Retro Gamer

Movieland Arcade: A Hit Of Nostalgia In Vancouver

02/02/2017 By ausretrogamer

Ah Vancouver, the city of many cruise ships and retirees boarding these massive vessels! This post has been a long time coming, but that’s because we’ve been distracted – till now!

Continuing on with cool places we visited while on our North American trip (like the Seattle Pinball Museum, Toy Shack and A Gamer’s Paradise in Vegas), the city of Vancouver delivered its own piece of gaming nostalgia via the Movieland Arcade!

There are some amusement centres that are stuck in a bygone era, a period of time when arcade parlours in the 80s were lined with machines, both of the arcade and pinball kind, checkered linoleum flooring, cheeky signage, an attendants booth for exchanging your notes for coins and of course, the smell. Well, it is safe to say that Movieland Arcade encapsulates this 80s era perfectly.

Situated at the hipster end of Granville Street in central Vancouver, Movieland Arcade cannot be missed – its distinct red tile facade enticing you to go in and experience some real gaming nostalgia. With pinball tables and arcade machines ranging from the 70s to the late 90s, you better exchange your notes for a shed-load of coins as you will want to play them all!

Movieland Arcade reminded us of the arcade joints we used to frequent in the 80s on Swanston Street and Russell Street in the centre of Melbourne. Unlike those arcade joints going the way of the dodo, Vancouver can count itself lucky with a place like the Movieland Arcade.

Whoa, we spot Movieland Arcade across the road!

You definitely can’t miss the distinct facade of this majestic arcade parlour

We better grab some more coins!

Here we go! Hmm, pinball or straight to the arcade machines?

We shall start from the left and work our way to the right..

You have to go slow when you are in here! Too many awesome distractions!

We can’t go past some Neo Geo action

Killer Instinct is next!

Whoa man, haven’t seen a Gauntlet Legends machine in almost 20 years!

Some single racing action on Daytona USA!

Inserting coins now!

Nothing beats some 8P head-to-head racing!

We spy Medieval Madness! Time to destroy some castle!

Needing some gun action, which Area 51 will satisfy

We enjoy gunning down zombies!

Hmm, not sure if these ‘movies’ and that ‘theatre’ are appropriate, but…

OMG, Raiden Fighters! There go all of our coins!

Our shmup senses have gone into overdrive! Get us some more coins!

We spent our last few coins on some Playboy action *wink*

Darn it, the booth attendant must’ve had a toilet break. We’ll be back.

It’s-A-Me, Charles Martinet! Let’s-A-Go!

30/01/2017 By ausretrogamer

Mamma mia! Surely by now you should all know the great Charles Martinet. For those of you that don’t recognise him or the name, we bet you’ve definitely heard him.

Charles is the voice of our favourite video game plumber, Mario! He has voiced Mario since 1995 but that’s not the only Nintendo character he has lent his vocal chords too, he also voices, Baby Mario, Luigi, Baby Luigi, Wario, Waluigi and Toadsworth. Yahoo!

source: Great Big Story

Thrill Of The Chase: Neo Geo Pocket Color Hanshin Tigers

14/01/2017 By ausretrogamer

It’s a new year and what a better way to start it than to hunt down a Neo·Geo rarity!

SNK’s 16-bit handheld, the Neo·Geo Pocket Color (NGPC) came in a number of colours, but it’s the special limited edition Hanshin Tigers version that is its most prized of the NGPC lineup. Inspired by the Japanese baseball team, there were only 5000 units produced, making it the rarer NGPC handheld.

2017 has definitely started with a bang at ausretrogamer as we bag our first thrill of the chase for the year. What else will we go hunting for in 2017? Only time will tell…

If only we were Richmond Tigers fans!

The Hanshin Tigers NGPC looks great from any angle

The NGPC’s home, an official SNK case to store the handheld and some games

No system is complete without games!

The Hanshin Tigers NGPC frolicking!

Bit of KoF action!

Let’s get button mashin’!

Splatterhouse: The Complete History

01/11/2016 By ausretrogamer

Halloween may be over for another year, but that didn’t stop Daniel Ibbertson (Slopes Games Room) grabbing the Terror Mask and entering the West Mansion for a look at the complete history of everyone’s favourite slash’em up, Splatterhouse.

Daniel’s video looks at every single game in the franchise, Namco’s struggle against Nintendo and every movie reference found in the series so far. Go and grab some popcorn, leave the light on, and press play now!

source: Slopes Games Room

Double Dragon: The Complete History

16/10/2016 By ausretrogamer

If you have been following our exploits here or on social media, you’ll know that we are massive fans of Technos‘ brilliant 1987 beat’em up arcade game, Double Dragon.

What’s there not to like, two brothers, Billy and Jimmy Lee, set out to rescue Billy’s girl, Marian, from the Black Warriors gang by kicking ten-shades out of every baddie that gets in their way! This co-op game also gave the player the opportunity to grab strewn items, like a whip or baseball bat (among others) to easily dispose of the Black Warriors members.

