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The Thrill Of The Chase: NYC Style

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If you are ever in the city that never sleeps, then you are in for a treat. Apart from the many great sights and sounds, you must head down to the gritty and cool East Village (Lower Manhattan) area – there, you will find two amazing retro gaming stores: ‘8Bit & Up’ and ‘Video Games NY’.

VGNY_1            VGNY_2

VGNY_3     VGNY_4     VGNY_5

I was lucky to be in the Big Apple on my last US trip when a few kind Twitter friends passed on some inside tips on these two stores. I seized the opportunity, and I am glad that I did. For mine, ‘Video Games NY’ is the pick of the two – it oozes retro from floor to ceiling, literally! The hardest problem you will have is getting an increased luggage allowance to bring your retro haul back to your country of origin (or state).

Oh yeah, while you are in New York City, you must also visit the ‘Nintendo World’ store – you can read about it here.

VGNY_7              VGNY_8

8bit_2      8bit_4      8bit_3
8bit_5          8bit_6

Video Games NY: 202 E 6th St  New York, NY 10003

8Bit & Up: 35 St. Marks Place #2  New York, 10003



Video Games Graveyard

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Survival of the fittest or just plain bad business decisions. Just as Betamax was left in the wake of the VHS behemoth,  the video games market is strewn with carcasses of systems and games that just never made it.

Jaguar

Some of history’s most spectacular gaming console flops come from two of the industry’s heavy hitters, Atari and Sega. The hardware manufacturing death knell was getting quite loud at Atari – they decided to throw in the towel and quit making games consoles after the Atari Jaguar was caught in the crossfire of the Sega versus Nintendo battle of the 1990s. The Jaguar was rushed to market and suffered the consequences. Selling fewer than 250,000 units just wasn’t going to cut it. Perhaps Atari should have done the math (get it!) before they embarked on the Jaguar.

dreamcast-console_arg

A few years after Atari ceased making hardware, it was Sega’s turn to wave the console making white flag. Once a pillar of the video games console industry, Sega’s Dreamcast was met with initial enthusiasm but Sega also abandoned making consoles after the Dreamcast was smashed by the new kid on the block, Sony’s PlayStation 2.

Atari_ET_arg

As for gaming flops, Atari’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial takes the gong. The game was rushed (it took 5 weeks to develop) to retail stores for the 1982 Christmas season but was such a disappointment, that millions of unsold game cartridges ended up in landfill in the New Mexico desert. Atari ordered more E.T. cartridges to be made than there were installed Atari VCS 2600 units! Again, Atari should have DONE THE MATH.



Yo Ausretrogamer, Show Us Your Collection!

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Show us your collection - Australian Retro GamerI was contacted recently by RetroGamesCollector (UK) who asked if I would like to be interviewed in his new retro gaming collections feature, ‘Show us your collection’. I didn’t need any time to think about it – I jumped at the opportunity!

If you want to take a gander at the collection and read the interview, then head on over here

 

Genealogy of the PC-Engine

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Welcome to the PC-Engine Family Tree

Have you tried to understand the NEC PC-Engine range of consoles and been totally confused or lost ? Don’t worry, you are not alone.

We have tapped our inner genealogist and have created the NEC PC-Engine Family Tree. The tree shows the lineage of native consoles, per region, and their media type.

Hopefully, this family tree makes things clearer and a tad easier to understand the NEC PC-Engine console range.

click above image to expand it to its full glory!

 

Note:

  • The PC-Engine family tree does not include any add-ons that enhance the consoles. It also excludes the UK PAL TurboGrafx console released by Telegames.
  • This NEC PC-Engine family tree only covers native NEC systems that play PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 game formats.

 

Interview With A Retro Gamer

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Hey guys, Nintendo Legion here. My friend, ausretrogamer, whom I met via twitter, has been nice enough to welcome me into his home, to play his many many games and was gracious enough to be grilled for an impromptu interview. The interview for me was to get to know him better, and hopefully, you will too. [Read more…] about Interview With A Retro Gamer

Where it all started: my first TV gaming system

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It was 1984 when I got this baby. No – it wasn’t an Atari 2600 or an Intellivision (I wish I had one of these at the time!) – it was the Hanimex 666T.

It was basically a home version of Pong. The larger paddle contained the system hardware and the main game controls. These controls were used to select the type of game, the bat size, auto or manual serving, and speed of the game. I never understood the 40 / 20 angle switch as it didn’t make a difference to gameplay as far as I could tell. The smaller paddle could be detached and used by a second player.

I was a sore loser when playing on this system. My sister would start to win and I would get mad and would reset the game only to be beaten again. I eventually got better and started kickin’ ass – that’s when my sister stopped playing video games with me.

This was my introduction to owning a TV gaming system. It served its purpose until I got into the ‘real’ home consoles and computers in the 80’s. The last ‘Where it all started‘ feature will be on the first true 8-bit gaming system which I acquired in 1986. Could it be the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Master System, or the Commodore 64 ?

Welllllllllll, you will just have to wait and see……….