Oh how I miss the days of big boxed games. I remember walking into our local entertainment store and making a beeline to the games section to check out what was new. I loved picking up boxed games off the shelf and checking out their beautiful cover art. I would then turn the box over to check out the graphics and read the blurb. Ah, those were the days.
Alas, the good folks at Cinemaware Retro must have heard me! I had to rub my eyes to ensure this wasn’t a figment of my imagination – check out their classic big box Defender of the Crown – Extended Collectors Cut game! The different versions of the game will run on your PC and MAC, but best of all, the game will also run on your Amiga and CD32 (Ed: C64 folks don’t fret, there are disk-files of the classic game to create your own C64 disks!)! To say I am excited about all this would be a gross understatement. If you are (or were) a fan of Cinemaware’s games (Ed: there will be lots of you out there!), then this game would be right up your alley – better be quick, as there will only be a limited run of 500 units!
Cinemaware should be applauded for taking this initiative (check out their remastered Wings Amiga edition too!). If this succeeds, then hopefully Cinemaware will make other classic big box games from their awesome back catalogue! If this doesn’t tickle your nostalgic senses, then nothing will.
image source: Cinemaware Retro
At the recent PAXAus, we were lucky enough to have two Game Of Thrones Pro Edition pinball machines placed in our 
Yesterday we celebrated the Japanese release of the Mega Drive, today, it’s NEC’s little pocket rocket, the PC-Engine’s turn to bask in the glory of its awesomeness. On this day (October 30) in 1987, a little white unassuming console, the size of a chip packet, burst onto the Japanese market and caused an immediate stir. Within its compact size was an 8-bit (CPU) heart with twin 16-bit (GPUs) eyes, which resulted in beautiful looking games that were equally packed with great sound and gameplay. It’s games came on cute little cards called HuCards (Hudson Cards) or Turbo Chips in North America.
Sega’s 16-bit beast may have arrived on our shores late in 1990, but on this day (October 29) in 1988, Japan got a taste of the future with the release of the Mega Drive. A leap from the Master System, the Mega Drive brought home (almost perfect) arcade conversions, especially those from Sega’s own arcade stable.
Who said that pinball was dead? Well, it may have taken a back seat a decade and a half ago, but boy, has pinball come back in a big way. There has been a resurgence of flipping the silver ball with companies like Stern Pinball making contemporary tables based on the hottest bands and pop culture franchises on the planet, from AC/DC, Metallica, KISS, to Iron Man, The Walking Dead, Star Trek and WWE Wrestlemania, there surely is no shortage of great pinball machines to tilt and bump on.
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I got to hand it to Ms. ausretrogamer, her research skills and effort to find fun (gaming related) venues in cities we visited on our 
