Retro Gaming

Slow Mole: 8-bit Platformer For The NES

19/07/2021 By ausretrogamer

Erik Rosenlund, take a bow! Erik has created and released, SLOW MOLE, an awesome speedrunning platformer for the NES!

Playable on both real hardware and other modern devices, Slow Mole challenges your speedrunner skills to the max with a unique checkpoint mechanic that will only award a checkpoint when the player proves their mastery! The game provides the player with two difficulty options which affects the timer, thus making an impact on game play. For those that have twitch skills who can truly master the game, the game ramps up its mechanical challenge to nightmare levels!

Grab Slow Mole for free (or for a small token of appreciation for Erik) from here and get running!

Slow Mole (NES) Trailer – The 80s NES claymation trailer that never was

Chip’s Challenge is coming to the SNES and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive!

16/07/2021 By ausretrogamer

Chip’s Challenge for SNES and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Pre-Orders Now Live

Top-down tile-based puzzle game

Independent publisher The Retro Room Games has recently announced that the pre-orders for Chip’s Challenge on Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive are now open!

Play as Nerdy Chip McCallahan, who navigates through a series of increasingly difficult puzzles in 148 two-dimensional levels, in order to prove himself and gain membership to the very exclusive Bit Busters Club.

Originally developed by Epyx, Chip’s Challenge is a classic top-down tile-based puzzle game launched on Atari Lynx in 1989. The game was also ported to MS-DOS, Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and the Amstrad CPC back in the 90s.

Chip’s Challenge was also released on Steam 6 years ago featuring 90% of positive reviews. This will be the first time that the game will be available on Nintendo and Sega platforms.

Chip’s Challenge will be available on 16-bit consoles including a cartridge in both PAL and NTSC versions, a box and an instruction booklet. Pre-orders for the game can be found here.

source: The Retro Room Roo

Features:

148 two-dimensional levels
Block-pushing puzzles
Dodging enemies
Skip to the next level option

Price: US$24.99 (cart only) / US$49.99 (Complete In Box)

7 Ways Playing Retro Games Can Improve Your Overall Well Being

14/07/2021 By Guest Contributor

When it comes to relaxing and unwinding, video games make a great choice. Whether you like online competitive multiplayer games or meditative single-player experiences, there is a massive variety of options when it comes to choosing a video game to play. In this article, we’re going to look at 7 reasons why playing retro games, in particular, can help improve your overall well-being.

1. They improve hand-eye coordination

It’s well established that video games can help improve your hand-eye coordination. Intuitively, this makes sense, as gamers need to manipulate a controller with their hands while looking up at a screen. These improvements are not insignificant either – research has shown surgeons who play video games perform better at surgeries than surgeons who don’t!

You might think that modern, fast-paced competitive games like Call of Duty or Fortnite would be a good choice for this. Still, many online games require significant time (and sometimes financial) investments to remain competitive. Meanwhile, retro games such as Battletoads or Ghosts ‘n Goblins offer a hard-as-nails challenge that you can pick up and put down at your leisure

2. They provide a distraction

Though this psychological trick isn’t unique to video games, they are a great way to take your mind off real life. Video games are arguably one of the most fantastic forms of escapism, as they are interactive. Many video games put you in the role of the hero and give you great agency in how you wish to achieve your goals. Many games allow you to create your custom characters, allowing you to escape and immerse yourself even further in the world. We love going to back to Spider Solitaire Challenge for our quick distraction fix.

3. They provide a sense of community

Online games, in particular, took off in a big way in the past year, thanks to global lockdowns that restricted social gatherings for many. Plenty of popular modern games, such as Animal Crossing, Fortnite, and Pokémon Go, have built-in social elements that help players feel connected. However, there are just as many communities built around retro games. Many of these communities have been running for years. Every popular retro game has a forum or Facebook page with a thriving, active community where you can engage with your fellow players in the online world.

Nowadays, it’s even possible to play many retro games online, such as spider solitaire online. These websites may or may not sync up to online leaderboards or other communities to allow you to play these traditionally single-player games competitively against others in a low-stress environment at your leisure.

4. They challenge us to try harder

Video games often provide a challenge to the player in the form of hurdles that they must overcome. These challenges can come in the form of puzzles that must be solved, daily events that need to be completed sequentially, or challenges requiring the player to master the game’s intricacies. Like Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts or Ninja Gaiden, some games even embrace this and build their game around being intentionally tricky. These challenges teach players to persist and reward endurance, valuable skills for video games and public life.

5. They help improve our vision

It might come as a surprise to some gamers who were warned that they would end up with square vision if they stared at the TV for too long. Playing video games can help improve vision for people with visual impairments! Studies have shown that people with cataracts showed improvements in their vision after playing certain video games that require quick reflexes. It’s believed that these games require an extreme amount of attention from players because they are fast-paced and require players to identify threats quickly.

6. They provide pain relief

Believe it or not, video games have been shown to provide pain relief, not in the form of a distraction or escapism, but as a mild form of literal pain relief. Playing video games can cause the brain to release endorphins, the feel-good chemicals that provide pain relief and make us feel happy. It is the same effect as what happens when people exercise. It is described as the “runner’s high.”

