The Pop-Culture E-Zine
If you have ever wondered what shenanigans go on behind the scenes in creating a retro computing magazine, then you are in luck! For those of you in the know, the Reset magazine crew got together for the inaugural podcast of the same name to chat about the making of Reset issue #9 (it was the Hewson Consultants theme issue).
If you weren’t in the know, now you know! Listen in and make sure you grab the issue for free over here!
source: Reset on Soundcloud
When DIY guru, Martijn Gazenbeek (aka: Akira on the bit fix gaming boards) contacted us to show us his latest creation, we had to pick up our collective jaws off the floor and wipe away the drool! In a tribute to Metroid, in particular Samus Aran’s Varia suit, Martijn has created the Varia Cube, a hot portable GameCube system!
Martijn is no stranger to creating lavish portable systems from old school gaming gear – he was also the mastermind behind the GC Lynx! For this particular project, Martijn toiled for 10 months and we can safely say, it looks like it was well worth the effort. Checking out the technical information (see further below), we are still in awe of this beast! For the full build log, you can go over here.
Oh yeah, the Varia Cube doubles up as a fully functional GameCube console (sans DVD drive) with composite and component out video interfaces to connect to any TV! The system is topped off with an impressive transport case. That Martijn Gazanbeek has thought of everything! Now get your bib on and start drooling!
image source: Bit Fix Gaming boards
* Case made out of a Nintendo GameCube ASCII Keyboard
* Painted in Samus Aran’s Varia Suit colour scheme
* GameCube PAL motherboard
* Original GameCube heatsink with custom fan
* All original Nintendo controls and sticks
* N64 joystick caps
* Nintendo DS Lite D-Pad
* Full original analog trigger (L and R buttons)
* Strong Rumble Feedback Motor
* 7 Inch LCD, VGA, 800 x 480, 16:9, Dalian Good-Display
* Original Nintendo Component video chip wired to produce VGA and Component out
* Swiss software can force any game into 480P and use a widescreen hack to force 16:9 (no stretch) for correct aspect ratio
* Wasp Fusion modchip flashed with Swiss Autoboot firmware
* 6400 mAh batteries (4 x Panasonic 3400 mAh 18650), 2.5 hours gameplay
* Battery Indicator with 4 leds to see how much power is left
* 128 MB Memory card soldered directly onto the motherboard (GameCube slot-A)
* SD Gecko adapter to run homebrew and emulators through Swiss (GameCube slot-B)
* Mini 2*3W @ 4O PAM8803 Class D Audio AMP
* Stereo sound speakers, used from ASUS ME172V MemoPad
* Switching stereo headphone jack
* VGA breakout box connector to hook up the console to a TV
* Switch to select between VGA/Component and swapping controls from console to breakout box for player one
* Audio controlled via right menu button
* Video control to access display menu – to switch between AV (composite) and VGA display
* Play ‘n charge – system can play from wall socket while being charged (comes with charger and power adaptor)
* Comes with 12V car adapter- play on the go with the high amp adapter
* Comes with 1 x 32GB SD card for GameCube games (wasp fusion slot) and 1 x 8GB for homebrew, games and emulators (GameCube Slot-B)
* Comes with breakout box
* Breakout box has 4 player ports, Component video port (Y Pr PB), composite video and stereo audio ports – compatible with Wavebird
* System comes with transport case
We hit our inaugural Madman Anime Festival in Melbourne (Sep 3 and 4) with great expectation and let’s just say, we weren’t disappointed. From being wowed by the awesome cosplay, checking out wonderful special guests like Cristina Lee (voice of Sailor Mars from Sailor Moon) and Makoto Furukawa (voice of Saitama from One-Punch Man), to the great exhibitions and the ever tempting merchandise, there was something to see, do and buy! Speaking of merchandise, we could not leave the festival empty handed, so Ripley and a few of her friends had to come home with us.
If you missed out on the Madman Anime Festival, then check out our highlight pics from this great event.
We arrive at #MadFest
We are armed with our guide
Before we enter the main floor of the festival, we meet Asuka!
Whoa!
OK, let’s do this!
Star Wars temptations
Hahahahaha!
Glamours at Banpresto
Dragon Ball Z represent
“Fire Fist” Ace
Goddamn that’s a big Gundam!
ausretrogamer Ed, Alex Boz can’t resist the urge to pose!
Play time! Final Fantasy XV (pre-release) action!
The Jedi readies his lightsabers
Stopped in our tracks
Oo’er, merchandise!
The great wall of goodness
Anime cinema!
Hey, it’s an anime festival!
Awesome cosplay
Get your weapon ready Ripley, aliens are nearby!
Aliens!
Thundercats classic
Very wicked stuff indeed
Even SBS PopAsia were getting in on the act
Oh yeah, One Punch Man!
Gundams Galore!
The heroes weapons await
A Jedi’s saber doesn’t come cheap
<3
Outside cosplay action
Spring cosplay!
Cosplay at its best!
Hitting the Madman Cosplay Parade!
And it begins!
That is one mad weapon!
The parade gets serious!
Clever cosplay – the Madman logo
Amazing cosplay
Armed forces
Super cute Pikachu
Adorable cosplay!
Best in show!
Dead-awesome!
image source: Madman Anime Festival
We salute you
image source: Madman Anime Festival
WOW
image source: Madman Anime Festival
Gotta catch them all!
image source: Madman Anime Festival
Neo Geo fans, start your drooling! Darksoft has done the unthinkable, he has created a Neo Geo flash cart not only for the MVS, but also for the AES – Christmas has come early!
