retrogaming

Valentine’s Day Bling For Retrogamers

13/02/2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

Everyone loves some bling – even retrogamers. But retrogamers also like to let their geek flag fly free and proud. So when it comes to jewellery, wear your nerdy heart on your finger with these awesome rings.

A Legendary Zelda Cart Ring

Invade My Heart!

You Control My Heart!

You Can’t Take This Ring From Me

Are You Ready For a Lifetime of Adventures?

A Wonderful Ring

This is the Ring You’re Looking For

I Love You. I Know.

I Hope This is My Ring

The Building Blocks of Love

Mario Loves Peach!

Press X to Fall in Love

It’s Dangerous to Go Alone!

A Timeless Love

I Choose You!

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Ms. ausretrogamer
Editor and Researcher at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.

Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter

Arts And Crafts: Retrogamer-Style

12/02/2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

I know it’s tempting to spend all your spare time gaming – but it’s important to cultivate your creativity and your problem-solving skills, and what better way than with some arts and crafts (just remember how exciting it was when it was time for art class back in school!).

There’s no need to abandon your love of retrogaming though – here are some awesome ideas for retrogaming (and generally geeky) themed art projects. Quick, run and get your hot glue gun, scissors and paint brush – it’s time to get inspired and creative!

Space invaders pop-up card

Felt Floppy Disk Coin Purses

Mutant Enemy 6-inch embroidery hoop art (grr argh!)

Mario embroidery

Cute crocheted Pikachu and Toad hats

An elegant Triforce candle

Floppy disk planters

Pac-Man corkboard

Video Game Pixel Art With Perler Beads

The Star Wars Craft Book by Bonnie Burton

Pac-Man Ghost-Chomping Clock

source: 60 Awesome Geek Crafts From Around the Web and 24 Crafts To Totally Geek Out About

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Ms. ausretrogamer
Editor and Researcher at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.

Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter

Free To Play Retro Game Mash-Ups

06/02/2015 By Ms. ausretrogamer

Mash-ups aren’t anything new, but when you can play them, things start to get quite interesting. Check out this Super Mario site that mashes our favourite video game characters in other games or pop culture scenarios and then allows you to have a go!

All the mash-up games are Flash based and can be played on your Android devices.

The games are quite cute and fun – who wouldn’t like to beat-up Koopas, Lui Kang-style in Mario Combat!

There is also Tuper Tario Tros – a Super Mario Bros. and Tetris mash-up where you use your tetraminos to build a safe path across the level.

And who wouldn’t like to have Sonic speeding through Mario’s familiar landscape in Sonic Super Marioland – I guess Dr Robotnik has kidnapped Amy Rose.

There are many more strange and wonderful knock-off Super Mario games, from the fun Super Mario Truck Driver to Super Mario Space Shuttle with the awesome Can’t Touch This soundtrack! If you like to experience Mario in a Mafioso Godfather styled game, then have a crack at God Father Super Mario, you’ll be a ‘made man’ in no time.

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Ms. ausretrogamer
Editor and Researcher at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.

Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter

NES Cartridge Gaming On The Go

04/02/2015 By ausretrogamer

Want to take a piece of your NES on the go and play games on it? Yep, you read that question right – take a piece of your NES, in this instance, a NES console stuffed into a NES game cartridge that can be played on the go!

The specifications of this Nintendo Entertainment System Portable (nesP) are:

Screen: 2.8″ TFT LCD
Control: D-Pad, Select, Start, and two fire buttons
Storage: 4GB internal / SD card slot for additional storage
Battery: rechargeable Li-Ion
Players: MP3 audio player and recorder, FM radio, photo viewer and video player
Emulators: NES, Game Boy and Game Boy Color
Speaker: Mono
Output: TV-Out

All in all, a pretty cool one-of-a-kind handheld device that would definitely send tongues wagging on public transport. The TV-Out is a nifty feature, so take that Sega Arcade Nano!

source: robotswillkillyou

Geek Nirvana

30/01/2015 By ausretrogamer

There are those of us with great ideas that never execute them, even with meticulous planning, we are gripped with the fear of failing. Then there are the entrepreneurial types that don’t care for the consequences and take risks. Somewhere in-between are hardcore geeks that decide to open up their house for business, mitigating that dreaded rental risk that plagues bricks-and-mortar shopfronts.

