The Pop-Culture E-Zine
Going deep into our vault for more intoxicating nostalgia for the month of July, we uncover some cult classic JCVD LaserDiscs, tabletops that go pew, pew, pew, a Neo Geo AES, a Sonic VHS tape (remember those!), some old school gaming patches, a Star Wars rip off for the Bally Astrocade and everything in between!
Go on, take a look, but scroll slowly to take it all in! Happy Retro Gaming to you all!
Since last year’s Nintendo Gigaleak, aka: Data Leak (Ed: or more accurately, hacks that lead to the leak!) that brought attention to some Pokémon source code, 3DS debug ROMs as well as the full source code for the Nintendo Wii from the BroadOn’s servers (BroadOn worked with Nintendo on the Wii hardware and software), there has been further leaks emerging in the last week.
From the many recent mouth-watering leakage news (not looking at you Wii prototype games!), the major one that grabbed our attention was the Pokemon Pinball game that was slated for a 2006 release on the DS. As massive pinball fans, this game would have been right up our alley, especially when gaming on the go with the Nintendo DS’ touch and dual screens.
Considering the original Game Boy Color title became a cult classic, this one would have been well received. The game would’ve been developed by Fuse, best known for Super Mario Ball and Metroid Prime Pinball, so we are quite sure Pokemon Pinball on the DS would have been an absolute blast!
More news about the Nintendo data leak on Resetera
Independent publisher The Retro Room Games has recently announced that the pre-orders for Chip’s Challenge on Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive are now open!
Play as Nerdy Chip McCallahan, who navigates through a series of increasingly difficult puzzles in 148 two-dimensional levels, in order to prove himself and gain membership to the very exclusive Bit Busters Club.
Originally developed by Epyx, Chip’s Challenge is a classic top-down tile-based puzzle game launched on Atari Lynx in 1989. The game was also ported to MS-DOS, Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and the Amstrad CPC back in the 90s.
Chip’s Challenge was also released on Steam 6 years ago featuring 90% of positive reviews. This will be the first time that the game will be available on Nintendo and Sega platforms.
Chip’s Challenge will be available on 16-bit consoles including a cartridge in both PAL and NTSC versions, a box and an instruction booklet. Pre-orders for the game can be found here.
source: The Retro Room Roo
Features:
Price: US$24.99 (cart only) / US$49.99 (Complete In Box)
When it comes to relaxing and unwinding, video games make a great choice. Whether you like online competitive multiplayer games or meditative single-player experiences, there is a massive variety of options when it comes to choosing a video game to play. In this article, we’re going to look at 7 reasons why playing retro games, in particular, can help improve your overall well-being.
It’s well established that video games can help improve your hand-eye coordination. Intuitively, this makes sense, as gamers need to manipulate a controller with their hands while looking up at a screen. These improvements are not insignificant either – research has shown surgeons who play video games perform better at surgeries than surgeons who don’t!
You might think that modern, fast-paced competitive games like Call of Duty or Fortnite would be a good choice for this. Still, many online games require significant time (and sometimes financial) investments to remain competitive. Meanwhile, retro games such as Battletoads or Ghosts ‘n Goblins offer a hard-as-nails challenge that you can pick up and put down at your leisure
Though this psychological trick isn’t unique to video games, they are a great way to take your mind off real life. Video games are arguably one of the most fantastic forms of escapism, as they are interactive. Many video games put you in the role of the hero and give you great agency in how you wish to achieve your goals. Many games allow you to create your custom characters, allowing you to escape and immerse yourself even further in the world. We love going to back to Spider Solitaire Challenge for our quick distraction fix.
Online games, in particular, took off in a big way in the past year, thanks to global lockdowns that restricted social gatherings for many. Plenty of popular modern games, such as Animal Crossing, Fortnite, and Pokémon Go, have built-in social elements that help players feel connected. However, there are just as many communities built around retro games. Many of these communities have been running for years. Every popular retro game has a forum or Facebook page with a thriving, active community where you can engage with your fellow players in the online world.
Nowadays, it’s even possible to play many retro games online, such as spider solitaire online. These websites may or may not sync up to online leaderboards or other communities to allow you to play these traditionally single-player games competitively against others in a low-stress environment at your leisure.
Video games often provide a challenge to the player in the form of hurdles that they must overcome. These challenges can come in the form of puzzles that must be solved, daily events that need to be completed sequentially, or challenges requiring the player to master the game’s intricacies. Like Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts or Ninja Gaiden, some games even embrace this and build their game around being intentionally tricky. These challenges teach players to persist and reward endurance, valuable skills for video games and public life.
It might come as a surprise to some gamers who were warned that they would end up with square vision if they stared at the TV for too long. Playing video games can help improve vision for people with visual impairments! Studies have shown that people with cataracts showed improvements in their vision after playing certain video games that require quick reflexes. It’s believed that these games require an extreme amount of attention from players because they are fast-paced and require players to identify threats quickly.
Believe it or not, video games have been shown to provide pain relief, not in the form of a distraction or escapism, but as a mild form of literal pain relief. Playing video games can cause the brain to release endorphins, the feel-good chemicals that provide pain relief and make us feel happy. It is the same effect as what happens when people exercise. It is described as the “runner’s high.”
Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training for the Nintendo DS made a case for puzzle games helping people keep their brains active – particularly the elderly and people at risk of dementia and memory loss. However, you can choose from plenty of retro puzzle games. They all meet the same essential criteria for keeping your brain sharp. These games provide challenges in the form of memory tests, mathematical puzzles, and logic challenges. There is scientific evidence backing the premise that playing these types of games regularly helps prevent a decline in mental acuity.
There is a growing body of evidence that playing games can positively impact our overall well-being. It is far from being the time-waster many people once viewed. Retro games, in particular, provide a sweet spot of ease of use, fun, and challenge without being overbearing or requiring too significant a time investment to reap the rewards.
From NFTs selling for millions to other ephemera going for ridiculous amounts of money, we now find video games entering this realm of the ludicrous money!
In the last week we have had two record breaking auction sales of Nintendo video games, first it was The Legend Of Zelda (NES) selling for US$870,000, only for this record to be broken a few days later by the US$1.56 million fetched by Super Mario 64 (N64)!
Now don’t get us wrong, both of these games are great, but come on, these prices are scary as hell! Anyway, as long as there are buyers with deep pockets, then stuff like this is going to go for mega bucks! So if you have some old-school games in mint condition, get them rated and hit Heritage Auctions, you never know, you may be an instant millionaire.
We wonder what video game will break the sales record next?
image source: Heritage Auctions and CNN US
source story: The Verge
Our postal service surprised us today with not one, but two packages! Wow, AusPost never ceases to amaze us.
XBOX Series S
We may stir up a few hardcore retro gamers with this first package, but before they start flying off their handle, relax, we got the Xbox Series S for a couple of reasons, the main one being that we can legitimately play our retro games on it via the retail version of RetroArch. Yep, you read that right, there is a legit RetroArch version available on the Microsoft store. The other use case we have is playing the classics we know and love via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which we scored for a bargain ($2 for 6 months)!
ARDUBOY FX:
The second parcel to arrive was in a much smaller package, which we honestly didn’t know what it was till we opened it. The story goes like this – we ordered the Arduboy FX almost a year ago, which at the time we were told that it would arrive by September 2020, but COVID derailed that ETA. Opening up this package was a total surprise and we must admit, we got more excited for the Arduboy FX than the Xbox Series S.
We bet you’ll guess what we will unbox and play first 😉
Happy Gaming peeps!
It’s heading toward the end of June, so for this month we dug up some ultra cool stuff that will give you a good old dose of nostalgia, so make sure you seek medical advice if you start feeling faint-ish.
From playing Sega Mega Drive/Genesis games on our Pioneer LaserDisc to getting some BurgerTime, Psycho Fox gaming action and of course, getting instantly sick playing on the Virtual Boy and everything in between!
If you see anything that induces nostalgia, hit us up on Twitter or Facebook and tell us all about it (or seek medical advice ;-))!
Nothing beats blowing minds by playing our Mega Drive / Genesis (cart, CD and LD) games on our Pioneer LaserDisc
Our fave conversion of BurgerTime. Yep, it plays marvellously on the Intellivision
The rage inducing Master System game!
Tabletop action, starting with Astro Wars!
Contemplating on sorting out our Amstrad CPC6128 collection…..
Anyone else have a Bally Astrocade or the Sega Lock-On?
Yeah, we love all things Star Wars, including pinball machines and LaserDiscs!
Sega Power! Two of our favourite Sega consoles in one image!
One of our all time favourite video games. We have played this infinite amount of time in these last 30 years!
Instant headache! We love the Virtual Boy, but our brain and eyes don’t 🙁
Original image copyright: ausretrogamer
The votes have been counted for the classic games that will be inducted into the 2021 World Video Game Hall of Fame!
The Strong announced that from the field of 12 finalists, the following classic games have been inducted into the 2021 World Video Game Hall of Fame:
The games that missed out this time include; FIFA International Soccer, Call of Duty, FarmVille, Guitar Hero, Mattel Football, Pole Position, Portal and Tron. We must say that we were surprised that Pole Position, Tron and/or FIFA International Soccer didn’t make the cut, but the votes suggests otherwise.
So what do you think of the four video games that were inducted for this year’s World Video Game Hall of Fame? Hit us up on Twitter or our Facebook Page.
The World Video Game Hall of Fame at The Strong was established in 2015 to recognise individual electronic games of all types—arcade, console, computer, handheld, and mobile—that have enjoyed popularity over a sustained period and have exerted influence on the video game industry or on popular culture and society in general. Inductees were announced at The Strong museum in Rochester, New York, and are on permanent view on the museum’s second floor. Anyone may nominate a game to the World Video Game Hall of Fame. Final selections are made on the advice of journalists, scholars, and other individuals familiar with the history of video games and their role in society.
image source: The Strong – National Museum of Play
LEARN TO MAKE GAMES FROM THE MINDS AT NINTENDO WITH GAME BUILDER GARAGE FOR NINTENDO SWITCHHave fun learning to create games with the new game-making game launching on 11th June
Have you ever dreamed of creating your own video game? That dream can become a reality with Game Builder Garage, launching exclusively for Nintendo Switch on 11th June. With this new software launching in Nintendo eShop and in stores across Australia and New Zealand, kids and parents – and everyone in between! – can have fun learning to create and share their own video games. By connecting colourful creatures called Nodon, anyone can enjoy learning how to create their own game through fun, guided lessons that cover the basics of visual game programming, and no prior experience is necessary! To get an idea of what Nodon look like and how they work in the game, as well as getting a taste of the types of games you can create, check out the Game Builder Garage announcement trailer below:
source: NintendoAU
Nodon are creatures with big personalities that are used to help build your games from the ground up. There are dozens of Nodon in Game Builder Garage, each with a unique function, and you can learn how to build games just by connecting them in various ways. For example, you can create and move a human-like character with an analogue stick just by connecting Stick Nodon with Person Nodon! Thus you will get to learn the basics of game programming in a fun and intuitive way. You’ll be able to create a wide variety of different types of video games too – from side-scrolling platformers, to kart racers, to space blasters!
When you first boot up Game Builder Garage, you can start with Lesson Mode. Here, you will meet the colourful and quirky Nodon, the creatures that you will use to learn the basic concept of visual programming in step-by-step, interactive lessons you can take at your own pace. These lessons are designed to be fun, engaging and perfect for people of all experience levels, with checkpoints in between for players to test their knowledge by solving small puzzles or tasks.
In Free Programming mode, you can bring your own game ideas to life by putting all the skills learned in the lessons to the test. With the simple press of a button, you can swap between the programming and game screen to quickly try out your creation and see how it plays.
If you’re looking for a little inspiration, you can exchange and download games with friends and family over the internet or via a local wireless connection.* This is a great way to not only show off some of your own creations, but also to check out games created by other players. You can even go into Free Programming mode to pull the curtain back on the programming of games uploaded by other players to study them and learn some tricks of your own!
While Game Builder Garage can be controlled with a Joy-Con controller, Nintendo Switch Pro Controller or the controls of Nintendo Switch Lite**, you can also build games using a compatible mouse that is plugged into the USB port on the Nintendo Switch dock. This control option might be easier for people who love the feel of a mouse when navigating the software.
Game Builder Garage launches on 11th June, with a suggested retail price of AU$49.95.
** If playing on Nintendo Switch Lite, additional accessories (sold separately) are required and gameplay controls may differ. Visit the Nintendo Support website for more information.
Press release supplied by Nintendo Australia
We are excited to start a new monthly feature, which we hope becomes a regular on ausretrogamer.com.
So what’s this newfangled feature we are so excited about? Well, as the title suggests, we’ll be delving deep into our photo vault full of retro gaming photos from years gone by. The aim is to give you all a dose of nostalgia and hopefully connect with new audience members.
For this very first edition, we dug through thousands of our images from the last dozen years and came up with a swag of nostalgia inducing photos; from the best joystick ever made, board games based on classic arcade titles, to our Commodore 64 smart watches and playing classic games on our Game Boy Micro – it’s all easy money 😉
Enjoy!
Original image copyright: ausretrogamer