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The Retro Gaming Vault – May 2021

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Our first retro gaming vault feature proved successful, so we thought we’d keep things going!

For this month’s images, we delved further into our vault and dug up some cool and peculiar photos of items we have in our collection and from gaming parties we have attended and ComLynxed with our friends!

We hope you keep enjoying these blasts from the past!

Will always love the PC-Engine HuCards – they are so cute and packed with awesome gaming!

Keeping our N64 in tip top shape!

Got to get our monthly C64 fix (especially some World Class Leaderboard)!

Llamatron 2112 on the Jag or…..

……Revenge of the Mutant Camels?

Love getting some action on the little Neo Geo Pocket Color

ComLynx parties are always the fun!

The Neo-Vec controller is pretty darn awesome to use on the Vectrex

The rare and obscure Noun. Tempest 3000 is just sublime!

Our favourite Commodore 64 in our collection. The Suncom Thumbstick is a brilliant little controller, especially on Wizard of Wor!

Original image copyright: ausretrogamer



Documentary: The Making of GoldenEye 007 (N64)

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Back in 2017 there was a crowdfunded project titled Golden Era which was going to tell the story of the making of GoldenEye 007 on the N64. The project didn’t reach it’s funding goal, but thankfully onaretrotrip stepped in to offer all of us a a glimpse into the game that revolutionised first-person shooters (FPS) and defined the Nintendo 64.

So kick back and enjoy the making of one of the all-time best N64 games!


source: onaretrotip

 



The Retro Gaming Vault – April 2021

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We are excited to start a new monthly feature, which we hope becomes a regular on ausretrogamer.com.

So what’s this newfangled feature we are so excited about? Well, as the title suggests, we’ll be delving deep into our photo vault full of retro gaming photos from years gone by. The aim is to give you all a dose of nostalgia and hopefully connect with new audience members.

For this very first edition, we dug through thousands of our images from the last dozen years and came up with a swag of nostalgia inducing photos; from the best joystick ever made, board games based on classic arcade titles, to our Commodore 64 smart watches and playing classic games on our Game Boy Micro – it’s all easy money 😉

Enjoy!

Original image copyright: ausretrogamer

 


EVERCADE Retro Games Console – Review

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Evercade review
  • Product: EVERCADE Premium Pack – handheld + 3 classic gaming collections (37 titles)
  • Price: AU$159.95
  • Store: PixelCrib

A couple of years ago, we were quite excited to tell you all about a mysterious new handheld console that was like no other – the EVERCADE!

The EVERCADE handheld system was touted to be able to play multi-game retro games on physical cartridges from leading games publishers and console platforms. Since this news broke in early 2019, the EVERCADE has gone on to become quite popular since its release, garnering fanfare and glowing reviews from reputable online media outlets. Now it was our turn to take the EVERCADE for a spin and tell you what we think! First and foremost, some good news for our Australian readers, the EVERCADE is now locally stocked at PixelCrib!

PROS

 CONS
+ Officially licensed games on cartridges
+ Priced competitively
+ Expanding library of game carts
+ Collectability
+ Build quality		 – Arcade games (so far) are console ports
– Wait is too long for new cartridge releases
– Screen needs to be angled at times in poorly lit areas
 – Wish it came in black

Upon opening the package and holding the unit, our first impression of the intriguing EVERCADE was that it looked and felt like a much more expensive handheld – not quite like the Nintendo Switch, but that system commands a much steeper price. For the introductory price (AU$159.95), the EVERCADE Premium Pack definitely packs quite a lot; great build quality and three gaming cart compilations included to get you playing right away!

The EVERCADE Premium Pack is exceptional value

From a physical perspective, the D-pad and four face buttons feel great – with the buttons spaced well apart with no lag. We didn’t experience any hand fatigue or cramping while playing on the EVERCADE, so the experience was quite positive. The shoulder buttons weren’t used in any of the games we played, so we can’t really comment how well they fair with extensive gameplay – they definitely felt good when pressed, with a satisfying tactile click.



No handheld is complete without a good screen, and the EVERCADE’s 4.3″ display is no exception, with bright vivid video. However, we did find that we had to angle it at times when playing in a darker or a poorly lit room, but this small niggle was improved somewhat by bumping up the screen brightness to maximum. Oh yeah, the other screen option is the aspect ratio, with the EVERCADE providing both 4:3 (traditional ‘square’) 16:9 (scaled widescreen) – we found both screen ratios to be playable, with no discernible stretching when going from square to full-widescreen, so choose what best suits you.

