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Keeping San Francisco’s Musée Mécanique Open to the Public

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We last visited Musée Mécanique in San Francisco in 2012, which was a major highlight for us, so when we heard that this antique arcade was doing it tough, it was definitely difficult to hear.

We had a blast when we last visited Musée Mécanique! To view the album of our visit, go here
Musée Mécanique

The below ‘Nostalgia Museum’ short documentary by Sofie Kodner and Eleonora Bianchi, provides an intimate portrait of owner Dan Zelinsky as he struggles to keep the legacy of this iconic San Francisco institution alive in the face of economic loss and mechanical deterioration.


source: KQED Arts



Review: Waveshare GPM280 Portable Game System

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When it comes to emulating our favourite video games from years gone by, we have had a plethora of handhelds to get a hit of nostalgia, each having their own pros and cons. The latest emulation handheld to land in our office is the good looking Waveshare GPM280 Portable Games Console with Raspberry Pi 3.

Right from the Apple like packaging, we knew this one would be special to hold and play. Unboxing the GPM280 we were immediately wowed by its striking looks, which are a nod to Nintendo’s gorgeous Game Boy Micro Famicom 20th Anniversary Edition. Unlike the GB Micro’s metallic casing, the GPM280 case is plastic, with its sparkling metallic hue making it stand out and feeling comfortable in hand. The D-pad and four face buttons sit a tad high, so they will require further depressing compared to the GB Micro. This isn’t a bad thing, especially if you have not touched a GB Micro in a long time. If you have big hands, then you would be aware that the GB Micro was a crippling experience, so luckily the GPM280 is a larger unit, accommodating those of us with larger mits. The two shoulder buttons have a distinct click when pressed which we like quite a lot. In keeping with the GB Micro, the GPM280’s on/off switch, Select/Start buttons and volume rocker are in the identical positions as Nintendo’s cute little handheld, but just that tad larger (again, a good thing!). There is also a TF card slot near the 3.5mm audio jack. And before we forget, the package also includes a protective drawstring pouch, lint-free cloth, screwdriver and very importantly, a 32GB microSD card to get you started and a 5V 3A charger with an Australian plug – a nice touch indeed!

Powering the brain of the GPM280 is a Broadcom BCM2837B0 64-bit 1.2 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor (Raspberry Pi Compute Model 3+ Lite) with 1GB RAM, which is enough power to run most console and computing emulators from the second generation all the way up to the fifth gen with ease. Coupled with the processor is the impressively vivid 2.8″ IPS screen (640×480 resolution), with a laminated toughened glass panel capable of 60 frames per second and a 70% NTSC colour-gamut! We must admit, the screen is gorgeous in real life, so no photos will do it justice in this review. With a 1500 mAh battery, there is enough juice to keep you gaming on the go for a couple of hours before the next recharge.

Being Recalbox fans (Ed: nothing against RetroPie), we opted to go with it on our GPM280. The ease of use can’t be underestimated when it comes to setting up the system. Once Recalbox was up and running, we setup our system on our office WiFi, which allowed us to easily configure settings, monitor the hardware and very importantly, add our favourite games (ROMs) via our web browser – simple drag and drop and you are done! The GPM280 also has Bluetooth connectivity, so there is the option to add external controllers (Ed: due to time constraints, we didn’t test this feature. We will update this review when we do!).

The games truly pop on the GPM280

The quality and versatility of the GPM280 is quite impressive, but the critical question still remains, how does it play games? The short answer is, it plays them darn well and accurate. If you have clean ROMs, then you won’t experience any issues like choppy sounds or frame clipping like we did on a few of our Lynx and Nintendo 64 games. We also ran into button mapping issues on our Sega Genesis / Mega Drive games. Luckily, Recalbox has a plethora of options and settings to dial in things just right.

The already mentioned 2.8” IPS screen feels the right size and is quite clear and bright with the colour gamut making games pop and looking like they are being played on their respective systems on a CRT TV. We didn’t play any heavy text adventure games, so we can’t comment on how the system and screen fare with that gaming genre. For most of the classic titles we enjoy from the late 70s, 80s to the mid-90s, the GPM280 handled them with great accuracy and zero lag. The sound is handled by a built in speaker which does an admirable job. Another nifty aspect of the GPM280 is the power indicator on the Select and Start buttons, just like on the GB Micro – red/flashing meaning battery running low and green meaning you are good to game on the go! Speaking of gaming on the go, we got approximately 1.5hrs of continuous gaming before we had to recharge the 1500mAh battery – we just wish the battery lasted a tad longer.

