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A Brief History of Women in Gaming: The 1980s

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It is awesome to see that The Strong (National Museum of Play) has a Women in Games Initiative and their International Center for the History of Electronic Games creating brilliant history exhibits, like A Brief History of Women in Gaming.

You can check out A Brief History of Women in Gaming: The 1980s on Google’s Arts and Culture forum, which showcases a plethora of amazing and talented women in the gaming industry, from the assembly line to the marketing department, this exhibit highlights how women have shaped the games industry through hard work, creative coding, artistic imagination, and business savvy. This exhibit tells this vital but underappreciated part of history!

source: Arts and Culture – Google

From Carol Shaw at Atari and then Activision, creating her best-selling game River Raid, Hope Neiman leading the Vectrex home game console manufacturer General Consumer Electronics’ marketing efforts in the early 1980s, to Gail Tilden creating and editing everyone’s seminal favourite magazine, Nintendo Power, this exhibit is brimming with amazing and talented women in gaming.

Check it out right now!

 

2021 World Video Game Hall of Fame Finalists

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We have featured The Strong’s ‘World Video Game Hall of Fame‘ finalists from previous years on here, so for 2021, we were quite chuffed to see a number of our favourite video games make the final 12 cut!

From FIFA International Soccer, Tron, Mattel Football, to Pole Position, StarCraft and Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?, we would say that most retro gamers would be quite satisfied with this year’s hall of fame inductees.

Oh yeah, gaming fans can vote for their favourite finalists from now until March 25 (US time) as part of the Player’s Choice ballot at World Video Game Hall of Fame.

image source: The Strong

 

Over 700 PS2 Prototypes And Unreleased Demos Unleashed by The Hidden Palace

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Whoa, this is mind blowing – last night, the video game preservation group, The Hidden Palace, released over 700 PlayStation 2 prototypes, early builds, E3, and press release demos in a massive (900GB) dump the group referred to as Project Deluge.

You can read more about this massive undertaking here.

 

Happy Anniversary, Nintendo 64

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By: Alex Boz (Sort of Final Boss @ ausretrogamer)

Every time March 1 rolls around, I am reminded of the day I got my Nintendo 64!

It was March 1 1997 that us folks in Australia received Nintendo’s 64-bit wonder. I had done something that I had only done once before (with the Sega Mega Drive), and that is, I plonked down $400 and bought the N64 on day one! It was a special feeling getting the latest and greatest console on day one, but the realisation that the games were sold out and new stock was still a few weeks away, was a painful experience. Once Super Mario 64 hit the shelves, I could not throw my $100 fast enough to the cashier and get back home to fire up the system to see what the fuss was all about. Let’s just say that I was not disappointed.

Thankfully (or embarrassingly) someone captured my excitement upon receiving the Nintendo 64!
image source: From the Boz Family photographic archives

Even though I have fond memories of the SNES, it is the N64 which tugs more on my nostalgic heartstrings, which till this day I can’t explain why. Perhaps it is the late night Mario Kart 64 sessions with four friends or the 2P battles I had with my cousin playing Wave Race 64, or going dinosaur hunting in Turok (fog included). Whatever it was, I am thankful for the N64 giving me thousands of hours of fun, especially playing with others sitting right next to me, not on the other side of the planet via some wires. Oh yeah, the controller cops a lot of flak, but to be honest, it is one of my favourites, which made gaming on the console even better.

What are your memories of the N64 – share them with me or via Ausretrogamer on Twitter and/or Facebook.

image source: Kelamy



Play Freecell64 on your Commodore 64

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UPDATE: Fritz has informed us that FreeCell64 version 2.2 is out now! Fritz has also advised us that this awesome game is now complete, which is now more colourful, has mouse support and comes with time counter and statistics included. Grab this latest version and enjoy!

Whoa, developer Friedrich “Fritz” Philipp has released his first version of Freecell, titled Freecell64, for the Commodore 64!

What is so impressive is that Freecell64 has been totally written in BASIC! So don’t just sit there, go and download Freecell64 via GitHub right now! Oh Fritz, what have you done to us, our productivity will surely take a tumble!

For those that need some quick instructions, to move cards, click anywhere on the respective pile and then onto the destination pile. Double-clicking is also possible where cards are moved to the Aces pile (as a priority) or to the repository. When you think you have won, click on the “Game” menu item and select “Check” – good luck!

Being version 1.0, Fritz advises that Freecell64 still requires:

  • A time counter;
  • High scores; and
  • Sound

To say we’ll be watching this eagerly will be a gross understatement!



