retrogaming

SNES M16 Multipurpose Arcade Combat Simulator

April 1, 2016 By ausretrogamer

It may be April 1st, but this ain’t no joke! Our good friends at The Gaming Warehouse made us aware that the elusive and extremely rare Multipurpose Arcade Combat Simulator (MACS) Basic Rifle (M16 Rifle) was for sale on Amazon at a cool price of $3,000!

Many would be asking themselves, what the hell is this? In a nutshell, it is an M16 Rifle designed (for the U.S. Army Infantry School) to simulate Basic Rifle Marksmanship (BRM) by using inexpensive off-the-shelf products, in this case, a lightgun, software and a Super Nintendo.

The Multipurpose Arcade Combat Simulator (MACS) was developed to overcome the training problems that resulted from insufficient facilities and too few instructors. While interest was primarily focused on its use as a rifle marksmanship trainer, MACS was designed so that the basic hardware could be used to provide training on a variety of weapons systems.

The MACS product was patented in 1986 by the US Army Research Institute Fort Benning Field Unit, which conducted research on training and training technology with particular emphasis on individual and small team skills in the Infantry arena.

Now, enough of this talk, we want to keep drooling over this M16 lightgun – who can spare us $3K? 😉

Connect me to that SNES!

Looks like this M16 lightgun has seen some action

RTFM’ing like a boss!

Aha, all MACS bits required!

Whack in the cart, and away we go!

sources: Amazon, DTIC and Video Game Museum

Melbourne Silverball League: Get Flippin

March 31, 2016 By ausretrogamer

Attention all you pinball loving peeps, April 1 2016 will mark the commencement of the new Melbourne Silverball League monthly pinball tournament. This new tournament will be based on a selfie format, but more on that later! No, this is no April Fools’ Day joke, this is for real!

After his recent US trip to Arcade Expo 2.0 competing in the It Never Drains In Southern California pinball tournament, Martin Robbins was inspired to set up a similar qualifying and competition format here in Melbourne, hence the Melbourne Silverball League (MSL) was born. The first selfie competition in Melbourne will be at Bartronica in Flinders Lane. This is how the MSL pinball competition format will work:

Each month there will be particular pinball machines at Bartronica selected for qualifying – for the month of April the machines will be: Creature from the Black Lagoon, Party Zone, Addams Family, Goldeneye 007 and Pin*Bot. Play on each of these machines and take a photo of your score. You can either upload your picture via the tournament location at Matchplay.Events or post it to the Melbourne Silverball League (MSL) Facebook page. One of the MSL scorekeepers will review your photo and then submit your score. Your ranking on each machine will be worth more points the higher up you are to give you a combined overall ranking (based on the PAPA format i.e.: 100 points for the top score, then 90 for 2nd, 85 for 3rd and so on). The combined scores of the top 16 ranked players will qualify for the playoff (which is on the first Sunday of the following month).

To ensure your score submission goes smoothly, your selfie should have your face and the score to help the MSL scorekeepers validate your submission. Some patience might be needed where certain machines take a while to scroll through credits to get back to your score.

If we have lost you so far, here are the TL;DR (that’s Too Long;Didn’t Read) notes:

Register your participation at the MSL Facebook page;
play pinball at Bartronica;
upload pictures to MSL Facebook page of your awesome scores;
check the MSL Facebook page to see how you are ranking for that month;
get in to the top 16 players to qualify for the monthly head to head comp to determine the overall winner.

It is that easy! So what are you waiting for? Go and register now and then hit Bartronica during the month of April to rack up your high score!

Martin Robbins – the brains behind the Melbourne Silverball League

Shane Rubans getting some testing done at Bartronica
source: Melbourne Silverball League

The Exotic Neo Geo Console

March 8, 2016 By ausretrogamer

I am a big fan of creative (and talented) peeps that tinker and create wonderful gaming gear, especially the one-of-a-kind creations!

As you may have guessed, we are huge fans of SNK’s Neo Geo range, especially their MVS and AES systems. We had recently been stalking the Neo Geo market for something special and different. To our pleasant surprise, we stumbled upon a country that seemed to be the hotbed for exotic Neo Geo creations – Spain! Yep, Spain! Those Spaniards don’t cut corners when it comes to making their wares standout, a case in point being this sleek and shiny consolized Neo Geo MVS beauty!

