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Rebooting The Atari Jaguar

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It is wonderful receiving gifts, but it is even more so when they are awesome cartridge-based Atari Jaguar video games!

The very generous Lawrence Staveley (aka: CJ Reboot) of Reboot Games sent us two cartridge games, Cyrano Jones’ Downfall Plus and Bubble Bobble Arcade to make our Jaguar purr. To top of these amazing carts, they both light up when the Jag is powered on!

The Atari Jaguar development and homebrew scene keeps thriving, and it is because of dedicated folks like Reboot that ensure we have fresh content to play on the 26 year old 64-bit cat. Long may it continue!

Oh yeah, both games are great, making them very hard to put down. Speaking of which, we reckon it is time we get out of here and sneak in a few more games 😉

Thanks again to CJ Reboot for these generous Atari Jaguar gaming gifts – we were, and still are totally blown away!

 

Tiny Retro Gaming Pocket Sprite Device Fits in Your Hand

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Oh wow, this (Pocket Sprite) is so damn cute that we just had to share it with you all!

WE WANT ONE!!!

 

Playing Tetris on a Flip-Dot Display

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Tetris has always been a killer title for millions of gamers around the world. If you had a Game Boy, then we bet that you have played Tetris. Now, imagine playing Tetris on a mechanical display instead of digital. That’s hard to imagine, right?

Well, looks like Sinowin does imagine such things! Sinowin took a small computer, added a joystick and connected these to an old-school elongated flip-dot display, you know, like the ones that show the departure and arrival times at airports. No matter the platform, Tetris still remains a killer game, even on a flip-dot display. This is so damn cool!


source: sinowin

[story source: technabob.com]

 

Super Mario Bros. 64 Has Been Unleashed On The C64

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Wahoo, after 7 years in development, Super Mario Bros. is finally released on our beloved Commodore 64! A huge thank you to ZeroPaige for the hard work in coding this masterpiece.

For those few that don’t know, this creation is a Commodore 64 port of the 1985 game Super Mario Bros. which was originally released for Famicom and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). This brilliant port contains the original version that was released in Japan and United States, as well as the European version – how awesome is that! It also detects and supports a handful of turbo functionalities, and has 2 SID support. We can finally experience Super Mario Bros. in fully glory on our C64s!

The download links can be found on the Lemon64 forum. The disk-image contains 2 programs:

  • SUPER M. BROS.64 – the game (everything in one file); and
  • SMB.64 DOCS – the game manual.

A cartridge-file is also provided, containing the game which can also be used on the C64GS!

For more details on this game and all its features go here.

NOTE: If the Super Mario Bros. 64 file(s) have been taken down, then that is the work of Nintendo’s DMCA notice to file sharing sites 🙁

 

Tetris 35th Anniversary Silver Coin

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Last year’s NZ Mint commemorative Space Invaders 40th Anniversary Silver Coin totally blew us away. Luckily for us, there is another classic video game anniversary this year which NZ Mint will help us celebrate and commemorate with one of their beautiful and special silver coins.

35 years ago, a puzzle game was born from the imagination of computer programmer, Alexey Pajitnov. That puzzle game was Tetris! Inspired by Alexey’s favourite puzzle board game, Pentominos, Pajitnov created an electronic version that let players arrange puzzle pieces in real time as they fell from the top of the playing field. The resulting design was a game that used seven distinctive geometric playing pieces, each made up of four Tetriminos. The genius of Tetris is in its simplicity which hooks you in immediately, but to master it you need the precision of a skilled surgeon and the reflexes of a cat.

Tetris was dubbed the first ‘killer app’ when it was bundled in with Nintendo’s Game Boy handheld system. We easily spent thousands of hours playing Tetris all those years ago and the passion to play it till this day still burns brightly as the first time we made four lines vanish on screen! That fun little puzzle game from 1984 has been responsible for hooking people into playing video games.

To commemorate the 35th anniversary of Tetris on June 6, NZ Mint has released a limited edition 1oz silver coin. The silver coin features the Tetris game’s iconic Tetrimino shapes on a chequered, proof background, arranged in a way to make it appear as if they are falling, much like in the game itself – very clever and iconic! The coin is housed inside a specially designed Tetris-themed arcade cabinet and includes a colourful image of the Kremlin, paying homage to the game’s Russian origins. The cushioned black felt base which holds the coin can be slipped out by lifting up the arcade cabinet, revealing the gorgeous coin. The entire package, from the coin, the felt cushion and arcade cabinet housing oozes quality and gets the nostalgic juices flowing.

If you are a coin collector or you loved (and still love) playing Tetris, then the Tetris 35th Anniversary limited-edition silver coin is the perfect memento for you.

Disclaimer: NZ Mint kindly provided the Tetris 35th Anniversary silver coin for this article.

 

Droolworthy Gaming Collection

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Just when we thought we had seen a lot of amazing gaming collections, GameByte hits us between the eyes with Thijs Bastiaens’ (aka: Tiny Collector) droolworthy collection!

