The Thrill Of The Chase

Retro Hunting At The Halsey Road Vintage Emporium

February 26, 2024 By ausretrogamer

The Thrill of the Chase is Back!

It’s been a while since we went hunting at vintage establishments, so when we stumbled upon the Halsey Rd Vintage Emporium, we had to go in and take a look!

There is something about these kinds of places that invoke warmth and a sense of intoxicating nostalgia. Walking into the Halsey Road Vintage Emporium you are immediately transported to a different time, when we used film cameras, selected our fave LPs on jukeboxes and wrote on Olivetti typewriters! One thing is for certain, you need a fair few hours to take it all in, as rushing around would mean you miss out on a past nugget that could be priceless.

We could have bought up so many cool items (just take a gander at the photos below), but in the end, it was Ms Ausretrogamer who found a pair of matching mid-century Grant Featherston ‘Bendix’ chairs, which will look great in Casa Ausretrogamer!

If you enjoy checking out retro/antiques/industrial/collectibles emporiums, then add the Halsey Rd Vintage Emporium to your bucket list.

The deets:

What: Halsey Road Vintage Emporium
Where: 11-13 Halsey Rd, Airport West VIC 3042
Hours: Friday & Saturday – 10am-4pm (or by appointment)

Visiting The Gamesmen Retro Game Museum

March 18, 2021 By ausretrogamer

We are reminiscing about the time we were invited by the Weird and Retro crew to join them in Sydney for the 2015 EB Expo – it was such an amazing experience!

Before the EB Expo shenanigans, we took time out to visit The Gamesmen in Penshurst (NSW), to check out their awesome (Retro) Game Museum.

The Gamesmen has been an Australian game store icon for almost 40 years and it is still going strong. Back in the day, we used to love receiving their catalogues which we would pore over each page, drooling at the latest gaming systems and games – we just wish we had kept those catalogues! Oh yeah, luckily for us (and all of you), The Gamesmen folks have made electronic copies of their old catalogues, so go here now and enjoy some intoxicating nostalgia.

Anyway……… This pilgrimage was a long time coming and fulfilled our wish to go and check out the museum in person. We definitely weren’t disappointed and we were glad to have ticked this off our bucket list. The sixty plus photos we took below from the game museum does not do it any justice – to see it in person was amazing. However, the next best thing to going there was to share what we saw, and as you will see below, your nostalgic senses will not be disappointed.

There was no one favourite section, but the glassed cabinets were like a time machine looking back at our childhood, daydreaming about owning and playing the systems and games on display. The video games system timeline mural was another highlight, reflecting how far gaming has come. The Gamesmen Retro Game Museum had truly encapsulated our past, leaving a delectable mark on our 8-bit brain.

Make sure you scroll through each image slowly, as you do not want to miss anything!

Approaching the Mecca of Australian Video Gaming!

images remain the copyright of ausretrogamer

PS: Special thank you to the Weird and Retro team for inviting us to be part of their WaRrior crew for the 2015 EB Expo and for a memorable road trip!

Thrill Of The Chase: Attack From Mars Remake

January 11, 2018 By ausretrogamer

image source: Chicago Gaming Company

It’s not often that the stars align for us, but when they do, oh boy it’s exciting!

Speaking of celestial bodies, we have always had a fondness for space and the cosmos at large. We are fascinated with our planetary brethren in the family of the solar system, especially that red planet not too far away from us and its inhabitants.

So what the hell has space and Martians got to do with this thrill of the chase? Glad you asked! Put simply, when you mix pinball with Mars and its Martians invading our little blue marble, you get a very special and top rated pinball machine – Attack From Mars (AFM)!

This is no ordinary AFM though, it’s Chicago Gaming Company’s ‘Remake’, which comes in three different editions – Classic, Special and super duper Limited Edition. With the feature list as long as our arm (our arms are long!) on the Limited Edition, like the jaw-dropping 19¼” XL HD colour display that has to be seen to be believed, shaker motor, enhanced DCS sound system, cabinet side mirrors, RGB lighting to name just a few, this machine was always going to tickle our fancy.

Naturally, we gravitated to the fully blinged Attack From Mars Remake Limited Edition (AFMR LE) version! We have never been one for pinball toppers, but the custom Doug Watson one on our AFMR LE is absolutely damn awesome! Doug Skor and the gang at CGC should be immensely proud of producing yet again a beautiful and faithful classic pinball machine.

We sourced our brand new in box AFMR LE from the Australian distributor, Mr. Pinball. We were kept up to date on the freight by keeping track of the Maersk Line ship that was carrying our precious cargo. The container landed in Melbourne in late December, giving us the rare opportunity to have the machine up and ready for family and friends to enjoy for Christmas! Oh yeah, she was quite heavy, so thank you to Lucas Bardin from Bayside Pinball Club for delivering the machine and Stacey ‘Dr Curlytek’ Borg for helping us set it up – you guys rock!