So, what does one do when they have lots and lots of freaky, geeky, nerdy, weird and wonderful items that they would like to share with the general public? They convert their house into ‘Freaks and Geeks’ and open it up for business! It’s about 14,466 km between Melbourne and Denton, so here we go…………..

Who doesn’t like glass cabinets? There is only one right answer!

Don’t you just want to drool over the glass? Again, there is only one right answer!

Splatterhouse runners? WTF? *Mind Blown*

Getting bored of the comics? Then blast some baddies!

Feeling very lightheaded! Click to enlarge and find out why

Care for some Sega 16-bit goodness? (click to enlarge)

Another Great Wall Of Action Figures! (click to enlarge)

Nintendo Entertainment System represent! (click to enlarge)

Flick through some comics. (click to enlarge)

Sega 8-bit and some hybrid 32(x)-Bit!

Let’s play….. pick a game! (click to enlarge)
Source: imgur

Head on over to imugr to see the rest of the photos from Freaks and Geeks! Drool not included.

Partying With My Retro Gaming Brethren

18/01/2015 By ausretrogamer

When I first ventured into retro gaming, little did I know that I would meet such awesome and like-minded people. Since establishing a great bond with the locally based Retro Domination and Weird and Retro guys, we have shared many a good time, not least of all, at our annual Classic Gaming extravaganza at PAX Aus.

With family priorities keeping me away for most of the 2014 PAX Aus event, the rest of the Classic Gaming crew, including the Adelaide based Retrospekt team, were hugely supportive, which was greatly appreciated.

As a thank you, Ms. ausretrogamer and I invited our Victorian based retro gaming colleagues to celebrate the grand opening of our new games room. Between the consumption of pizzas, beer, soft drinks and Ms. ausretrogamer’s famous Black Russians, there were pinball high score challenges, Frisbee action via Windjammers on the Neo Geo MVS and a lot of laughter and reminiscing. It was also great to meet Mrs. Daz Retro and their three lovely kids.

I was humbled to receive many gifts, which were totally unexpected. Matt Cawley handed me a few custom MVS boxes, Ultimate Body Blows and a number of other Amiga CD32 goodies. As per usual, Daz surprised me with a boxed (Last) Ninja 3 for the C64 and the equally awesome, Dracula – The Undead for the Atari Lynx. However, the biggest surprise came from Mr. Mark Cassar. Without any fanfare, Mark handed me an awesome custom-made ausretrogamer C64 t-shirt. To say I was rapt, would be a great understatement!

Since the new games room has now officially been opened, I hope to host many more retro gaming parties with great friends. Game on!

The calm before the retro gaming storm!

Pizzas, Drinks and great company = perfect ingredients for a party

Matt having a crack at the Pin*Bot high score!

The great Mark Cassar taking a swing on the Neo Geo!

Daz showing the boys his flipper skills!

The next generation of retro gamers

The awesome gifts! I have been spoiled.

A Brief History Of Graphics: Pixels, Sprites and Polygons

16/01/2015 By ausretrogamer

If your New Year’s resolution was to learn more about video game graphics, you are in luck. For those of you with limited time to spare, I present three videos by Ahoy, providing a brief history of graphics; from pixels and sprites, to those super cool polygons! Are video games all about graphics? Of course not! Feast your eyes and ears right now, you may learn something.

Part 1: Pixels Pioneers

Part 2: Sprite Supreme

Part 3: Polygon Realm

source: Ahoy

Screen Scene: Screenshots of Awesome 80s Arcade Games

15/01/2015 By ausretrogamer

When I first began playing video games in the early 80s, arcade games were the pinnacle of the gaming experience – they had huge cabinets, great graphics, booming sound, and if you were good enough (or had lots of 20 cent coins), gameplay that would keep you coming back.

