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Arcade Raid Over Dubbo

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Have you ever dreamed of raiding a warehouse full of arcade machine we used to play back in the day?

Well, that dream is now a reality, thanks to Dubbo Arcade and Amusements! From looking at the photos on their Facebook page, we reckon they may have pretty much what most of us are after, either an old school arcade machine from the 80s or 90s, those hard to find arcade game boards, Hankin cocktail tables, or perhaps a jukebox or a pinball machine to tickle your nostalgic nerve.

Whatever you are after, we reckon a visit to Dubbo may be in order 😉

image source: Dubbo Arcade and Amusements via Facebook

 

Where To Play Pinball in Melbourne

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Location pinball is experiencing a renaissance where the silverball game is popping up at more locations in and around one of the world’s most liveable city. If you want to get your pinball fix you may want to check out these establishments.

MELBOURNE

THE PINBALL PARLOUR (Located inside Man Cave Madness at 4/1813 Sydney Road, Campbellfield)
Melbourne’s newest and biggest pinball venue! Over 45 machines and growing. Classics from the 70s, 80s, 90s and latest and greatest pinball machines. Open every Saturday and Sunday with two, two hours sessions per day! Prices start at $30 for adults / $20 for kids.

BARTRONICA (335 Flinders Lane, Melbourne)
Right in the heart of the Central Business District (CBD) of Melbourne, Batronica is the place to be seen at. The renovated venue (titled: Batronica 2.0) has made playing pinball (and arcade) machines even easier while you enjoy a drink.

MOON DOG WORLD (32 Chifley Drive, Preston)
This brewery can accommodate 700 patrons spread across its massive floor space which sports an indoor lagoon, a bar equipped with 72 taps, a beer garden, a hidden tiki bar, a waterfall and best of all, pinball machines!

GENERAL PUBLIC (366 Boundary Rd, Dingley Village)
Home of the Bayside Pinball Club, this awesome venue has it all, from great food, lots of fun attractions, including bowling and of course beautifully maintained pinball machines for you to flip to your heart’s content. But wait, there is more – there is another General Public in Frankston with more pinball action (16-22 Playne St, Frankston).

B. LUCKY & SONS (Level 3/211 La Trobe St, Melbourne)
It may only have one pinball machine inside, but B. Lucky & Sons quirky arcade is so cool with other distractions, you won’t want to leave. Oh yeah, the big plus is that it is inside Melbourne Central located on the entertainment level, level 3!

FORTRESS MELBOURNE (enter via Shop 25, Lower Ground, Emporium Shopping Centre)
Open 7 days a week, Fortress Melbourne is Australia’s largest video games venue with a smattering of pinball machines in their Arcade Alley area. Entry is always free, so do yourself a favour, when in the CBD, hit up Fortress Melbourne, you may never leave!

MARVEL STADIUM (740 Bourke St, Docklands)
If you are heading out to the footy at Marvel Stadium, why not hit the pins there too. They currently have Deadpool, Spider-Man Vault Edition and Avengers: IQ!

TIMEZONE (various shopping centre locations: Highpoint, Knox, Forest Hill and Craigieburn)
That old staple is starting to add more and more pinball amongst their arcade and redemption machines – which is a good thing! Know and Forest Hill have a lineup of multiple newer Stern pinball machines, which we hope means other Timezones will follow suit.

BRAYBROOK HOTEL (353 Ballarat Rd, Braybrook)
In the heart of the west, you’ll find a Guardian Of The Galaxy (GOTG) pinball machine and some bronze statues of a couple of Footscray Football Club’s legendary players.

ARCADE GARAGE (518-530 High St, Northcote)
Arcade Garage Northcote is Melbourne’s largest retro arcade with more than 60 machines (including a handful of pinball machines) available to play spanning from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s+.

HIGHPOINT HOTEL (Level 1 Tenancy 10, Highpoint Shopping Centre, Maribyrnong)
If Timezone Highpoint’s pinball machine doesn’t tickle your fancy, then walk around the corner to the Highpoint Hotel where you can play NBA Jam and some cool Stern pinball machines.

FUNDERDOME (inside Hoys Highpoint Shopping Centre, Maribyrnong)
Looks like Highpoint Shopping Centre is the place to be, with not one, but three venues sporting pinball machines (Highpoint Hotel, Timezone and Funderdome)! Funderdome has Stern favourites, Deadpool, The Munsters and Black Knight: Sword of Rage – all at $2.50 per game.

THE DONCASTER HOTEL (855 Doncaster Road, Doncaster)
According to our intel, Bob’s Diner at The Doncaster Hotel has two machines for your enjoyment!

RIDDELLS CREEK HOTEL (10-12 Hamilton St, Riddells Creek)
Heading out of Melbourne? Stop by this hotel to get some Grand Prix pinball action with your beer and burger!

KARTING MADNESS (Factory 9/841 Mountain Hwy, Bayswater)
Don’t let the name of this place fool you, Karting Madness also has a mad collection of pinball machines that will keep you occupied for quite a while.

