AUSRETROGAMER

The Pop-Culture E-Zine

You are here: Home / Archives for Retro Gamer

Retro Gamer

8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard – The Perfect Xmas Gift for the Retro (and Modern) Gamer!

By

The perfect Xmas gift doesn’t ex…….. Oh wait!

Ah 8BitDo, they sure know how to tug on our nostalgic heartstrings!

8BitDo have hit the nostalgic sweet-spot for us retro gamers with their new 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard, which modern gamers can also enjoy as it’s Bluetooth/2.4G/USB-C enabled, with 87 keys, dual super programmable buttons that can be used on Windows and/or Android devices!

Just look at the kitsch retro (Nintendo 8-bit) aesthetic of this beauty – we just can’t get enough of it! We really need one on our desk, so we are hoping Santa delivers this Christmas for us!

Who else is getting one?

Specs:

  • Compatible with Windows 10(1903) or above, and Android 9.0 or above;
  • Connnect via Bluetooth, wireless 2.4G, or wired;
  • 87-key layout. Kailh Box Switch V2 White. Dye-sub PBT keycaps;
  • Top mount style. Hot-swappable PCB. Support n-key rollover;
  • Dual Super Buttons – offer large, programmable keys. Map anything to the Super Buttons instantly without using software;
  • Classic power status LED, with independent control panel;
  • Supports 8BitDo Ultimate Software V2 for custom keyboard mapping.
  • Price: $179.95 via Amazon AU

image source: Amazon AU



Killer Instinct on Steam Is Free – Get It Now

By

Wanna kick to the head, for free?!

The legendary fighting franchise with over-the-top action, a wild cast of combatants, rocking reactive music, and C-C-C-COMBO BREAKERS is now free to play on Steam!!!

If you are an existing paid owner of the Killer Instinct (2012) game, you’ll be automatically upgraded to the Anniversary Edition (which is A$39.95).

Go on, what are you waiting for – go and break out some killer combos!!

image source: Steam



GoldenEra – The Film About The N64 Video Game, GoldenEye 007, Is Now Available for Pre-Order!

By

The fantastic documentary on the most awesome FPS game, GoldenEye 007, is now available for pre-order!

In case you weren’t aware of this fantastic film, GoldenEra is a celebration of a magical moment in video games history, when 3D games burst onto screens and into our imaginations. The film showcases GoldenEye 007, a game that would inspire a generation with innovative gameplay and a multiplayer mode that would change gaming forever. Who doesn’t remember their 4-player death-matches with mates on their Nintendo 64?! Ah, it was so much fun!

GoldenEra is a nostalgic celebration of one of the most important video games of all time. A game that broke all the rules and defined a generation of gamers. The story is told by academics, journalists, celebrities, fans and the game’s designers.

GoldenEra the feature length film, explores the passion, ambition and naive exuberance of the team from countryside England that produced countless hours of joy to millions of gamers around the world.

Featuring hours of content, including:

  • Art of GoldenEra
  • GoldenEye and Obsession
  • GoldenEye inspired VR
  • In Game Reenactments
  • Mick Gordon on Rare
  • Music of GoldenEra
  • The Memes
  • The N64 Hardware
  • Writing GoldenEra
  • Bringing Back GoldenEye (Feature Length GoldenEye Movie!)

You can now pre-order the GoldenEra Limited Edition “Most Deadly” Blu-ray with N64 Slip Case film right here!



The Legend of Super Mario: The Zelda X Super Mario Bros. You Must Play

By

The Legend of Zelda takes on Super Mario Bros. in this cool mashup!

There is one way to make us play the original The Legend of Zelda, mash it up with one of our fave NES games, Super Mario Bros.!

Hacking games and mashing them up isn’t anything new, but when the hacked sum is greater than the individual games, we take note. Swedish ROMHacking user NESDraug has hacked together two of the greatest NES games, The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. to create an awesomely playable The Legend of Super Mario mashup game. Featuring Super Mario elements set in the original world of Hyrule might just make us experience a Zelda-like game on the NES – yes, we are one of those in the minority that never were into or wanted to play Zelda games.

If you want to experience The Legend of Super Mario, you can get the game patch from ROMHacking right here. Oh yeah, you will need a patching tool (like Lunar IPS) to patch the original rom file with the .ips patch file – that’s all we can tell ya without incriminating ourselves.

Go on, what are you waiting for?!


source: Hack Games Longplay Channel



Stunt Car Racer Coming To The Commodore Plus/4

By

Brrrrrrrrrmmmmm, brrrrrmmmmm, brrrrrrrmmmmmm

Geoff Crammond’s Stunt Car Racer (SCR) on the C64 was our most played car racing gaming (sorry Buggy Boy) back in the day. Surprisingly, it has held up quite well and is still a joy to play.

Hungarian developer, Gergely Patai, had reversed engineered this superb racing game on C64 and modified its physics to run at 50 FPS – yep, you read that right, 50 (freakin!) Frames Per Second! You can grab the SCR C64 50FPS version here.