As you may have already guessed, this is a very special machine which we love and are thrilled to have in our ausretrogamer fun factory. If you ever get the chance to play one of these Remakes, do yourself a favour, have a go, they will give you an enormous endorphin rush!

Off the shipping container and ready to go home!

There is a hole in the Fun Factory that needs to be filled!

AFMR LE has reached its destination

Unboxing the beauty – she is quite heavy!

The sublime topper is well packed too

Ready to be turned on for the first time…

What a turn on!

Attack From Mars Remake Limited Edition in full martian green glory!

Mesmerising playfield

A saucy saucer!

Returning to the battle!

Destroy that pesky saucer!

CGC and Bally present….

Attack From Mars!!!

There is finally a Limited Edition addition in the ausretrogamer fun factory

The detail of the theme is exquisite

The custom Doug Watson interactive topper is the best topper we’ve ever seen on a pinball machine!

The glorious playfield. Gotta save them cities!

What a view for the ruler of the universe!

The entire art package makes us smile

The RGB LED lighting needs to be seen to be believed

Even the little one approves of this classic machine!

Thrill Of The Chase: The Walking Dead Pinball

September 21, 2016 By ausretrogamer

It’s true what they say: it really is better to give than to receive. And that’s what makes this ‘Thrill Of The Chase‘ extra special, because I was chasing something for a very important person (hint: her name rhymes with Ms Ausretrogamer).

Ms Ausretrogamer loves ‘The Walking Dead‘ and she loves to play pinball, so we’re always on the lookout for TWD tables to play. We’ve travelled far and wide in our quest to kill those zombies, and we’re yet to get tired of it. It’s such a fun table, whether your a newbie or a wizard. So, while watching Ms Ausretrogamer clearing the prison yard and unleashing the Well Walker multi-ball, I made a decision – I had to get her a TWD pinball table of her own! But with only six months until her birthday, I had to move fast.

Searching far and wide, the pinball machine was secured. The next part of the plan was to get it delivered and setup without Ms Ausretrogamer’s knowledge. To keep her off the scent, a decoy birthday gift was created.

With everything in its place, it was time to execute Project Happy Birthday. Ms ausretrogamer was presented with the diorama, where not even Rick Grimes playing a Twilight Zone pinball machine gave her any indication of what was to come! Under the ruse of checking out the birthday decorations in the games room, the surprise was revealed and the look on Ms Ausretrogamer’s face was priceless! That’s when I knew, this thrill of the chase was totally worth it.

The decoy gift

Rearranging the fun factory

Space cleared next to Pin*Bot

The careful delivery – thanks to Skooota and Tony!

The surprise is set!

Even the machine knows it’s an important day!

Surprise!

Thrill Of The Chase: Retro Buzz at Carrara

August 21, 2016 By ausretrogamer

There is nothing better than going to a weekend market and finding a stall that sells retro gaming gear, and lots of it!

That was the case when we found the Retro Buzz stall at the Carrara Markets on the sunny Gold Coast. What we found there was a treasure-trove of old school systems from Nintendo, Sega, Atari, Commodore, Sony and Microsoft. To complement these retro systems, Retro Buzz also had a vast array of game cartridges, CDs and other games media from every era – you would have been hard pressed not to have found the game you were after!

Once we were done with the retro hunt, we enjoyed a few games of Alex Kidd In Miracle World on the Master System and then dropped a few coins on the arcade machines. If you do find yourself on the Gold Coast and need your retro hunt fix, then you can’t go wrong with hitting the Retro Buzz stall at Carrara!

Welcome to Carrara Markets! Woohoo!

Aha, found what we were looking for!

Trade, Buy AND Sell! They have every system covered!

No retro stall is complete without a Mario and Luigi display!

We spy some N64 and SNES consoles over Luigi’s shoulder!

We could have a ComLynx party with these beauties!

Mario crashes the Sega party!

Pro-tip: Grab some Atari Lynx games while they are cheap!

Stacks of Sega Mega Drive games to choose from!

Not to be outdone by its bigger 16-bit Sega brother – stacks of Master System games!

The SNES games demand your attention!

Whoa, more SNES games!

Game Boy games galore!

*GULP* It was hard to resist this Pokemon N64 console!

Found the NES treasure! Don’t worry about Zela, look at that P.O.W cart!

NES games always demand premium prices

Old school computer games! VIC-20 represent!

Oo’er, Game Gear games!

After a fruitful hunt like this, an arcade session is in order!

Thrill Of The Chase: The Dark Amiga

January 29, 2016 By ausretrogamer

Don’t you just love when things happen unexpectedly? Well, this past week’s events were mind blowingly unexpected!

I was called by my great friend and fellow Press Play On Tape co-host, Daz (also from Retro Domination fame) to let me know that he had taken a trip up north and during his travels had found a Commodore CDTV! Not only was the CDTV complete with transmitter/mouse, remote, keyboard and a fair bit of software, Daz asked if I would be interested in the bundled deal for myself. Firstly, I was humbled that a friend thought of me when they came across something quite rare and unique, and secondly, the offer for me to buy it and for them to transport it back was an offer too good to refuse. To say I was excited would be a gross understatement – I made the offer, the seller accepted and Daz transported the CDTV bundle safely back to Melbourne.