Shiny and sleek!

With great effort going into the presentation of the console, its metallic case and gorgeous curves ooze contemporary industrial design that even Xbox and Playstation owners would be envious of! To compliment its great looks, this consolized MVS beast has video (SCART/RGB/S-Video) and audio (stereo composite) outputs that would definitely raise the hairs on the back of your neck when playing your favourite MVS titles!

Before you ask about the controls and other internals, the console has two SNK Neo Geo AES/CD joystick ports, with credit buttons for each player to rack up the play credits (Ed: woo hoo, no more 20c coins required). Oh yeh, the rig is complimented with Universe BIOS (UniBIOS), giving you a feature-rich list of options.

When it comes to playing games on this console, the visuals are a tour-de-force on any old-school CRT and even on newer TVs (plasma/LCD), we kid you not! We can finally put away the AES and Phantom-1, as this one-of-a-kind MVS console provides us that Neo Geo gaming hit we need!

Turn me on, baby!

Rack up the credits!

A voluptuous rear end

SCART me!

Match cartridge with arrow, or else!

Raid The Atari Vault At The PC Gamer Weekender

March 1, 2016 By ausretrogamer

There is no hiding the fact that we are huge Atari fans – always have been, always will be. We definitely have a soft spot for Atari’s old school gaming franchises – so to our delight, the company that brought us Pong and the VCS will be attending The PC Gamer Weekender at London’s Old Truman Brewery this coming weekend, March 5-6. They will be unleashing their Atari Vault, which will be packed with 100s of classic Atari games.

The Atari Vault (slated for a Northern Hemisphere spring 2016 launch on Steam) will be stacked with classics such as Asteroids®, Centipede®, Missile Command®, Tempest® and Warlords® to name a few. To relive the gaming experience in the modern age, Atari have added online and local multiplayer options, an upgraded UI and original 70’s and 80’s soundtracks, Steam leaderboards to challenge others for arcade supremacy and most importantly, Steam controller support – giving you, the player, precision control to take out your fellow challengers.

When it comes to Atari’s seminal titles, there is no denying their timeless appeal transcend generations and provide the same fun as they did when we were knee-high to a grasshopper. Bring on the Atari Vault!

image source: Atari

Arcade Expo 2.0: Pinball Extravaganza

February 15, 2016 By ausretrogamer

As we sit down with Martin Robbins over some home-baked banana almond muffins, we notice a glint of excitement in his eye. You see, Martin was recently in the US and attended Arcade Expo 2.0 at the Museum Of Pinball in Banning, California. This is part one of Martin’s experience at one of the biggest pinball and arcade machine expos in the US. Take it away Martin!

Wow, where does one even start with an event like Arcade Expo 2.0? When I decided to head over to the US for Arcade Expo 2.0, I went without any expectation other than to experience the event first hand and have fun for three days. I was looking forward to seeing pinball and arcade machines that I hadn’t seen or played in years. I was also excited to be participating in the ‘It Never Drains In Southern California‘ pinball tournament and to see the world’s best players like Keith Elwin and Karl DeAngelo in action. I was also looking forward to checking out new pinball reveals and wasn’t disappointed after seeing Keith and Randy Elwin’s Archer pinball whitewood demonstration. Let’s just say that Arcade Expo 2.0 didn’t disappoint.

Immortalised on the Arcade Expo 2.0 Signature Wall!

The big reveal, Keith an Randy Elwin’s Archer pinball whitewood!

Playing on the one of a kind

Upon arrival at the Museum Of Pinball, I was immediately struck by the enormity of it all. The vibe was great, even outside the venue was surrounded by food trucks, indie musicians and chiptune artists. Everyone who entered got to autograph a giant wall on the way in, and once inside you chose right for the arcade machines or left for the pinball tables. Of course I turned left. I was met by a glorious sight – rows and rows of pinball machines from the early 1960s through to modern tables, all assembled in order of manufacturer. There were pinball tables from Gottlieb, Williams, Bally, Atari, Game Plan, Zaccaria, Data East, Alvin G, Sega, Capcom, Midway, Spinball and Stern. Even though I had 3 days to enjoy, with over 550 machines to choose from I knew I had to be selective and focus on the machines I really wanted to play – I was not disappointed with what I found.

