The Pop-Culture E-Zine
Teachers, leave them kids alone! Ah, couldn’t help myself, even though the track was on The Wall album. OK, I’ll stop now, but only if you press play and enjoy some sweet 8-Bit synth chiptune covers from one of the greatest music albums of all time.
Oh yeah, if you want to listen to Another Brick in the Wall (in full) from The Wall album, then check out music producer veridiz’s brill take on it right here.
source: veridiz
By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.
I saw that Mike Tyson has a fight scheduled with Jake Paul in July. Netflix (US) is airing it live. When I was a kid, I played a lot of “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!” on Nintendo.
The game, released in 1987, was an instant hit with all my friends. We spent hours playing what we thought was the greatest boxing game ever. Certain boxers were my favourites to fight. I liked Great Tiger for his flamboyancy and his comical footwork that had no business being in a boxing ring. He was a character, and he wasn’t easy to knock out. He made the funniest face when you would get a good hit on him. King Hippo was another favorite. He was marginally slow, but when he struck your chin…there were times when I didn’t think I would get off the canvas.
The game made Mike Tyson even more mythical at the time. I didn’t really care for him, or boxing, but if there was a Tyson fight on HBO, I would usually pay attention to the outcome. But when a friend would ask me to play “Punch-Out!!” with them, I never hesitated at the chance. Especially after a stressful day at school. It was like I was getting my aggression out when I was facing an opponent in the game’s ring. And most importantly, it was entertaining.
The hyper extend punch was one of my favorite things to do in a game at the time; that would usually knock out my opponent and I could move on with ease. Some of the boxer’s punches were so slow that you could glance at your watch, take a bite of pizza, and move in time to avoid contact. I always thought the clip of your boxer running with his trainer, riding a bike ahead of him, a great touch.
After you defeated all the other boxers, and you got to fight Tyson at the very end of the game, it felt like an accomplishment of sorts.
Tyson’s tweets of his training for the upcoming bout are scary and intimidating. When he’s sparring, it looks like he’s still got it. But will it be enough to beat a much younger Paul? I’m sure the ratings for Netflix will be huge, just like the sells for the 1987 video game were. Even if you despise boxing and the two competitors, the match-up is intriguing.
Introducing, The Legend Of Super Mario 1.2 – a crossover between the original The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. NES games! Big thanks to hacker extraordinaire, NesDraug.
Enough said, enjoy this amazing abomination!
source: Mangrich1 Gaming via Facebook
In a momentous tribute to his groundbreaking contributions, the esteemed engineer and computer scientist, Al Alcorn, has been inducted into the Amusement Industry Hall of Fame this year. Alcorn, renowned for his pivotal role in the inception of the iconic game Pong, joins the ranks of esteemed visionaries, including fellow Atarian Nolan Bushnell, a member of the inaugural class.
Alcorn embarked on his illustrious career at Ampex in 1968, where he initially delved into the development of a high-resolution video system. However, it was in 1972 that he embarked on a transformative journey with Bushnell and Ted Dabney at Atari. Together, they spearheaded the creation of Pong, a seminal milestone in the realm of video amusement games, heralding a new era of entertainment.
Reflecting on Alcorn’s indispensable role in shaping the landscape of gaming history, RePlay publisher Eddie Adlum remarked, “If you ask 10 operators today who programmed Pong back in the day, five would say Nolan Bushnell and the other five would say they don’t know. The answer, obviously, is Al Alcorn.” Working under Bushnell’s guidance, Alcorn meticulously engineered the circuitry that birthed the revolutionary machine in 1972, laying the foundation for the burgeoning video game revolution.
Al Alcorn’s induction into the Amusement Industry Hall of Fame not only honours his extraordinary legacy but also underscores the enduring impact of his visionary ingenuity on the fabric of modern entertainment. As his pioneering achievements continue to inspire generations of creators and enthusiasts alike, Alcorn’s legacy remains indelibly etched in the annals of gaming history.
story & image source: RePlay Magazine
Let’s start with the obvious, if you haven’t as yet watched the amazing and absolute banger of a documentary, Still Standing, then hop to it immediately – it’s available on SBS On-Demand, Viceland, Amazon Prime (US) and a swag of other streaming services!
If you have already watched Still Standing, we recommend you probably watch it again – it is that good. We are pretty chuffed to see that the creator of this award-winning documentary, Brad Gilbertson, has made available extra bonus footage that couldn’t fit into the 74 minute feature.
The first of these bonus featurettes is on the Australian Pinball Museum, where its owner, Lyndon Carter, takes us on a very insightful and magical tour of this must-see museum in Nhill (Victoria).
source: BGVC Films via YouTube
As huge fans of Atari Games’ Super Sprint and Championship Sprint overhead racers, we are actually quite chuffed to hear that NeoSprint – a sort-of-sequel to the “Sprint” series, is coming to our modern gaming systems sometime this winter (Jun – Aug – Atari hasn’t as yet confirmed the exact date/time)!
According to Atari,
NeoSprint is a single screen arcade racer for up to 8 players on supporting systems. Paired with a robust track builder and intuitive sharing tools, NeoSprint provides a racing experience that will satisfy speed demons and architects alike.
source: Atari
Available on PlayStation 5, Xbox , Nintendo Switch, and Steam, we honestly can’t wait for NeoSprint!
PS: If you have an Atari VCS, then we are officially jelly, as NeoSprint is already available for you to hoon around on!
“What the bloom’n heck does craptastic mean?”, I hear you ask.
It certainly doesn’t mean crap, although it can! Craptastic can mean ludicrous, bonkers, outrageous, funny, wacky, far out, and silly. The theme simply implies that the compo is just for a bit of fun, not a serious coding competition. You are more than welcome to make an excellent game to submit for the compo. Your game may contain some humour or silliness to fit more with the theme, but it doesn’t have to!
2022 Craptastic Comp Winner: Marble Boy (Roman Werner)
In our previous competitions, some entries were truly excellent, others excellent but silly, others truly awful but funny! It’s just a chance for people to do something a little different if they wish and explore ideas/concepts that wouldn’t normally work well in a more serious compo.
Please remember that this competition is limited to 4KB. Yes, any entry submitted can be no more than 4KB when compressed. If your game is more than 1 file, then all the game files put together must not exceed the 4KB limit. This includes hi-score save files.
We want craptastic game entries. Remember, the key word here is fun. We want both coders and players alike to have fun and enjoy this comp!
Submit your entries to RESET64 (via email: [email protected]) by 31st August, 2024 (23:59:59 GMT).
Take a look at our previous Craptastic compo entries to help draw inspiration!
Basic rules are as follows:
We reserve the right to change, add or delete rules during the competition if deemed necessary!
2nd place in the 2022 Craptastic Comp: Circles by James
The scoring system used for Craptastic is very simple. Each game will be scored against 7 criteria, each worth 5 points. An entry can score up to 35 points. When the panel has scored each game accordingly, the totals for each individual game will be divided by the number of judges to produce a mean average. The average will be the game’s final score.
The criteria that each game will be evaluated on are:
Originality – New idea or “rip off”? Off the wall ideas encouraged.
Concept – Quality of game design, is it fun, is it bonkers, is it craptastic?
Execution – Execution of design, taking into account controls and other factors such as excecution.
Presentation – Quality of graphics, audio and overall presentation. Supremely bad can be seen as a positive in some cases!
Gameplay – A measure of how enjoyable the game is to play.
Lasting Appeal – replay value, addictiveness.
OMG factor – when you see it, do you think “wtf!?” This is the true measure of craptasticness!
If a panel member has entered a game themselves, then the number of points that they can award will be adjusted (in this example, to 5) and they will not score their own release.
CSDB will not be used for voting. Also, entries should not be uploaded to CSDB, or elsewhere until after the competition has closed. Feel free to post screenshots or info though.
A craptastic gaming comp requires craptastic prizes, right? We have some fantastic prizes lined up for this year’s compo thanks to some very generous sponsors.
A big thank-you to the following sponsors and supporters:
More sponsors to be announced.
Unkle K / Reset64
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We know this is now old news (over 5 years ago), but for those that missed Aaron Norton’s (aka: NintendoTwizer) Nintendo collection, check it out!
Unfortunately (or fortunately for) Aaron, he sold it all for US$164,000 (approx. AU$250,000), which some say is a pittance, considering the complete collections of NES, SNES, N64, Game Boy and GameCube games!
Anyway, we are glad that Aaron did one last tour of his collection before it was sold – WARNING: You may drool!
source: Aaron Norton on YouTube
It’s been a while since we went hunting at vintage establishments, so when we stumbled upon the Halsey Rd Vintage Emporium, we had to go in and take a look!
There is something about these kinds of places that invoke warmth and a sense of intoxicating nostalgia. Walking into the Halsey Road Vintage Emporium you are immediately transported to a different time, when we used film cameras, selected our fave LPs on jukeboxes and wrote on Olivetti typewriters! One thing is for certain, you need a fair few hours to take it all in, as rushing around would mean you miss out on a past nugget that could be priceless.
We could have bought up so many cool items (just take a gander at the photos below), but in the end, it was Ms Ausretrogamer who found a pair of matching mid-century Grant Featherston ‘Bendix’ chairs, which will look great in Casa Ausretrogamer!
If you enjoy checking out retro/antiques/industrial/collectibles emporiums, then add the Halsey Rd Vintage Emporium to your bucket list.
The deets:
The legendary 1993 video game DOOM will be released on robotic lawn mowers this Northern Hemisphere spring (our Autumn).
First showcased as a one-off and as a tribute in connection to the 30th anniversary of DOOM in December 2023, the game is now being released as a proper product feature to 30,000 robotic lawn mower owners.
The DOOM installed lawn mowers have already made waves across the globe, after being showcased at DreamHack Winter 2023, where Husqvarna organized the world’s first multiplayer DOOM tournament on a non-gaming device. “This is one hell of an update”, says Björn Mannefred, Robotics Software Engineer at Husqvarna.
The original shareware episode of DOOM (1993) will be released as a free update for owners of Husqvarna’s robotic lawn mower range Husqvarna Automower® NERA. This means that approximately 30,000 end-users will be able to play the game during a limited time between April to September 2024!
We reckon lots of lawns will be overgrown between April and September this year…
source: Husqvarna