PEACOCK INN HOTEL (210 High St, Northcote)
This sleek venue serves up a couple of pinball machines amongst their gastropub menu. Oh yeah, they also have a beer garden when you need to take a break from flipping.

THE HAWTHORN HOTEL (481 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn)
With its wood-paling bar, bistro food, trivia and karaoke, it’s amazing that this comfy pub could fit in any pinball – luckily, they do!

TOWER HOTEL (686 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn East)
With $7 schooners, Stern’s Mustang and Star Trek, you are all set for some cool pinball action.

THE OLYMPIC HOTEL (31 Albert St, Preston)
If you are heading out to Preston, then you can get some dinosaur pinnie action on Stern’s Jurassic Park!

TAYLORS LAKES HOTEL (7 Melton Hwy, Taylors Lakes)
Hit the family hotel for some good food, good drinks and of course, pinball.

COMMERCIAL HOTEL (111 Walton Street, Werribee)
Situated 35km west of the city, the Commercial Hotel offers a couple of pinball machines to be enjoyed while watching live sports and having a tipple.

RETREAT HOTEL (280 Sydney Road, Brunswick)
Head toward the back of the Retreat for a special surprise – pinball. With live music , craft beer on tap and hearty pub grub, you can’t really go wrong.

GRANDVIEW HOTEL (429 Heidelberg Road, Fairfield)
This 130+ year old triple story grand Victorian hotel will keep your hands occupied, both with drinks and pinball.

THORNBURY EXPRESSO COFFEE BAR (792 High Street, Thornbury)
A café with pinball? Yep, enjoy a coffee and perhaps an ice-cream while also playing some pinball in this ultra casual and cool cafe.

THE SALOON BARCADE (273-274 Nepean Hwy, Edithvale)
With locally brewed craft beers, cocktails, wine, spirits, and of course, PINBALL (arcade and pool), The Saloon Barcade is the place to be if you are out Edithvale way! Oh yeah, for those with the munchies, there are the staples, pizza, burgers and pasta too.

Oh yeah, another pro-tip is to check out your local AMF Bowling Centre and the foyer of Hoyts or Village Cinemas, as they usually have at least one (or more) pinball machines!

This was never going to be an exhaustive list, but it should get you started playing pinball in and around Melbourne. Due to the nature of locations changing their lineup or removing machines, this ‘Where to play pinball’ list is correct as at the time of publishing. We’ll endeavour to update this post as new locations pop up (and remove the ones that no longer have pinball machines).

If you appreciate what we do, please feel free to show your appreciation via the ausretrogamer virtual tip jar 🙂



Retro Gaming Graffiti

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Let’s start by saying we don’t condone illegal graffiti. However, when graffiti is welcomed as street art and makes a societal impact, we definitely take note.

The /r/Graffiti Reddit thread is one place that is full of great graffiti, some topical with recent events, and some tugging on our nostalgic heartstrings.

Here are a few that caught our eye, even the freight train carriage with the three-button NES controller! Check out the rest on Reddit.

image source: reddit – /r/Graffiti

 

Retro Gaming Paper Crafting

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Who would have thought it, paper craft models of some of the most iconic classic gaming consoles and computers!

The best part of these paper craft designs is that even peeps like us can follow the instructions without fear of breaking anything rare that we couldn’t replace.

No matter your classic gaming tastes, artists and designer, Rocky Bergen has you covered, from the Amiga 500, Sega Master System, TRS-80 Model III to the ZX Spectrum, Atari ST and even the glorious Sharp X68000 amongst many many others!

So what are you are you waiting for, get printing, cutting and crafting!

image source: Rocky Bergen

 

How Much Storage Would It Take To Store Every Nintendo Video Game That Can Be Emulated?

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So how much storage space would it take to store every Nintendo video game (from the stable of their major consoles) that can be emulated?

Don’t worry about trying to work out the answer, as Reddit user, RHYTHM_GMZ, has already done all the hard work for us.

You’ll need roughly 7.53TB (yep, that’s TERABYTES!) of space to be able to emulate every darn Nintendo video game! With the Wii making up 6.56TB of the 7.53TB total, you may want to know the breakdown of the rest of the Nintendo game libraries, so here you go:

  • NES – 237 MB
  • SNES – 1.7GB
  • N64 – 5.5GB
  • GB/GBC – 568MB
  • GBA – 8.4GB
  • NDS – 83.2GB
  • GameCube – 867GB
  • Wii – 6.56TB

For those of you that prefer to visualise these figures, we have you covered – see below!

NOTE: Games libraries based on the uncompressed NTSC versions

[story source: RHYTHM_GMZ  via Reddit]



Metroid: Mother Brain Is an Iconic Villain

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By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.

Metroid’s Mother Brain is considered one of the most diabolical she-villains in video game history.

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with defeating Mother Brain every time I put my Metroid cartridge into my Nintendo Entertainment System. It took me a while to finally defeat her, and when I did, I wondered if Mother Brain had a backstory. How did she get to possess such vast power?

