The Pop-Culture E-Zine
Cor blimey, what a phenomenal week it has been for the ausretrogamer crew!
Not only did we feature in two articles in issue 266 of Hyper Magazine, but our very own ‘Wizard Of Aus‘, Alex Boz was also interviewed by the team at Player Attack!
Hip hip hooray for retro gaming!
Retro Gaming: A Link To The Past interview @ Player Attack
Social Hardware and Digging Up The Past, To Preserve The Future feature articles from issue 266 of Hyper Magazine
Woohoo, we finally have news of the PAX Australia 2017 dates!
PAX Australia will take place 27-29 October 2017 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre and tickets are scheduled to go on sale 14 March, 2017.
Early bird tickets will save you $5 AUD on the full ticket price. Friday Only, Saturday Only, and Sunday Only tickets will cost $65 AUD. Three Day Passes (including International Three Day passes) will cost $165 AUD. Attendees wishing to bring their own computer, can also purchase a BYOC pass for an additional $45 AUD.
“Australia’s gaming community has given PAX such an incredible home here,” said Jerry Holkins, co-founder of PAX and Penny Arcade. “This year will see the fifth PAX Aus erupt in Melbourne, and there’s every indication it will be the best one yet.”
We can’t wait to get stuck into creating a bigger and better Classic Gaming Area at PAX Aus 2017. We hope to see you all there!
Our very own, Alex Boz, hits the airwaves in a LIVE interview with Nic Healey from radio station 2SER (107.3). Nic and Alex chat about PAX Aus, the love and allure of retro gaming, cutting out John Laws from the Commodore 64 Family Pack box and much, much more!
If you have a spare 6 minutes and 44 seconds, take a listen here!
Sure, there’s always heaps to see and do at PAX Aus (more and more each year it seems!), but the best part is always the people – meeting new people and catching up with old friends. We had many laughs, hugs, handshakes and great conversations over the course of PAX Aus 2016 – here a just a few of the wonderful people we caught up with.
Many of the great people from Ausretrogamer, Retro Domination, Weird and Retro, Bartronica, Zax Amusements, Pinmem and the Bayside Pinball Club who worked with PAX to bring you the CGA
The CGA enforcer team was fantastic (again) this year – here are just a few
A special thanks to the fabulous CGA Enforcer Team Leader – Zailee (thanks also to Spyder!)
Look who stopped by the CGA to chat with Glenn – none other than Guy ‘Yug’ Blomberg, PAX Aus Content Manager
… or is it Gabby Boreland?
Glenn and Zailee
The ausretrogamer team – Alex Boz, Kerith (ms ausretrogamer), Alan Ly and Brant Raven
Alex with Weird and Retro‘s Serby
Greg and Josh from Bartronica
Retro Domination’s Matt and Daz…
…and Mark and Peter
‘We’re just making sure they work!’ Weird and Retro‘s Dr Curlytek with Scott Kellett and Pete
Bayside Pinball Club President – Lucas Bardin
Lucas with pinball wizards Nick Hamhougias and Wal Dickie
Group shot with some of our interstate friends – MeezerMummy and Lord Panek from Sydney plus artist, DM, retro game developer and top hat wearer Mr Ant Stiller from Brisbane
Ant with bro Grant, or ‘Granthony’
Nick with Melbourne Silverball League‘s Martin Robbins
Paul and Hoa – Weird and Retro
Aaron from Press Play on Tape Podcast and the adorable Phoebe
Aaron and Phoebe with fellow Tasmanians Tehkella and Damian
Chris Van Graas very kindly loaned some amazing items for the CGA retro museum, including Mel Croucher’s ZX Spectrum used to code ‘Deus Ex Machina’ and Chris Huelsbeck’s MIDI sampler used to create the famous music for ‘Turrican’
Chris also introduced us to three metre pizzas!