7. They keep your brain sharp

Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training for the Nintendo DS made a case for puzzle games helping people keep their brains active – particularly the elderly and people at risk of dementia and memory loss. However, you can choose from plenty of retro puzzle games. They all meet the same essential criteria for keeping your brain sharp. These games provide challenges in the form of memory tests, mathematical puzzles, and logic challenges. There is scientific evidence backing the premise that playing these types of games regularly helps prevent a decline in mental acuity.

Conclusion

There is a growing body of evidence that playing games can positively impact our overall well-being. It is far from being the time-waster many people once viewed. Retro games, in particular, provide a sweet spot of ease of use, fun, and challenge without being overbearing or requiring too significant a time investment to reap the rewards.

The Legend Of Zelda and Super Mario 64 Sell For Mega Bucks!

13/07/2021 By ausretrogamer

From NFTs selling for millions to other ephemera going for ridiculous amounts of money, we now find video games entering this realm of the ludicrous money!

In the last week we have had two record breaking auction sales of Nintendo video games, first it was The Legend Of Zelda (NES) selling for US$870,000, only for this record to be broken a few days later by the US$1.56 million fetched by Super Mario 64 (N64)!

Now don’t get us wrong, both of these games are great, but come on, these prices are scary as hell! Anyway, as long as there are buyers with deep pockets, then stuff like this is going to go for mega bucks! So if you have some old-school games in mint condition, get them rated and hit Heritage Auctions, you never know, you may be an instant millionaire.

We wonder what video game will break the sales record next?

image source: Heritage Auctions and CNN US

source story: The Verge

LEGO IDEAS: Playable Space Invaders Arcade

09/07/2021 By ausretrogamer

Another darn awesome Lego Ideas entry by Bricks Down Under that tickles our nostalgic nerve!

This playable Lego Space Invaders arcade game replica has the charm of the 1978 arcade machine that took the video gaming world by storm. We reckon Tomohiro Nishikado would be quite impressed too.

If you want this Lego Ideas Space Invaders to become a real Lego set you can buy from your fave retailer, make sure you go and vote for it now!

source: Bricks Downunder

source: LEGO Ideas: Space Invaders

Diary: Making of Mr. Do! for the ZX Spectrum

05/07/2021 By ausretrogamer

If you follow Mark R. Jones on Twitter, you may have come across his post about the Diary on the making of MrDo! for the 48k/128k ZX Spectrum.

Mark’s 50 page PDF is a fascinating read for any gamers that want to learn how Mark and co. converted the 1982 Universal arcade game and why it took nearly 2 years (Feb 2017 to June 2019) to complete! Oh yeah, did we mention it is free?!

source: Tweet link

15 Atari Facts You May Not Have Known About

22/06/2021 By ausretrogamer

Gotta love video gaming related facts! Here at ausretrogamer HQ we absolutely love digging around and finding all kinds of video game related facts, especially the more obscure and lesser known ones. Since June is ATARI month, for this new ‘Did You Know’ series, we kick things off with 15 facts about the iconic Atari, which you may or may not have known (or perhaps forgotten about)!

Was it all fun and games at Atari? I would have given an arm and a leg to had been part of this great company that brought video games to the masses. If only I was born in a different era and resided in California back in the 1970s.

There has been much written about Atari – from well known facts to myths and even fan fiction. We set the record straight on a few unknown (and well known) historical facts at the once mighty Atari.

Fact 1. First video game to have background music
To contrary belief, it wasn’t Namco’s Rally-X that first featured background music (BGM), it was beaten to the punch by Atari’s Cannon Ball – an Owen Rubin developed game. Unfortunately, the feedback was not great from location testing. Arcade operators disliked the BGM, citing it as being annoying. Sadly, the game was never mass produced.

Fact 2. Space Duel was the first multicolour vector game
Another contradiction in video gaming folklore – Tempest was not the first multicolour vector game. That gong belongs to Space Duel – another Owen Rubin game. To rub salt into the wounds, Owen Rubin’s colour vector generator code was used by Dave Theurer in Tempest. Owen never received any credit for his effort.

Fact 3. Missile Command was going to be called Armageddon
Atari had designs and cabinet prototypes created for Armageddon, later to be renamed by Gene Lipkin as Missile Command.

Fact 4. The Last Starfighter
In 1984, when Atari was being carved up and sold, two games in development based on the film, The Last Starfighter were redone to become Star Raiders II and Solaris.

Fact 5. The naming of Yars’ Revenge
Howard Scott Warshaw (from E.T. fame) named his game Yars’ Revenge after Ray Kassar (Ray spelled backwards). The ‘Razak’ solar system was also based on Ray’s surname, with the letters ‘ss’ replaced with a ‘z’ and the surname spelled backwards. Very clever indeed!

Fact 6. Championship Soccer / Pele’s Soccer
Championship Soccer, aka: Pele’s Soccer was the first video game to license a sports personality, the lovable Brazilian soccer maestro, Pele!

