – ah, those were the days! We have a few more ads below to give you a jolt of nostalgia.

So happy anniversary to the Sega Genesis, you magnificent beast! What were your earliest memories of Sega’s 16-bit beauty? Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook to let us know.

image source: arcadesushi.com

 

Nintendork Gets Nostalgic At Hersheypark

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By: Nintendork

It’s one of those things you never thought about when growing up – that these huge and heavy arcade machines would one day disappear and the amusement centres housing them would become extinct.

I always thought that arcade machines would be here to stay and that they would remain popular as ever with everyone. How wrong was I? Luckily for me, Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania is the big exception. Hersheypark could have gotten rid of their old arcade cabinets long ago but they decided to keep them and maintain them in working order. I love having my physical console games from when I was little and in this instance it is great to see these big arcade games remaining exactly the same as when I was a child, making them that extra bit special. To know that I put quarters in their Double Dragon machine when I was 12 and am playing the exact same game right now and doing the same thing beating up baddies means the world to me.

Hersheypark is the perfect destination for a hit of gaming nostalgia. Enjoy the pics!

 

R-Type Villain Dobkeratops to be Immortalised by Figma

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One of the most iconic horizontal shoot’em ups from the 80s, Irem’s R-Type will have it’s  infamous boss Dobkeratops immortalised in a poseable Figma model!

There is no release date or pricing about this unpainted bit of drool-worthiness. To say we will be keeping a close eye on this would be a gross understatement. Pew, pew, pew, we can’t wait!

image source: nlab.itmedia.com.jp

 

Byte Driver – Vector Based Mayhem

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As most of you will know, we are huge fans of vector based games, especially the ones that hark back to our youth, like Atari’s Star Wars and of course, all Vectrex games!

When Mike from Vector Hat informed us of his creation, Byte Driver, our interests were immediately piqued! Byte Driver is currently being funded via Kickstarter with a very modest goal, which we reckon is very achievable!

Byte Driver isn’t just your typical vector based racing game. The game is a combination of 2D racing with an interesting game play mechanic whereby energy that your car runs on is obtained by hacking the vehicles around you. Oh yeah, while you are sapping energy for your own use, you can also hack other vehicles to bolster your weaponry! The whole package comes together quite nicely in its vector display style and synthwave soundtrack. If you want an old school  tough-as-nail game, then Byte Driver will be right up your alley.

If you wanna try before you buy, there is a playable demo for Windows, Linux and OSX! If only this game was also being ported to the Vectrex – we can only hope (hint, hint!).

PS: That Byte Driver pit crew patch looks da biz!

 

 

2018 Reset64 4KB Craptastic Game Competition Preview

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Development for the 2018 Reset64 4kb ‘Craptastic’ game comp is in full swing. Deadline is fast approaching (June 30th) so we thought we’d give you all a quick look at what some of the devs are up to for the comp.

Best of luck to all the competitors and we can’t wait to try your craptastic creations!

Title: Rabid Robots 4K – Out of Control

Credits: Code & Sound Effects by Richard Bayliss, Graphics by Alf Yngve.

This is a score attack game, consisting of 8 levels. You are a schoolboy, who was playing outside his house with his dog. Suddenly out from nowhere comes a rampage of robots. Your quest is to protect yourself or your dog from incoming robots. For every robot shot with your water pistol, you will score points. If you or your dog makes contact with any of the robots. You’ll run away from the street and the game is over. The robots will be appearing from both sides of the screen. You can only fire left or right. Good luck.

Programmed using CBMPRGStudio by Arthur Jordison.

Title: Shinobiden Gaiden 

Author: @_fou_lu

Shinobiden Gaiden is a short survival adventure game where you are a ninja who must collect a few magical items from a maze-like map before you die or time runs out. You’re pursued by undead the whole time, and all you can do is throw shurikens to stun them. The idea was to practice C64 assembly coding (using a Mac) and enter a silly prologue game to a more serious title I intend to make into the 4kB competition. I only have about 600 bytes left after compression; luckily all that’s left besides filling in the map is game loop and game over logic.

Title: Orb

Author: Annina Games

The game is a demake of Duet, which is a game developed for android/iphone that fits well on the c64. The goal is to manoeuvre two balls in sync, avoiding blocks by rotating either clockwise or counter clockwise. The engine is 90% complete. At the moment the level design is the more difficult stage.

Title: Wave Hero

Author: Geir Straume

How far can you go on your personal watercraft, without hitting any rocks or reefs?
You start off slowly, but the speed automatically increases as you reach various distance milestones. The watercraft is controlled using the fire button only.

Title: G7000 Racer!

Credits: Code by Igmar Coenen, Charset by David Almer

Drive your car as long as possible without crashing into other cars. Try to get 10000+ points to finish the game. You can choose the level of difficulty (easy or hard). The longer you drive the harder it gets (up to three levels).

Interesting info: My first c64 machine language game coded ever. Inspired by the race game on the Philips Videopac G7000 game console. First game I played (besides Pong of course).

Title: Neptune’s Oil

Author: Oziphantom

You are an oil mining company harvesting oil from Neptune, however the Plutonians are not happy and want it for themselves, so they have sent multiple attack drones. Your job is to defend the pumps in this side scrolling blast’em up.

Title: Snake-a-Space

Author/Credits: Designed by Molly Fuller, Coded by Jamie Fuller

Get up on a poorly, planetary-protecting-snake and defend IT for a change!

A simple run-and-jump joystick-mashing bit of craptastic fun! All the ideas for this game came from the imagination of Molly Fuller, my 6 year old daughter, who also helped with some of the graphics and play testing.

Title: Freaky Fish

Credits: Programming by Chris Page, Graphics and Sound by Chris and Brent Page

Freaky Fish has the ability to blow bubbles and must protect himself and his friends over 30 levels from the redneck who is fishing from his boat with dynamite!

This is our first Commodore 64 project since the early 90’s. At the time of writing the game is almost code complete with 88 bytes free when compressed, but space is at a premium and every addition now has to be weighed and optimized. At one point the game looked great but it blew out to a bit over 5k without some “essentials” such as collision detection so we had to spend a few weeks rewriting, cutting features and paring the graphics down. Given the 4k limits, there are lots of sprites, sound effects, music and code that didn’t make the cut so there is the possibility of an enhanced version after the competition.

For development used Kick Assembler, Visual Studio Code, Exomizer 3, VChar64 and Spritepad and we have also used our home grown SFX Editor on the C64.

Title: Kalle Kloakk 4k (Megastyle)

Credits: Code by Docster, Graphics & Music by Rotteroy

The game is about an old man who get stuck in the bathroom on the shopping mall and his struggle to pick up toilet paper that he can stack under the window and climb up and escape. It’s a plattformer with a twist; first you have to set all plattforms, then you have to complete the level. Memory eating music made in Goattracker!

Title: Trump Towers (Megastyle)

Credits: Code by Docster, Sprites by Rotteroy, Graphics by FX

Control the president around in his tower, grab the pussy when you can to get extra points.
No screenshot to be shown yet, Docster just started working on the engine.

Title: Fire (Megastyle)

Credits: Code by Docster, Graphics by FX, Sprites by Rotteroy

Game and watch go C64 4k!

Title: WTF

Credits: Code, Graphics & Audio by Mika “Misfit” Keränen

Bouncing ball has own intelligence. The player only manages the scrolling and the desperate ball tries to keep itself in the middle of the screen.

The main logic and graphics are finished. Needs audio and more levels. I’m very pleased. This game is so frustrating that players will hate me.

Title: CONGA4096

Author: Paul Koller

Game will be an arena shooter with a twist. Game is practically finished. I am currently working on getting some music and sfx into the game. I’ve added a teaser screenshot, which doesn’t show too much, to keep the surprise high.

Title: Dustin’

Author: Graham Axten/Pond Software

Credits:  Code & Graphics by Graham Axten, Music and SFX by Vanja Utne

Dustin the robot has been tasked with cleaning the dust from the precious innards of the world’s best 8-bit computer! Guide him around and help him clean up the dust particles, but watch out for electrical pulses that move across the circuit, they will fry him!

Title: Fire Rescue

Author: Syed U Rizvi

Well to describe the game, I guess you could say the name sums it up but to be honest. It’s a simple rescue mission whereby the ambo guys with a stretcher have to save people jumping from a burning building! And then make sure they make it to the ambulance without falling. Simple eeh!

The progression? So far, so good! I would say the game is 60 percent complete and I am currently working on collision detection and score updating. The rest would be straight forward with setting character graphics on the screen (burning building and other graphic objects).

Title: Chef Quest

Author: Anthony Stiller/Pond Software

Credits: Code & Graphics by Anthony Stiller, Music & SFX by Vanja Utne

Oh no! Chef is out of ingredients so it’s time to venture into the restaurant’s dungeon to restock the larder with delicious monsters. Chef Quest is a tiny, action-oriented RPG and will almost certainly be ready by the deadline.

Title: Elevator Eric

Author: Derek

It’s not a game that’s going to shatter any records of quality, rather just a bit of fun that I knocked together over last day and a half whilst off work.  I haven’t really done much with the C64 for coming on 30 years now I guess it must be (and it shows! lol – I’m about as good or should I say bad now as I was back then!). The game concept is based on games such as Nifty Lifty and Wack Waiters.

Title: $100 Box

Author: Cout

This one is based on a mathematics game theory problem for 100 people, but the game simulates the problem with just one player. The computer selects a random number from 1 to 100 as your lucky number. You will need to guess which box from 00-99 where the lucky number is hidden. The game allows you to have up to 50 guesses, but it’s not easy to win as it sounds!

Title: I Found A Moon Rock In My Nose

Author: Cout

Title Reference: The title comes from a line from the character Ralph Wiggum which is seen on The Simpsons from the episode This Little Wiggy from Season 9, Episode 18.

About the Game:

The object of the game is to pick your nose to find ‘moon rocks’.
You can pick from either your your left or right nostril at anytime.
The more you pick the more points you score!
However, don’t pick too much or you will get a nosebleed!

Includes:

PETSCII Nose Graphics and SID Sound Effects!

About the Author:

Created from the developer of I Ate the Purple Berries from the 2016 Reset ‘Craptastic’ 4kb Game Comp and My Cat’s Breath Smells Like Cat Food which was developed back in 2003. Cout Games creates unique games from some of The Simpsons most popular quotations.

Title: Plunko

Author: Cout

This game is based off one of the pricing games from the US version of The Price Is Right. The player is given 10 flat discs which are released one at a time from the top of the board.  The game board consists of a number of pegs which bounce the disc randomly around. As the disc falls to the bottom, it is impossible to determine where the disc might end up. At the bottom of the board, the disc stop and lands in a money slot the player can win.

I put the game through 100,000 rounds and it is theoretically possible to get the top amount from anywhere the disc is dropped from on the board. However, you do have a greater chance of winning money from the middle, it is also twice as likely that you will get nothing as well. Statistics are available upon request.

Title: Role Role Role

Author: Cout

Roll Roll Roll is a dice game where you roll a single six sided dice where you can win money.

On the first roll, you have the option to keep your roll as cash or roll again. Similarly, on the second roll, you have the same two options again. On the third and final roll, you keep whatever you roll (whatever the outcome). There are 10 rounds to a game.

This is based on a mathematics problem with worked out from the averages of rolling three dice in the hope of scoring the most points. The aim of the game is to beat the average (3.5) or optimally (4.66 for 3 rolls).

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Unkle K / Reset C64
Father, husband, teacher and retro gaming/computer enthusiast! Editor of Reset… C64 magazine.

Follow Reset C64 on Twitter

 

 

Refashioned Vintage Pinball Machines

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Whoa, hipsters rejoice! Actually, we really really like how these vintage pinball machines have avoided going to the scrapheap and been refashioned as ultra cool furniture and home decor!

Some purists may thinks these old pinball machines should have been restored to their former glory, which we agree with, but if they were beyond repair, then why not give them a new lease of life as cool furniture – we need some of these for our Fun Factory!

Check out Michael Maxwell’s Silverball – Maxwell Furniture Company, the makers behind these darn cool refashioned pinball machine coffee tables, side tables, bars, consoles and wall mirrors – we love’em!

source: If It’s Hip, It’s Here

 

Behind The Scenes: Making of the Ausretrogamer Header Image

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After her awesome work on the Ausretrogamer Fun Factory, Ms Ausretrogamer’s turned her talents to creating the ausretrogamer social media header image you have all seen (and hopefully like) on Twitter and Facebook.

Check out the behind the scene of making this header image, as it it definitely wasn’t easy. The end result was all worth it!

Evolution Of The Ausretrogamer Fun Factory

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This post has been a long time coming!

Not content with the home office acting as our games room, Ms. ausretrogamer came up with the idea to transform the garage into a fun factory – a place where all of our retro gear would be setup to be played and enjoyed.

Once the overall design was pitched, it took a while for me to come around to convert the garage into a gaming space. The garage was basically going to provide an idyllic setting for all of our computers, consoles, arcade and pinball machines in the one space so that they could be enjoyed by anyone at anytime – no more fetching stuff out of cupboards and wiring them up to be used!

With the garage already sporting painted walls and ceiling, the next step was to make it secure from the elements – we didn’t want dust to come in and damage the delicate old school gear. Once the garage was secure and weather tight, the interior design was kicked off by Ms. ausretrogamer. Her eye for detail and use of space was second to none! I must admit, I had trouble picturing how the whole thing would look like, but I should not have had any doubt. Ms. ausretrogamer’s vision for the room was exactly what both of us had wanted, I just didn’t know it till I saw it done!