The cartridges slot in from the top, behind the unit, with their top rounded shape completing the look of the EVERCADE. There is something quite satisfying when inserting and clicking in a cartridge. The EVERCADE’s volume buttons, 3.5mm headphone jack and mini-USB port are on the bottom, which are all well within reach. The top of the unit has the slide on/off switch, cartridge slot, shoulder buttons and mini-HDMI which allows for connectivity to a new TV with up-scaled graphics to HD (720p), making the old school games look pretty good on any new big screen TV. Obviously Full HD or higher would’ve been even better.

Specs

  • CPU: 1.2GHz Cortex-A7
  • Display: Horizontal 4.3-inch LCD screen, 480 x 272 pixels
  • Power: 2,000-mAh rechargeable battery
  • Ports: 1 x mini-HDMI out, 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack, 1 x micro-USB (charging)
  • Media: cartridges

Once you insert the game cart and turn on the unit, the interface is quite easy to use and follow. Games are started by pressing the start button and then within the game, you have the in-game menu which allows the user to load (a saved game) or save your current game, change the aspect ratio, language or quit the current game. The save game is a welcome feature, as it gives you the ability to see more of those harder retro classics without the need to restart from the beginning – it doesn’t feel like cheating. You can keep playing for up to 4 – 5 hours on the EVERCADE before it needs recharging – we just we wish it lasted longer.  But hey, you can play and charge if you want to keep going!

As eluded earlier, the Premium Pack comes with three cartridges; Namco Museum Collection 1 (11 games), Interplay Collection 1 (6 games) and the Atari Collection 1 (20 games). With 37 games to select from, you’ll definitely be kept busy right off the bat. We were quite chuffed to see that Blaze Entertainment secured the first ever western localisation of Mappy Kids on the Namco Museum Collection 1. There are now some 18 cartridges you can either buy or pre-order for the EVERCADE, so there is something for everyone! For the record, we can’t wait to grab the Atari Lynx and Data East Collections for now, as they are packed with games we know and love. The newly announced Codemasters Collection will be a winner too (released later in 2021).

With a number of well known publishers onboard, the EVERCADE isn’t short on game carts, with many more to come. Add the newly announced EVERCADE VS console into the mix and an ever-growing user base, and all of a sudden the value proposition for the EVERCADE becomes quite attractive. In the world of digital downloads, it is great to have a system that you can buy official physical game carts, with their cool game boxes and actual colour manuals – remember those?! The collector in us is quite giddy and satisfied with the collectable elements that the EVERCADE provides.

Verdict

The EVERCADE may not be for everyone, but its secret is in the use of officially licensed games released on physical media. With this key differentiation, we feel that the EVERCADE sits on its own in a category full of emulation-capable handhelds with not-so-official licensed games. With an enticing price point for the unit and games, the EVERCADE provides great value. If you haven’t done so, check out the EVERCADE and its growing library of games and then decide if it is for you – we bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

 

 

Disclosure: EVERCADE Retro Games Handheld System was provided by PixelCrib for this review.



Recalbox 7.2 – The Awesome New Update!

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Recalbox 7.2 – released on April 23 at 9pm (GMT+2)!

Hey peeps, here is some awesome news that the Recalbox folks have shared with us – this Friday, April 23rd, at 9:00pm (GMT+2), they will finally launch their long awaited 7.2 update, packed with heaps of new features, new systems, functionalities and optimisations!


source: Recalbox via YouTube

To recap what is new and improved in Recalbox 7.2, which there are many, we thought we’d share the major highlights right here:

MAJOR NEW FEATURES:

Light-Gun Games!

Play more than 250 lightgun games on many different systems (Arcade, Megadrive/MegaCD, Dreamcast, and Playstation to name just a few), no configuration needed! Now gathered under a new “LightGun” virtual system.

Better 3D performance on Raspberry Pi 4!

The team has optimised Recalbox, allowing almost all N64, Dreamcast, Naomi & Atomiswave games to run at full speed on Raspberry Pi 4!

Overclock the Raspberry Pi 4!

And for even more performance, we’ve tested and chosen 4 optimal overclock settings on the Raspberry Pi 4. Overclocking your Pi will increase the frame-rate on CPU and GPU intensive games.

Improved PSX/N64/PSP performance on ODROID-GO Advance/Super

Play almost all PSX, N64, and PSP games at full speed on both ODROID-GO Advance & ODROID-GO Super!



NEW FEATURES:

New systems!