Don’t mind our jaw hitting the floor and please have your bib ready before you press play! You’ve been warned!


source: GameByte

 

Evercade – It’s Coming!

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A new console has been announced and it looks very intriguing!

The Evercade is a brand new handheld console with unique multi-game retro cartridges from leading games publishers and console platforms. The first publisher to jump onboard, Atari, will be bringing 20 of their classic game carts from their 2600 and 7800 back catalogue. We are are eagerly awaiting news on future publishers.

Little is known at this stage about the Evercade, but the few bits and pieces of information has definitely piqued our interest, like:

  • An ever expanding library of games
  • Officially licensed content
  • No internet connection required
  • Collectable elements (unleash the trophy hunter inside of you!)
  • Save game progress; and
  • Connect to your TV via HDMI (sounds good to us)

The Evercade is one retro playing console we will keep an eye on and let you know more details as they come to hand.

 

Raised By Rainbows: Adorable Pop Culture Art

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Oh man, wish we had seen Luke Flowers’ brilliant Raised by Rainbows exhibit earlier!

Luke’s exhibit at Gallery 1988 has a number of cool arcade games and other popular toys related art which is very unique and absolutely adorable.

Most art pieces are sold out (Ed: darn it!), but there are a few that you can still get your hands on (Ed: looking at you ‘Mario Mayhem’)!

You got to admit, these are quite cool. Picking a favourite seems impossible!

For more details of available art to be purchased, please check out the entire Raised by Rainbows exhibit at Gallery 1988.

image source: Raised by Rainbows exhibit via Gallery 1988

 

Sega Mega Drive Mini: To be this good takes AGES, To be this good takes SEGA

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Just in case you have been in a cave without any outside contact, get your diary out now and mark September 19, 2019 as the date that the beautiful Sega Mega Drive Mini will be released in the wild to go toe-to-toe with its old foe, the SNES Classic Mini! Oh yeah, this ain’t no Flashback system!

We were amazed to find the following letter, with love, from SEGA:

My Old Friend,

I know it’s been a while. Time moves forward, yet not a day goes by that you’re not on my mind. I, the popular, star-console, you, the shy, unassuming kid, but we found common ground when we played Ecco the Dolphin together. You were so fast, racing through the Green Hill Zone with my pal, Sonic!

You sure knew how to play. The way that CRT hue hit your glazed over face as you spent another hour playing Castlevania: Bloodlines…We both knew things would change and that we’d move on to other great things, but lately, I’ve been thinking about spending time together once more. We didn’t do what we were told, but we made a good team.

I look a bit different now. I’m much smaller. I’m packing 40 games inside my sleek, molded shell, and more blast processing power than ever before.

We lived fast and dangerously, together, playing the games some of the adults weren’t too keen on (but you had the cool parents). We had the games your friends wanted to play, a whole stack of them. Shining Force, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, and Earthworm Jim, to name a few.

Sure. there were other distractions (remember pogs?). I was never jealous though because we still had Altered Beast and Gunstar Heroes.

I will try to write more regularly. I hear there is this friendly meeting space called “social media” now where I can share more.

I hope to hear from you soon.

With love,

SEGA Mega Drive Mini @-}–

Wow. We’ve never seen the SEGA Mega Drive Mini express itself like that before. If you’d like to write back, here is some information you may find useful when crafting your reply 😉

When: September 19, 2019

What: Miniature Sega Mega Drive console which will be plug-and-play ready with 40 classic games built-in! Oh yeah, the controllers will have 3 fire-buttons, not 6 (Ed: Oh well, it’s better than nothing)

Price: AU$139.00 / US$79.99 (Pre-orders via JB Hi-Fi or Play-Asia)

Announced titles (and more to come!):

  • Sonic the Hedgehog​
  • Ecco the Dolphin
  • Castlevania: Bloodlines
  • Space Harrier 2
  • Shining Force
  • Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
  • Earthworm Jim
  • Comix Zone
  • Altered Beast
  • Gunstar Heroes

So there you have it. Are you excited? Of course you are! Let us know on Twitter or Facebook which other titles you would like to see make the list of 40 legendary games.

Now, there are no limits with the Sega Mega Drive Mini!

image source: Sega Mega Drive Mini

 

Happy April Fools’ Day

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You got to love April Fools’ Day tricksters. The more elaborate the April Fools joke (or trick), the better.

One games publisher that loved staging elaborate April Fools’ Day jokes on unsuspecting fans was Irem. While in business, Irem always had a joke or two up their sleeve come April 1.

They would create websites that were usually dedicated to promoting something that tended to poke fun at themselves and their own games, like the three “real life” models of the R-Type R-9 unit you could choose to purchase, or their new Irem Zoo, and our absolute favourite, their EXIDNA XAVY console, which was touted as the ultimate games machine that housed a self-propelled folding controller!

Irem had a lot of us gamers going with their elaborate jokes till we realised it was a ruse and in good fun. Here are a few listings of Irem’s sites that had us fooled over the years:

image source: Irem – via wayback machine