AUSRETROGAMER

The Pop-Culture E-Zine

You are here: Home / Archives for retrogaming

retrogaming

Sega Reboots Classic Dreamcast Games

By

According to this Bloomberg article, Sega is gearing up to reboot a couple of iconic Dreamcast titles, Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio as part of their Super Game initiative!

These titles will be first ones released under Sega’s Super Game initiative, which Sega announced a year ago. Sega’s Super Game aims to develop recurring revenue sources and build online communities around its stable of video games.

Mimicking Fortnite’s model, Sega’s Super Game setup will offer their games as free to play, be available across multiple platforms, host large multiplayer contests and include extras like vehicles, construction and social events on top of the usual combat, ensuring they get players to purchase in-game items.

Not sure how we feel about this approach from Sega, but if it works for Epic Games with Fortnite, then we guess that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery – if you can’t beat them, copy their business model!



The Internet Archive Console Living Room

By

If you don’t want to stuff around with finding, downloading, configuring and tearing your hair out in making video gaming emulators work on your computer, then check out the Internet Archive’s Console Living Room.

The Internet Archive Console Living Room harkens back to the revolution of the change in the hearth of the home, when the fireplace and later, the television, were transformed by gaming consoles into a centre of videogaming entertainment. Connected via strange adapters and relying on the television’s speaker to put out pew pew pew sounds, these games were resplendent with simple graphics and simpler rules.

Via the use of the JSMESS emulator system, this allows direct access to different emulator programs in your browser with no additional plugins or settings, meaning that these games can be enjoyed again without mucking around in looking for emulators or games. Simply click on the screenshot or “Emulate This” button for each individual cartridge, and on modern browsers the games will just start to run. As nostalgia, a teaching tool, or just plain fun, you’ll find hundreds of the games that started a billion-dollar industry.

NOTE: These games are best enjoyed in an up to date version of a modern browser. Currently, there is no sound in the games, although that feature will be added soon.

image source: Internet Archive – Console Living Room



PICOmputer ZX: Raspberry Pi PICO Powered Pocket ZX Spectrum

By

Need a(nother) new project in your life? If you do, then check out Peter Misenko’s (aka: bobricious’) super cute PICOmputer ZX – Pocket ZX Spectrum on Hackaday, powered by a Raspberry Pi PICO!

This is an ongoing project, so expect more details and instructions on Hackaday. Also follow bobricious’ GitHub here.

image source: Hackaday



Slipstream: Retro Arcade Racer Review – Nintendo Switch

By

With the Australian F1 GP being on this weekend, we’ve been playing Slipstream non-stop on our Switch for this last week, and we must say, this is the closest we’ll get to a modern OutRun, especially OutRun 2006/Coast 2 Coast (with a mix of F-Zero & Sonic The Hedgehog), with amazing drifting, slipstreaming and speed mechanics, complimented with a cool time rewind feature and a thumping synth pop soundtrack.

Slipstream has been a labour of love for Brazilian solo developer, Sandro Luiz de Paula (ansdor) since 2015. The love and attention to detail really stands out. Sandro’s Slipstream has pulled us right into one of our favourite arcade racer periods of the 80s and early 90s with gorgeous 2D sprite scaling and colourful pixel art graphics. This all amounts to an authentic retro experience on modern consoles with smooth and constant 60fps gameplay.

The entire package of Slipstream, from its graphics (with Pixelated, CRT and NTSC filters), speed and racing mechanics, awesome soundtracks to its six game modes, all combine to draw you into racing across a variety of twenty exotic locations from all around the world, including cities, deserts, forests, mountains and beaches. With a plethora of other retro inspired racers out there, Slipstream stands out with its speed, drifting, rewinding and slipstreaming mechanics, which add depth to the driving gameplay, resulting in a strategic, challenging and fun experience – what more could you ask for?! Oh yeah, it gets better, grab a few friends or family members and have yourself a local 4-player split-screen race.

The six game modes add longevity and variety for solo players, with different challenges. If you are time poor and need a quick fix of racing, then the single race or time trial modes are for you. If you have a bit more time on your hands, then the other modes (Grand Tour – just like in OutRun, Cannonball, Grand Prix and Battle Royale) provide ample challenges to test your racing skills. There are also some secrets to discover, which we won’t spoil for you here. Just like the arcade racers from yesteryear, Slipstream’s difficulty is dialled up, but luckily you don’t have to pump coins to continue enjoying the racing!

For under US$10/A$15, you get bang for your buck here, with an abundance of modes and amazing content. This all amounts to transporting gamers back three or so decades, when racing games were pure fun. The nostalgia that Slipstream induces is strong, so if you ever played and enjoyed racing games in the 80s and early 90s, then we highly recommend you add Slipstream to your games library!



Disclaimer: Nintendo Switch review code for Slipstream was provided by BlitWorks.

2022 World Video Game Hall of Fame Finalists

By

Which video games will make it into the World Video Game Hall of Fame?