5 new supported systems are added to the nearly 120 systems already supported in Recalbox:

  • Watara Supervision: This cheap Game Boy clone was manufactured by Watara in 1992. It was later licensed to several third-parties, and released under many different names. 69 games have been officially released.
  • PICO-8: A virtual console similar to the TIC-80 with over 4000 games available, largely popularised by the incredible success of “Celeste”, the famous platformer initially developed by Noel Berry and Maddy Thorson on Pico-8 in 2015, before being released on all modern platforms in 2018!
  • Pocket Challenge V2: A Japanese handheld console that specialises in educational games.
  • Elektronika BK: BK (БК), Russian abbreviation for “бытовой компьютер” – “home computer” is a series of Soviet 16-bit home computers, developed under the brand Electronika by NPO Scientific Center. Elektronika BK was the only “official” Soviet home computer. The BK-0010/BK-0011 and Terak 8510/A were manufactured from 1984 to 1993 and sold at the price of 650 Rubles, which was… almost 4 months of average salary!
  • EPOCH SuperCassette Vision: The 2nd generation EPOCH console released in 1984 and counting a total of 30 officially released games and 3 unreleased. The porting of this Japanese emulator to Libretro is a Recalbox exclusive!

Dual JoyCon support (Nintendo Switch controllers)

Recalbox now supports both left and right JoyCons! In addition, you can use both JoyCons as a single combined controller!

Bluetooth Audio

Connect your Bluetooth headphones or speakers! (just pair them like you would a controller, for now).

New cores

3 new emulators are also available, depending on your hardware:

  • Libretro NeoCD added as NeoGeoCD core: loads CDs so much faster!
  • Libretro DOSBOX Pure: Don’t struggle with complicated DOS setups anymore! These games
    have never been more plug & play!
  • Libretro-craft: A Minecraft clone available on x86 & x64 platforms only.

Hide pre-installed games

Pre-installed games are no longer copied into the user share. They stay on the system and can be hidden/shown using an option from the settings menu.



IMPROVEMENTS:

Main menu

The main menus have all been rewritten. They’re now faster, consume less memory, and are more intuitive. The most useful options have been moved so they’re faster to access. Reboots can now be delayed. This way, you can configure everything you need to before having to restart.

New options have been added:

  • Swap A & B buttons: change the way you validate and cancel actions.
  • Factory reset: reset all configurations (only keeps your games, saves, and scraped data)

Sound

In-game video sound/music is now available! You can choose between the following sound mode:

  • Background music only (EmulationStation music)
  • Video sound only (scraped videos)
  • Background music AND video sound mixed
  • Background music OR video sound (when playing videos in the new Gameclip screensaver)

Internal Scraper

The internal scraper has been greatly enhanced:

  • Improved menus. Now more intuitive, less clicks required to get things done.
  • Better region priority management: get better metadata for your region.
  • Ignore file referenced from .cue/.m3u and other multi-file roms: no more scraping the same
    game twice!

System

  • Check image integrity when updating Recalbox
  • Added a new Reset to Factory Settings option to reset all Recalbox & emulator settings
    without losing any user data: games, saves, screenshots, music, etc.

Emulators

Many emulators have been updated and/or reconfigured for new features, or to achieve better performance.

  • Dolphin updated to version 5.0-13178.
  • Stella (A2600) updated to fix lots of bugs (eg: Pitfall II)
  • Supermodel updated to version 839
  • UAE updated to support CHD
  • Np2Kai (PC98) updated to fix several issues
  • Odyssey² updated to add Europeans/French models (new RetroArch options)
  • Mupen64plus-next updated for better compatibility and performance! This core is now available on almost all platforms and performs very well!
  • FBNeo updated to support latest game additions
  • Libretro Duckstation is now available on all platforms!
  • Beetle-Saturn updated to improve compatibility (PC only)
  • Amiberry updated to version 3.3 for better performance & new options
  • Libetro-Parallel-n64 updated and fixed on almost all boards (except low-end PIs)
  • VIC20 is now shown as its own system, instead of only being available under C64
  • Videopac+ is now available as its own system, instead of being available as Odyssey² sub-model
  • Libretro MAME has been optimised to run full-speed on low-end PCs.
  • ScummVM updated to v2.3.0 and merged with ResidualVM



BUG FIXES:

Lots of bug fixes, as usual:

  • Fixed the ODROID-GO Advance v1 controller
  • Fixed the 8bitdo NES30 Pro rev1 controller mapping
  • Fixed missing BIOS MD5 & other minor errors in BIOS database
  • Removed useless BIOS files (PalmOS)
  • Fixed the Retroarch shortcut on ODROID-GO Advance
  • Fixed shaders on ODROID-GO Advance
  • Fixed lost support of open and WPA-PSK-SHA256 WiFi keys
  • Correction a fan problem with the NESPi 4 Case

TECHNICAL FEATURES:

Buildroot

Buildroot has been bumped to version 2020.11.