When I would play the original Metroid, I found Mother Brain fascinating. In later Metroid games, we got a little backstory on Mother Brain, but none of it seemed that imaginative. The original design of Mother Brain was the best. All of the designs in later games, especially in Super Metroid, when Mother Brain looked like a brain with a grotesque chicken body, were slightly extreme and almost silly. In the original Metroid, Mother Brain was captivating and menacing by just sitting in a glass jar, controlling the game like a puppet master. When I would defeat Mother Brain, my imagination would run wild. Was what we saw in the jar her original or real form?

image source: Samolo via Deviantart

Metroid was not the easiest game to beat. It took me several tries before I finally completed the game. I wasn’t an expert at the game like my brother. It took him just a day or two to defeat Mother Brain. Then he would usually move on to another game and beat that before me as well.

In the video game magazines of the time, like Nintendo Power, they never really went into much depth when it came to the iconic, she-villain. But the early games didn’t tell as much about Mother Brain either. It must’ve been a boring existence, just sitting there in a protective glass jar, ruling the planet, hoping that a bounty hunter wouldn’t come along and destroy you. However, she did have an army of henchmen protecting her. Villains in other major games at the time were primarily male and mostly on the beefy side.

Mother Brain was engrossing because she was so different from all of the other heavy villains in video games. Mother Brain is one of the reasons Metroid is a classic NES game.

image source: metroid.fandom.com

 

CES 2020 Unveiled – Cool Retro Tech You’ll Want To Play With

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Before the big CES 2020 event kicks off, the CES Unveiled event showcases the latest products and trends leading up to the main event.

Three products caught our attention from Arcade1Up, iiRcade and My Arcade which we thought we’d share with you all below.

We can’t wait to find out more about these hot items, so stay tuned!

1. Arcade1Up 3/4 Scale Digital Pinball Machines

Arcade1Up has teamed up with our friends at Zen Studios to bring you a couple of pretty awesome three-quarter size pinball machines which include titles from Bally/Williams and other yet to be announced, big names in the pinball space! We love both the Star Wars and Attack From Mars machines and can’t wait to hear more about them.

image source: northvibe via pinside

2. iiRcade – The Ultimate Home Arcade

This new ultimate home arcade, iiRcade, with online capabilities, enables gamers to legally download and play their favourite officially licensed arcade games – no more shady arcade ROM sites! Gamers who want to enjoy their favourite retro arcade games or play modern games in the arcade environment can now have the full arcade experience in their homes, either in a full size stand-up or bartop guise, it is up to you. With iiRcade, gamers can select and purchase a game they want on iiRcade’s app store, which is then automatically downloaded and installed on their iiRcade machine.

image source: iiRcade

3. My Arcade Super Retro Champ Console

The Super Retro Champ console is the successor to My Arcade’s award-winning Retro Champ and enables retro gamers to enjoy their SNES, Super Famicom, and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive cartridges from a single console. The Super Retro Champ features a 7-inch screen and a built-in rechargeable battery that offers up to 5 hours of play time. Retro gamers can play the Super Retro Champ in handheld mode or use the 2 included wireless gamepads to play in tabletop and TV mode. An HDMI® output allows users to enjoy their classic games from the comfort of their couch.

image source: Games Press

 

Celebrating Our 8th Anniversary!

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It is amazing to think that we started ausretrogamer 8 years ago! How time flies when you are having fun!

When we started our site and social media channels in January 2012, we had no idea what was to come. We were pleasantly surprised to find so many like-minded people who enjoyed playing and talking about old games we used to play many many decades ago. Nostalgia is a powerful force that binds us all – long may it continue!

To all the people that have contributed and to those that are still contributing content and everyone that engages with us, thank you very much – you all rock our world!

Looking forward to another year full of retro gaming goodness 🙂

 

 

Happy Holidays and All The Best For 2020!

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Ho Ho Ho, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Festivus and Season’s Greetings everyone! No matter your type of gaming fun, be it modern, retro, pinball or something in between,  we hope you all have a wonderful Festive Season and may your 2020 be filled with happiness, prosperity, lots of fun and good health!

The ausretrogamer and pinball press teams will be taking a short break to enjoy this time of year with family and friends. See you all in 2020 🙂

image source: Redbubble

image source: VPinball

 

Custom Mario Sunshine GameCube

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CustomMarioGCN_HDRWe love receiving emails from modders out there to show us their customisation work.

We received an email from Dorison Hugo (aka: @lyberty5 on Twitter) who tinkered with his purple GameCube to make it look like as if Mario was trapped inside the console. Dorison explains that this was a cosmetic mod, which still needed a bit of tinkering to get it done – like freeing up the space, in which he had to move the fan onto the other side of the case. Also, he had to drill small holes to allow air intake near the Mario figurine to ensure the console would not overheat.

This is a fairly simple and cheap-ish mod, with the window frame and Mario being made out of cheap water-based clay. Dorison has shown ingenuity throughout this customisation, including the use of cotton tips (Q-tips) acting as the prison bars. Dorison’s aim was to show that no real (and expensive) equipment was needed for a simple mod.

Have you customised your consoles? If you have, we’d love to check them out – hit us up on Twitter or Facebook!

image source: Dorison Hugo