Will Dance Dance Revolution hit the beat? Will Minesweeper clear the field or will NBA Jam be a slam dunk? The Strong’s World Video Game Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York, has announced the 12 finalists for this year’s induction:

  • Assassin’s Creed
  • Candy Crush Saga
  • Dance Dance Revolution
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
  • Minesweeper
  • Ms. Pac-Man
  • NBA Jam
  • PaRappa the Rapper
  • Resident Evil
  • Rogue
  • Sid Meier’s Civilization
  • Words with Friends

“This year’s 12 finalists showcase the range and depth of the video game world,” says Jon-Paul C. Dyson, director of The Strong’s International Centre for the History of Electronic Games. “There are true icons like Ms. Pacman, games that changes the industry like Rogue, and smartphone games that made gamers out of hundreds of millions of people, such as Candy Crush Saga and Words with Friends.”

The three games that receive the most public votes will form one ballot and will join the other ballots submitted by members of the International Selection Advisory Committee, which is made up of journalists and scholars familiar with the history of video games and their role in society. (The public, collectively, will have the weight of one judge.) The final inductees will be announced in a virtual ceremony by The Strong museum on Thursday, May 5, at 10:30 a.m.

The World Video Game Hall of Fame recognizes electronic games that meet the following criteria: icon-status, the game is widely recognized and remembered; longevity, the game is more than a passing fad and has enjoyed popularity over time; geographical reach, the game meets the above criteria across international boundaries; and influence, the game has exerted significant influence on the design and development of other games, on other forms of entertainment, or on popular culture and society in general.



An Amazing Retro Gaming Donation

By

When we first started ausretrogamer over a decade ago we never imagined that our little corner of nostalgia would capture the attention of people around Australia and around the world.

Over the years we have had readers contacting us to donate their wares, usually due to our genuine love of retro gaming and the preservation of classic games and consoles, plus no one wants to send stuff to landfill – it’s a win win!

A few weeks ago we were contacted by Mike, an avid reader of our site, who asked if we would be interested in his donation of classic consoles, computers and games. Mike sent us a photo of some of his goodies, and we must say, our eyes lit up at the vastness of the collection he was going to donate.

We finally met up with Mike late last week and the big surprise was that he had way more amazing stuff to donate than what was in the initial photos. We were pleasantly surprised and found it totally humbling that someone would generously give away their items to be preserved and enjoyed – which we will! The best part of this donation was meeting Mike and having a great conversation about games, systems and life in general – which is totally priceless.

We haven’t gone through all of the items Mike donated to ausretrogamer, but we thought we would share some photos of this amazing collection – scroll slowly to take in all the nostalgia!

Many thanks to Mike for his generosity, these will be cherished.

all images owned by & copyright of ausretrogamer



The Tabletop Retro Gaming Royal Rumble

By

There is no doubt that we are still in the honeymoon period with our gorgeous Taito EGRET II mini tabletop arcade, but there are a few seasoned classics that could easily knock it off its perch!

Of course the Sega Astro City mini is another beautiful little arcade in the mould of the EGRET, just a tad smaller in stature and without a number of bells and whistles that its bigger brother enjoys.

The arcade mini contenders face-off!

Going toe to toe!

Then there are the tabeltop  heavyweights that have withstood the test of time, Grandstand’s seminal Astro Wars (1981) and Nintendo’s Game & Watch tabletops from 1983. We would’ve added the Vectrex too, but we thought otherwise 😉

Now don’t get us started about superior graphics and sounds on the Sega and Taito arcade minis, that is a given, however there is something quite charming about VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display) displays and simple pew pew pew sound effects – they never get old!

We have wasted too many batteries to count playing Astro Wars, Mario’s Cement Factory and Donkey Kong Jr., which we still keep coming back to till this day – that’s 4 decades, and counting! Let’s see if we will be saying the same about the new arcade minis from Sega and Taito in the 2060s.

Let the Tabletop Royal Rumble begin!

For now, the EGRET II mini with the trackball & paddle controller is consuming our gaming time!



Super Mario World – Speedrun Record

By

image source: FURiOUS via Twitter

Super Mario World has been in our top 5 all-time favourite games for 3 decades – it is that good!

Now we recall playing SMW for hours and hours on end (we still do!), so you can imagine our jaw-dropping to the floor when we saw Brazilian gamer, Matheus Furtado (aka: FURiOUS) setting a new Super Mario World (0 Exit) speedrun record by completing it in 41.022 seconds!

Check it out!

PS: If you want to watch this speedrun effort on Twitch with all the beautiful SMW music and sound effects, go here.



Transforming a 90’s Hot Wheels PC into a Modern Gaming Beast

By


We have always been impressed by Shank Mods’ creations, like transforming the Virtual Boy in the Real Boy handheld!

Hold onto your hats folks, cause Shank Mods’ has now transformed a 1999 Hot Wheels PC into a high performance gaming beast! The eye-watering specs are impressive as they are expensive.