Alex with passionate classic gamer, Harmik
Retrogamer and artist Sean Tagg with the awesome Henry
Pinball prodigy Jordan ‘JTH’ Tredaway and family
The talented costume and prop-makers from Combustible Props
Bethesda ANZ Community Manager Noel Wheatley, CNET Editor Seamus Byrne and Stacey Borg (Dr Curlytek) with Alex pre-panel (‘Geek Trash or Treasure? Finding Collectibles with Real Value‘)
Seamus also stopped by the CGA for quick game
Some friendly faces in the ‘Geek Trash or Treasure’ audience – Serby, Skye, Alan, Aaron, Damian and Tehkella
Selfie with Frank and Lauren from Mana Mojo
(Photo from Mana Mojo)
Great pic of tech journalist Adam Turner and son
Shane Rubans, Marcus Sezenov (Rosstown Retro Pinball Arcade) and Luke Marburg
John and Ryan Sozanski
Alex with Hal, Kale and Kevin Tilley (Reset magazine)
Sairuk with Aaron
Alex with Kelly (Weird and Retro) and Andrew Owen
Tamagotchi!
Alex with Adam Renardson, Content Services Manager PlayStation Australia
Developer and YouTuber Rob Caporetto with programmer and CGA enforcer Rajesh Singh
Raj, Rob, Kevin and Chris
Rob in super-cool mode!
The most triumphant moment of PAX Aus 2016 – collecting our ‘PAX XP’ PAX Aus towels (thanks to Alan for doing most of the legwork):
(Photo from Meezergal)
PAX Aus 2016 was a blast – and spending time with awesome people was really what made it. We’re already looking forward to 2017, can’t wait to see you there!
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Ms. ausretrogamer
Co-founder, editor and writer at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.
Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter
So… we’re calling it – PAX Aus 2016 was a triumph (it’s hard to overstate our satisfaction).
This year’s PAX Aus was bigger and better than ever – including a huuuge Tabletop Area, a speed running stage, a VR Freeplay Area, awesome speakers like Larry ‘Major Nelson’ Hryb (Director of Programming for Xbox Live, Microsoft) and live performances by 7bit Hero and Axis of Awesome. But best of all was the massive Classic Gaming Area (of course!).
(Maps from the PAX Aus website)
We met heaps of cool people (look out for our upcoming article about that), saw masses of amazing cosplay, and basically spent three full days on our feet helping man (and woman) the Classic Gaming Area or wandering around, taking in all that PAX Aus had to offer (which was a lot!).
Let’s start by celebrating the Classic Gaming Area. Back for the fourth time, the CGA was bigger than ever. The CGA is a joint initiative between PAX and Melbourne-based retro gaming experts Ausretrogamer, Retro Domination, Weird and Retro (all providing retro consoles and computers), local barcade Bartronica (providing arcade machines), and pinball enthusiast Scott Kellett with Zax Amusements, Pinmem and Bayside Pinball Club (providing pinball tables). We also had an awesome museum of retro treasures and rarities this year.
The PAX Aus Classic Gaming Area – Stay a while… stay forever!
The arcades were as popular as ever
The consoles, computers and handhelds provided much nostalgic fun
Competition was fierce but friendly in the CGA tournaments
Pinball tables were a hit!
A new addition to the CGA – the retro museum
But PAX Aus 2016 had more to offer than just the Classic Gaming Area…
The Expo Hall
The Tabletop Area
PC and Console Freeplay
The Handheld Lounge
Queuing for merch
The six rules of PAX
Noms
Pin-pressive!
D20
Sanic
Game over – until 2017
And just like that, PAX Aus is over for another year, but we had a blast – and we have so many great memories. We hope you do too. See you all again next year!
Photos: ausretrogamer.com and Alan Ly
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Ms. ausretrogamer
Co-founder, editor and writer at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.
Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter
We spotted heaps of awesome cosplay this weekend at PAX Aus 2016 – we were so impressed by the creativity and technical skill. There’s no need to say more – we’ll simply let the pictures do the talking!