Conclusion

The Waveshare GPM280 definitely impresses with its build quality and feel, grunty computing hardware and ease of use, but that all comes at a premium price. If you are in the market for a stylish compact gaming system that plays a heap of your favourite games from yesteryear without any issues, has media centre capabilities (via Kodi) and looks like the gorgeous Game Boy Micro Famicom 20th Anniversary Edition, only bigger, then the GPM280 may be for you. Game on!

Product: Wavershare GPM280 Portable Game System
Price: AU$244.55
Store: Small Devices

GPM280 vs Game Boy Micro

Dimensions – it’s a great size!



Disclaimer: The GPM280 handheld was provided by Small Devices for this review.

A Nostalgic Set of Mix Tape Cassette Kitchen Sponges

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Do you wanna rock your kitchen with this set of nostalgia inducing kitchen sponges?

Being from a certain generation, we love cassettes, so the look of these classic mix tapes cassette sponges are right up our alley! The detail on the cassettes are so cool, with mix tape graffiti style scrawling on each sponge with clever titles like; “Spruce Springclean”, “‘NSink”, “Sponge N’ Hoses”, and “Greasy Boys” – so punny!

The mix tapes cassette sponges are sold as a pack of four inside a retro-style boombox case! Let’s just say that this will make cleaning more fun!

image source: genuinefred



Atari returns with the new Atari VCS on June 10

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’80s video gaming icon Atari targets the living room with the Atari VCS — a completely modern gaming and video computer system!

Bluemouth Interactive today announced 10 June as the Australia/New Zealand retail on sale date for the Atari VCS, Atari’s modern video computer system that blends the best of PCs and consoles. The Atari VCS is the company’s first new hardware product in 25 years, which retails for AU$849.95 / NZ$899.95 and is currently available for preorder from JB Hi-Fi, EB Games, Catch.com.au, The Gamesmen, and Mighty Ape for NZ residents.

“We’re so excited to bring this reimagined ’80s icon back in a completely modern way to everyone’s living rooms with the Atari VCS,” said Bluemouth Co-Founder and Managing Director David Provan. “The system brings a hit of nostalgia to fans with its classic arcade titles, but also complete versatility to play newer games and stream all in the same place.”

“June 10th is a day that eager Atari fans have been waiting for. The Atari VCS has been well-received by our early-adopter community and we are thrilled that more people will have an opportunity to enjoy Atari’s Video Computer System in their homes.” said Michael Arzt, COO of Atari VCS and Connected Devices.

“We appreciate the strong support of Bluemouth and their retail partners, including EB Games, JB HiFi, The Gamesmen, Amazon Australia and Catch.com.au during this exciting launch.”

The Atari VCS offers something for every gamer, starting with over a dozen titles from popular independent game developers — including Boulder Dash Deluxe, Danger Scavenger, Guntech, Jetboard Joust, Sir Lovelot, Something Ate My Alien, Tailgunner, Atari’s Missile Command: Recharged, and more — with new titles to launch on the Atari VCS store through the year. The Atari VCS also comes preinstalled with the Atari VCS Vault, an exclusive collection of over 100 arcade and Atari 2600 classics, fully optimised for use with the Wireless Classic Joystick, with its rumble and LED light effects that give retro favourites new life.

To coincide with the launch of Atari in Australia and New Zealand, Antstream Arcade is launching for Australian gamers, giving players access to a massive library of classic arcade games. Dubbed as the Netflix of retro games, Antstream opens up a catalogue of over a thousand carefully curated games to choose from, providing Atari users in Australia an expansive gaming experience. Antstream is currently live in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.

The Atari VCS includes Chrome as its built-in browser, allowing full access to Google’s Workspace apps for productivity use such as checking emails and social media, catching up on work, or streaming content. The Atari VCS’s unique PC Mode is compatible with Linux, Windows and Chrome OS operating systems, among others, making the system a versatile two-in-one device. The Atari VCS is compatible with most PC peripherals including keyboards, mice and game controllers to create a flexible home game system.

The Atari VCS PC/console hybrid is designed as a multimedia PC and home game system to delight a whole new generation of gamers and creators. The Atari VCS is powered by an AMD Raven Ridge 2 APU and Ryzen GPU and comes equipped with 8GB DDR4 RAM and a 32GB hard drive with the option to customise and upgrade both RAM and storage. Atari VCS All-In system bundles also include a Wireless Classic Joystick and the all-new Wireless Modern Controller designed for both retro gameplay and the latest PC game titles.

For more information on the Atari VCS, visit atarivcs.com.

Source: Media Release (including images) supplied



Recalbox 7.2 – The Awesome New Update!

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Recalbox 7.2 – released on April 23 at 9pm (GMT+2)!

