The Odd Release History of Metal Gear
Nintendo entered the home console market amidst the Video Game Crash of 1983. Two years later, they found themselves dominating the market with their Nintendo Entertainment System. Feeling justifiably cautious at the time, quality control was a cornerstone of...
Jazz Jackrabbit: Holiday Hare
The holidays are a special time, a season for family, warm fires, and (as we explored last week) lemmings. However, lemmings are not the only small, fuzzy animal to be featured in a holiday video game. Far from from it! The jackrabbit is also a member of that elite...
Happy Meal Toys and Fast Food Tie-Ins – By David Oxford
Since the dawn of video games, there have been seemingly endless efforts made to bring the pastime we all enjoy to a more mainstream audience: television, comic books, movies, music, and more. But one method that’s been around for nearly as long as the medium itself...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Jim Schelberg
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Jim Schelberg, who is displayed on card number 284, from the Superstars of 2012. Jim is also featured on cards 739 and 1714. Jim is the editor and publisher of “PinGame Journal”. He has a passion to spread the news and...
Christmas Lemmings!
It’s the holiday season and I haven’t written about a Commodore game in a bit, so let’s mash the two things together, shall we? When you think of beloved holiday traditions, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Directing a herd of lemmings to safety through a...
How Contagious Was Pac-Man Fever? – By Michael Thomasson
Gary Garcia and Jerry Buckner were grade school friends in the early sixties who formed a local band known as Wild Butler. “We were writing songs, playing in bands, and, like most guys at the time, musicians trying to get by -- trying to make it,” states Buckner. He...
Versus Mode: Contra vs. Contra
Each version has their up ups, as well as their down downs.
RIP Joel West
Bezerk Champion, Star of Chasing Ghosts, and a dear friend of mine passed away today. I will miss his kindness and love for the gaming industry. He was a huge help in the Walter Day Trading card project as well as helping sell merchandise for charity and other...
An Overview of Special-Colored Game Cartridges
Video game cartridges have a long and interesting history. It’s hard to say how long that history will ultimately be, given that Nintendo will likely make cartridges for the Switch over the next several years. Today, I would like to examine one of my favorite aspects...
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: Ewok Adventure
It’s the holiday season, which means it is time to sit down and watch The Star Wars Holiday Special. It has become something of a cult classic since its one and only airing forty years ago. This made for TV masterpiece told the story of Chewbacca, his wife Mallatobuck...
Limited Edition Ghostly Super Nt Announced & Available Effective Immediately
Yes, that title is deliberately alarmist. This is not a drill – if you’ve been thinking of purchasing Analogues excellent Super Nt and are also a fan of the record label, Ghostly, then you better line up $249.99US pretty darn quick. They’ve just collaborated to create...
Video Games Live, Tommy Tallarico and the Intellivision – By Michael Thomasson
Video Games Live features video game music performed by a complete live orchestra presented in tandem with various video game content including gameplay footage, dynamic stage lighting, and over-the-top special effects. There is nothing that adds more POP to...
Soundtrack Review: Dungeon Explorer (TurboGrafx-16, 1989)
Dungeon Explorer, released in 1989 for the TurboGrafx-16, is a multiplayer-capable action RPG (one of the first, in fact) with an excellent soundtrack. It garnered generally positive reviews, which cited its clever puzzles and fun gameplay mechanics (borrowing heavily...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Derek Sorrells
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Derek Sorrells, who is displayed on card number 832, from the Superstars of 2014 Collection. Derek is also featured on cards 1280, 2158 and 2254. Derek is an old school gamer who loves arcade machines. He grew up in the...
The Last Official Release: CD-i – Solar Crusade (1999)
Here we are, back again, for The Last Official Release. Welcome. Within these words, we delve into the world of the last official games released for your favourite consoles. I’ve long since run through the major players from the 5th generation and downwards, so as the...
Ji-Wen Tsao and Shark! Shark!
A few years ago, Sprout Games published Feeding Frenzy. In 2006, a sequel was released by PopCap Games (the company behind games like Plants Vs. Zombies and Peggle). In the game, you played as a fish feeding on other fish. The more you ate, the larger you got. Of...
Review: Arcade Archives Urban Champion for Nintendo Switch
“Don’t let the bully of the block push you around. Fight for your right to walk the street.”
Crazy Controllers – The Super Pad 64
Games have to be controlled with something, whether it’s a mouse and keyboard, a good old joystick, or a modern, two-stick gamepad. In the first of a new series, we’ll look at some of the weird, unwieldy, or just plain bad controllers used by gamers both young and...
Astrosmash and the Blue Sky Rangers
Some things are instantly addictive. One sweet taste and you’re immediately hooked for life. No, I’m not talking about anything illicit. I’m talking about things like Cap’n Crunch with Crunch Berries, Lay’s Potato Chips (Betcha can’t eat just one!), and Astrosmash for...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Paul Hornitzky
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Paul Hornitzky who is displayed on card number 91, from the Twin Galaxies Superstars Collection of 2011. Paul grew up in the Golden Age of Video Games. When Arcades and Pinball were all the rage back in the 1970s and 1980s. ...