Jigglypuff, I choose you!
An adorable Pikachu – and is that a Crabbens (Quarries of Scred) plushie??
Pikachu, Catbus and pinball – too much awesome for on photo!
Homemade Mimikyu – so cute
Family cosplay
Groovy baby
Jinkies!
Dr. Horrible
Donkey and Diddy Kong
We love a good Chell cosplay (I’m making a note here: huge success!)
LOL – Centre Link
Bowser!
Overwatch was very popular this year – many excellent costumes. Here are McCree and Ana
Genji
Amazing, enormous Reinhardt costume – wow!
A beautiful lady McCree
Overwatch group shots
Mr. Game & Watch – very clever!
Mortal Kombat
The obligatory Boba Fett
Splatterhouse by ‘Jason Takes Omegle‘
Gotta go fast!
Solid Snake
A smegging great Arnold Rimmer cosplay
Stunning Fallout 4 cosplay made by the talented guys from Combustible Props – wow!
More Fallout 4
Just cosplay
Gorgeous Sith
Retro Lara
Modern Lara
Lollipoppy
And so many more…
Photos by ms ausretrogamer and Alan Ly.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ms. ausretrogamer
Co-founder, editor and writer at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.
Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter
For this year’s PAX Aus we had the privilege of participating in the Geek Trash or Treasure: Finding Collectibles With Real Value panel, facilitated by CNET Editor, Seamus Byrne. The panel consisted of yours truly, Weird and Retro’s Stacey Borg and Bethesda Community Manager and mad collector, Noel Wheatley.
Keeping it retro: the panel in action!
We discussed why some games, consoles, computers, accessories, trinkets and ‘collectors editions’ become genuinely collectible. We provided helpful tips on where to find treasures and how to work out how much to spend. We also touched on preservation – basically everything you need to know about collecting retro goodies!
If you missed seeing it live, don’t worry – you can watch the recording via GameSpot’s YouTube channel.
(Image from PAX Aus website)
Attention gamers: Sharpen your gaming skills now and prove your retro gaming worth in the Classic Gaming tournaments at PAXAus 2016. As usual, you can compete for fun or glory!
There will be head to head racing, high score challenge competitions on arcade machines, consoles, 8-bit computers and pinball tables to show off your prowess. Speaking of pinball tournaments, Saturday’s competition will be fully sanctioned by the IFPA!
We suggest you put the Classic Gaming tournament schedule in your diary right now. Are you game to compete?
Get your nostalgic senses ready, as the PAX Aus Classic Gaming area is back, bigger and better for 2016! We say this every year, but this year is no exception – there will be games that will take you back to your younger years, and you never know, you may discover golden oldies that you may have not known or had forgotten about.
With systems like the Commodore 64, Sega Master System, Sega Dreamcast and the NEC PC-Engine (to name just a few) to tickle your retro gaming fancy, your only problem will be, what to to play first!
If you want a trip down memory lane while at PAX Aus 2016, then make sure you come on over to the Classic Gaming area!
One fire button is all you need to play on the Commodore 64!
Anyone up for some Alex Kidd action?
Shoot’em up action on the Engine that could!
Let’s go make some crazy money!
The PAX Aus Classic Gaming area is proudly brought to you by: ausretrogamer, Bartronica, Bayside Pinball Club, PinballScore, Pinmem, Retro Domination, Weird and Retro and Zax Amusements.
Check out Episode 167 of New Games Plus (a TV show about videogames, culture, anime, movies and more which airs on community channels around Australia and New Zealand) for an interview with the awesome Scott ‘Skooota’ Kellett about how he organised the very popular pinball section of the Classic Gaming Area at PAX Aus 2015. Skip to 12:18 for the start of the interview – great work Skooota!
Video source: New Games Plus on YouTube
Source: New Games Plus
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Ms. ausretrogamer
Co-founder, editor and writer at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.
Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter