Retro Gaming

The Lovely Atari STacy

06/04/2016 By ausretrogamer

The Atari STacy! What the? If Atari were good at one thing, it was naming their computer range, hence the STacy being a play on their Atari ST range and a cool woman’s name.

Who didn’t want a portable ST back in 1989 that weighed almost 7kg! Well, if we had arms like Arnie Schwarzenegger and a matching bank balance (The Atari STacy was not cheap – it retailed for a cool $3,000AUD!), we probably would have forked-out our hard earned cash for one. It definitely would have been a wise investment, as there were less than 35,000 units sold, making this portable Atari computer a very rare commodity.

The STacy came in four models, with the STacy 4 (4MB RAM version) being the top of the line. For those technically minded, here are the all-important Atari STacy specifications:

Operating system: Atari TOS 1.04
CPU: Motorola 68HC000 (at 8 MHz)
Memory RAM: 1 MB (4×220 bytes) (expandable to 4 MB)
ROM: 192 KB
Storage: 3.5″ floppy drive, 3.5″ SCSI 20MB-40MB harddrive Conner Peripherals Inc.
Display: 10.4″ EPSON LCD passive matrix backlight
Graphics: 320×200 (16), 640×200 (4), 640×400 (2)
Sound: Yamaha YM-2149, three channels, 8 octaves
Input: 95 keys, QWERTY, 2 Joystick ports, RS 232C, Centronics, external Floppy, ROM-Cartridge, DMA for Printer/HD, MIDI In/Out, Monitor
Power: NiCad pack, 12 standard C cell alkaline batteries, DC18V 2.0A 36W AC Adaptor
Dimensions: 13.3 x 15 x 13.3 inches
Weight: 7kg/15.2 lb

Open me up, Stacy!

You turn me on Stacy!

Lovely keyboard you have there Stacy

A lovely rear-end

Power up!

Insert joysticks and floppies on this side!

image source: eBay

Welcome to STARWORLD 78

04/04/2016 By ausretrogamer

For those of you that don’t remember, once upon a time Atari was the king of video games, not just in the home with their Atari VCS/2600, but also in the amusement parlours. Atari was so diversified, they even got into making pinball machines!

To get an understanding of just how huge the Sunnyvale company was, at the 1978 Amusement and Music Operators Association (AMOA) trade show, Atari had a massive exhibit titled Starworld ’78, showcasing their latest wares to wow the industry (and scare the pants off their competitors)!

The “Starworld” theme was chosen by Atari to preview their new games, which they cleverly dubbed as the “Stars” of the 1978 AMOA show. Previewed pinball machines included Space Riders, the colossal Hercules and the double playfield extravaganza of Middle Earth. In the video gaming stakes, their new 2-player space duel game, Orbit and the 3-games-in-one version of Breakout (very smartly titled) Super Breakout were gaining a lot of attention. Also taking centre stage at Starworld ’78 were: Sprint 2, Sit Down Night Driver, Starship, Smokey Joe, Fire Truck, UFO and the unique dual monitor submarine strategy game, Subs. If that wasn’t enough, Atari also had their service technicians on hand to demonstrate the latest test equipment to show off to operators.

And what is a trade show without prizes? Atari was promoting their ‘Starworld Sweepstakes’, a first at the AMOA trade show. Prizes included a Super Breakout machine, a Sony Betamax video tape recorder, a colour TV, a set of leather luggage and a Sony 5” Swivel-vision TV. There were also minor prizes awarded by Atari in their sweepstakes, including Seiko pocket digital alarms and Seiko desk clocks! Whoa, if only we had attended the 1978 AMOA trade show!

source: The Arcade Flyer Archive

Wizard Of Wor: The Flip R’Cade Board Game

29/03/2016 By ausretrogamer

Ah Wizard Of Wor, that otherworldly labyrinth duel that was the ultimate showdown against evildoers. What was there not to like about this arcade game – you got to prowl a maze-like dungeon teeming with Worlings, Worluks and other evil minions of the titular sorcerer either in cooperation with or against a friend – choosing the latter always had the risk of ending a perfectly good friendship. We loved the arcade game (and its many home conversions) so much, that we gave it a healthy review score of 92%.

Many of you are well aware of the classic video game, but did you know that there was a Wizard Of Wor board game? If you answered no, then look around at the photos strewn in this piece and wonder no more – the board game replicates the video game (to a certain degree). Instead of using a joystick to move your Worrior on a screen, you use the Flip R’Cade Game flipper-shooter to either shoot or advance your plastic game piece(s) around the maze on the board.

If you are struggling to grasp how this game is played, here is our quick overview: you play with two players – player one assumes the role of the Worriors and player two the Worlings and Wizards. Don’t stress about this, as the players reverse their roles to complete the game. Anyway, the objective of the player controlling the Worriors is to destroy as many of their opponent’s Worlings and Wizards before their Worriors are destroyed (by either landing on a Worling or Wizard, or being shot by a Wizard), while the player controlling the Worlings and Wizards tries to destroy all four (4) Worriors of their opponent while protecting their Worlings and Wizards from destruction. Clear as mud? Argh, that’s what instructions are for!

While there is no two player co-op in this board game, rest assured, you will get a lot of pleasure beating your opponent on points. Oh yeah, and unlike the video game version of Wizard Of Wor, the board game definitely requires two players to get the maximum fun out of playing it!

The calm before the storm! Let’s assemble!

Forget Batman V Superman, it’s Board Game V Video Game

Board Game V Video Game: Part II

WARNING: Don’t rush out to buy the Wizard of Wor board game! You are about 30 years too late 😉

8-Bit Pinball Action

22/03/2016 By ausretrogamer

Being a fan of the silver ball and 8-bit micro computing, I was always craving for a pinball game to play on my trusty Commodore 64. Finally, my prayers have been answered in the form of Errazking’s Petaco’5!

This new C64 pinball game was developed by Errazking and Maniako using ‘Bill Budge’s Pinball Construction Set’, coupled with cool music by the great chiptune composer, Richard Bayliss.

What you get is 6 pinball tables to play on, with as-close-to-realistic ball physics on your C64 – which is a good thing if you are a pinball purist. The screen is divided in half, with the playfield on one side and the player score on the other. If you are a pinball fan and are in need of a silver ball fix on your C64, then Petaco’5 will go a long way to satisfy your pinball craving.

Errazking’s PETACO’5 is available for free on CSDb. Get it now!

The T-UFO Table
image source: CSDb and Vintage Is The New Old

Retrospective: The 3DO Blaster

17/03/2016 By Aaron Clement

The early 90s were an amazing time for gamers. The Sega Mega Drive, Super Nintendo and (at least in Japan) the PC-Engine were all going strong. Over in the IBM PC-compatible land, a company by the name of Creative Labs had just released the first Sound Blaster card that allowed for higher quality sounds and music in games than the boops and bleeps we were used to coming out of the rudimentary PC speaker.

While all of this was going on, a consortium of companies led by Electronic Arts (EA) founder Trip Hawkins got together to discuss and design a new gaming console to enter the market. It would be CD-ROM based and offer high quality videos and gameplay, but without the price tag IBM PC-compatible machines had commanded. So, in 1993 the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was born.

As the 3DO was a set of hardware specifications and not a physical console, it meant anyone could make one! It was this arrangement that allowed Creative Labs (Creative) to release their own variant in the form of the Creative 3DO Blaster.

As they were experts in making PC components, Creative made the bold choice to cram an entire 3DO onto a gigantic PC card that would then plug into a 386 or 486 computer. The card had all of the 3DO’s graphics and sound chips, which allowed it to handle all of the heavy lifting instead of the motherboard on the PC. After installing the card and connecting it to the video card, the included software allowed playing of 3DO games from within Windows 3.1 – Road Rash was definitely a far cry from Solitaire or Minesweeper!

Sounds like a pretty impressive feat of engineering, right? It was, but it suffered from some pretty hefty drawbacks, and that’s not just a crack at its size. The first major hurdle was the price tag. Retailing for $US399 in America and over $600 in Australia, the card was as expensive as a standalone 3DO system! Considering a 486 computer in the early 90s still cost upwards of $1500, dropping another $600 or more was a huge ask, even for gamers with deeper pockets.

4 years after launching for several hundred dollars, whoever bought this one for $75 must’ve thought it was a bargain!

Getting past the issue of price, there was one more roadblock to jump over – the CD-ROM technology. When designing the 3DO Blaster, Creative made an odd decision to only allow a particular type of drive to work with the card: A Creative CR-563 (a rebadged Panasonic drive). Without one of these drives, the 3DO Blaster card was utterly useless (and as a collector, this is why I’ve never been able to get mine running!).

Creative had also planned to release a second version that would support additional types of CD-ROM drives in addition to a special full motion video daughter-board, but the lack of popularity led to these never seeing the light of day.

One plug for the monitor, one plug to connect to your video card and a single controller port

Given the 3DO ended up being an expensive failure that never had the impact Trip originally envisioned, it is little wonder the 3DO Blaster also ended up tragically relegated to a footnote of gaming history. For now, gaze upon a gaming curiosity from the 90s and wonder what may have been!

The full PAL retail bundle

Shockwave and Gridders were the two pack-in full games, along with demos of other 3DO games like Alone in the Dark, Jammit & Road Rash (to name a few!)

Sink your teeth into these hot 3Do titles!

Fun fact: Logitech manufactured the 3DO Blaster’s Creative branded controller!

The system specs. Pretty sure the Nintendo 3DS has more grunt than a 386-25Mhz!

~~Banana~~ Gameboy for scale

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Aaron Clement
Tassie based retro gaming guy. Father of 3 and married to the very tolerant Kellie Clement. Coffee powered!

Follow Aaron Clement on Twitter and Instagram

Interview With Justin Hickman: Linking With The Past

04/03/2016 By ausretrogamer

After our recent interview with Retro Rich, we go in contact with lifetime gamer Justin Hickman to have a chat about gaming and collecting in general. Once we got a whiff of the gaming awesomeness that Justin had in his possession, we knew we had to arrange an interview and have him share his love of video games and also his very impressive room of collectibles. So brace your jaw, because it will drop to the floor. Here we go!

AUSRETROGAMER [ARG]: So Justin, tell us a bit about yourself – how did you get into gaming?
Justin Hickman [JH]: Hey! I’m 33 years old and have been in to gaming all my life. I started with a hand-me-down Atari 2600, C64 and NES system. I spent countless hours playing Mario, Mega Man, Spy vs Spy, Space Invaders and loved it! At school my friends were really into it too, so this helped fuel my passion for gaming as it was absolutely the norm for me growing up.

ARG: Are you equally into retro and modern/current gaming (or do you have a strong preference for one)?
JH: Being honest, I am a huge fan of both. Retro gaming is of course heavily peppered with nostalgia, however when I played them they weren’t retro! I was just really into gaming as a medium, This mindset has stayed with me so by proxy I am just as happy playing either The Witcher III or A Link to the Past.

The great wall of gaming!

ARG: What is it about old school gaming that you enjoy most?
JH: The obvious one is nostalgia (simple times, happy days), However as with anyone who has a passion for film, music and gaming, I appreciate retro games as an art form. I love modern gaming too but retro gaming (specifically 2D) has more soul – I love the hand drawn sprites and animations that developers managed to squeeze out of restricted hardware with huge limitations. This all adds to the charm and experience that has not been replicated – they also, for the most part, still stand up today (as an example, Super Mario World looks and plays just as well now as it did 24 years ago!).

ARG: You have owned your collection from new (which is amazing!), what inspired you to collect? Did you have foresight or a plan to collect?
JH: I never planned to collect. In fact, I used to trade in (albeit a select few) games when I was younger in order to get other games that I wanted, as this was really the only way to get a game in between birthdays and Christmas. I did however keep certain games as they meant so much to me, especially the Mario and Zelda games. But as a whole, gaming was never a ‘flash in the pan’ for me – I was and still am passionate about it, so I held onto as much as I could! I always wanted to have the option to go back and play my old games. So there was no foresight or planning – It was by pure chance that the games I was into also became some of the most rare/sought after titles.

ARG: We are drooling over your very impressive collection – what are your most prized systems and games?
JH: I’m particularly proud of my Zelda collection, Console wise I have most of them but as a conversation starter the Virtual Boy and PC Engine get the most attention, They both look cool and have much trivia!

You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you? Well, Justin certainly hasn’t!

ARG: Are there any other specific systems and/or games you are still hunting down?
JH: Yes, very much so! Right now, I am still hunting for a boxed Neo-Geo AES, but I don’t want to pay premium for it. Having said that, I probably should, as prices have been steady for a few years now and they won’t get cheaper! Also, I’m still hunting for Zelda Four Swords big box and Earthbound. My biggest problem is that I don’t like paying top dollar – I much prefer to wait and take my time. It makes it even more special when you do pick something up at a reasonable price, even if it took a couple of years to hunt down!

ARG: What is your gaming room (and/or collection) setup like?
JH: I have an room dedicated to it, and it needs to be as collection is huge! The rest of the house is unassuming, so keeps the missus happy *winks*

ARG: Do you have unopened systems/games? If so, will you ever open them to play?
JH: Yes to both – system and games. I did intend on playing them but as time goes by, I become more hesitant and usually just find loose copies out in the wild. I want to preserve as much gaming history as I can.

The perfect office space!

ARG: We hear that the SNES is your favorite retro console – so which retro console is your second fave?
JH: Either the NES or (Japanese) Mega Drive – both were fantastic. The NES brought so many legendary (Nintendo) first party IPs to the table, genre defining with iconic characters and mascots that are still going strong to this day! The Mega Drive had some fantastic arcade conversions and was home to some great shooters. Additionally, the Japanese version (which was superior to the PAL one) had truly stunning artwork on the game cases and they look great on any shelf!

ARG: Do you have a favorite game of all time or a gaming genre you cannot go without?
JH: My favourite games of all time are Super Mario World, Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Final Fantasy 7. Sorry, I know you asked for one! As for a gaming genre I couldn’t live without, it would have to be RPGs. I love a story, character progression and immersion – a good RPG covers all of these quite nicely.

ARG: We cheated in this interview by adding one final question – where can folks get in touch with you?
JH: Yep, sure thing, folks can reach me on Twitter.

Whoa, that was another great chat with a great collector. As we thank Justin for sharing in his gaming past and his vast collection, we walk away thoroughly impressed and can’t wait to see what else Justin adds to his already awesome gaming collection!

16-Bit Spec Wars: Unrealised Potential

08/02/2016 By ausretrogamer

The gaming system wars started long before the battle between Sega and Nintendo, but it was the 16-bit era that pitched the computing (Atari ST and Amiga 500) and console (Sega Mega Drive and SNES) giants against one another.

These bitter system wars waged on (Ed: they are still simmering!) between ST/Amiga owners and their Mega Drive/SNES console counterparts, both sides arguing that their system was best. Declaring a winner was always fraught with danger, especially when the battle turned to the technical specifications front.

When gamers use the hypothetical capabilities (specs) of their chosen machine instead of presenting hard evidence (Ed: like the actual games!) to argue their point, it descends the debate into the realm of the potential – the ‘what if’ scenario! As we know, you can’t play potential! Most machines have untapped potential and could definitely produce better games than what we’d seen from them, but that does not count unless you are about to create the next best homebrew game.

So gamers, a battle between systems should never be about what they can do, just what they did do. It’s great to think about the ‘what may have been‘ scenario, but all that will do is make you bitter and twisted – just enjoy what there is on offer, as there is plenty of variety out there for even the most discerning gamers. Oh yeah, none of these machines are as good as the PC-Engine anyway! *winks*

image source: supplied

Reset C64 Magazine Issue 8: It’s Adventure Time!

07/02/2016 By ausretrogamer

Ready, (Re)Set, Go! Rejoice C64 fans as issue 8 of the world’s most awesome free C64 magazine, Reset, is out now! Grab yours right now and go on a great adventure down memory lane.

In this issue, the Reset team take a look at Heroes & Cowards (Protovision), as well as Caren and the Tangled Tentacles (PriorArt) and Knight ‘N’ Grail (Psytronik). Ant Stiller delves deep into the murky depths of the D42 Adventure System and Ray Carlsen returns to tell us all about his replacement PLA chip. Martin Grundy makes his Reset debut, taking us back 30 years to January 1986 in his Reset Reloaded column. All your regular columns, news and reviews are still in there for this issue, so don’t miss out!

Total Recall: The Pinball Table That Never Was

01/02/2016 By ausretrogamer

Celebrating their 30 years in business, Stern Pinball Inc. is being quite active on their social media channels, releasing interesting facts about pinball. One that stood out to us was the unreleased 1990 pinball table based on the Total recall movie. Apparently, the Total Recall rare prototype never made it into production. Stern go on to say that “Designed to be a dual player team effort machine, it was ultimately scrapped for production and sent to the depths of the Data East factory. Sometime between 1996 and 2000 the machine “mysteriously disappeared”. Some say it went into the trash, some say it was broken down and forgotten. Some say that the machine made its way to places unknown and anyone who sees it in person is sworn to secrecy. No one knows for sure, and if they do, they aren’t talking.

Had Total Recall been produced as designed, it would remain today one of the most ridiculous pinball machines ever created. It was not meant to be, and will likely never be seen by the public again.”

We will definitely be keeping a close eye on these interesting and lesser known pinball facts coming from the great people at Stern!

source: Stern Pinball Inc.

Thrill Of The Chase: The Dark Amiga

29/01/2016 By ausretrogamer

Don’t you just love when things happen unexpectedly? Well, this past week’s events were mind blowingly unexpected!

I was called by my great friend and fellow Press Play On Tape co-host, Daz (also from Retro Domination fame) to let me know that he had taken a trip up north and during his travels had found a Commodore CDTV! Not only was the CDTV complete with transmitter/mouse, remote, keyboard and a fair bit of software, Daz asked if I would be interested in the bundled deal for myself. Firstly, I was humbled that a friend thought of me when they came across something quite rare and unique, and secondly, the offer for me to buy it and for them to transport it back was an offer too good to refuse. To say I was excited would be a gross understatement – I made the offer, the seller accepted and Daz transported the CDTV bundle safely back to Melbourne.

To Daz and Pete (Console Domination), thanks heaps for thinking of me and giving me the opportunity to grab another retro gaming holy grail – you guys rock! As for what do I think of the CDTV? Well, let’s just say that the Amiga 500 has made room for it *winks*

She is a beauty!

Connections galore!

Oo’er, early 90s multimedia software!

Looking forward to do some Sherlocking!

Remote control your CDTV life!

The all-in-one control centre (transmitter)!

Now we can turn the CDTV into a full blown Amiga 500!

It’s alive!

We asked Daz to show us what else he found on his ‘retro road trip’ and without fail, Daz provided us with some mouthwatering photos, saying that they speak for themselves. We agree *wiping drool*

The beautiful C128!

Great to see a TI-99 out in the wild!

Oh wow, more TI computers!

Atari ST represent!

WANT!

The loot is in the boot!

Retro Gaming

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