We could go on and on about this awesome game, but we thought we’d spare you and bring your attention to Double Dragon: The Complete History by Slopes Game Room’s Daniel Ibbertson. Insert coin and enjoy!

Ah, many a coin were pumped into this machine

Double Dragon was converted on myriad of home systems. Let’s not talk about the C64 version *grumble*

The NES conversion was one of the better ones

Even the Atari 2600 conversion was better than the C64 debacle!
source: Slopes Game Room

Wolfsbora’s Tour Of Shenmue – Part 1

26/08/2016 By Wolfsbora

Why is Ryo always asking the wrong questions? That is what I am internally mulling over as I try my hand at Shenmue for the very first time. An epic ‘open-world action-adventure’ game (according to its Wikipedia page), it is also considered an RPG that was developed for the long deceased, but ultimately timeless Sega Dreamcast. Shenmue stars Ryo Hazuki, a teen who looks more like a 30-something man who jumped straight out of Virtua Fighter and onto the streets of Japan. There appears, however, to be a reason for that. The creator of the game, Yu Suzuki, originally intended for the Shenmue series to exist in the same world as Virtua Fighter, but then decided to drop the connection. Still, they could have tried a bit harder to make him look more like a pubescent, acne-riddled teen and less like a haggard, street-fighter who always looks like he is waking up from a Scotch-induced bender. As for what brings the advanced-in-age-looking protagonist to the beginning of the game, Ryo is seeking revenge for the murder of his father. As you proceed through the quest, you fill in a notebook with clues which you must follow to continue on with the story. There is also quite a diverse collection of items that you can buy, receive, and earn, but I haven’t quite figured out what I’m doing literally with any of them.

Man-child seeking fight

Can’t find a fight? That’s fine, Ryo will just fight himself

Regardless of the main character’s appearance, the game definitely looks and “feels” amazing, especially considering its age. Shenmue has the appearance of an early Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 game, which is saying something, considering the game came out in 1999, six years before either of those systems came onto the market.

By this point, you’ve either forgotten about my initial question, or you’ve been frustratingly clenching your teeth and demanding some serious answers because you’re a very serious person (it says so on your resume). But here it is: why does Ryo ask the wrong question in almost every scenario where there will be dialogue between you and another person? Well, I don’t know. This is my only gripe with Shenmue up to this point in the game. I wish that they had decided to give you dialogue options because not only is he asking the wrong questions, he’s usually rambling on about things that have nothing to do with the story, let alone the fact that the responding dialogue typically makes even less sense. Here’s hoping that the dialogue starts to fix itself!

Tom has no idea what is going on, but he has some amazing dance moves and delicious hot dogs

Finally, within the first couple of hours or so, I find that Shenmue is more adventure than action. You spend most of your time wandering Dobuita street, fists always clenched, asking people silly questions and getting even sillier answers. I have, so far, been involved in one quick time fight, in which you press the correct corresponding button to the label on the screen. Yet, I’m somehow still enjoying the game thanks to the ability to explore the graphically pleasing city. I think I’ll stick around for a while.

Where can I find a fight?!

That is all for Part 1 as I, Wolfie, take you on an adventure through this retroland called Shenmue. Stay tuned for Part 2 as I get further into the story. Thanks for reading!

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Wolfsbora
U.S.A. based arcade cabinet & retro game collector. Lover of all (good) games and the people that play them!

Follow Wolfsbora on Twitter and Steam.

Neo Geo MVS & AES Flash Cart

25/08/2016 By ausretrogamer

Neo Geo fans, start your drooling! Darksoft has done the unthinkable, he has created a Neo Geo flash cart not only for the MVS, but also for the AES – Christmas has come early!

Darksoft has indicated that the goal at the moment is to have a mix of technologies on the cartridge, like FPGA+DDR, ARM+Flash and CPLD, to ensure maximum versatility and fast load times. Oh yeh, the cart will have a microSD slot.

While older games (roms) will be supported on the flash cart, Darksoft has made it quite clear that he will not add any support for new games like the ones developed by NG:Dev.Team (that is a good thing!).

As mentioned, there will be 2 cartridges, one for the AES and the other for the MVS – the design being almost identical for each cart. Cartridges will come in plastic cases just like the original MVS/AES shockboxes. Expected cost is in the vicinity of $400.

If you want more details about this awesome creation, head on over to the Arcade-Project forum.

image source: Darksoft via Arcade-Projects

Welcome to STARWORLD 78

04/04/2016 By ausretrogamer

For those of you that don’t remember, once upon a time Atari was the king of video games, not just in the home with their Atari VCS/2600, but also in the amusement parlours. Atari was so diversified, they even got into making pinball machines!

To get an understanding of just how huge the Sunnyvale company was, at the 1978 Amusement and Music Operators Association (AMOA) trade show, Atari had a massive exhibit titled Starworld ’78, showcasing their latest wares to wow the industry (and scare the pants off their competitors)!