Kernels

Linux kernels have been bumped to:

  • 5.4 for the ODROID XU4
  • 5.8 for both x86 and x64
  • 5.10 for all Raspberry Pis
  • Both ODROID-GO Advance & GO Super use a special Rockchip 4.4 kernel.

PulseAudio

We’ve moved from a purse ALSA audio backend to PulseAudio! Recalbox now supports more audio devices — and even Bluetooth audio!

image source: Recalbox

 

There you go peeps, to say we can’t wait for Recalbox 7.2 would be a massive understatement!



PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 and PC-FX Anthology

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When it comes to publishers of classic video gaming tomes, there is none better than the French Geeks-Line Publishing! With a stable full of awesome retro gaming anthologies, you can trust in these guys developing and delivering a high quality page turning book.

Their latest campaign on Kickstarter is for an anthology on the NEC gaming systems that wowed us back in the day, the PC-Engine and its many iterations, aliases and also, the PC-FX. Check out the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 and PC-FX Anthology Kickstarter now and if you are a fan of their books or the PC-Engine family of gaming systems, then this we’d highly recommend you jump on this right now!

image source: Kickstarter

If you are undecided, read our review of Geeks-Line’s PlayStation Anthology to see what you could expect with their upcoming PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16 & PC-FX Anthology.

 

NEO GEO Games Infographic

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There are some images that need to be shared for their informative awesomeness, and this NEO•GEO games infographic is one that definitely fits that bill.

Created and shared by Ange Albertini of the Corkami Reverse Engineering and Visual Documentation github repository, this image speaks to us loud and clear! We love the fact that in one image, we can see the timeline of all the games that were released for SNK’s mighty NEO GEO.

To get a sense of this amazing graphic creation, please click on the image below to see it in its native resolution!

 

The New Yorker Interview with Shigeru Miyamoto

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Simon Parkin’s The New Yorker interview with Nintendo’s legendary Shigeru Miyamoto is an interesting, insightful and wide-ranging, reflective conversation. Seldom do we hear or read anything so candid or beyond Shigeru’s amazing creations in his four decade long career with the Big N.

So kick back and read Simon’s refreshing interview with Miyamoto-san, as he speaks openly about his video games design philosophy, being the boss, guns in video games, his kids love of Sega (Ed: what?!) and the new Super Nintendo World theme park at Universal Studios in Japan.

image source: The New Yorker

 

New Bucket List Entry: Super Nintendo World

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We have clearly been under a rock and missed the news that Nintendo had developed their theme park, Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios in Japan.

As massive fans of theme parks, and yeah, Nintendo, this news was obviously right up our alley! With what has transpired this year, the opening of this cool ‘World’ has now been pushed out to Spring (our Autumn) in 2021! Oh yeah, not to be outdone, there will be a Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios in Hollywood too!

With a lot of travel restrictions around (rightfully so!), for now we’ll just sit here and admire Super Nintendo World from afar (and drool over our keyboard).

Who else is putting Super Nintendo World on their bucket list? Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook to let us know.


source: Mainichi newspaper

 

We Love Our 35th Anniversary Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros.

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It took a while for our 35th anniversary Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. to arrive, but we are so glad that it did!

Nintendo sure knows how to tug at our nostalgic strings, as we pre-ordered this as soon as it was revealed in early September. We recall how excited we were at the time and couldn’t wait for November 13th to come around! Well, November 13th come and went, with the dreaded postage notification advising us that good ole Aussie Post would deliver our Game & Watch (G&W) some time between Nov 16 – Nov 19, which was like a pixel dagger thrown right into our 8-bit heart. As it turned out (and luckily for us), Aussie Post took the median value and delivered this precious cargo today (November 17). At the time of writing, we still had a number of our friends that hadn’t received their units.

Enough with the negativity regarding pre-orders not arriving on the day of release (although, this should be fixed!), this Game & Watch has exceeded our expectations by a country mile. The see-through sleeve on the gold packaging was an indicator that this thing was going to be special. Upon opening and holding the G&W, it was like being in the playground at primary school, being wowed by this little contraption made by Nintendo and showing it off to our friends. The look, the feel – including the D-pad and buttons, has been nailed by Nintendo. We didn’t need any LR-44 cell batteries to power this unit, so that was a plus. The only niggle we had, this new G&W did not come with the little tuck-in stand that the old school ones have. But like we said, it’s a very very small niggle. Of course we compared it to a number of our original Game & Watch units, including its namesake, and we can say, this new one fits right in!

The only wish we have at this stage is for people interested in this 35th anniversary G&W game (that missed out on the pre-order) get an opportunity to get one, at a non-scalped price! Oh yeah, we also wish for a Donkey Kong Multi-Screen G&W next, with the original Donkey Kong and perhaps Donkey Kong Country – surely that’s not too much to ask for!