David Lynch’s PlayStation 2 Ad

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By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.

I never knew David Lynch made a commercial for PlayStation 2. There have been a handful of great film directors who have made ads for a company. Ridley Scott’s Super Bowl ad for Apple’s Macintosh, inspired by George Orwell’s “1984,” is probably the most iconic ad made by a legendary filmmaker.

The 2000 PlayStation 2 commercial feels very Lynchian. The commercial is extremely bizarre, even for Lynch’s standards; and I’ve seen “Lost Highway” twice. In the ad, titled “Welcome to the Third Place,” there’s a fire woman and a floating head. Lynch plays with his trademark, skewed perspectives in the short ad. I wonder how the executives at Sony gave the green light for a Lynch commercial. It breaks down advertising logic, but that is what’s so appealing about it. Lynch puts his stamp on it, and it’s a fascinating ad that pulls you in. You can’t look away from the strange, sensory experience. I wish I could’ve been a fly on the wall when the higher ups at Sony and PlayStation watched the ad for the first time. Did they give notes?


source: PlayStation Europe

I’ve always thought that David Lynch is one of the most imaginative filmmakers in the history of cinema. Lynch’s “The Elephant Man” is a masterpiece. Whenever I watch the black-and-white, 1980 film, I’m floored by how intimate and visually powerful it is. It’s so engrossing, you feel like you’re in late 19th-century London. The film, starring Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt, still holds up. It feels like it’s directed by an old, wise filmmaker who knows his way around a period piece. Lynch was in his mid-thirties when he directed “The Elephant Man,” which was nominated for eight Academy Awards. “Blue Velvet” is another Lynch film where every frame looks like a vivid painting. The auteur never shies away from uncomfortable subject matter. “Eraserhead” and both “Twin Peaks” television series had unforgettable, haunting images.

Disney’s “WandaVision” has a David Lynch feel to it. Some of Westview, or the small town that Wanda has perfectly envisioned, reminds me of the town in Lynch’s “Blue Velvet.” I’m waiting for Frank Booth (played by the late Dennis Hopper) to walk around a corner of Westview, huffing on an unknown gas from a tank.

 

 

NEO GEO Games Infographic

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There are some images that need to be shared for their informative awesomeness, and this NEO•GEO games infographic is one that definitely fits that bill.

Created and shared by Ange Albertini of the Corkami Reverse Engineering and Visual Documentation github repository, this image speaks to us loud and clear! We love the fact that in one image, we can see the timeline of all the games that were released for SNK’s mighty NEO GEO.

To get a sense of this amazing graphic creation, please click on the image below to see it in its native resolution!

 

The Players Guide to Programmable Videogame Systems from 1982

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Now this is a blast from the past! Well, a blast from 1982!

While trawling good ole eBay, our nostalgic interests were piqued when we found this 12-page ‘The Players Guide To Programmable Videogame Systems’ advertorial, which is cool to read in hindsight. We were glad to see the Bally Astrocade featured amongst the heavy hitters.

Check it out!

 

Monsters of Terror: The Best Wizard of Wor Clone on the Amiga!

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Everyone knows by now that we love all things Star Wars, Double Dragon, Galaga and pinball, amongst many others. However, not many know that we have another love called Wizard of Wor!

We keep going back to playing Wizard of Wor on the Commodore 64, because it’s just so jolly fun and a cracking arcade conversion. Since there was never an official Wizard of Wor game released on the Amiga, lots of peeps missed out on playing a great game (Ed: unless they kept their C64 to play it on)! But don’t fret too much, as there is a top notch clone of Wizard of Wor for the Amiga, called Monsters of Terror, created by the super talented Matthias Bock (aka: flurrycow/lazycow).

Do yourself a favour, grab this game now, as it’s darn awesome!


source: WTF Game Tracks



Things Are Afoot At The Ausretrogamer Fun Factory in 2021

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With having a lot of time at home in 2020, we had been thinking about changing things up in the Ausretrogamer Fun Factory!

Things are afoot with designing the new space, which will see new additions, things being moved around and unfortunately, stuff that will go to a new home. We are quite excited with the next chapter of our games room, so we’ll be sure to share our journey throughout 2021 of the new and improved Ausretrogamer Fun Factory.

For now, you can have a read how the Ausretrogamer Fun Factory has evolved over the years.

Taking one last look at the current Ausretrogamer Fun Factory (click to enlarge)