Being a nostalgist, I was recently reminiscing about arcade games I played at the local darkened arcade parlour, the corner milk bar and also the fish and chips shop near my school. With a smile on my face, I compiled a number of screenshots of arcade games that kept me mesmerised in the 1980s. I hope these bring back great memories for you, as they have for me. Enjoy and remember, “Winners Don’t Use Drugs!”.

My favourite beat’em up of all time. Nothing beats the kneeing to the head and wrapping a baseball bat around a the Black Warriors head!

Save Ronnie and grab some burgers and coke! We are bad dudes fighting the dragon ninja!

Still my go-to vertical shoot’em up! Plenty of 20c coins were spent on Galaga!

The little yellow dot muncher never let me down

The droning sound of this most awesomest of dungeon-maze crawlers is still sublime

Wrestling was huge in the mid 80s, and Wrestle War was a laugh!

Saving the kidnapped Madonna, one kick at a time!

Who could forget this aerial dogfighting classic from Yu Suzuki!

Another Yu Suzuki classic!

The game that ushered in the Golden Age of Arcades

The helicopter cockpit version of Thunder Blade was simply awesome!

The ninja craze was huge in the 80s. Everyone wanted to throw shurikens like Joe!

My beat’em up love began with Kung Fu Master

It was either Salamander or R-Type. I chose Irem’s blaster!

Yu Suzuki’s Out Run will always be associated with coolness!

Ikari Warriors – guerrilla warfare with a mate

Heavy Barrel – just like Ikari Warriors, but with a rotary stick to shoot baddies in 8-directions!

Another Sega classic. This was as close as I got to riding a motocross bike in the 80s

The seminal Nintendo classic will always be on my favourites list

The timeless Taito platform beauty – I love you Bub and Bob

A bomb disposal hero in leotards = perfect!

4P dungeon exploring never got any better than this!

Tempest – the vector splendour!

Going to Flashbacks on Swanston Street was always about Discs of Tron

Special agent action via Elevator Action

I wasn’t much of a skateboarder, but I was pretty good on 720 Degrees!

The ultimate single-screen blaster!

There was something about Moon Patrol that I can’t even explain now!

What would any 80s arcade list be without TMNT. Cowabunga!

Double Dragon started the 2P co-op beat’em up genre, Final Fight took it to another level!

source: various – supplied on request

ABC Radio National – A Short History of Video Games

07/01/2015 By ausretrogamer

It is always great to find video games based articles and programs published by major media outlets. This time around, our beloved Aunty (ABC Radio National) has got in on the video gaming action with an interesting piece on ‘A history of video games in five anecdotes’ by Dan Golding. The article is part of the A Short History Of Video Games program.

So what do the Australian Human Rights Commission, Alan Turing’s chess game, Toru Iwatani’s Pac Man and Australia’s first hit video game have in common? You’ll have to read Dan’s story here to find out.

While you are exploring the ABC Radio National’s ‘A Short History Of Video Games’ program, you may also want to listen to the accompanying podcasts. Listen to them, as you may learn something. Hit play and immerse yourself in a bit of video gaming history. Thank you Aunty.

source: ABC Radio National

The Thrill Of The Chase: Game Over For 2014

30/12/2014 By ausretrogamer

As the year draws to a close, it had to happen, we had to go for one final thrill of the chase!

With the adrenaline rushing at this time of year, there were classic gaming items to be found and bargains to be bagged. While everyone else was recovering from their Christmas festivities, Ms. ausretrogamer and I hit the road to find those elusive retro games and vintage toys.

There were a number of places that were closed due to the festive season, but that didn’t deter us from going to the next stop on our hit-list. We did hit the jackpot at our final stop – we may not have found what we were looking for, but we did have a blast playing some Daytona USA, Speed Race and the three-screen extravaganza, TX-1.

So with another year in the history books, we eagerly await the new year. Roll on 2015 for more thrills! Happy New Year to you all!

Spotted! Topless Skeletor