The Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2009

[Thanks to Aaron Auzins for the info]

UPDATED – Had to fix an error regarding where the event is taking place.

If you live in or near the Portland area then heads up, a retro gaming expo which will include some excellent retro arcade gaming will be getting some love on September 19th-20th. Pre- and post-party events will be taking place at Ground Kontrol Arcade in Portland with the main event taking place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, there will be a lot of arcade love to go around, from classic games set on free play to a raffle prize of a full-size Konami Multicade machine. The admission is quite inexpensive and if you are looking for more details, check out the press release after the break.

Mutliple Gaming Goodies!

Here a few bits of gaming gear that I spotted this week which we can all add to our list of “Definitely going to buy one of those, but never do”.

Click on the thumbs to enlarge!

A Space Invaders chopping board via Arcade Lounge.  Hopefully this little bugger will stay still while your chopping.

 

Get cosy with a Goomba in this Mario Bros quilt via Wonderland.

 

and this rather unique sewn Atari game box! Also via Wonderland.

look closer…

 

 

[Discuss on the Fourm]

California Extreme 2009

Dates for California Extreme have been confirmed for 2009. The 13th annual celebration of pinball, videogames and other games found in arcades of the past, is to be held on the 11th & 12th July at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara, California.

Organisers are always interested in hearing from anyone who would like to bring along their arcade or pinball machine, or from anyone interested in volunteering at the event. Those interested can contact info@caextreme.org for more information.

[Discuss on the Forum]

Virtual On heading for XBLA

If Sega’s Border Break news has wet the appetite for some mech action, then your in for another treat as Sega are bringing the classic  mech game; Virtual On to Xbox Live Arcade. Not any old VO, but the final release Oratorio Tangram which was the final release for the Naomi. The game is pencilled for an April release at 1200 points. Can’t wait, but one thing that does concern me is the more and more common 1200 point price tag for XBLA games. Are Microsoft gradually sneaking them up, me thinks? 

[via Kotaku via Famitsu]     [Discuss on the Forum]

Review: Asteroids Deluxe by Atari

While we eagerly await our ATEI coverage to be posted (it should be up very soon so stay tuned) I figured it might be nice to get in a video review before hand. I’ve been needing to do more of these but time is a precious thing as you know and I can’t seem to find enough of it lately. But here is one of my favorite games, Asteroids Deluxe, in all it’s vector glory. While I didn’t have a very good game here, I think that it’s always cool to see a vector monitor in action. Surprisingly, AD has been a popular game at my place, even kids who are only dazzled by today’s modern graphics constantly play this because “it looks so cool”. Too bad I don’t have a full color vector game to show them what that looks like but one day I’ll get my hands on a Major Havoc and that will change.

There is an HD version of this if you click here

[Discuss on the Forums]

Space Invaders Piggy Bank

There’s a certain irony of a Space Invaders cocktail cabinet piggy bank. So much money put in to them back in the day, but now you get to save the coins this time around!

[via JeanSnow]     [Discuss on the Forum]

The Tetris and Breakout playable piggy banks

 

Way back in the early 80’s, at the height of the arcade craze, some companies produced some portable or table-top games based on popular arcade titles. The screens used weren’t anything close to what we have today but they also were not bad for the time. I have a Galaxian table-top game and it’s actually playable.

Now someone in Japan has brought the idea back with similar units although they have also added the feature of it being a piggy bank as well. You can get either Tetris or Breakout for about $40 each (which doesn’t include shipping from Japan)  and from the video below it looks like they play close to the originals, although I’d prefer for Breakout to have a proper paddle controller.

[Video game Piggy Banks @ Strapya World] [Discuss on the Forum]

25 years and still standing – the Asteroids High Score

I’m sorry I missed this one yesterday but being a day late doesn’t hurt. Yesterday marked the 25th anniversary of Scott Safran setting the still unbroken high score record on Atari’s Asteroids, setting the bar at the jaw dropping 41,336,440 points (it should be noted that Twin Galaxies lists the date as 1982 so I am not sure if that is a typo or not). How long did it take to hit that record? Three days, two nights. No pause button to hold the game, no comfy couch to get lazy on and I don’t know how he handled eating and the bathroom but if anyone deserves to be considered a video game champion, it would have to be Scott.