Darksoft has indicated that the goal at the moment is to have a mix of technologies on the cartridge, like FPGA+DDR, ARM+Flash and CPLD, to ensure maximum versatility and fast load times. Oh yeh, the cart will have a microSD slot.
While older games (roms) will be supported on the flash cart, Darksoft has made it quite clear that he will not add any support for new games like the ones developed by NG:Dev.Team (that is a good thing!).
As mentioned, there will be 2 cartridges, one for the AES and the other for the MVS – the design being almost identical for each cart. Cartridges will come in plastic cases just like the original MVS/AES shockboxes. Expected cost is in the vicinity of $400.
If you want more details about this awesome creation, head on over to the Arcade-Project forum.
image source: Darksoft via Arcade-Projects
Commodore will always be our first true (gaming) love. Yeah, we may have wanted an Atari (VCS/2600), but then we saw the C64 and the rest, as they say, is history.
You could imagine our delight when we came across a Lemon64 post showing a heap of photos from an Australian Commodore store from the late 90s (thanks Rob Caporetto!).
Lemon64 forum user, CronicBadger was kind enough to share the photos he took from the Korella Trading’s ‘The Commodore 64 Store’ in Belmont, N.S.W. Being a huge Commodore fan, CronicBadger shares some great stories that he had heard in the store , including how Commodore was still importing C64s in 1993 to fulfil demand for the venerable 8-bit micro! To read more of CronicBadger’s reflection (and see more awesome pics) from ‘The Commodore 64 Store’, head on over to the Lemon64 forum now.
source: CronicBadger on Lemon64
If you are a keen arcade and pinball gamer and you don’t have the space in your home to cram a bunch of machines, perhaps this PinCade – an all-in-one pinball and arcade machine is your answer!
The PinCade is currently available on eBay and is going for a pretty penny (or best offer). If you factor in all of the pinball machines you can play (yep, we are well aware that they are digital) and all vertically oriented arcade games, then this machine becomes a pretty good proposition. It also doesn’t hurt that it looks damn awesome! Ah, if only we had the funds to add this to our games room.
Oo’er, are you scared stiff?
Choose your pinball table!
Flippin hell, it’s Indy!
Once you are done playing pinball, get some Pac-Man into ya!
If Pac-Man is not to your liking, then perhaps some shmup action!
source: eBay
Whoa! Let’s start by saying that French illustrator and animator, Guillaume Kurkdjian has totally blown our mind with his awesome 3D animated works of electronic items. Guillaume has created iconic electronic items from the French Minitel, to the Kaypro 2 fold-out computer and the vector based all-in-one video gaming system, the Vectrex!
To check out the rest of Guillaume’s brilliant electronic animations and other illustrations here!
source: Guillaume Kurkdjian
We have previously featured Dan Polydoris’ awesome Activision Action Figures creations and it seems that he is at it again!
This time, Dan has gone with the venerable Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game theme by creating a line of Black Box era action figures that would not look out of place on the shelf in your local toy store! Alas, you won’t find these at your local Kmart or Target store, but you can head to Dan’s Death By Toys store to order these luscious custom creations – but you better be quick as they are selling fast!
PS: We secretly hope Dan makes more of these action figures, especially the Ice Climber and the Hogan’s Alley figures!
source: Death By Toys
Forget Lucas Barton declaring his love of the Power Glove because it was so BAD. Yep, the Power Glove was a terrible peripheral, but goddammit, it was so damn cool! What’s there not to have liked about it when you looked like a cyborg with it on!
Now imagine if the Power Glove was a useful peripheral! Imagine no more, as computer engineering genius, Nolan Moore has devised a Power Glove UHID (Universal Human Interface Device) project to overhaul Nintendo’s peripheral with modern sensors and wireless communication to provide the ability to use gesture and motion controls with almost anything you can think of, but in style!
Check out the video below of what has been achieved thus far with this oh so bad peripheral! Keep up to date with the project by visiting Hackaday.io. Thanks to Nolan, we can (at last!) say that the Power Glove is sooooo good!
source: HACKADAY
There were a number of big name publishers back in the day that had multiple chart toppers with an equal share of stinkers on the Commodore 64. The exception to this rule was Hewson Consultants (or simply Hewson as we affectionately called them). With absolute classics like Uridium, Paradroid, Ranarama, Cybernoid (this list could get quite exhaustive, such was their pedigree), Hewson was always going to leave a delectable and an ever lasting legacy on the C64. Their games had an undeniable quality to them which is probably why they are still spoken of so fondly even to this day, which is testament to the top notch software they pumped out for the 8-bit Commodore behemoth.
With a ton of games to choose from, our favourite Hewson title was the 1987 hit, Nebulus! We were suckers for brain teasing platform games, and Nebulus provided a mind bending experience in spades. The central character, Pogo was so damn cute and yet so very deadly – once we took control of him, we were addicted. Moving Pogo and jumping over obstacles to try and get to the top of each tower felt as natural as breathing. We remember the first time we saw the tower spin as Pogo walked left and then right, we were all wide-eyed with mouth open as if we were swallowing flies! This innovation was refreshing and executed inch perfect, which only Hewson could pull off.
To read the rest of this story, grab Reset #9 now and turn to page 28! Oh yeh, Reset is totally free!
For the latest on Hewson Consultants projects, check out their Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight now!