To Daz and Pete (Console Domination), thanks heaps for thinking of me and giving me the opportunity to grab another retro gaming holy grail – you guys rock! As for what do I think of the CDTV? Well, let’s just say that the Amiga 500 has made room for it *winks*

She is a beauty!

Connections galore!

Oo’er, early 90s multimedia software!

Looking forward to do some Sherlocking!

Remote control your CDTV life!

The all-in-one control centre (transmitter)!

Now we can turn the CDTV into a full blown Amiga 500!

It’s alive!

We asked Daz to show us what else he found on his ‘retro road trip’ and without fail, Daz provided us with some mouthwatering photos, saying that they speak for themselves. We agree *wiping drool*

The beautiful C128!

Great to see a TI-99 out in the wild!

Oh wow, more TI computers!

Atari ST represent!

WANT!

The loot is in the boot!

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

Thrill Of The Chase: Virtual Reality Holy Grail

January 3, 2016 By ausretrogamer

This year will be the year of Virtual Reality (VR). If you have been gaming as long as we have, you’ll know that this isn’t the first time we have all gone gaga over VR!

Long before the Playstation VR, the biggest name in virtual reality gaming was the Virtuality Group. Their ‘Virtuality’ arcade gaming machines promised and delivered immersive gaming via their stereoscopic visor (aka: the visette) while standing on a platform in a huge round pod waving your hands around like you were swatting flies – ah, how we miss the good old days of VR.

The popularity and mass media coverage of VR meant that it would always make its way into our homes. In 1994, Virtuality signed an agreement with Atari to develop a head-mounted-display (HMD) unit for use with Atari’s 64-bit Jaguar console. The agreement was expected to lead to the production and sale of the Jaguar VR HMDs in 1995. Sadly, it all went belly-up between Atari and Virtuality, with all Jaguar VR prototypes headed for the scrapheap.

Alas, the salvaged Jaguar VR prototype(s) have now become the most sought after and holiest of gaming grails, with the last known prototype selling for $14,500 on ebay in 2013.

source: eBay

From the ashes of the Jaguar VR HMD technology arose Takara’s HMD DynoVisor and Philip’s Scuba Visor. The DynoVisor sported the Pupil Projection System with a ground breaking 120-degree field of view (FOV) display using Sony’s Active TFT and LCD lenses. Coupled with Hi-Fi stereo and Inter Pupil Distance (IPD) focus adjustment, these consumer products quickly sold-out upon release in Japan.

Even though the Takara HMD DynoVisor is considered to be laughable, their uniqueness and rarity in the wild makes them highly desirable among gamers and collectors alike. At a fraction of the cost of the Jaguar VR headset and being indentical in technology, Takara’s HMD DynoVisor has become a retro gaming grail itself.

To finally find the Takara HMD DynoVisor and be able to play the Atari Jaguar (and any NTSC console with composite / AV output) with a VR headset, has truly been a unique experience, one that every old school gamer should encounter! Viva la VR!

Holding tight onto the first retro gaming holy grail for 2016!

Takara’s HMD DynoVisor arose from the ashes of Atari’s Jaguar VR

Made from high impact ABS moulded components, this is one tough headset!

The DynoVisor can connect to any NTSC composite / AV console

Luckily Virtuality’s work wasn’t wasted

Contrast, Brightness and IPD control is within reach

Immersing myself in some old school VR on the PlayStation

Peeking into the VR abyss!

Thrill Of The Chase: The MOTU Holy Grail

December 18, 2015 By ausretrogamer

My affinity for Masters Of The Universe has no limit! Just when I thought I grabbed my MOTU holy grail at the Toy Shack store in Las Vegas back in August, BAM, the MOTU Limited Edition Collector Series vinyl gets gazumped by The Power Of He-Man video game!

Yep, you read that right, the holy grail of my MOTU collection is not a board game nor a limited edition vinyl, it’s a (damn awesome) video game. MOTU: The Power Of He-Man video game (Intellivision) has been elusive to find complete (Ed: and at a reasonable price). This game, and its Atari 2600 counterpart, are the crown jewels of MOTU video games. The key motivator to obtain this game was my absolute affection for MOTU, and secondly, it is a pretty decent video game based on the franchise. Oh yeh, the Mattel link between the console and toy line was a nice touch too. Game on!

The Thrill Of The Chase: Lost and Found Market

June 19, 2015 By ausretrogamer

What does one do when their weekend schedule is clear? Well, you can choose to lounge around at home to keep warm in this cold Melbourne winter, or you can head outdoors to a flea market to grab yourself a bargain!

As it turned out, Ms ausretrogamer and I did the latter – we hit the Lost & Found Market in Brunswick East for a spot of vintage kitsch shopping. From vinyls, old Barbie dolls, to an Apple Mac from the 80s, the market did not disappoint. Here are just a few of our favourite items from Lost & Found:

They call me Bruce!