Fact 7. The Atari and Nintendo deal
Atari was in talks with Nintendo in regards to their Family Computer (Famicom). The deal would be for Nintendo to design the printed circuit boards and engineer all the electronics, while Atari would design the console case and packaging. Basically, Atari would be selling Nintendo’s product for them in the USA and the rest of the world under the Atari brand. Imagine if this deal had gone through.

Fact 8. Naming the Atari 7800
After the Atari 5200 debacle, the marketing department at Atari would not dictate the functions or features of the new Atari 7800. However, they did come up with the product name by adding 2600 to 5200. Absolute genius (Ed: stop being sarcastic!).

Fact 9. Burying Atari
Atari could only wish they could bury the E.T. myths. When the decision was made to close the El Paso (Texas) plant, truckloads of unused and faulty stock was being ferried to the Alamogordo, New Mexico city dump. The deal was to dump the goods and steamroll them. As the media got wind of this, it was made out as if Atari was trying to “cover up” and they became the media whipping boy with the video gaming woes of the early 80s.

Fact 10. Cloak & Dagger
At the end of 1983, Atari was manufacturing upgrade kits to turn rival Williams’ Robotron:2084, Defender, Stargate and Joust cabinets into a new Atari game called Cloak & Dagger. Cloak & Dagger (originally titled Agent X) was designed to plug directly into the existing power supply in these games. Indeed, this was very cloak and dagger like of Atari. By the way, the movie of the same name was a gloried Atari advertisement.

Fact 11. Clandestine sale to Philips
Without the knowledge of James (Jim) Morgan at Atari, Warner Bros. management (Manny Gerard and Rob Newman) were surveying Atari at the request of Steve Ross (Warner Bros head-honcho). The staking out of Atari was to take visual inventory and current status of projects for a possible sale to the Dutch electronics giant, Philips. There were a series of talks between Steve Ross and Wisse Dekker (Philips CEO), but in the end, after being burned by the Magnavox Odyssey, Philips chose to walk away from the deal.

Fact 12. First Nintendo, then the Amiga Hi-Toro
It seems that Atari had a knack of getting itself into some wheeling and dealing, but ultimately, choosing to opt out of certain deals. After the Nintendo deal fell through, Atari struck a gentleman’s agreement with the Amiga Corporation in early 1984. The ‘Letter Of Intent’ between Atari and Amiga had Atari advancing $500,000 to the cash strapped Amiga Corporation so that they could continue developing the ‘Lorraine’ chipset. Atari was never interested in acquiring Amiga, they just wanted to get their hands on the chipset that Jay Miner and Joe Decuir had created. The chipset was going to be used in Atari’s arcade machines, consoles and home computers. Dave Morse’s intention was always to find a buyer for his fledgling and struggling Amiga Corporation. This is where Commodore stepped in and the rest, as they say, is history. Hindsight is always 20/20!

Fact 13. Shedding Atarians
The gravy train at Atari was coming to a screeching halt. Under James Morgan’s NATCO (New Atari Company) cost saving plan, Atari’s ranks shrivelled from 7,800 employees in January 1983, to an astounding 1,500 by the end of May 1984.

Fact 14. Atari MindLink – Bionic Breakout
Atari was always at the forefront of product development. Atari’s MindLink product was a headband controller that controlled game play by the player just looking at the TV screen and ‘thinking’ about moving an object. There was no extra sensory perception going on here, the MindLink controller would read the resistance of the muscles in the player’s forehead and interpret them into the appropriate joystick or fire button signals. Was it ahead of its time, it sure was. The market did not take the product seriously so Atari chose not to pursue production of the MindLink.

Fact 15. I, Robot – The last Atari, Inc. Coin-op
The final coin-operated game under the Atari, Inc. banner was I, Robot (1984). Created by Dave Theurer and Rusty Dawe, I, Robot was the first commercial arcade game to feature filled 3D polygonal graphics. Sadly, only 750 machines were produced, with even less being sold. If you have one in your possession, hold onto it, it is worth a small fortune!

With a vast amount of information out there on Atari, we cross referenced facts, myths and misinformation with the definitive book, Atari Inc. – Business Is Fun by Curt Vendel and Marty Goldberg. If you weren’t aware, Curt Vendel is an Atari historian (since the mid 1980s) and has the largest Atari collection in the world. Curt has collected vast amounts of Atari paperwork and other memorabilia over the last few decades. His intimate knowledge of Atari is second to none.

image sources: various

Real Boy – The Less Awful Virtual Boy Handheld

17/06/2021 By ausretrogamer

Creator of mind-blowing portable consoles, Shank Mods, has done it again! This time he has wowed us with an even more amazing creation, the Real Boy – a ‘less awful’ and more awesome Virtual Boy portable system!

According to Shank Mods, this was a year in the making, with every detail painstakingly put together to create the super impressive Real Boy, complete with red backlit buttons!

Our eyes and brain would definitely prefer playing on this Real Boy instead of our real Virtual Boy.

source: Shank Mods

Review: Waveshare GPM280 Portable Game System

11/06/2021 By ausretrogamer

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.

Retro Gaming

Slow Mole: 8-bit Platformer For The NES

Chip’s Challenge is coming to the SNES and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive!