The Pop-Culture E-Zine
What do you get when you cross Lego with an iconic piece of audio history – you get the LEGO Sony Walkman, that’s what!
Forget about your CDs and MP3 files, grab your trusty old cassettes (if they haven’t oxidised!) and blast them on this awesome Lego Ideas entrant – vote here so this becomes a reality!
source: LEGO Ideas – Sony Walkman
We last visited Musée Mécanique in San Francisco in 2012, which was a major highlight for us, so when we heard that this antique arcade was doing it tough, it was definitely difficult to hear.
We had a blast when we last visited Musée Mécanique! To view the album of our visit, go here
The below ‘Nostalgia Museum’ short documentary by Sofie Kodner and Eleonora Bianchi, provides an intimate portrait of owner Dan Zelinsky as he struggles to keep the legacy of this iconic San Francisco institution alive in the face of economic loss and mechanical deterioration.
source: KQED Arts
We love River Raid on the Atari VCS/2600. Heck, we love it on pretty much every other 8-bit platform.
When we saw Mauri Helme’s tweet about a gorgeous looking River Raid made with MagicaVoxel, well, we can say that it was an easy question to answer.
Would you play? Atari 2600 River Raid made with #MagicaVoxel and #Blender #b3d pic.twitter.com/tVnVly3AeQ
— Mauri Helme (@maurihelme) June 18, 2021
According to our friends at Kotaku, Nike is releasing three pairs of runners (or sneakers for our US friends – Ed) in a line that’s an unlicensed tribute to Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
The Boba Fett, Darth Vader and Rebel Pilot* (* not their model names) are quite impressive, even if they are known by other model names to avoid any potential licensing issues. In case you wanted to know, Adidas has the Star Wars license, so it is interesting that Nike is releasing a line of runners with Star Wars inspired themes and colourways – surely this is just a coincidence!
Nike has scheduled to release these runners November 2021, with the best part being that they will not be in limited quantity!
source: Kotaku
We knew there was a good reason for buying the Xbox Series S console! With games like Within The Blade (WTB) by Ratalaika Games – a feast of ninja action with a retro flair, it hits the sweet nostalgic spot for us.
Within The Blade’s aesthetic is inspired by those sprites and pixels from the 8-bit day of ole, but with a polish for contemporary gaming systems. The retro style presentation of WTB and the easy to pick up and play are the strong suits for this game.
WTB is a platforming hack’n slash, but the devil is in its details as your ninja encounters new and unique enemies which forces him to learn new battle tactics, improve the quality of weapons and learn new skills. Oh yeah, the blood and gore as your ninja hacks through each enemy is so visceral, so if you are squimish of the site of virtual blood and that squirting sound, then you may need a sick bag while playing WTB.
Game Features:
Featuring 25 levels and some unforgettable boss encounters, players can also complete additional tasks to gain more experience and money to help level up their ninja. WTB ticks all the boxes for us, so if you like retro-styled ninja hack’n slash platformer games with a twist of RPG elements, then you should seriously check it out!
Publisher: Ratalaika Games
Developer: Ametist Studio
Platforms: Xbox, PS4/PS5 and Switch
Release: July 16, 2021
Price: US$10.99/€10.99/£9.99
Disclaimer: Xbox Series S/X review code for Within The Blade was provided by PR Hound.
From NFTs selling for millions to other ephemera going for ridiculous amounts of money, we now find video games entering this realm of the ludicrous money!
In the last week we have had two record breaking auction sales of Nintendo video games, first it was The Legend Of Zelda (NES) selling for US$870,000, only for this record to be broken a few days later by the US$1.56 million fetched by Super Mario 64 (N64)!
Now don’t get us wrong, both of these games are great, but come on, these prices are scary as hell! Anyway, as long as there are buyers with deep pockets, then stuff like this is going to go for mega bucks! So if you have some old-school games in mint condition, get them rated and hit Heritage Auctions, you never know, you may be an instant millionaire.
We wonder what video game will break the sales record next?
image source: Heritage Auctions and CNN US
source story: The Verge
We always love coming across clever folks doing extraordinary and clever things, and Will It Work? is no exception!
Will It Work? caught our eye with his cool mods with old school media being used on modern consoles, which is quite impressive.
In the below video he attaches an Iomega Zip Drive (Ed: remember those 100MB disks!) to the Wii U to test whether such a small piece of media (Zip Disk) can be formatted by the console, and even better, if any games will fit on the disk. Watch and find out!
source: Will It Work?
Another darn awesome Lego Ideas entry by Bricks Down Under that tickles our nostalgic nerve!
This playable Lego Space Invaders arcade game replica has the charm of the 1978 arcade machine that took the video gaming world by storm. We reckon Tomohiro Nishikado would be quite impressed too.
If you want this Lego Ideas Space Invaders to become a real Lego set you can buy from your fave retailer, make sure you go and vote for it now!
source: Bricks Downunder
source: LEGO Ideas: Space Invaders
After this week’s Nintendo Direct, we are obviously most excited about the Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda announcement, with the green G&W beauty slated for release later this year (Friday, November 12 2021 to be exact)!
As part of its 35th anniversary celebration, this Game & Watch will let you play The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Game Boy version), and a special Game & Watch edition of Vermin (featuring Link)! Just like the Game & Watch Super Mario, this will have a playable clock and timer too!
At a cost of AU$79.00 (via Amazon), who is pre-ordering one? Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook to let us know.
source: Nintendo
When it comes to emulating our favourite video games from years gone by, we have had a plethora of handhelds to get a hit of nostalgia, each having their own pros and cons. The latest emulation handheld to land in our office is the good looking Waveshare GPM280 Portable Games Console with Raspberry Pi 3.
Right from the Apple like packaging, we knew this one would be special to hold and play. Unboxing the GPM280 we were immediately wowed by its striking looks, which are a nod to Nintendo’s gorgeous Game Boy Micro Famicom 20th Anniversary Edition. Unlike the GB Micro’s metallic casing, the GPM280 case is plastic, with its sparkling metallic hue making it stand out and feeling comfortable in hand. The D-pad and four face buttons sit a tad high, so they will require further depressing compared to the GB Micro. This isn’t a bad thing, especially if you have not touched a GB Micro in a long time. If you have big hands, then you would be aware that the GB Micro was a crippling experience, so luckily the GPM280 is a larger unit, accommodating those of us with larger mits. The two shoulder buttons have a distinct click when pressed which we like quite a lot. In keeping with the GB Micro, the GPM280’s on/off switch, Select/Start buttons and volume rocker are in the identical positions as Nintendo’s cute little handheld, but just that tad larger (again, a good thing!). There is also a TF card slot near the 3.5mm audio jack. And before we forget, the package also includes a protective drawstring pouch, lint-free cloth, screwdriver and very importantly, a 32GB microSD card to get you started and a 5V 3A charger with an Australian plug – a nice touch indeed!
Powering the brain of the GPM280 is a Broadcom BCM2837B0 64-bit 1.2 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor (Raspberry Pi Compute Model 3+ Lite) with 1GB RAM, which is enough power to run most console and computing emulators from the second generation all the way up to the fifth gen with ease. Coupled with the processor is the impressively vivid 2.8″ IPS screen (640×480 resolution), with a laminated toughened glass panel capable of 60 frames per second and a 70% NTSC colour-gamut! We must admit, the screen is gorgeous in real life, so no photos will do it justice in this review. With a 1500 mAh battery, there is enough juice to keep you gaming on the go for a couple of hours before the next recharge.
Being Recalbox fans (Ed: nothing against RetroPie), we opted to go with it on our GPM280. The ease of use can’t be underestimated when it comes to setting up the system. Once Recalbox was up and running, we setup our system on our office WiFi, which allowed us to easily configure settings, monitor the hardware and very importantly, add our favourite games (ROMs) via our web browser – simple drag and drop and you are done! The GPM280 also has Bluetooth connectivity, so there is the option to add external controllers (Ed: due to time constraints, we didn’t test this feature. We will update this review when we do!).
The games truly pop on the GPM280
The quality and versatility of the GPM280 is quite impressive, but the critical question still remains, how does it play games? The short answer is, it plays them darn well and accurate. If you have clean ROMs, then you won’t experience any issues like choppy sounds or frame clipping like we did on a few of our Lynx and Nintendo 64 games. We also ran into button mapping issues on our Sega Genesis / Mega Drive games. Luckily, Recalbox has a plethora of options and settings to dial in things just right.
The already mentioned 2.8” IPS screen feels the right size and is quite clear and bright with the colour gamut making games pop and looking like they are being played on their respective systems on a CRT TV. We didn’t play any heavy text adventure games, so we can’t comment on how the system and screen fare with that gaming genre. For most of the classic titles we enjoy from the late 70s, 80s to the mid-90s, the GPM280 handled them with great accuracy and zero lag. The sound is handled by a built in speaker which does an admirable job. Another nifty aspect of the GPM280 is the power indicator on the Select and Start buttons, just like on the GB Micro – red/flashing meaning battery running low and green meaning you are good to game on the go! Speaking of gaming on the go, we got approximately 1.5hrs of continuous gaming before we had to recharge the 1500mAh battery – we just wish the battery lasted a tad longer.
The Waveshare GPM280 definitely impresses with its build quality and feel, grunty computing hardware and ease of use, but that all comes at a premium price. If you are in the market for a stylish compact gaming system that plays a heap of your favourite games from yesteryear without any issues, has media centre capabilities (via Kodi) and looks like the gorgeous Game Boy Micro Famicom 20th Anniversary Edition, only bigger, then the GPM280 may be for you. Game on!
Product: Wavershare GPM280 Portable Game System
Price: AU$244.55
Store: Small Devices
GPM280 vs Game Boy Micro
Dimensions – it’s a great size!
Disclaimer: The GPM280 handheld was provided by Small Devices for this review.