The “Starworld” theme was chosen by Atari to preview their new games, which they cleverly dubbed as the “Stars” of the 1978 AMOA show. Previewed pinball machines included Space Riders, the colossal Hercules and the double playfield extravaganza of Middle Earth. In the video gaming stakes, their new 2-player space duel game, Orbit and the 3-games-in-one version of Breakout (very smartly titled) Super Breakout were gaining a lot of attention. Also taking centre stage at Starworld ’78 were: Sprint 2, Sit Down Night Driver, Starship, Smokey Joe, Fire Truck, UFO and the unique dual monitor submarine strategy game, Subs. If that wasn’t enough, Atari also had their service technicians on hand to demonstrate the latest test equipment to show off to operators.

And what is a trade show without prizes? Atari was promoting their ‘Starworld Sweepstakes’, a first at the AMOA trade show. Prizes included a Super Breakout machine, a Sony Betamax video tape recorder, a colour TV, a set of leather luggage and a Sony 5” Swivel-vision TV. There were also minor prizes awarded by Atari in their sweepstakes, including Seiko pocket digital alarms and Seiko desk clocks! Whoa, if only we had attended the 1978 AMOA trade show!

source: The Arcade Flyer Archive

Toasted TV Goes Retro

27/03/2016 By ausretrogamer

If you are a regular viewer of Channel Eleven’s morning cartoon variety show Toasted TV, you will know that they have an awesome weekly retro gaming segment called ‘Flashback Friday – Retro Games Edition‘.

While kicking back in our pyjamas watching Toasted TV on Good Friday, we spotted the multi-talented retro gamer and our very good friend, Cameron Davis (aka: Gazunta) make a special guest appearance on our fave segment. Cam was rewinding time to 1999 to show-off Sega’s last console, the Dreamcast! With the VMUs (Virtual Memory Unit) tucked inside the controllers, the action got quite heated between Cam, Jono and Ollie on Sonic Adventure 2!

We got so excited watching Cam on TV, we grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and asked him about his new found fame and also for his autograph. But before you read on, check out the Flashback Friday Retro Games Edition segment now!

AUSRETROGAMER [ARG]: So Cam, how did you get involved with Toasted TV?
Cameron Davis [CD]: Toasted TV is filmed up here in Brisbane, and the show’s producer put a call out for people who still had working Nintendo 64 systems and some games for their weekly ‘Flashback Friday’ segment. Of course, I had two N64s still in perfect condition and a pretty nice library of the best games. So I shot them an email to give them some background on who I was and what kind of retrogaming experience I had, and they were interested in me coming on to show off some N64 and Dreamcast classics!

ARG: How are the topics for ‘Flashback Friday Retro Games Edition’ chosen?
CD: We started spitballing some ideas for games to feature, and we both settled on the following guidelines: they had to be age-appropriate for the show (so that ruled out Goldeneye pretty quickly!), preferably multiplayer to give both the hosts something to do, and most importantly, be a great demonstration of what great retrogaming is about! For example, even though Sonic Adventure may not be the BEST Dreamcast game, Sonic is a familiar character to the show’s audience and the opening sequence just can’t be beat! It also gave an opportunity to show off one of the Dreamcast’s unique features – the removable VMU that can be operated like a simple LCD games machine, quite a revolutionary idea!

ARG: And lastly, how long does it take to prepare and shoot the segment?
CD: Even though the segments are only about three minutes long, each one took about thirty minutes to make. Every time there’s a cut or a different shot, the crew would need to plan out how each segment would look and what would happen. It’s fascinating to see them work so hard to get the show made – they’re total professionals! I spent a day or two beforehand cleaning all my old games for the show (some of those N64 controllers gather dust like crazy!) and re-learning the games so I wouldn’t look like a total n00b in front of a national audience!

Whoa! Cam has totally blown us away, and we reckon he nailed the segment! Looking forward to seeing more of Cam on TV (and in real life!). Oh yeah, we will pin down Mr. Davis to the ausretrogamer interview hot seat in the near future to chat about his start in gaming, the work he has done in the gaming industry and of course, his current projects including his awesome Blow The Cartridge and Rose comics – so stay tuned!

The action gets toasty on the Dreamcast!
source: Toasted TV – Channel Eleven (tenplay)

Flippin Out: Ghostbusters Pinball

11/03/2016 By ausretrogamer

When it comes to big-licenses in the pinball world, Stern definitely know how to grab you by the steel balls! Joining their stable of recent big hits like The Walking Dead and Game Of Thrones is Ghostbusters Pinball.

The timing of Ghostbusters Pinball coincides with the release of the trailer for the upcoming reboot, but don’t read too much into that, as Stern’s Ghostbusters is based on the classic pair of films from the 80s, with Bill Murray, the Ecto-1, Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and of course, Slimer all making their ghoulish way onto the playfield.

There are plenty of ramps, toys, lighting, speech and motorized effects to scare the pants off you while you rid New York City of ghostly apparitions. To get you right into the mood, Ray Parker Jr belts out the Ghostbusters theme. “If there’s something strange, in your neighborhood, who ya gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!”

For more deets on Stern’s Ghostbusters Pinball, go here.

Are you a Pro Ghostbuster?