Rescue on Fractalus!: David Fox and the Beginning of LucasFilm Games
If I were to create a Mount Rushmore of my favorite video game designers and programmers, David Fox would have to be included. His name is connected to some of the greatest games in the LucasArts catalog: Zak McKraken and the Alien Mindbenders, Maniac Mansion, Indiana...
Remembering the Nintendo Ultra 64 Dream Team: Software Creations
Software Creations may not have made many games for the Nintendo 64, but they still played an important role in the console’s life.
Old School Stuff: Cool Things We Find At Gaming Expos, Online or Wherever!? – By Old School Gamer Staff
Each month, the staff of Old School Gamer Magazine are sent to some of the greatest gaming conventions in the US. And to every convention we go to, we always seem to come back with more stuff than we left with. That's not always a bad thing. Because not only do we...
Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man
Sometimes it’s impossible to be objective about an issue. For instance, I was young enough when I saw the Ewok movies, that they are ingrained in my mind as a beloved part of my childhood. It doesn’t matter that the writing and acting are sketchy, or that the ewoks...
Universal Studios Has Confirmed That Construction For The Super Nintendo Theme Park Has Begun
Anyone who has ever played a video game must have wondered, at some point, what it would have been like to be in the video game world they were enjoying so much. And Nintendo games are no different. Fortunately for Nintendo fans around the world, the company is...
EON to Release MK-II of its Popular GCHD Adapter
Back in January, a company new to the aftermarket retro hardware scene, Eon, released the GCHD. This allowed native 480p video output on the GameCube via HDMI – something elusive to the console since Nintendo’s component adapter is relatively uncommon. They’re also...
Diff’rent Strokes and the Shoot-Out at the O.K. Arcade! – By Michael Thomasson
The world don’t move to the beat of just one drum. At least that is what we learned growing up watchin’ the weekly antics of Arnold, played by Gary Coleman, when the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes was beamed across the airwaves. Of particular interest is the fifth episode...
Hey Hey Hey… Fat Albert Saves the Day – By Michael Thomasson
This is Michael Thomasson comin’ at you with a historical pop-culture article, and if you’re not careful, you may learn something before it’s done. So let’s get ready, OK? Hey, hey, hey! Despite your current feelings about Bill Cosby, he was a major influence on many...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Steve Grunberger
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Steve Grunberger who is displayed on card number 906, from the Superstars of 2014 Collection. Steve, who lives in Australia, is a passionate gamer who grew up in the early 80s and lived the arcade boom as well as the fall. ...
Lost In the Maze: Intellivision’s Night Stalker
Last month, Intellivision Entertainment introduced the world to the Intellivision Amico, a new console which aims to revive the family and community aspects of gaming. While Tommy Tallarico, President of Intellivision, says that the system will not be built around...
Soundtrack Review: Sonic Spinball (Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear, Sega Master System, 1993-1995)
It's nearly Thanksgiving, and in the spirit of one of the most iconic balloons in the history of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, let's take a look (and listen) to a Sonic the Hedgehog game that might not be the first on everyone's mind. It's Sonic Spinball! An...
Zen Studios Announces WilliamsTM PinballVolume 2
New Three-Pack Adds Bally Favorites The Party ZoneTM, Black RoseTM and Attack from MarsTM After the successful release of the Pinball FX3 Williams Pack, Zen Studios is ready to launch their next addition of classics across the gaming platform. San Francisco, CA –...
New Hack Allows You to See Mega Man Soccer Through to the Very End
Now you can play the game as it was meant to be played.
Rampage Double Feature – By Michael Thomasson
Brian Colin is a filmmaker and animator who reluctantly found himself thrust into the video game industry kicking and screaming.... During the golden age of arcade video games, Colin answered a Bally Midway ad thinking, “What does the pinball company want with an...
Whomping Worms On the Intellivision
A few months ago, I read a horror novel titled, “The Conqueror Worms” by Brian Keane. It tells the story of a world overrun by massive, worm-like creatures that are brought to the earth’s surface after a never ending deluge of rain. The book was the first of a series,...
The Neo Geo Mini is Getting into the Christmas Spirit
Everyone knows at least one person who’s absolutely obsessed with Christmas. I’m talking fully knitted white and red sweaters, potent eggnog, stuffed stockings and handmade Chrissy cards galore – all that and more, obsessed over potentially months before the big day....
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Elizabeth Hunter
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Elizabeth Hunter, who is displayed on card number 333, from the Superstars of 2012 Collection. Elizabeth is also on cards 51 and 345. Elizabeth is most well-known by her title of “Kitty McScratch”. Her claim to fame is the...
TRON: Games Based on the Movie About a Video Game – By Kevin Butler
Tron was the first video game that was officially licensed from a movie. Other games had been created before 1981 but they were unofficial versions or they weren’t officially licensed from the movies they were associated with. The premise of Tron involves a man named...
The Last Official Release: Atari Lynx – Super Asteroids & Missile Command (1995)
It’s been a little while since I’ve added to The Last Official Release series – nearly a month, actually (when I covered the Nokia N-Gage) – so, hold onto your Dreamcast branded hats as I get back into the swing of things. For the uninitiated, The Last Official...
Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker
Stepping into Free Play Richardson is a bit like having access to a time machine that can transport me to my childhood. The experience starts the instant you step in the front door. Pulsing, synth heavy New Wave blares through the building, playing songs like “Space...