Glorious pinball!

A sight for sore eyes

Flippin action, old school style

What did surprise me was the number of extremely rare machines in great condition such as the two Joust machines that were side by side, an Atari Hercules and a row of Game Plan machines including my bucket list game Cyclopes – it lived up to expectations. Other rare games I managed to play were Spinball’s Verne’s World and Jolly Park which were loads of fun, Alvin G’s Pistol Poker and Al’s Garage Band Goes On a World Tour were also great! Special mention must go to Time Fantasy from Williams (1983), this machine has really strange but awesome art design including what I can only describe as an “Acid Snail” – look it up! To think that that majority of these machines were all from the private collection of one person, John Weeks, is just staggering. I also kept finding myself coming back to the Electro-Mechanical (EM) machines which were in fantastic condition. They really helped me fine tune my nudging skills and ultimately helped me with my ‘other’ reason for attending Arcade Expo 2.0.

Evel Knievel!

Seeing red

Electro-mechanical magic

Apart from immersing myself in this great expo, I was also there to compete in the Professional and Amateur Pinball Association (PAPA) Circuit Event: ‘It Never Drains In Southern California’ (INDISC). Having played a number of local pinball tournaments in Australia, I was looking forward to experiencing a tournament of this size. With a mix of modern and classic tables, ‘It Never Drains In Southern California’ was an awesome experience. I’ll admit I was a bit nervous as I had only decided to go over the week before and hadn’t researched the format of the tournament nor did I know the list of machines till I was due to fly out. When I arrived at the tournament area I was greeted by INDISC organisers Karl DeAngelo and Jim Belsito whom, with the help of software created by Karl, had created a very accessible format. There were 12 machines in the Modern Tournament including well known machines; The Walking Dead, Demolition Man, Dr Who, The Getaway and Lord of the Rings and some really unique and less often ones, including; Godzilla, Hoops, Twister, Laser War, Grand Lizard, Torpedo Alley and Waterworld! To make things more interesting, a lot of these machines had been made challenging by removing the rubbers on the outlanes and centre posts, as well as some additions to make certain shots harder like the massive rubber on the lock shot on Grand Lizard – only a precise shot would work. It was also great to see my fellow competitors sharing gameplay tips and hints. Their positive encouragement and sportsmanship provided that extra confidence boost.

Oh yes, Joust in the flesh!

Atari’s Hercules – world’s largest pinball machine under lights

The Big Bang!

So how did I go? Not knowing the rules meant that I did much better in the Classics (pre 1990) Tournament where I relied on flipper skills and nudging alone. Having qualified equal 16^th in the A division, I had to compete in a play-off, which I lost, but the upside of it was that I qualified 1^st for the B division. My high B division qualification afforded me the choice of machines we would play (or not play – yep, I am looking at you Skateball!). I ended up coming second but felt a great camaraderie with my fellow Classics B division finalists and was really happy with my experience.

Tournament Play!

Calling the tournament action

In Never Drains In Southern California intensifies!

I would absolutely recommend going to Arcade Expo in 2017 and to participate in the INDISC pinball tournament. I often hear that pinheads are the friendliest people in the world, and I can safely say, this was made abundantly clear at the expo – everyone was accessible and helpful, especially when it came to the format of the tournament and the table rules. I promise I’ll be better prepared next time, so watch out!

Rather than tell you more about Arcade Expo 2.0, I thought I would share my album and let the photos speak for themselves. Oh yeah, in part two of Arcade Expo 2.0, I’ll be sharing my arcade experience (with heaps of pics) – so stay tuned!

Thrill Of The Chase: A Gamer’s Paradise

January 20, 2016 By ausretrogamer

They say that a picture tells a thousand words. Based on that adage, this article would be over 42,000 words! Luckily for you all, we won’t bore you with too many words and allow the photos to speak for themselves.