Hey peeps, here is some awesome news that the Recalbox folks have shared with us – this Friday, April 23rd, at 9:00pm (GMT+2), they will finally launch their long awaited 7.2 update, packed with heaps of new features, new systems, functionalities and optimisations!


source: Recalbox via YouTube

To recap what is new and improved in Recalbox 7.2, which there are many, we thought we’d share the major highlights right here:

MAJOR NEW FEATURES:

Light-Gun Games!

Play more than 250 lightgun games on many different systems (Arcade, Megadrive/MegaCD, Dreamcast, and Playstation to name just a few), no configuration needed! Now gathered under a new “LightGun” virtual system.

Better 3D performance on Raspberry Pi 4!

The team has optimised Recalbox, allowing almost all N64, Dreamcast, Naomi & Atomiswave games to run at full speed on Raspberry Pi 4!

Overclock the Raspberry Pi 4!

And for even more performance, we’ve tested and chosen 4 optimal overclock settings on the Raspberry Pi 4. Overclocking your Pi will increase the frame-rate on CPU and GPU intensive games.

Improved PSX/N64/PSP performance on ODROID-GO Advance/Super

Play almost all PSX, N64, and PSP games at full speed on both ODROID-GO Advance & ODROID-GO Super!



NEW FEATURES:

New systems!

5 new supported systems are added to the nearly 120 systems already supported in Recalbox:

  • Watara Supervision: This cheap Game Boy clone was manufactured by Watara in 1992. It was later licensed to several third-parties, and released under many different names. 69 games have been officially released.
  • PICO-8: A virtual console similar to the TIC-80 with over 4000 games available, largely popularised by the incredible success of “Celeste”, the famous platformer initially developed by Noel Berry and Maddy Thorson on Pico-8 in 2015, before being released on all modern platforms in 2018!
  • Pocket Challenge V2: A Japanese handheld console that specialises in educational games.
  • Elektronika BK: BK (БК), Russian abbreviation for “бытовой компьютер” – “home computer” is a series of Soviet 16-bit home computers, developed under the brand Electronika by NPO Scientific Center. Elektronika BK was the only “official” Soviet home computer. The BK-0010/BK-0011 and Terak 8510/A were manufactured from 1984 to 1993 and sold at the price of 650 Rubles, which was… almost 4 months of average salary!
  • EPOCH SuperCassette Vision: The 2nd generation EPOCH console released in 1984 and counting a total of 30 officially released games and 3 unreleased. The porting of this Japanese emulator to Libretro is a Recalbox exclusive!

Dual JoyCon support (Nintendo Switch controllers)

Recalbox now supports both left and right JoyCons! In addition, you can use both JoyCons as a single combined controller!

Bluetooth Audio

Connect your Bluetooth headphones or speakers! (just pair them like you would a controller, for now).

New cores

3 new emulators are also available, depending on your hardware:

  • Libretro NeoCD added as NeoGeoCD core: loads CDs so much faster!
  • Libretro DOSBOX Pure: Don’t struggle with complicated DOS setups anymore! These games
    have never been more plug & play!
  • Libretro-craft: A Minecraft clone available on x86 & x64 platforms only.

Hide pre-installed games

Pre-installed games are no longer copied into the user share. They stay on the system and can be hidden/shown using an option from the settings menu.



IMPROVEMENTS:

Main menu

The main menus have all been rewritten. They’re now faster, consume less memory, and are more intuitive. The most useful options have been moved so they’re faster to access. Reboots can now be delayed. This way, you can configure everything you need to before having to restart.

New options have been added:

  • Swap A & B buttons: change the way you validate and cancel actions.
  • Factory reset: reset all configurations (only keeps your games, saves, and scraped data)

Sound

In-game video sound/music is now available! You can choose between the following sound mode:

  • Background music only (EmulationStation music)
  • Video sound only (scraped videos)
  • Background music AND video sound mixed
  • Background music OR video sound (when playing videos in the new Gameclip screensaver)

Internal Scraper

The internal scraper has been greatly enhanced:

  • Improved menus. Now more intuitive, less clicks required to get things done.
  • Better region priority management: get better metadata for your region.
  • Ignore file referenced from .cue/.m3u and other multi-file roms: no more scraping the same
    game twice!

System

  • Check image integrity when updating Recalbox
  • Added a new Reset to Factory Settings option to reset all Recalbox & emulator settings
    without losing any user data: games, saves, screenshots, music, etc.

Emulators

Many emulators have been updated and/or reconfigured for new features, or to achieve better performance.

