The Pop-Culture E-Zine
After doing a number of podcast interviews, it was quite refreshing to have been invited on Richard Moss’ Ludiphilia podcast. Ludiphilia weaves the subject matter into a fascinating, heartwarming and a compelling story about play, the people and all other things in-between!
We have to give credit to Richard for doing an amazing job in the scripting, editing and the narrative of this podcast – we were blown away by the final result. Take a listen *smiley*
It is great being on holiday – nothing beats being relaxed and away from your every day concerns! On our recent trip to Queensland’s Gold Coast, where it is beautiful one day and perfect the next, we happen to stumble across the Vans store at the Pacific Fair Shopping Centre. To our surprise, the store featured a complete Vans X Nintendo range by having an eye catching display at the front of their store.
We obviously didn’t need much coaxing to enter the Vans store once the exclusive 8-bit Nintendo graphics inspired gear caught our attention. The Vans X Nintendo range includes all of your fave Nintendo characters in an assortment of streetwear; from shoes, trucker’s hats, backpacks, to ties, socks, t-shirts and long-sleeve sweaters! Oh yeah, there are sizes for the little ones too!
So get “Off The Wall” and check out what we found at the Vans store on the Gold Coast…
Vans Gold Coast! What do we have here then…..
Woohoo, the Vans X Nintendo Collection is ranged!
So much to see and touch! What do we look at first?
Cool runners (that’s sneakers for our American friends)
Oo’er, we REALLY like these NES inspired runners!
GAME OVER? Never!
Tough choice: Donkey Kong or Duck Hunt…..
Mario and Luigi’s personal parking spots!
CIB – complete in box! Gotta try some!
The level of detail is phenomenal!
Gonna keep this!
Whoa, the kids can don their Vans X Nintendo gear too!
Vans X Nintendo is where the heart is…
We didn’t walk away empty handed *wink*
We had to get the cool NES runners!
Oh yes, the collectable pins given away were a great surprise!
It’s never GAME OVER!
Gametraders stores may have gone the way of the dodo bird in metropolitan Melbourne, but they are still going strong in the suburbs of Brisbane!
Hitting the Gametraders store at Westfield Chermside Shopping Centre brought back memories of how we used to enjoy hunting for retro gaming gear at the Highpoint store, which sadly closed a few months ago.
So what did we find at Gametraders Chermside? Take a peek down below. *winks*
Let’s get hunting!
What do we have here then?
The Perfect Mega Drive Street Fighter II weapon: The Honey Bee SF-3
We spy more Nintendo controllers and Game Boy games!
Oo’er, Mega Drive and Master System games!
We want this game!
Nintendoooooooooooo!
Atari Lynx gear amongst the NES and SNES juggernaut!
Look up, you never know what you’ll see!
Pac-Man fever strikes back! Mark September 13 in your diary, as this will be the day that the yellow dot chomper digitally hits Steam®, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One!
Taking cues from its past games in the series, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 features new eye-popping 3D graphics and funky visuals where players will be chomping and chasing ghosts through mazes to a whole new level of addictive fun gameplay!
Players will experience brand-new ways of playing Pac-Man with numerous new features such as the Time Attack and Adventure modes. Gather as many points as possible by herding ghosts into ghost trains in a specified time thanks to the Chain Eating feature, chase fast fleeing fruits, fight big bad bosses, experience ridiculous remixed rules and much more! Get your fast twitch skills ready, as Pac-Man fever will take its hold on you!
source: Bandai Namco Enterntainment Europe
Ah, OutRun! It was the first street racing arcade game where you drove a Ferrari Testarossa at breakneck speeds with a female passenger in tow, feeling the wind in your hair as you raced to your next checkpoint area to progress further in the game. It was as simple as that, thank you Mr. Yu Suzuki.
OutRun’s simplicity was its biggest drawcard – the flash red car, gorgeous woman, awesome graphics (especially the crashes!), great European tracks (with uphill and downhill gradients!), brilliant music (oh that Magic Sound Shower tune!) and the choice of path to take when confronted with a fork in the road!
It was this choice of which road you took in OutRun which ultimately lead you to five very different goals (endings), some more humorous than others. For those of you that weren’t aware or had not seen all of OutRun’s different endings, here they are for your pleasure! Don’t forget to lock the Testarossa!
Choose your course – it’s as easy as a, b, c, d or e!
Course: Vineyard (a)
End Goal: No wine here for the easy winner. After the driver is hoisted aloft by the crowd, they then get distracted by a bikini clad lady and drop the driver to the bitumen. That’s gotta hurt!
Course: Death Valley (b)
End Goal: How apt is the name of this route as your Testarossa literally falls apart the second the winning line is crossed. Instead of celebrating, your driver will need to wait for a while for the Ferrari roadside assist van to rock up.
Course: Desolation Hill (c)
End Goal: What could be the winning prize here? Perhaps the camels to take the driver back to civilisation as the Ferrari has ran out of fuel? Hang on, what will the driver wish for when rubbing that lamp? Oh, a harem!
Course: Autobahn (d)
End Goal: As the crowd gathers to see the driver receive the big gold trophy, he gets embarrassingly bypassed by the presenter, with the trophy being handed to his female passenger! ZING!
Course: Lakeside (e)
End Goal: As the driver screeches past this most difficult of all goals, he is finally rewarded for his most excellent driving skills! Now he is ready to party!
image source: The Video Game Museum
In this last of our Las Vegas Shenanigans feature series, we hit the Fun Dungeon at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino! If you thought that The Big Apple Coaster & Arcade looked awesome, wait till you see how much fun we had at the Fun Dungeon! Well, what are you waiting for, take a look down below! Viva Las Vegas!
The upside down Atari sign is pointing down! Let’s go!
Oh no, not this guy! Nah, we don’t wanna know our fortunes!
Ello, ello, ello, what do we have here then……Golden Oldies!
Right-io, let’s fight then!
Woohoo, silver-ball action!
Where to go next? Aha, perhaps to a galaxy far, far away?
The menacing T-Rex looks enticing!
What’s this red bubble thing then……..
Should we challenge this dude? Nah, we don’t wanna embarrass him 😉
Oh man, so many choices – to fight or go off-road driving?
No punching on this ice skating rink!
Big rig drivin coming up!
Ms ausretrogamer tries her hand at flying! Land that plane!
Some snow action too!
Rushing off to San Fran, baby!
Love being a (crazy) taxi driver!
Shoot! Dodge!
Where play saves the day? Indeed it does!
Found another Atari arcade machine in the desert!
Batwoman, oops, we mean Ms ausretrogamer shows Batman how it’s done!
All this play has made us work up a massive hunger (and thirst)!
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Pfft, if that were the case then we would not have told you about our exploits at Toy Shack and A Gamer’s Paradise while in Sin City. What we haven’t told you about (yet), is our arcade and pinball shenanigans at the resort casinos, like the The Big Apple Coaster & Arcade in New York New York.
Rather than write about this experience infinitum, we’ll let our photos tell the story. What we will say is that The Big Apple Coaster & Arcade is damn awesome! It has that Coney Island (seaside) amusement feel, which makes the experience even more authentic. To top it off, there is a roller coaster whizzing around on the top of the resort for that ultimate adrenaline rush! Enjoy the ride!
All stairs lead to The Big Apple Coaster & Arcade at New York New York!
We have reached amusement nirvana!
Locked and Loaded!
Time to have some flippin fun!
What to play first?
Ms ausretrogamer chooses wisely!
While Metallica is in use, AC/DC gets a workout by yours truly
What should we play next? Oo, gun games!
Gonna hunt us some dinosaurs!
From one Jurassic Park to another!
Whoa, Max Flight – VR 2002 style!
Ms ausretrogamer tries out some old school Virtual Reality!
Ticket Track? Ahhh, why not….
Oo’er, very glowy!
Raw Thrills? Count us in!
Some NITRO action coming up!
Decisions, decisions! Let’s Go Jungle then!
All roads lead back to pinball!
When in Vegas, you gotta check out The Wizard Of Oz: 75th Anniversary pinnie!
There is no way I’ll be dragged off this pinball machine!
Alright, we need our adrenaline rush! Let’s ride the Manhattan Express!
Gotta grab a feed before we get back into more gaming!
In the next of our Las Vegas Shenanigans series, we’ll feature the Fun Dungeon at Excalibur!
Hey Brisbanites, listen up! Mark yourself busy this coming Sunday July 24, as the Brisbane Video Game & Pop Culture Market is coming to town!
Rise early and get down to the Shady Palms Cafe where Queensland’s finest purveyors of classic retro video games and consoles, toys, books, comics and other pop culture items will have their wares available for sale at this special event.
Presented by DJ Sheep, Bulletproof Crates and diggin101, this market is targeted at bedroom gamers and pop culture geeks wanting to get rid of their old goods at prices that aren’t eBay focused. So make sure you are at Shady Palms Cafe this Sunday and grab yourself some cool gear.
source: Video Game Markets: Brisbane
Hold onto your cyberpunk helmets peeps and make some space on your games room wall! Read-Only Memory is proud to present a high quality print featuring a new illustration by original Bitmap Brothers artist and co-designer of Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe, Dan Malone.
Screen printed in black onto a luxurious grey heavyweight stock, the edition also features the distinctive Bitmap Brothers logo, micro-etched into holographic foil. Each print is signed by the artist and will be shipped in a durable archival tube. The print is available to pre-order now exclusively from the Read-Only Memory website.
The illustration has been created especially for Read-Only Memory’s forthcoming title, The Bitmap Brothers: Universe, a documentary history of the visionary UK developer.
Print specifications:
source: Read-Only Memory
Wow, 58 years worth of video game controllers, from Tennis For Two to the Oculus Rift. With VR now here to stay, where will gaming controllers be in another 58 years?
While you contemplate where video game controllers will go in the next six decades, kick back, relax, press play and see how we got here from 1958!
source: Super Deluxe