First, let’s set the scene: when we travelled to the US and Canada last August, we found quite a few interesting places – A Gamer’s Paradise was one very interesting place that we did visit. Adjacent to the Pinball Hall Of Fame on East Tropicana Avenue in Las Vegas, one cannot miss A Gamer’s Paradise (Ed: If you have, then you missed out!). Entering this store was like stepping back to the local entertainment and gaming stores we frequented back in the 80s and early 90s – there was Sega, Nintendo, Atari, Commodore, Coleco and all other classic gaming brands from the good old days. Oh yeah, there was also pinball and arcade games to take up your time if you are done shopping for your retro goodies.

Not only did we have a few pinball games and pick up a few games for the Atari Jaguar and Sega CD, we were drooling at the museum pieces in the glass cabinets. So, without further ado, we present A Gamer’s Paradise for your viewing pleasure!

Yours truly with the abandon arcade machine – what wonders will await us inside?

Hello Paradise!

Hello more paradise!

So that’s how the North American Dreamcast kiosks look like!

Oh my, that is one seriously huge N64 kiosk!

Play some arcade machines while browsing for your retro goodies

If you prefer pinball, then you are in luck too!

The great wall of Sega!

Always look up, you never know what you might miss!

What do we have up here then? Whoa!

Handheld heaven!

Is that Keith Courage for the TurboGrafx-16 down there?

Whoa, Jaguar merch!

What to do first – play pinball or check out those NES carts?

Look at those shelves! Oh yeh, check out Samus!

Do my eyes deceive me, is that a Philips Videopac 7000 (aka: Magnavox Odyssey 2)?

Did someone say they need Odyssey games? Here you go

Oh snap!

Williams’ SlugFest for $1500! Bargain!

Cheap Gear

We’d like to stick around with these awesome pixelated magnets!

Ello, ello, ello, what do we have up here then…

Play me! Well, that’s what it says!

Let’s check out this glass cabinet then!

Oh my, a Quiz Wiz! Even Donkey Kong seems to like it!

I’d love that gorgeous Tele-Games and Sega Pico!

A very intelligent vision!

Oo’er, those are lovely comp

We’ll start at the bottom – oh Galaga!

Now that is a cheap Famicom 20th anniversary Game Boy Micro

Here come the Atari 8-bits!

Oh yes, the Atari 800 lurking in the background!

Mattel’s ill-fated Aquarius

More exotic old school gear to drool over!

Um, this SNES Counter Tester system is beyond beautiful!

Last museum glass cabinet. Let’s take a closer look…

Oo’er, a Wondermega, I mean a JVC X’Eye

A Magnavox CD-i! Did Philips know about it? *wink*

The Atari monstrosity!

*Gulp* Sega Channel on the CDX! Wow!

As we exit A Gamer’s Paradise, we wave goodbye to the lonely arcade machine

Interview With Retro Rich: A Neo Geo Superstar

January 12, 2016 By ausretrogamer

We’ll start this by thanking Twitter. I know, it is a strange way of starting an interview piece, but the context must be set. If it wasn’t for the social media Goliath, we would never had met so many fantastic people in the retro gaming community, just like our very good friend from the UK, Richard Evans (aka: Retro Rich). After many conversations, limited to 140 characters of course, we decided it was high time we got Rich in the ausretrogamer interview hot seat! Grab your favourite snack and beverage, kick back and let’s see what Rich has to say for himself…

AUSRETROGAMER [ARG]: So Rich, hope we can call you Rich, tell us how you got into gaming?
Retro Rich [RR]: You certainly can call me Rich! Well my first memory of gaming was at my cousin’s house when I was very young. He had what I now know to be an Atari 2600 with the game Combat. Whenever I went there I always asked him to play Combat with me. I loved the tanks! Around the same time I visited another cousin of mine and she had Grandstand Astro Wars. I wanted both the Atari and Astro Wars so badly, but it wasn’t until some years later I was lucky enough to own a computer of my own. My father decided that we needed a BBC Micro at home because that was what we had at school. I don’t really ever remember using it for school work, but I do remember playing Granny’s Garden and Magic Adventure at school. The first games we owned at home were Acornsoft titles Planetoid and Arcadians which were good clones of arcade hits Defender and Galaxian. I grew up with the BBC and ended up with it in my room, so I bought games myself. The ones which I remember and loved the best were Elite, Citadel, Chuckie Egg, Repton 3 and Codename: Droid. I only really replaced the BBC when I got a Sega Master System Plus many years later and it spiraled from there. Next came a Mega Drive, then the Playstation, Playstation 2, N64 and so on.

