The Pop-Culture E-Zine
Don’t you just love anniversaries of bygone era video games systems ? We sure do!
Get your party hats out and let us all celebrate, as on this day [Dec 3] in 1979, Mattel’s INTELLIVISION was unleashed in the US (California to be exact)!
If you have any fond memories or favourite games on the Intellivision, make sure you hit us up on Twitter or Facebook.
Happy Intellivision Day!
Some of our favourite Intellivision games
images copyright (C) of ausretrogamer
There are concepts out there, either on paper or physical form that make us go WOW. Turkish Technical Designer extraordinaire, Cem Tezcan always knows how to make us go WOW with his exquisitely detailed concepts.
Cem’s latest fan concept is the Commodore PX-64, based on the portable Commodore SX-64 Executive Computer. Cem states that this concept device theoretically belongs in Commodore’s 1993-94 era, as one last reboot of the iconic 8-bit computer, the Commodore 64.
As mentioned, the style used here is based on the SX-64 metallic – turquoise colouring. However, Cem also created a version in the classic Commodore beige colours too. These concept models are about as close to real life we would ever get – and boy, do they look so real (and gobsmackingly lovely!). Using CAD modelling and PBR texturing, Cem Tezcan’s PX-64 creation is a love-letter for the Commodore community that still enjoys and loves these computers (like us!) till this day.
For now, just sit back and feast your eyes on these beauties!
PS: For more photos of Cem Tezcan’s concept creations, please visit here.
PPS: If you want to drool over Cem’s other Commodore 64 concept, the HX-64, check it out here.
image source: Cem Tezcan via ArtStation
By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.
I didn’t like the “Saw” movies when they were first released, but over time, catching a lot of the films on cable, I can appreciate a few of them as pure horror films. Are they scary? At times, but they never lack imagination.
A “Saw” pinball machine makes a lot of sense because the film deals with gadgets and trinkets that the villain Jigsaw constructs for deadly reasons. A pinball machine can feature little parts of the films, certain traps, and sounds. Jigsaw’s little puppet’s disturbing, menacing laugh could be included in the storyline of the game. The drain at the bottom of the play field could trigger the menacing laugh when the player loses a ball. The movies are a game (a deadly game), so features on the play field are perfect for pinball. Once a player launches the ball with the spring, use of the creative properties from the films could be limitless.
A clear walled machine for a “Saw” design could be ideal. The features and tricky layout could set up some interesting scoring objectives from the franchise that are both compelling and frightening. A designer could get creative with kickers and slingshots. A slingshot could be a distinguishable Jigsaw tool or trap from the film.
“Saw VI” is my favourite film in the franchise. It’s the one that centres around an insurance executive who must complete a series of deadly “games” set to spare his employees. That entry did something different and unique with the series.
Tobin Bell has always been great as John Kramer/Jigsaw. He has portrayed the menacing character in eight of the “Saw” films. I’m not sure if he’s involved in the upcoming “Spiral: From the Book of Saw,” with a story by comedian Chris Rock. Bell can be scary without saying a word. The veteran actor has a great, wicked face. I’m looking forward to seeing what Rock does with the popular franchise. From the trailer, it looks like someone who is imitating Jigsaw is targeting two police detectives: Rock plays one of the detectives. But it’s a “Saw” movie, the trailer purposely gives very little away.
image source: Nirico
When it comes to children and gaming, there’s a constant debate. Lots of kids love to play video games and often their caring parents see the pastime as less than desirable. They’d prefer their children to be playing outside, taking in fresh air and learning skills that will set them up for life. But in today’s world, gaming is actually rich with benefits for children. Research has proven multiple brain boosting advantages of gaming such as improved coordination, memory, problem solving, concentration and social skills.
Today’s parents probably have happy memories of playing jump rope, pat-a-cake and conkers outdoors with their friends, and they naturally want their kids to have the same experiences. But no doubt they also enjoyed the delights of Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt from time to time too. There’s nothing like a bit of nostalgia. And that’s why Climadoor have imagined what it would be like if classic childhood pastimes were made into 8-bit video games. This mash up would satisfy parents and children alike, and we think it would create hours of fun!
Conkers is a playground staple in Britain and is sometimes knows as ‘Kingers’ in other parts of the world. Hours of fun can be had using a conker on a string to defeat those of your friends and foes. Many schools have deemed the game a concern as flinging around hard objects can be damaging, but there’s no such risk with the videogame.
Conkers Kid – Playground Revenge II would be packed with features. Start by choosing your best conker and level up by defeating your opponents. Perfect your swing and blast your way to success!
Jump rope or skipping takes skill, co-ordination and physical endurance. Kids all over the world engage in the game and some master complex patterns and multiple ropes.
If this is a little too sedate for you, try jump rope master. You’ll be reborn as an agile ninja to help you leap over ropes whilst also avoiding the dangers of fireballs and flame throwers.
Kerby (also known as Kurby or Curby) is a British childhood street game that’s simple in nature. Opponents stand on opposite sides of the street and throw a ball aimed at the curb on the other side. The aim is to catch the ball again on the rebound. Despite sounding easy, there are plenty of hazards to dodge like traffic, cyclists and pedestrians. Not to mention keeping balls clear of the neighbours parked cars and windows…suddenly playing outside has turned into a parent’s nightmare, oh, the worry!
It’s time to break out mega Kerby – Sidewalk III. All the thrill with less of the danger. Throw, dodge, win the game. All without the risk of real traffic or angry neighbours!
A classic party game, musical chairs causes fun, tension and drama as kids clamber to grab a free chair when the music stops. There’s always one less chair than needed to eliminate players until one eventually wins. Who will be victorious? Often the one that cheats the most!
Let’s translate this into the galaxy where chairs float in space to futuristic music. Put all arguments and cheating aside and focus on your speed and agility to get that chair and remain king or queen of the galaxy.
This sedate playground game sees participants clapping their hands in time to a rhyme, great for co-ordination and rhythm. But why not up the excitement level with Pat-A-Cake Wars? Bake a cake as fast as you can, compete against opponents and triumph over the bad guys.
A game first played together by Winnie The Pooh and his friends is now popular with children and adults alike. Choose your stick and drop it into a stream or river, you’ll win if your stick is first under the bridge! The fun doesn’t last for long though, and soon your stick will drift away.
Not with Pooh Sticks Racer! This high-octane game lets you navigate obstacles and rapids to keep your stick in pole position until the end of the race. Watch out for rocks, waves and branches that are set on hindering your progress, as well as other opponents!
Another classic playground game that lives in the hearts of children around the world. This one is such an institution, there was even a film made about it! You might know it as tig, it, tiggy, touch and go or chasey but the principle is always the same. The player who is ‘it’ chases other players until they can touch or ‘tag’ them, which turns them into the chaser and so on.
Tag Man tests your skill, requiring you to do whatever it takes to avoid the chaser. Find power ups to increase your speed, special invisibility powers and more. Just don’t get caught!
We hope you’ll agree, this mash-up between childhood games and 8-bit video games takes us all back to happy times gone by.
Tetris has always been a killer title for millions of gamers around the world. If you had a Game Boy, then we bet that you have played Tetris. Now, imagine playing Tetris on a mechanical display instead of digital. That’s hard to imagine, right?
Well, looks like Sinowin does imagine such things! Sinowin took a small computer, added a joystick and connected these to an old-school elongated flip-dot display, you know, like the ones that show the departure and arrival times at airports. No matter the platform, Tetris still remains a killer game, even on a flip-dot display. This is so damn cool!
source: sinowin
[story source: technabob.com]
Format: Atari Jaguar
Release Date: April 13, 1994
Publisher: Atari
Developer: Llamasoft (Jeff Minter)
It has been a long time coming. Nineteen years to be exact. It took us nineteen years to finally take Jeff Minter’s game for a proper review spin.
Tempest 2000, the beefed-up remake of Dave Theurer’s 1981 arcade classic, was Atari’s killer game that helped it shift lots of Jaguar consoles upon its release in 1994. This game was never going to be a straight ‘pretty up’ by Jeff Minter. The great Yak added his usual quirkiness to this seminal favourite. What he produced was nigh on perfection.
You may ask, what is so damn good about Tempest 2000. Well, if you are patient for one second, we will let you know. Yak (Jeff Minter) took a first generation arcade game and injected crisp 3D polygon graphics, an awesome techno soundtrack and oodles of new enemy types and obstacles.
Don’t think that Tempest 2000 is just an audio visual enhancement to the original – Yak also added 100 varying webs (levels), new opponents, collectable power-ups like the particle-blaster/laser, jumps, and A.I. Droids who destroy anything that gets too close. Thrown in this awesome gaming mix was the new “Melt-O-Vision” transition effect – very psychedelic (very Jeff Minter) indeed. Add the different types of play options – two-player cooperative and competitive play modes, and you got yourself one awesomely gorgeous masterpiece.
No game, no matter how great it looks and sounds, is complete without a complimentary control system. There is only one way to play Tempest 2000, and that is with a rotary controller. You could use the standard Atari pad, but it just doesn’t do the game justice. The rotary control enhances the enjoyment of the game and it definitely helps in achieving those lucrative high scores.
Tempest 2000 is a an incredibly great title which was released on an incredibly obscure system. This game is the jewel in the Jaguar’s crown. If you haven’t played it, you are missing out big time!
| Graphics | Superbly crisp 3D polygons that only the Yak can produce. Yes, the Jaguar can handle it. |
90% |
| Sound | A perfect techno soundtrack. Light-synthesizer tunes throughout with very meaty sound effects. It is an awesome aural pleasure. Make sure you turn up the volume! |
95% |
| Playability | Getting into the game is quiet easy – spin around on the web and blast away the approaching enemies. To truly experience this game you must play it with a rotary controller. |
90% |
| Lastability | Considering there are 100 levels to complete, this game will last forever. |
91% |
| Overall | Jeff Minter can seriously do no wrong. The Yak knows how to produce brilliant games, and this one is no exception. Even Dave Theurer approves of it (Ed: we made that up)! Get it and play hard. |
91% |
Survival of the fittest or just plain bad business decisions. Just as Betamax was left in the wake of the VHS behemoth, the video games market is strewn with carcasses of systems and games that just never made it.
Some of history’s most spectacular gaming console flops come from two of the industry’s heavy hitters, Atari and Sega. The hardware manufacturing death knell was getting quite loud at Atari – they decided to throw in the towel and quit making games consoles after the Atari Jaguar was caught in the crossfire of the Sega versus Nintendo battle of the 1990s. The Jaguar was rushed to market and suffered the consequences. Selling fewer than 250,000 units just wasn’t going to cut it. Perhaps Atari should have done the math (get it!) before they embarked on the Jaguar.
A few years after Atari ceased making hardware, it was Sega’s turn to wave the console making white flag. Once a pillar of the video games console industry, Sega’s Dreamcast was met with initial enthusiasm but Sega also abandoned making consoles after the Dreamcast was smashed by the new kid on the block, Sony’s PlayStation 2.
As for gaming flops, Atari’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial takes the gong. The game was rushed (it took 5 weeks to develop) to retail stores for the 1982 Christmas season but was such a disappointment, that millions of unsold game cartridges ended up in landfill in the New Mexico desert. Atari ordered more E.T. cartridges to be made than there were installed Atari VCS 2600 units! Again, Atari should have DONE THE MATH.
It was 1986 when I got my grubby mits on the new, sleek and all beige Commodore 64C. Like numerous others around the world, I affectionately called it the C64.
The Family Pack it came in was the ‘America’s Cup’ edition. It included various peripherals (joysticks, paddles, datasette) and games (Howzat Cricket, Arnie Armchair’s America’s Cup Challenge, Le Mans and International Soccer) to get started in 8-bit computing and gaming. I truly thought this was gaming nirvana (and a much better option than the Atari 2600).
Our Commodore 64C
The C64 was a versatile machine – it could load games via cartridge, cassette and 5.25″ floppy diskettes.
Loading games on tape wasn’t fun – they took ages to load, and there was a propensity for them to fail. Nothing drove me insanely mad than having to rewind and reload a game and wait another 30+ minutes for it to load. Oh well, it was one way of ensuring we got to play outside while we waited for the games to load.
The best way to experience games was either on cartridge or floppy disks. The majority of games were available on both cassette and disk. Cartridges were too expensive to manufacture and limiting when compared to tape or disk.
The C64 enjoyed many arcade conversions and film tie-in games, like Robocop, Batman, and The Untouchables. Unfortunately, many of the other film tie-in games were sub-par or completely crap. Nevertheless, the trusty C64 had plenty of great games to satisfy everyone’s taste.
In 1987, when the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Sega Master System were released, I had thoughts about selling the C64 and shelling out for the shiny new grey Nintendo shoebox. Finding it hard to part with the C64, I ended up keeping it – which was a great decision!
After all these years, I still have my original C64, I just wish I had kept the box. It has lost some of its beautiful beige colour, but it still looks good to me. It has aged gracefully. I eventually jumped ship onto the Atari ST and then console gaming via the Sega Mega Drive, but the C64 was always close by.
The Commodore 64 had a number of peers in the 8-bit computing market, namely the Amstrad CPC464 and the ZX Spectrum. But at the end of the day, enjoying total global dominance, the C64 was ensured the 8-bit computing throne and its place in retro computing history.
Long live the Commodore 64!