To our astonishment, Gergely is now porting this marvel to the Commodore Plus/4! With plenty of limitations to work around, we are darn impressed with Gergely’s achievements and devleopment skills in squeezing SCR to play on the Plus/4. Not bad for two weeks worth of effort!

Gergerly notes the challenges he had porting SCR to the Plus/4:

The biggest limitation was RAM space. The original game doesn’t leave much of the C64’s memory untouched, and the Plus/4 has less accessible RAM while needing an extra 1K for colour information. For the time being, my solution was to remove load/save functionality and the ability to change key bindings, so I’d be able to get a working game and have some breathing room to shuffle things around. At the moment I have a bit over 2K memory left, so I should be able to restore some of the missing bits.

We can’t wait to see the finished product!



Atari’s 1975 Hi-Way Arcade Game

By

 

It is always quite interesting when stumbling upon footage of an old arcade game that many of us either didn’t experience or had long forgotten about it. One such game is Atari’s arcade driving game, Hi-Way. Hands-up those who saw or played this game in an amusement centre? We bet not many of you did – but if you did, count yourself lucky, as this was and still is a hard game to find!

Atari’s Hi-Way (aka: Highway and Hyway!) is a black and white vertical driving game where players avoid oncoming cars – just listen to that glorious sound! Produced in 1975, this (almost 50 year old) Atari game was built with discrete logic chips, using transistor–transistor logic (TTL) chips!


source: Andys-Arcade via Facebook



Super Mario Beatbox Remix by SO-SO

By

An awesome and totally mind blowing Super Mario Bros. Beatbox Remix by SO-SO

There is no way this medley isn’t enhanced with instruments, but alas, it is a 100% beatbox and vocal performance by World Beatbox Champion, SO-SO!

The versatility, skills and styles used by SO-SO are absolutely mind blowing to say the least – just press play and listen to the beatbox maestro.

The songs covered by SO-SO in this amazing medley are: Super Mario Bros (UK Garage Remix), Underground (HIPHOP Remix), Mario Circuit (Trance Remix), Luigi’s Mansion (Midtempo Bass Remix), Jungle Level (Reggaeton Remix), Water Land (Future Bass Remix), and Super Star (Drum’n’bass Remix).

We are honestly still in disbelief of this performance, it’s amazing!


source: SO-SO via YouTube



The Sony HB-F5 MSX2 Computer – The Gaming System That Came Before the PlayStation

By

On a recent hunt for retro gaming systems we came across the Sony HB-F5, Sony’s first MSX2 based computer gaming system that was released in Japan in 1985.

There were two HB-F5 variants that were released – grey and back. Both of these colour variants are quite rare and difficult to find in working condition (and with working game carts).

These aren’t cheap, but if you are after this oddity, there is one currently available (at the time of publishing) on Facebook Marketplace for $1,050 – and you thought the PlayStation 5 was expensive!

PS: Don’t mistake that RGB21 output for SCART – they look similar, but the pinouts have differing designations!

image source: Facebook Marketplace



Introducing The AVI-8 X Capcom 1942 Flyboy Automatic LE Watches

By

Pew pew pew, watch out for the new AVI-8 x Capcom 1942 Flyboys!

For anyone that has been following us for a while, you’ll know that we also love watches, especially the ones that reference classic arcade games!

Trawling through one of our fave watch sites, AVI-8, we noticed their latest watch, the AVI-8 X Capcom 1942 Flyboy Automatic Limited Edition (300 per colour variant) will be available this coming Friday, July 28 (US time). So mark your calendars or better yet, sign up to get notified as soon as these watches go live. We bet they won’t last long!

How awesome are these watches?! The fact that they are mechanical (instead of digital) and have a military aviation styling, they fit the 1942 arcade game aesthetic perfectly! Oh yeah, they are both automatics (self-winding), so no need to worry about batteries on these Flyboys. The nostalgia that these two timepieces induce is off the charts.

To say we are jonesing for the AVI-8 X Capcom 1942 Flyboy Automatic Limited Edition watches (we’d love both!), would be a gross understatement! C’mon July 28!

image source: AVI-8 Timepieces



Dreamcast and GameCube Gaming On The Go

By

Ever dreamed of having a portable version of Sega’s Dreamcast and/or Nintendo’s GameCube consoles? You may not need to dream anymore!

We know you’ll throw the old, “but my Steam Deck (or Ayaneo or hacked PS Vita) can emulate these consoles already!”, well let us tell ya, these portable versions are a step closer to their original source (by using the original’s internals)!

It is quite impressive to see these innovations come to life, even though it may offend the purists (and possibly get Nintendo’s lawyers onto these merchants).

These portable systems aren’t necessarily cheap, but they scratch an itch for the nostalgic in us – especially the Portable Dreamcast! Now, what can we offload to procure one of these……..

Where to buy:

  • Portable Dreamcast (on AliExpress)
  • Portable GameCube (on AliExpress)

Portable Dreamcast

Portable GameCube