ARG: Are you equally both into retro and modern gaming?
RR: Not really, it’s mostly all retro nowadays. I do own an Xbox 360, but my son Ethan plays that most of the time. He plays FIFA and Minecraft a lot. The last games I played on the 360 were Skyrim and Fallout 3 which I think are amazing games. So immersive, especially in Dolby 5.1 surround. Bethesda are awesome! The trouble is I find I don’t have the time to get into those longer games, and that’s where arcade games fit in since I can just play one for 10 minutes without having to spend an hour remembering where I was.

ARG: What is it about retro gaming that you most like and enjoy?
RR: There is obviously a significant nostalgia value to these old games since I grew up with them. But more than that I think some of the games still hold up against the games of today. Gameplay truly is more important than great graphics and sound. I also really enjoy the social interaction of the retro gaming scene, which I mostly participate in through Twitter. I’ve made so many friends! It’s like becoming a member of a really large club where there are so many cool and interesting people with similar interests. A group of us have created our own gaming organization / club called the Gaming Illuminati which started from an informal high score competition. There are five of us now, and we have the website coded by one of our members (Rob). The site features our scoreboard where we compete against each other for fun. Finally another attraction for me is the engineering side. I love fixing things and vintage gaming provides opportunity for that in large amounts!

ARG: Tell us about your games room setup?
RR: Unfortunately I don’t have a proper games room as I’m limited by space, so my games share the lounge (Den, family room). If I move house I intend to buy a place with enough space for a proper games room.

My console collection consists of: Mega Drive (PAL), Megadrive 2 PAL (modded to allow 60Hz and NTSC and NTSC-J), a jailbroken Neo Geo X, SNES, Playstation 2 – 1st Gen, Nintendo Wii, XBOX, Nintendo Gamecube, Sega Dreamcast, Xbox 360, Atari 2600 Jr, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Nintendo DS and a Nintendo DS Lite.

All the consoles that support stereo sound end up going through my surround amp in one way or another. I try and connect them to the TV using the best picture method, so where supported they have RGB Scart or component cables.

The arcade collection is as follows: Neo Geo MVS 6-slot Electrocoin Arcade and a JAMMA cabinet I built from a flat pack kit – which is wired for JAMMA+ and has various arcade systems installed; a Hyper Neo Geo 64, 2 x Neo Geo MVS 1-slotters and a GameElf with both horizontal and vertical game card (which has about 1000 arcade games).

ARG: Do you have a fave retro system? If so, tell us which one and why it is your fave.
RE: It’s really difficult to pick one only! I think my favorite console is the SNES. The SNES has some of my favorite games including Legend Of Zelda, Super Mario Kart and Super Mario World and I love the control pads on the SNES – small but perfectly formed with loads of buttons. I feel I also need to mention my Neo Geo X as it’s rather special. It has a Jailbreak by OMG-SNK installed which means it plays all but 2 of the 148 official Neo Geo games, and has emulators for Capcom CPS too. It also plays ROMs from most 16-bit and below systems including Mega Drive, Master System, SNES, NES, Game Boy, GBC, GBA and Atari. It has literally hundreds of games on it and is a great emulation system with the addition of being completely portable when the handheld is removed.

ARG: From chatting with you on social media, we know you are a huge Neo Geo fan – why do you have such an affinity for SNK’s Neo Geo?
RR: I’m actually quite a latecomer to Neo Geo would you believe? I never played or owned one as a kid. I saw games for sale in magazines and couldn’t understand why they were so expensive when compared to other games systems of the time. It was more a myth, with one of my friends claiming they had another friend who owned one. When I started getting interested in arcade games I watched John’s Arcade on YouTube and when I saw his Neo Geo 4-slot “Big Red”, I knew I wanted to get one – it just looked so awesome! I still want a US spec Neo Geo like that one, but I’m very happy with my UK spec machine. I love the architecture from a technical point of view, and it has in my opinion, some of the best arcade games ever made. I could literally list tens of games here as the best ones, but I particularly like the Samurai Showdown and King Of Fighters series, the Metal Slug series, Pulstar and Blazing Star.

ARG: Any plans on getting an AES? If not, what other potential retro gaming items are you targeting for 2016?
RR: I don’t have any immediate plans to get an AES because I own several MVS systems and obviously I still have a long way to go to get all the games I want. That coupled with the fact that MVS games are generally cheaper anyway, means I’m unlikely to start collecting for AES any time soon – unless I come into large sums of money obviously! I would like to make either a consolized MVS, or better still, a SuperGun with a cool custom enclosure and control panel. That might be a better option since I could then plug in other arcade systems including an MVS. I kind of like the idea of making this myself and I certainly have the technical know-how needed. The more challenging side of it would be making it look cool, but I have friends who could help me with that. On the console side, I would really like a NES and a bunch of games. Will probably start looking out for a good deal this year. Finally, I really want an original R-Type arcade board, or better still, a Nintendo R-Type arcade cabinet. I love this game which I first played on the Sega Master System as a kid. I would like to go for the Twin Galaxies world record on R-Type, but keep that to yourself… sshhh… ARG: Your secret is safe with us! *winks*

ARG: You recently put up a YouTube video (which our readers can see below), what are the plans for your channel?
RR: I’m going to keep it simple to start with and not over complicate it or try to come across as a pro when I’m obviously not. I will continue to record using my iPhone 6s for now, but if things work out I will get a dedicated camera later. I’d also like to aim to stick to one-take videos so that I don’t end up delaying a release due to editing time etc. I have enough to think about remembering all the stuff I need to say, and trying to stay focused as it is when I’m recording – not to mention how nervous I am! As far as content goes, I aim to keep it all focused on retro gaming. I will continue to upload my Twin Galaxies world record attempt videos. I also have a list of requests to cover and things I’ve added myself, which include: more restoration videos, including my Neo Geo MVS; videos on the Xbox Steel Battalion plus the controller; my JAMMA cab and it’s various systems and technical setup; the scan-line generator (in the JAMMA cab); my Hyper Neo Geo 64 and the four fighting games; my consoles and demos of the modified Mega Drive 2. I’m also going to do a video on the Neo Geo X jailbreak. I will cover some of the Neo Geo games, and will probably tweet out before I record it asking for suggestions from my followers for games they would like me to include in the video, and then I will credit them with a mention!

ARG: Now we get to the hard hitting question – do you have an all-time favourite game? If you have more than one, that’s cool, we will allow this privilege only this once *winks*
RR: Well, as predicted, that is a tough one! I have always loved the Legend Of Zelda games, and if you had to push me to pick one it would probably be A Link To The Past on the SNES, but I do really like the gameplay on the Wii versions. The Skyward Sword game with the Motion Plus controller really works for me. I also really love shmups, so Pulstar, Blazing Star and R-Type have to get a mention here too.

ARG: Where can people get in touch with you or check up on what you are up to?
RR: They can follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my YouTube channel. Oh yeh, check out http://gaming-illuminati.net. I love seeing and hearing about other collections and gaming related stuff, so just get in contact!

We wanted to keep Rich in the interview hot seat and ask him a heap more questions, but we had to allow him to get back to his family and his many retro gaming goodies. We can always ask him follow up questions on Twitter – so watch out Rich!

A big thank you to Rich for agreeing to this interview and allowing us to take a peek at his awesome gaming collection. I wonder who we will put in the interview hot seat next…………

It’s An Atari 80s Christmas

December 26, 2015 By ausretrogamer

Christmas is always a great time to reflect. We usually reflect on the year that had just gone by, but for this year, let’s change that and go back a bit further, like back to the 80s when Atari was still king of the video gaming market.

Grab your eggnog and reflect on these early 80s Atari Christmas commercials compiled by haikarate4.

source: haikarate4

Just in case you wanted to know which commercials made up this great compilation, here they are:
• E.T. Commercial Atari 2600
• Atari 5200 Ms Pac Man and Jungle Hunt
• Atari 2600 Atlantis Commercial By Imagic
• Cosmic Ark By Imagic Featuring the kid from A Christmas Story
• Atari 5200 Super System Commercial

2015 Australian Timezone Supanova Pinball Championship Grand Final

November 30, 2015 By ausretrogamer

This past weekend pinball players from all around Australia descended on Supanova Brisbane to compete in the grand final of the 2015 Australian Timezone Supanova Pinball Championship, with the winner walking away with a brand spanking new Stern WWE Wrestlemania Pro pinball machine! With all Australian state winners (and runners-up) in attendance, this wasn’t going to be an easy flip and tilt to become the national champion.

With an impressive line-up of pinball machines (2 x WWE Wrestlemania Pro, 2 x Kiss Pro and 2 x Game Of Thrones tables) to compete on, it was game on! After winning the Supanova Melbourne state final, we interviewed Johnny Crabtree and predicted that he would be a sure bet to hoist the national trophy and truck back the brand new pinball machine. So, how did we go with our prediction? We were right on the money! With 34 points in the final, Johnny fought off some stiff competition from Greg Siegele (2^ndon 33 points) and Richard Rhodes (3^rdon 31 points) to win by one point to claim the national title and the big winner’s prize of a Stern WWE Wrestlemania Pro pinball machine. It just goes to show how close the competition is among the top tier pinball wizards. Congratulations Johnny, a very well-deserved win!

The crowd gathers to watch the pinball wizards do what they do best

Let the flipping begin!

Marty Robbins keeping a close eye on the competition

Greg Siegele scores an impressive 126,523,740 on WWE Wrestlemania!

And the 2015 Australian Timezone Supanova Pinball Champion is – Johnny Crabtree!

Enjoying their spoils – winners are grinners!

image source: Australian Pinball League

Congratulations and thank you to the organisers, volunteers and sponsors (AMD, Timezone Australia, Supanova Pop Culture Expo and Australian Pinball League) of the event – without them, this would not be at all possible.

Roll on 2016 and keep flippin’!

The Mini Arcade By SuperGameCo

November 26, 2015 By ausretrogamer

Have you always wanted to make your own mini arcade tabletop machine? Are you a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) hack just like me? If you answered yes to both questions, then the SuperGameCo Mini Arcade may be just what you are looking for.

Made from bamboo panels that snap together, the Mini Arcade is a breeze to setup – if you prefer (Ed: are too lazy), SuperGameCo also offer the Mini Arcade in fully assembled form.

At the heart of the Mini Arcade is a very speedy Raspberry Pi 2 Model B computer, running Emulation Station. This ensures that the emulators and games run nice and smooth. We didn’t experience any slowdown during play – which was great. The 9″ LCD screen provides great resolution, but the marquee protrudes a tad too much which tends to get in the way if you are not sitting down low.

The control deck is made up of an 8-way Sanwa/Seimitsu arcade stick and 6 concave arcade buttons. These are complimented with a single player select button and an insert coin (credit) button on the left side of the unit to provide an authentic arcade feel when playing games via MAME.

Audio on the Mini Arcade is pumped through the front facing speakers via a stereo amplifier. We did find that the sound wasn’t as beefy as we would have liked, which took away a bit from the experience when playing shoot’em ups with booming explosions.

We found the Mini Arcade to be a breeze to operate and play games. The assembly was nice and easy, and once you are all setup, it is pretty straight forward to select your favourite old game and get all nostalgic. If you are struggling to find a Christmas present for your retro gaming partner, then the Mini Arcade may be a viable option.

PROS:
– Clever snap-together kit (or you could opt for it to be fully assembled)
– Easy to get started playing games
– Latest Raspberry Pi 2 Model B internals
– Quality Sanwa/Seimitsu arcade joystick
– Inclusion of the Insert Coin button provides an authentic arcade feel
– Multiple interfaces (USB/RJ45) for additional connectivity

CONS:
– Marquee is obtrusive when playing on the 9″ LCD display
– Button layout felt a tad cramped
– Sound is reasonable, but it needs to be meatier
– Insert coin button stickiness (may have just been our unit)
– Power supply cord was too short
– Graphics on the bamboo panels would be nice

The Mini Arcade product variants and prices can be found at the SuperGameCo store here.

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