Of course there are other records much like that from early 80’s arcade games where it took a couple of days to set the high score. One I know of off the top of my head is Atari’s Star Wars where Robert Mruczek came in with an astounding 300,007,894 which also stands up today (that high score will hit 25 years unbroken on 1/22/2009 so get cracking if you think you have a chance). Of course you don’t really see this sort of thing in any game today, arcade, console or PC since everything “has” to have an ending.Maybe if a few games decided to be bold and drop the whole ending component in favor of the never-ending one found in many classic games we could see a few more very interesting games/ideas come around

[Via Kotaku via Wired] [Discuss on the Forums]

The Pac-Man Christmas Ornament

It’s that time of year, where stores start jumping the gun for the Christmas holiday and begin rolling out the merchandise well before the month of December rolls around. It’s a little easy to get worn out early on since where I live several radio stations got it into their heads that it would be fun to start playing all Christmas music all the time starting on Halloween (I just avoid those stations but it is still irritating) but that’s all part of the game these days.

Whether you have already purchased your Christmas tree or you are deciding to wait until December, this ornament is the perfect addition to any gamer’s tree – the Pac-Man arcade cabinet tree ornament. It even lights up and plays sounds from the game so it’s one of those few things that could probably work as a decoration on something other than a tree, in case you don’t celebrate the holiday or you just need arcade decorations for some reason. The ornament is only available in Hallmark stores and it’s running for $18.50 but it is available now. I might get two, one for the store and one for home. 😉 Next they should do games like Sinistar, Berzerk or Gorf – anything that had voice in the game to taunt the player, you could have a bit of fun with that.

[Pac-Man Ornament @ Hallmark] [Discuss on the Forum]

Location Review: Funland Trocadero, London

Finally! This is something I’ve been meaning to do for longer than i care to mention.

Hit the jump at the bottom of this post for my Funland picture overload!

Funland Trocadero is a big place, so big it’s hard to describe the layout of the place, but essentially there are 5 main floors (I think!). The first floor you come across, after travelling up the main escalator, has mostly new games which include the following; UFO Catchers, DDR, Afterburner Climax, Manic Panic Ghost, TSUmo, Sega Rally 3, Fast and the Furious Super Bikes, Battle Gear 4, Need for Speed Underground, Ford Racing, Primeval Hunt, Wartran Troopers, Rambo, Time Crisis 4, Let’s Go Jungle, House of the Dead 4, Panzer Elite, Lethal Enforcers 3, Big Buck Pro and multiple pushers.

A row of back to back fighters can be found on the floor below as well as a Tekken 6. Every time I’ve been to Funland there has always been a crowd of guys down here gauranteed. Also on this floor are some fruit machines as well as Mario Kart GP, Gaelco Football, Virtua Striker 4, a 2 car Outrun 2 Super Deluxe and another Time Crisis 4. Oh and also a game called Percussion Master, which i don’t think I’ve seen before.

If you head back up and follow the pathway around you walk past the bowling alley and a pool bar as well as a bunch of cranes, a Guitar Freaks and a Pump it Up. Head down half a dozen steps and you are in probably what is the biggest floor which is mainly made up of a lot of redemption pieces, pool tables, an 8 player Daytona, a 4 player WCCF, an 8 player Derby Owners Club, deluxe 4 player Outrun 2’s & Ford Racing’s and a twin Mario Kart GP 2. The rest of the games that make up this floor includes Beat Mania 3rd Mix, Virtua Fighter 4 Evo, Hyper Bishi Bashi Champ, another Pump It Up and an Airline Pilots.

(Sorry if this is just sounding like a long list of games, but it’s very rare that I’ll ever get so many pics and remember all the games there, so I figured it would a good idea to write them all down.)

Moving on swiftly then, and on to the floor below this. Apart from the bumper cars in the middle, this floor is packed full of new and old videos. Starting with the new there is an Alien Extermination, a Paradise Lost, Maximum Tune 3, Initial D 4, Blazing Angels, Virtua Tennis 3, Ghost Squad Evo and NASCAR to sink some coins into. For those looking for something a little more aged and perhaps different there are games like Point Blank, Virtua Striker 2, Virtua NBA, some more old skool fighters (sorry can’t remember what they were), Star Wars Racer, Star Wars Trilogy, House of the Dead, another 8 player Daytona, F355 Challenge and Land High Japan?!?

Just few steps down from here is the final piece of the maze that is Funland. This floor does not disappoint either, with a 4 car Outrun 2 Super Deluxe, Silent Hill Arcade, a range of Dancing games as well as some rarer pieces like Manx TT,  MTV Drumscape, Muzan and Ninja Assault.

So that’s what is there, but how does it rate as an arcade? Well obviously it up there with the best in terms of variety of games and it’s very rare to see any of these machine out of order. I think my only complaint about Funland is that if you haven’t been there before it’s very easy to get lost in the multiple floors and the one way escalator system. But hey, I can’t think of a better place to get lost!

[Discuss on the Forum]

Hit the jump for my Funland picture overload!