Australia's Retro Gaming and Pinball E-Zine
Holy cow! These SEGA Space Harrier MODEL runners (sneakers if you are from the North) have totally blown our minds!
Just take a good hard look at these sweet-as-f* runners! To say we love the Sega Space Harrier MODEL runners would be a huge understatement! Even if you are not a Space Harrier fan (Ed: say what?), you have to admit that these are pretty damn cool. We wonder if Yu Suzuki has a pair *pondering*?
image source: Anippon
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]
Our Bucket List keeps getting longer and longer, so we thought it was time to revisit it and take stock of what’s in it. Upon going through the all important list, we had to bump the Galloping Ghost Arcade up the list, because you know, it has a ton of awesome retro arcade games (and a couple of pinball machines) we want to play!
We will be crossing off Bucket List #34: Galloping Ghost Arcade in the near future – it’s a done deal!
image source: Galloping Ghost Arcade website & Facebook
System: Nintendo Switch
Available: Switch eShop
Price: AUD $9.99 / USD $7.99
Zerodiv’s reputation to recreate awesome old school games on the Nintendo Switch is pretty much set in stone now (Ed: take that HAMSTER!). Their meticulous conversions of Psikyo’s games on the Nintendo Switch console are second to none. With a plethora of shoot’em ups under their belt, their latest Psikyo conversion is another shmup, but this time, it doesn’t involve space ships or souped up choppers – this one is refreshingly different!
Think Forgotten Worlds (to an extent) with a fantasy setting a melee and spell casting gameplay mechanic and you’d be pretty much on the money with Sol Divide – Sword of Darkness. Oh yeah, the standard graphics are also a departure with the use of CGI pre-rendered models turned into sprites and backgrounds – which actually look pretty good on the Switch.
The ever important gameplay will always be a deciding factor when playing these kind of games. Sol Divide plays like a regular horizontal scrolling shmup where you fly around the screen and using your attack button to fire and another for melee attacks. Combos are done by repeatedly hitting the melee attack button and a direction, whereas pressing both attack buttons casts a spell. Speaking of spells, there are eight of them you can learn in your quest – fire, freeze, thunder, meteor, slow, wind and fire body. There is also an extra character-exclusive spell making for a total of eleven distinct ways to unleash hell. Spells will cost mana to cast, however they can be refilled by way of melee attacks or pickups from fallen foes. Spells can quickly be cycled and selected by using the ‘L’ and ‘R’ shoulder buttons, making it a greater experience than the arcade game single button cycling.
As per the other Zerodiv Psikyo conversions, Sol Divide offers plenty of customisation such as filters and mucking around with the arcade-like DIP switches to personalise the gaming experience, like making it easy as pie or hard as hell with infinite continues!
So is Sol Divide – Sword of Darkness a worthwhile addition to your digital Switch games library? If you like horizontal-scrolling shoot’em ups with fighting and some light-on RPG elements thrown in the mix, then there is enough unique features in this game to warrant its place in your games library. Sword and vengeance starts now!
Disclaimer: Sol Divide – Sword of Darkness was kindly provided by Zerodiv for this review.
Just in case you missed the memo with this most important proposition – what if DOOM was a platformer instead of a first person shooter?
The answer is miniDOOM 2, a fan game that pays homage to the DOOM franchise by reimagining it as a 2D retro platformer. It takes the beloved cast of classic DOOM enemies and weapons and blends them with old school 80s and 90s games like Contra and Metal Slug, resulting in a fast paced pixelated carnage-fest with a killer heavy metal soundtrack.
More than a sequel, miniDOOM 2 is actually a remake of miniDoom 1 on steroids: Bigger, louder and more badass. Download it now – it is free!
source: JC Porcel
source: Calavera Studio
Does Paul Rose (aka: Mr Biffo) really need an introduction? If so, then hang your head in shame! OK, if you really don’t know, for whatever reason, we won’t judge (Ed: oh yes we will!). Anyway, here is the 101 on Paul Rose – Going by his alter ego, Mr. Biffo, he is the creator and chief writer of legendary teletext games magazine Digitiser, which ran in the UK between 1993 to 2003. These days, he mostly writes for kids TV but can still be found rambling on about games, old and new on his daily website, Digitiser2000.com. You can thank Wikipedia and Retro Gamer (magazine) for this mashed Paul Rose bio.
So why all the excitement and the soiled undies you may ask? Well, Mr Biffo has a Kickstarter that will tickle your retro gaming and funny bone. Digitiser: The Show, will be a proper retro gaming tv series, with top notch production value that will blow your 8-bit minds! Rather than spin a yarn on here, why don’t you check out the Kickstarter campaign and judge for yourself as to why THIS MUST HAPPEN!
Oh yeah, since Digitiser: The Show campaign has blown past its target goal, Mr Biffo has kindly thrown together a handy grid showing which rewards are available with which tier – so check it out, pledge hard or go play with your broken yo-yo!
source: Digitiser2000
UPDATE: 33 Games is no longer available via Etsy (as at May 1 2018)
If you don’t have the space or can’t afford a row of classic arcade and pinball machines at your place, then 33 Games may have the next best thing – miniature 1/12th scale arcade and pinball replica machines!
Standing 6 inches tall and mostly made of wood and plastic, these mini arcade machines and pinball tables are an absolute meticulous work of art by Alan Friggens of 33 Games. The range is quite extensive for both arcade and pinball machines – all the greats are there, from Robotron, Galaga and Final Fight, to Bally, Gottlieb, Williams, Data East, Stern and Jersey Jack Pinball machines! We just wish Alan made JJP’s Dialed In mini pinball machine (hint! hint!).
33 Games offers these scale miniature machines as a single buy (pinball $36.82 / arcade $27.61) or in a special ‘pick any 3’ for $92.08 for 3 mini pinball tables or $73.66 for 3 mini arcade machines of your choice. Oh yeah, the pinball machines also have a LED lighting option which adds custom fitted LED lighting under the playfield and behind the backglass to really make them pop!
Which 33 Games mini arcade and/or pinball machines would you get? Jump on Twitter or Facebook to let us know!
image source: 33 Games via Etsy
If we had a dollar for every time we have been asked to list our favourite Atari Jaguar games, well, we’d be able to buy a few Snickers bars. Jesting aside, you can stop Googling for the ‘best atari jaguar games‘ as we present to you, the definitive list (in no particular order) of the best Atari Jaguar games of all time*
*List may change when another awesome Jag homebrew title is released!
Before you get all, “But where the hell is AVP?”, relax, it’s a great game, so it makes the honorary list:
So there you have it. What do you reckon, agree or disagree? What are your fave Atari Jaguar games?
PS: If you want to have a robust discussion about our choices, hit us up on Twitter or Facebook.
If you were in Vegas last week for the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) you would have been forgiven for thinking that it was the 1990s!
It definitely looks like companies are finally tweaking to the fact that retro gaming is big business. From Hyperkin announcing the mighty Ultra Game Boy to Retro-Bit announcing their partnership with Sega, it looks like 2018 is going to be a big year for retro gamers and their credit cards!
Here are our hot retrogaming picks from CES 2018:
Hyperkin Ultra Game Boy in an aluminium case will turn heads for sure!
image source: Gizmodo
Retro-bit did a mic drop by announcing that they had signed a licensing agreement with Sega to produce accessories for Sega’s Mega Drive, Saturn and Dreamcast gaming consoles! They even showed off games for the NES and SNES! These guys were on fire in Vegas!
Retro-Bit’s Sega Dreamcast Bluetooth Controller, Receiver and TV connectivity cables
Retro-Bit’s Sega Saturn controllers!
Retro-Bit’s Sega Mega Drive / Genesis Bluetooth Controllers
Retro-Bit’s Games for the NES (Holy Diver) and SNES (R-Type Returns CE)
source: Retro-Bit on Twitter
(Atari) Table Pong – If you weren’t lucky enough to snag this via its super early-bird Kickstarter price, then you will be paying three times more for it now!
source: Alex Kidman via Finder
Ausretrogamer launched six years ago today! We’re not doing a whole lot to celebrate, unless eating cupcakes and doughnuts counts as a celebration – but we didn’t want to let the day pass without some sort of acknowledgement. It would be an understatement to say that the retro gaming scene is a tad different today than when we launched in January 2012. Back then there was no NES or SNES Classic Minis nor was there a PAX event in Australia.
The retro gaming community has grown in leaps and bounds with its momentum showing no slowdown – long may it continue to be this way. In fact, if we can blow our own horn for a moment, we’ve set new traffic records on ausretrogamer in 2017 – and we have all of you awesome peeps to thank for that!
We at ausretrogamer are not planning on stopping anytime soon. Your enthusiasm and excitement for retro gaming and its limitless possibilities is what keeps us motivated to keep on going. Who knows what the next six years will bring, but rest assured, we will keep doing what we do as long as you keep reading and engaging with us on social media. Thanks heaps!