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Sinclair Book of Remembrance (SBOR)

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We received the following message from a friend on behalf of Jim (from SBOR – Sinclair Book of Remembrance) so we thought we would share with you all as we think it is a great idea for the community to share their memories of Sinclair’s computers and also remembering Sir Clive Sinclair.

The Sinclair Book of Remembrance (SBOR) is a project dedicated to the memory of Sir Clive Sinclair who sadly passed away on the 16th September 2021.

Moved as I was, SBOR has been a personal labour of love, to do something in honour of “Uncle Clive”. It is not a business project. It’s completely free and non-monetised.

The objective is to create a unique digital monument, composed of our shared Sinclair memories encoded together so that the final product represents each and every one of us.
For those thinking this is an NFT thing – it is definitely not! It is an opportunity for each of us to share a memory, and together create a unique dedication to Sir Clive.

I am asking that each of us contribute a Sinclair memory, by simply sending an email with your story (with up to 4 image attachments). By sending your email to [email protected] it will trigger the system to automatically create an entry to the SBOR site – for example: https://sbor.uk/m/1?code=41ce. You will receive a reply containing the link to your contribution, which I would urge you to share far and wide!

At a pre-determined date, say the 1-year anniversary of Sir Clive’s passing, all of the entries will be combined and encoded into a single unique value. This will be unique in the universe and will represent all of our combined memories of what Sinclair meant to us and something we can all share in.



Super Mario Bros. Light’em Up

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Remember the Tetris light you could build from tetrominos? Well, now there is a Super Mario Bros. light you can build too!

The Super Mario Bros Build A Level Light is a stackable 16 light-blocks set that features a host of familiar icons and characters from the much-loved Mario saga, which you can arrange as you wish. Each pixelated cube is double-sided and can be stacked in a whole host of combinations to create your own unique Mario level.

With Christmas around the corner, this is the perfect gift for gaming geeks and nostalgia junkies alike, that will brighten up their home or gaming space.

source: Firebox



story source: technabob

History: The Birth of the Internet Archive

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25 years ago, the entire World Wide Web was only 2.5 terabytes in size. Most connections were dial-up, important records were stored on tape, and a young engineer named Brewster Kahle was working on a revolutionary project—a way to archive the growing Internet.

Filmed by Marc Weber for the Web History Project, this video showcases the Internet Archive’s very first web crawl in 1996. In 2001, the project was made accessible to the public through the Wayback Machine. Today, the Internet Archive is home to more than 588 billion web pages, as well as 28 million books and texts, 14 million audio items, and 580,000 software titles, making us one of the world’s largest digital libraries.

As the Internet Archive approaches their 25th anniversary, let’s take a look at the hardware and high hopes that drove the project from the very beginning—and hear from the man whose vision made it all possible – press play here!

story source: Internet Archive



Vectrex Tournament: Vector War XI 2021

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Vectrex Tournament: Vector War XI (30th Oct – 6th Nov 2021)

Eleven years ago, a well known peep in the retro scene, Rob Maerz, started the Vector War. The Vector War is an annual Vectrex game tournament where Vectrex players all over the world compete. For this year, Vector War XI (VW11) runs for one week, from October 30 till November 6 2021.

The Vector War is for all player skills levels, from beginners to super expert players. In the Vector War you participate and compete with others. This is also a great opportunity to play the Vectrex games more extensively and get to know new games (and other peeps!).

For more information on the Vector War XI games list, competition rules and prizes, head over here and get ready! Good luck Vectrexians!

Thanks to RetroTuesday and Angela for making us aware of this Vectrex tournament!



Classic Atari 2600 Video Games in 3D

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Graphic artist Mauri Helme has quite amusingly created 3D animations of classic Atari 2600 video games, including Pitfall, River Raid, Frostbite, Keystone Kapers and the infamous E.T.

Imagine playing these on your trusty old Atari VCS/2600 😉


source: Mauri Helme



story source: laughingsquid

C64 Remix Chiptune: Green Beret – Commando Infiltration

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What do you get when you cross two C64 music maestros like Martin Galway and Rob Hubbard? You get this awesome Green Beret Commando Infiltration SID chiptune (remix) by t-tracker!

Play it loud!

source: t-tracker – Green Beret (Commando Infiltration)

 



Space Invaders Invincible Collection – Review (Switch)

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The granddaddy of all of shoot’em ups, the legendary Space Invaders has come blasting to the west onto the Nintendo Switch (and PS4), so let’s take a trip down memory lane!

In celebration of the iconic arcade game by Taito, the Space Invaders Invincible Collection packs 11 games based around Tomohiro Nishikado’s shooter that kicked off the arcade golden age 40+ years ago. Before we go on, we better let you know which games made the cut in this collection – they are:

  • Space Invaders (1978, Arcade) – original black and white arcade game
  • Space Invaders (1978, Arcade) – original colour  arcade game
  • Space Invaders Part II (1979, Arcade)
  • Lunar Rescue (1979, Arcade)
  • Space Cyclone (1980, Arcade)
  • Majestic Twelve: The Space Invaders Part IV aka: Super Space Invaders ’91 (1990, Arcade)
  • Super Space Invaders ’91 (1990, Arcade)
  • Space Invaders DX (1994, Arcade)
  • Space Invaders Extreme (2018)
  • Space Invaders Gigamax 4 SE (2018)
  • Arkanoid vs Space Invaders (2016) – included as an additional download (not available at the time of this review!)

We were a bit puzzled with Majestic Twelve: The Space Invaders Part IV, as it is the same game as Super Space Invaders ’91. Also, the inclusion of Lunar Rescue and Space Cyclone, both based on the Space Invaders arcade hardware, are an odd addition, but they are a welcome distraction from your standard Space Invaders action, even if they bear some resemblance to the classic shooter.

The vertically oriented Space Invaders games all have the option to rotate the Switch screen to Tate mode, which is a relief, as the screen is quite limited in landscape mode on those earlier arcade titles. Other features include scan lines (on the pre-2xxx games) to give you that authentic arcade monitor glow and feel, and a welcome option is the save / load, which is great if you get interrupted and want to save and come back to start where you left off.

The pre-2000 Space Invaders games (except Super Space Invaders ’91 for some reason) have two modes of play – normal, which is your standard rules arcade game; or challenge mode, which the player competes for the highest score with special rules for each game. After you have a game or two in normal mode, it is the challenge mode that will keep you coming back for more Space Invaders action. Being high score chasers ourselves, we love the challenge mode.

The conversions of all included titles are faithful to their originals, so we can’t fault the visuals, sounds or play mechanics, if you have played any of these games before, then you will feel right at home playing them on the Switch.

Space Invaders is an iconic game that is still fun for a blast 43 years after it debut in the arcades. This Invincible Collection on the Switch packs quite a few of the arcade games with a number of variations which are a lot of fun, especially Space Invaders Extreme, but the high entry cost (AU$99.99) to play Space Invaders and its variants on your Switch is a tad too steep. If you don’t have Space Invaders Forever and you are a hardcore Space Invaders fan, then this is the definitive collection to have, so grab it right away. For those of you that are on the fence, you may want to wait for a price drop to make this a compelling addition to your Switch games library.



Disclaimer: The Nintendo Switch review code for Taito’s Space Invaders Invincible Collection was provided by PR Hound.

LEGO Ideas: The Karate Kid

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With the popularity of Cobra Kai, of course it was only a matter of time before some clever peep would create the infamous ‘All Valley Karate Championship’ duel between Daniel Larusso and Johnny Lawrence, complete with Daniel San’s all conquering crane kick with Lego bricks!

If you haven’t guessed, this LEGO Ideas design is based on the 1984 The Karate Kid film, depicting the final fight scene between the protagonist, Daniel and his nemesis from Cobra Kai, Johnny.

The posable characters are really cool, so surely all of you The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai fans will give this a vote!

source: Lego Ideas



LEGO IDEAS: Playable Space Invaders Arcade

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Another darn awesome Lego Ideas entry by Bricks Down Under that tickles our nostalgic nerve!

This playable Lego Space Invaders arcade game replica has the charm of the 1978 arcade machine that took the video gaming world by storm. We reckon Tomohiro Nishikado would be quite impressed too.

If you want this Lego Ideas Space Invaders to become a real Lego set you can buy from your fave retailer, make sure you go and vote for it now!


source: Bricks  Downunder

source: LEGO Ideas: Space Invaders



Diary: Making of Mr. Do! for the ZX Spectrum

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If you follow Mark R. Jones on Twitter, you may have come across his post about the Diary on the making of MrDo! for the 48k/128k ZX Spectrum.

Mark’s 50 page PDF is a fascinating read for any gamers that want to learn how Mark and co. converted the 1982 Universal arcade game and why it took nearly 2 years (Feb 2017 to June 2019) to complete! Oh yeah, did we mention it is free?!

source: Tweet link