Before Specs:

  • Intel Celeron 500MHz processor,
  • 10GB hard drive,
  • 64MB of memory,
  • 56k modem,
  • 40x CD ROM drive,
  • 15″ CRT monitor and ran Windows 98

After Specs:

  • AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor,
  • Gigabyte X570 Aorus Mini-ITX motherboard,
  • ASUS X570-I ROG Strix Mini-ITX motherboard,
  • EVGA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 XC graphics card,
  • G.Skill Trident Z Neo Series RGB 128GB (4 x 32GB) RAM,
  • Samsung 980 Pro 2TB SSD, and an
  • LG WH16NS40 16x Internal Blu-Ray Rewriter.

This is pretty darn awesome!


source: Shank Mods



The Oregon Trail: The Story of a Classic Computer Game

By

The origin story of The Oregon Trail game dates to a long, long time ago when three teachers created this legendary game. Bill Heinemann, Don Rawitsch, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 created this game to teach kids about the 19th-century pioneer. 

After this game was created, it got famous because of its interesting concept and easy-to-understand interface. Kids who grew up between in the ’70s and ’80s know how popular this iconic computer game is. 

Many people think that this game is long forgotten and dead. But that’s not true because it’s popular among young players even today. To keep the gaming audience intact, this game has seen quite a few revisions that have only made it better. 

If you like this game or want to know more about it, read on! 

Why Do People Love This Game?

Did you know that The Oregon Trail game online has been released on multiple platforms by multiple game makers who acquired the rights? But the main essence of this game hasn’t been adulterated. It remains the same, which is the prime reason behind its popularity. 

Below are three ways in which this game depicts the life of 19th-century travellers. 

Death

One of the main themes of The Oregon Trail is death. And dying in the game is kind of fun. Wondering why we are saying that? Because people of a party might suddenly fall ill and die.

Most of the time, the cause of death was a simple broken leg or drowning while crossing a river. But people in the game have also died due to cholera, measles, typhoid, exhaustion, dysentery, and snakebite. 

Besides people, the death of animals due to illness, mainly oxen, was quite common. If the members of a party want, they could even organise a funeral for the people who have died and then move ahead on the trail. 

Hunting

The next interesting aspect is hunting, which kept almost all the players hooked to the Oregon Trail game online free. For hunting, players would require pixelated guns that they can purchase at the beginning or during the game. 

During the game, you can get different hunting options. Also, you can hunt a variety of wild animals, which includes squirrels, deer, rabbits, elk, bison, and bears.

When this game was initially released, it didn’t have advanced graphics. Also, to kill an animal, players would have to type “POW,” “WHAM,” or “BANG.” Whether you make a successful hunt or not depends on how quickly you can type the letters. And if there was a spelling error, you might miss the target. 

After that, the game got updated, including a little man who could shoot in eight different directions at the fast-moving animals. And the most recent version made it possible for players to hunt using crosshairs, which could be controlled using a mouse. 

Players mostly targeted bison because they were the slowest moving animals, but they offered the most weight in the food. Next are the squirrels that moved fast but gave very small weight to the food. 

Now the thing is, even if a player killed a large animal, they could only carry 100 lbs in their wagon. It was done to give a real-like feel to the game players. 

Scoring 

The third interesting aspect of The Oregon Trail game original was the scoring. Players would get a score at the end of the game. The awarded score depends on a few factors like remaining possessions, survivors, cash, and the profession that players have selected at the beginning. 

Different professionals offered different points. For instance, the given points would double if you have selected a carpenter. And tripled if you have selected a farmer. But if you have selected a banker, you won’t get any bonus. 

Why Was the Oregon Trail Established Originally?

The original Oregon Trail was established due to the following: 

Mining 

Mining made the Oregon Trail famous because travellers moved south of Oregon during the California Gold Rush to make money. While moving, they followed the route once used in the Oregon Trail between 1848 and 1855. 

Fur Trading

Fur trading was another reason that led to the establishment of the Oregon Trail. Wondering how? During the 1940s, fur trading became the primary source of income for the people of Canada, the U.S., and the Pacific Western area. 

Why Was the Oregon Trail Difficult? 

While the game was fun, the real Oregon Trail was difficult. This difficulty came mainly due to three factors: pestilence, war and the harsh natural environment. 

Pioneers faced difficulty finding clean water, and many had to resort to drinking dirty water, resulting in dysentery and death. Water-borne diseases such as cholera and smallpox also affected the masses. The conditions were only worsened by the bad weather. 

In the final years of the trail’s use, conflicts between the pioneers and natives became common. This made moving westward using the Oregon Trail more challenging than ever before. 

Traversing the Oregon Trail was no easy feat – but the game makes it all fun and games for the sake of entertainment. 

Conclusion

The cartoonish and silly parts of the game, like death by dysentery, will seem funnier now that you understand the realities of the Oregon Trail and the story of how the game came to be.

Whether you’ve played it for hours on end before or have never played it, the Oregon Trail is a game you should experience at least once once on a modern computer. Play The Oregon Trail on your browser for free on Classic Reload!

image source: Classic Reload