  • Dolphin updated to version 5.0-13178.
  • Stella (A2600) updated to fix lots of bugs (eg: Pitfall II)
  • Supermodel updated to version 839
  • UAE updated to support CHD
  • Np2Kai (PC98) updated to fix several issues
  • Odyssey² updated to add Europeans/French models (new RetroArch options)
  • Mupen64plus-next updated for better compatibility and performance! This core is now available on almost all platforms and performs very well!
  • FBNeo updated to support latest game additions
  • Libretro Duckstation is now available on all platforms!
  • Beetle-Saturn updated to improve compatibility (PC only)
  • Amiberry updated to version 3.3 for better performance & new options
  • Libetro-Parallel-n64 updated and fixed on almost all boards (except low-end PIs)
  • VIC20 is now shown as its own system, instead of only being available under C64
  • Videopac+ is now available as its own system, instead of being available as Odyssey² sub-model
  • Libretro MAME has been optimised to run full-speed on low-end PCs.
  • ScummVM updated to v2.3.0 and merged with ResidualVM



BUG FIXES:

Lots of bug fixes, as usual:

  • Fixed the ODROID-GO Advance v1 controller
  • Fixed the 8bitdo NES30 Pro rev1 controller mapping
  • Fixed missing BIOS MD5 & other minor errors in BIOS database
  • Removed useless BIOS files (PalmOS)
  • Fixed the Retroarch shortcut on ODROID-GO Advance
  • Fixed shaders on ODROID-GO Advance
  • Fixed lost support of open and WPA-PSK-SHA256 WiFi keys
  • Correction a fan problem with the NESPi 4 Case

TECHNICAL FEATURES:

Buildroot

Buildroot has been bumped to version 2020.11.

Kernels

Linux kernels have been bumped to:

  • 5.4 for the ODROID XU4
  • 5.8 for both x86 and x64
  • 5.10 for all Raspberry Pis
  • Both ODROID-GO Advance & GO Super use a special Rockchip 4.4 kernel.

PulseAudio

We’ve moved from a purse ALSA audio backend to PulseAudio! Recalbox now supports more audio devices — and even Bluetooth audio!

image source: Recalbox

 

There you go peeps, to say we can’t wait for Recalbox 7.2 would be a massive understatement!



The Mini Vectrex VideoSystem

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We know this is OLD news, but who doesn’t like seeing this again?

Back in late 2018, the National Videogame Museum (NVM) in Texas (USA) tracked down the much rumoured Mini Vectrex VideoSystem. Once it was found that this was a working system, the NVM secured it as part of their Vectrex archive, ensuring all could see this lost treasure on display!

GCE designed and developed the Mini Vectrex just after being purchased by Milton Bradley in 1983. The mini system was to offer a slim alternative, much like contemporary mini console revisions of video games systems from the past. Now imagine if this actually made it to retail stores……….

We definitely could never get sick of watching the Mini Vectrex in action!


source: National Videogame Museum

 

2021 World Video Game Hall of Fame Finalists

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We have featured The Strong’s ‘World Video Game Hall of Fame‘ finalists from previous years on here, so for 2021, we were quite chuffed to see a number of our favourite video games make the final 12 cut!

From FIFA International Soccer, Tron, Mattel Football, to Pole Position, StarCraft and Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?, we would say that most retro gamers would be quite satisfied with this year’s hall of fame inductees.

Oh yeah, gaming fans can vote for their favourite finalists from now until March 25 (US time) as part of the Player’s Choice ballot at World Video Game Hall of Fame.

image source: The Strong

 

Over 700 PS2 Prototypes And Unreleased Demos Unleashed by The Hidden Palace

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Whoa, this is mind blowing – last night, the video game preservation group, The Hidden Palace, released over 700 PlayStation 2 prototypes, early builds, E3, and press release demos in a massive (900GB) dump the group referred to as Project Deluge.

You can read more about this massive undertaking here.

 

ABC News – This Day Tonight: Pinball Parlours (1976)

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We absolutely love archival footage from television broadcasters, especially footage from amusement centres (or as we used to call them, parlours) from back in the day!

The below video is from the popular segment on ABC News’ ‘This Day Tonight’, with this particular occasion focusing on Pinball Parlours in Australia in the mid 70s. This is very intriguing with some very enlightening discussions with Malcolm Steinberg (from Leisure & Allied Industries (LAI) and Timezone fame) about video gaming and pinball entertainment that are apt to this day.

So, how much did you spend on gaming back in the day? In 1976 a player might’ve spent as much as $5 (approx. $35 in today’s money) on amusement machines!


source: ABC NEWS via Facebook

 

Tristam Island – The Text Adventure Game You Can Play On 36 Platforms!

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“Tristam Island” is out now! Play Hugo Labrande’s retro text adventure on one of 36 platforms (Ed: yep, 36 platforms!), from the Commodore PET, VIC-20 and C64 to the Dreamcast! Hours of gameplay, smooth parser, digital feelies, modern game design, intrigue on a deserted island! Best bit, it is cheaper than our daily coffee intake, go and get it now!

image source: Tristam Island by Hugo Labrande via itch.io