The games room, now called the ‘ausretrogamer fun factory‘ started taking shape once we relocated the computers, consoles and the Dreamcast kiosk on one side, the cupboards holding the precious software on the opposite side and the larger items (pinball and arcade machines) utilising the rear of the room. Every inch of the room was used to its fullest extent – no waste of space in this fun factory!

The ausretrogamer fun factory has evolved over the last few years, with old items making way for newer old items, with the overall design and function remaining true – which is an ideal space for friends and family to get together and have fun!

All great ideas start with a mess!

Starting the building process

Starting to take shape

Getting the console area setup using a Data Centre grade power-strip!

Testing 1, 2, 3 – we have POWER!

Getting the artwork setup

A comfy chair is a prerequisite!

Fun Factory MK I – console area

Fun Factory MK I – panoramic view

Fun Factory MK I – the pinball and arcade machines area

Fun Factory as it is TODAY! There have been quite a few moves and changes!

Fun Factory – the current pinball and arcade area. Fun times ahead!

If you intend on using any of the photos from our Ausretrogamer Fun Factory, please credit them back to this article – thank you.

 

King Of The World: SNK’s NEOGEO Mini Revealed

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The worst kept secret in gaming has finally been confirmed!

The NEOGEO mini, the video game console that celebrates the 40th Anniversary of SNK’s brand has been revealed!The system will include 40 legendary and awesome NEOGEO titles!

The NEOGEO mini is a video game console, which will include 40 nostalgic titles from the NEOGEO system, which made its debut in 1990.

Rest of the world NEOGEO mini version

The NEOGEO mini will feature a 3.5 inch display, meaning the games can be enjoyed without the need to connect it to a TV or monitor! The size of the NEOGEO mini means it fits perfectly in the palm of your hand – just like the Atari Lynx does *wink*

The NEOGEO mini will be available in two different designs, one for the Asian market and the other one for overseas markets. With its design in black, white and red, the Japanese version of the NEOGEO mini will faithfully reproduce the original NEOGEO arcade cabinets that were introduced in Japan in 1990. The overseas version will be a simple and modern design in black, white and blue.

The Japanese NEOGEO mini version

SNK hasn’t released any more details, so we are keeping our peepers peeled to find out when these will be released and the confirmed games list!

So what do you think? We actually love the look of both units. Which one do you like?

PRODUCT DETAILS:
■ Product name: NEOGEO mini
■ Number of titles: 40 titles
■ Display size: 3.5 inch
■ Size and weight: W135mm x D108mm x H162mm / 600g
■ Accessories: Power supply cable (AC adaptor will not be included)
■ Connections: HDMI terminal (Input for TV monitor), headphone terminal, 2 external controller terminals

source: SNK via Facebook

 

Dragon Blaze: Old School Shmup For Your Nintendo Switch

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Just when you thought that you have all the best old school shoot’em ups in your Switch games library, Zerodiv swoop in with their fire-breathing beauty, Dragon Blaze!

With Dragon Blaze, we may have found the perfect vertical shmup (Ed: Sorry Sonic Wings 2!). Zerodiv have yet again reminded us that Psikyo’s long forgotten library of games is full of treasured titles. We are just glad that Zerodiv are bringing these awesome games to a new (and old) generation of gamers.

There is a story-line in Dragon Blaze but it’s your usual paper thin good versus evil, where the evil doers are seeking revenge and it is up to you to stop them. Who cares about the backstory when you have an awesome game, right? Of course we are right, turn your Switch in TATE orientation, pick your knight with their accompanying winged steed and get blasting some demonic baddies!

This game is a bit of a departure from the regular Psikyo TATE shmups which is due to the introduction of a third button – the ‘Dragon Shoot’. The ‘Dragon Shoot’ enables you to dismount your fearsome dragon, lunging it forward delivering punishment until you press the button again so the winged steed returns to its master. Since your knights have wings (thus can still fly around solo), and your dragons are utterly invincible, this is your best strategy to deal not only with bosses but also some of the regular foes. This game definitely encroaches bullet-hell territory but just stops short, which is a good thing in our books.

Both graphics and music are awesome and in keeping with the medieval-fantasy setting. Every stage offers distinct and memorable backgrounds, with enemies that are distinct to the stage you are on and of course, challenging bosses. As this game is full on, you won’t have time to stop and admire the lovely graphical details.

So why does Dragon Blaze belong in your Nintendo Switch games library? Well let us tell you, it is simply brilliant, unique with its Dragon play mechanic and super addictive. This is another must-have shmup for your every growing digital arcade collection on the Switch.

Disclosure: Dragon Blaze was kindly provided by Zerodiv for this review.