The Pop-Culture E-Zine
You know the deal by now – go watch the award-winning Still Standing documentary, it will be the best 74 minutes of your day!
Now, the other bonus featurette made available by Brad Gilbertson (Creator/Director of Still Standing) is of the truly mind-blowing 1UP ARCADE in Brisbane, Australia’s LARGEST retro arcade. Let 1UP Arcade owner, Stephen Holmes, take you on an insightful and intoxicating trip back in time.
source: BGVC Films on YouTube
A year ago (almost to the day) on February 23rd, 2023, we told you all that the documentary, STILL STANDING, was a must watch, giving it a 5-star rating! This is still the case, and this time it is even easier to catch one of the best made docos on the Australian arcade and pinball culture of the past.
Still Standing’s cinematographer and producer, Brad Gilbertson, has been working hard to bring this awesome doco to the masses via a national broadcaster. Well, after some very hard toiling by Brad, he had this good news to announce (via Facebook):
After a slight delay, Still Standing is now LIVE and FREE on SBS On-Demand here in Australia! Thanks so much for your patience while this was sorted out, and a HUGE thanks to the community, groups, our Still Standing cast and locations that have supported, shared and liked our recent posts! It has been overwhelming to say the least and we appreciate each and everyone of you enormously! Please enjoy the film and stay tuned for more exciting news very soon!
If you haven’t done so, and you have the slightest of interest in the Australian arcade and pinball scene from the past, then STILL STANDING is an absolute MUST WATCH! Head on over to SBS On-Demand right now!
image source: SBS On-Demand
Decades ago, Steve McCall was tinkering with a PC program called Klik & Play, to make slasher fan games where the player got to play as the actual antagonist. These late 90s games had a cult following, which thanks to Steve, he has now demade them for the NES, after teaching himself how to program on the 6502 8-bit chipset. The four games created by Steve McCall include:
If you want to play these fan made NES games on your fave emulator, then check out Steve’s 8-bit demakes site at 8bitslasher.itch.io. If you want to experience the original PC versions of these games, then head on over to 5kids2feed.itch.io.
image source: Steve McCall
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:
image source: Amazon AU
Another PAX Aus is done and dusted, but this was no ordinary year, it was the 10th year the event had been held here in Melbourne (Australia, not Florida).
For this celebratory year, the Classic Gaming (CG) area was moved from its usual Freeplay section to the main Expo Hall, rubbing shoulders with modern AAA gaming heavyweights and indie devs.
Starting the Classic Consoles (as it was known back then) area in 2013 with Retrospekt, Retro Domination and our (Ausretrogamer) team, we knew it would be a hit with attendees of all ages – which not even Melbourne’s inclement July weather could stop anyone getting their nostalgia hit at the inaugural PAX Aus event.
Over the years, the Classic Gaming area has grown from strength to strength, with its popularity ensuring that it returns at every PAX Aus – with an even bigger floor space! The inaugural teams may no longer be involved, but the baton change with the Weird and Retro and the Press Play On Tape Podcast crew has ensured the growth and sustained popularity of the Classic Gaming area.
For the tenth anniversary, the Classic Gaming area didn’t disappoint, with a plethora of amazing machines from yesteryear to tickle every nostalgic nerve in the body. From all of our old favourites from the 8-bit and 16-bit era (hello Atari, Commodore, Sega and Nintendo) all the way through to some darn awesome old-school PC power – and whomever thought of using the Dance Dance Revolution mat to control your (Doom Slayer) character in Doom (cheekily christened Doom Doom Revolution) should be given a knighthood! We hear that we have to now call Aaron (aka: Blahjedi), Sir Aaron of Press Play On Tape podcast, from now on 😉
Doom Doom Revolution!
image & video source: Aaron ‘Blahjedi’ Clement – PPOT
Back in 2015, Skott Kellett proposed to include pinball in the Classic Gaming area, which was an instant hit! The pinball section has now become a permanent fixture of the Classic Gaming area, ensuring gamers can get their mechanical hit via the silverball game. Skott is still the main wrangler of the pinball section, with games provided by Reality Games Australia, Mr Pinball Australia and the Australian Pinball Museum. We were lucky enough to experience some quite rare and hard to find pinball games, from Dutch Pinball’s The Big Lebowski, CGC’s Cactus Canyon Remake, Pinball Brothers‘ Queen, to American Pinball’s amazing Galactic Tank Force, complete with tank tracks and backbox turret!
But wait, there was more! PLAION Australia had the yet-to-be released Atari 2600+ console on display, which was impressive. We have been quite critical of Atari over the years, but even we are quite excited to get our hands on the new 2600+ console!
Last but not least, it is the people that bring the Classic Gaming area to life that we love the most, from the CG showrunning team members to the PAX Aus Enforcers, and the public that come in and reminisce with us about systems and games from a long long time ago.
See you at PAX Aus 2024!
We are going home – to the Classic Gaming Area!
Here are a few of the nostalgia inducing systems and displays!
Pinball in the Classic Gaming area is as popular as ever!
Classic Gaming is nothing without the awesome people that make it happen and for those that come and visit!
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:
You can now pre-order the GoldenEra Limited Edition “Most Deadly” Blu-ray with N64 Slip Case film right here!
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
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!
Our good friends at PixelCrib have been wonderful supporters of Ausretrogamer for a long while now, which we are always very thankful for.
For those of you in Oz (and beyond!), PixelCrib is really your one stop shop for video game related products, including rare, high-quality video game memorabilia and collectibles – they are after all, the gaming culture specialists! The best bit is, you can shop from the comfort of your own home.
With a plethora of amazing items in their store, here are some of our fave picks (Ed: this list was really really hard to whittle down):
You know those Nintendo Switch games that you thought you could only download from the Nintendo eShop? Well, those awesome games, like Celeste and Cuphead (amongst many others) are available in their physical form!
If you have bookshelves that need filling (or a coffee table!), then you have come to the right place! PixelCrib has tons of books, here are some of our picks:
A Guide to Japanese Role-Playing Games
Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-’Em-Ups
PC Engine: The Box Art Collection
We sure do. If you like gaming related soundtracks / music, then the vinyl section is where you need to be at:
Gamer Boy Disappearing Lines: Chiptune Music of Tetris EP
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3: Music From The Arcade Games LP
Mother 2 Original Video Game Soundtrack 2xLP
Oh how we wish we could have them all……
Hyrule Field (Legend of Zelda) A3 Art Print
PixelCrib has an array of amazing retro consoles for you to choose from, from the Evercade (VS/EXP), Retron and Sega Astro City Mini systems, to the Quarter Size and RepliCade mini arcade machines:
Oh yeah, in case you missed the news, you can now pre-order Hyper Mega Tech’s Super Pocket (Capcom / Taito) handheld systems on PixelCrib! The best part is, these are compatible with your Evercade cartridges!
These are just the tip of the iceberg of products available on PixelCrib. We implore you to get on the PixelCrib site and take a good look, as there is bound to be gaming related products that will tickle your fancy.
Happy shopping everyone!
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:
