Atari 2600 Encyclopedia: Do you know Basketball?
Release Date: 1978 Publisher: Atari Controller: Joystick Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Sports Alternate Title: N/A Model #: CX2624 Rarity: 2 Programmer: Alan Miller This one-on-one basketball duel is a flawed but entertaining take on the sport. This is about as rudimentary of...
From Arcade to Console: How Street Fighter Influenced Arcade Gaming
While Street Fighter is a legendary franchise today, with some of the largest eSports tournaments behind it, it’s interesting looking back on the early days of arcade gaming. Consoles brought Street Fighter to the living room, but the arcade days hold plenty of...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Sami Cetin
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Sami Cetin (UK) who currently is displayed on card number 482, from the Superstars of 2013 Collection. Sami is one of the World Record Holders at Super Mario Kart SNES. In 2012 he won the World Title that was held in...
Atari 2600 Encyclopedia: Do you know Adventure?
Release Date: 1980 Publisher: Atari Controller: Joystick Players: 1 Genre: Adventure Alternate Title: N/A Model #: cx2613 Rarity: 2 Programmer: Warren Robinett In this ambitious ground breaking game you have the honor of controlling the first great video game hero....
Five Game Boy Games You Shouldn’t Sleep On
Nintendo’s Game Boy is one of the most influential consoles ever and easily the reason why Nintendo still exists to this day. Losing several wars in the home console wars over the past 20 years, it’s been the Game Boy family of consoles that allowed the brand to fight...
Pac-Man 99: The Fever Is Back (Pac-Man Fever That Is)
Pac-Man 99 is the latest classic game to get the 99 Battle Royale treatment. Nintendo and Bandai Namco literally surprised everyone when they dropped the trailer on us this past Tuesday and a released it the next day! Pac-Man 99 is a free to play download game for...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Eric Olofson
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Eric Olofson who currently is displayed on card number 2472, from the Superstars of 2016 Collection. Eric has been playing video game since the late 1970’s. He has been trying to break records ever since. His first world...
Atari 2600 Encyclopedia: Do you know G.I. Joe?
Release Date: 1983 Publisher: Parker Brothers Controller: Paddles Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Shoot’em Up Alternate Title: N/A Model #: PB5920 Rarity: 4 Programmer: John Emerson One of the most iconic franchises from the 1980s is coming to the 2600! Well, sort of. G.I Joe,...
Welcome to Walter Day’s Fantasy Land – by Walter Day
Everybody has their innermost desires. Everybody has secret aspirations and goals they hope to achieve in the course of their lives. Some people wish for a new car, some for a better home, and some for a wonderful romantic relationship. Unbelievably, one of my most...
Atari 2600 Encyclopedia: Do you know Birthday Mania?
Release Date: 1984 Publisher: Personal Games Controller: Paddles Players: 1 Genre: Shoot’em Up Alternate Title: N/A Model #: N/A Rarity: 10 Programmer: Robert Anthony Tokar The ROM for this long lost Holy Grail has finally surfaced It’s your birthday and it’s time to...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Ed Fries
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Ed Fries, who is displayed on card number 365, from the Superstars of 2012 Collection. Ed has been in the gaming scene since the early 1980’s. He ahs been part of some historic gaming revolutions and games. After working on...
Time Splitters – by Bill Donohue
By now, many people know that down on the 40 Deuce, Super Bomberman 2 was the game of choice. I’ve written about how the game took over our spare time like a vampire does young, good looking women. It was the only game we knew, the only game we needed to know... IT...
Craig Broadbrooks: NHL Faceoff ’98 – by Patrick Hickey Jr.
After the monumental successes of the original NHLFaceOff and its successor, NHL FaceOff 97, Craig Broadbooks and his team at Killer Game proved, at least for the time being, that its hockey franchise could hold its own with the likes of EA Sports NHL series on the...
To Mod Or Not To Mod? That Is The Question.
Being able to customize your things is really cool. Putting your own personal stamp or improving something you love can be a good thing, however it can also devalue the item if you want to sell it later down the line. What may seem priceless and worth hundreds of...
It Figures : A Sephiroth story – by Michael Mertes
It's not uncommon in today's world to walk down the toy aisle of any big box store and see action figures from games like Halo, Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, Pokemon, Street Fighter, and Mindcraft. Before the late 1990s, any action figures related to video...
The Nostalgia Dollar – paying the price for our emotional connection to childhood favourites
By Brandon Keenen, Chief Marketing Officer for Antstream Arcade. 2020 was a financial success for the games industry, but nowhere has this expressed itself as uniquely as in the retro gaming space, where prices spiked thanks to a wave of renewed interest in the...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Justin Pursell
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Justin Pursell, who is displayed on card number 3530, from the Superstars of 2021 Collection. Justin is one of the most talented artists I have seen in a long time. His artistic precision makes all his artwork look realistic...
Clock Tower – by Michael Mertes
The blood-curdling scream of one of your friends tears through the halls of the Barrows mansion like a sonic boom. The sound startles you so bad that you lose your footing and smash face-first into the mansion floor. Fearing that you could be the next person...
Atari 2600 Encyclopedia: Do you know Gyruss?
Release Date: 1984 Publisher: Parker Brothers Controller: Joystick Players: 1 Genre: Shoot’em Up Alternate Title: N/A Model #: PB5080 Rarity: 4 Programmer: N/A This port does a pretty good job emulating the arcade title. You are marooned just outside of Neptune and...
Crocodile Hunter : Lights, Lava, Action – by Patrick Hickey, Jr.
Nintendo is often considered the king of video games, mainly because their original characters have endured for decades. Mario, Luigi, Link, Bowser, Donkey Kong and the rest of Nintendo’s crew are timeless. However, the brand is far from perfect. Their infamous...
Five Nintendo Games That Deserve a Sequel
The Nintendo Switch is a force of nature, but there are several notable holes in the console’s library. Old School Gamer’s Patrick Hickey Jr. shares his thoughts on what old first-party titles from Nintendo could be brought back to make millions of gamers happy....
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Van Burnham
This week we look back at an interview I did June 16th, 2017 with Van Burham. Van has gaming in her blood and decided to write a book about the histroy of gaming from 1971-1984. The book called Supercade" was a smash hit. She is now in the process of publishing the...
Atari 2600 Encyclopedia: Do you know Congo Bongo?
Release Date: 1983 Publisher: Sega Controller: Joystick Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Arcade - Platformer Alternate Title: N/A Model #: 006-01 Rarity: 4 Programmer: Steve Beck / Phat Ho What causes a normal everyday hunter on a jungle safari to be pushed over the edge? Two...
Atari Jaguar: Food for the Worms – by Michael Mertes
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is acquiring one of the last games released for the Atari Jaguar... Worms. Worms was released in 1998, just two years after Atari pulled the litter box out from under its black cat console and discontinued further...
The Super Mario Bros. Game & Watch: A Neat Little Nostalgia Trap
The Super Mario Bros. Game & Watch system is really neat. As someone who grew up mostly playing the Tiger electronic handhelds this new device pays a great homage to the Game & Watch titles from decades ago. So why am I talking about it now than way back in...
Just 4 Qix – Quake – by Michael Thomasson
Back in 1998, a small California cabinet making company called LAZER-TRON partnered with computer software developer id Software to bring high-end PC gaming into the arcade. Teaming up with Opus Entertainment and LBE Systems, the troop attempted to stir up the arcade...
E3: 25 Years of Gaming – by Todd Friedman
E3, short for the “Electronic Entertainment Expo”, is the largest computer and video game show in the United States. Almost every name in the industry is present during this convention. There are leading pub-lishers, developers and manufacturers represented at this...
Atari 2600 Encyclopedia: Do you know Centipede?
Release Date: 1982 Publisher: Atari Controller: Joystick Players: 1 Genre: Shoot’em Up Alternate Title: N/A Model #: CX2676 Rarity: 2 Programmer: N/A This is a surprisingly solid port of the arcade classic. You take control of a magic wand wielding elf who must...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Sam Tuff
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Sam Tuff who currently is displayed on card number 3538, from the Superstars of 2021. Sam, from the North East of England, is a World Record Tetris player. He holds over 60 world records on the Twin Galaxies Scoreboard for...
Pokemon Disasters – by Michael Thomasson
Certainly it is doubtful that Pokémon creator Satoshi Tjiri knew when he started up his hand-written and stapled video game fanzine, Game Freak, that his creation would cause such a fuss! The avid insect collector and video game hobbyist became enthralled with...
The Resident Evil Trilogy – by Michael Mertes
Back in 1996 PlayStation players were introduced to the survival horror world of Resident Evil. Trapped in a mansion and armed with limited resources to defend themselves, players would fight for their lives against the biological atrocities that infested the halls of...
ISSUE 20 – iiRcade News Flash
Sometimes great news about an industry member comes in after the magazine has already been laid out and needs to get into the magazine's next issue. iiRcade, a great supporter of Old School Gamer Magazine, had some releases that were announced in November and early...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Jaden Berk
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Jaden Berk, who is displayed on card number 1324, from the Superstars of 2014 Collection. Jaden has been around pinball in some sort of fashion his whole life. His father, Robert Berk, would create and start a pinball expo...
Atari 2600 Encyclopedia: Do you know Hangman?
Release Date: 1978 Publisher: Atari Controller: Joystick Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Education Alternate Title: Spelling Model #: CX2662 Rarity: 2 Programmer: Alan Miller This simplistic education title recreates the spelling game that has taught generations of children to...
An Interview with Joel Billings – Founder of SSI
OSG: Hi Joel. You’ve been very generous with your time over the years, sharing the history of SSI, including an Antic magazine interview (Antic Vol. 4, No. 3 July 1985), a Matt Chat YouTube channel interview (#181, #183, #184, and #188 from 2013), and a Video Game...
Strategic Simulations from Board to Console – by Bill Lange
Fight it out with your trusty six-shooter in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Lead the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s grand armies across the European landscape. Hold the line against Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg. Sink the mighty Bismarck. Command the...
Game Boy Advance: Handheld Gaming Perfected.
To say that the Game Boy Advance (GBA) is the best of the entire Game Boy family may be a tad rhetorical. It was the more powerful system, it eventually had a backlit screen and the clamshell design made the whole system easier to fit inside a pocket. You also...
The Official “40 Deuce” SB2 Glossary – by Bill Donohue
Yeah, I live on 42nd street, but for me, it will always be 40 Deuce. That was the name that Ray Gilligan, my former drummer and all-around crazy guy, gave to the street we both lived on. At one time, there was a magical period on the 40 Deuce: Ray was the official...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Warren Davis
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Warren Davis, who is displayed on card number 239, from the Superstars of 2012. The designer and programmer of Q*Bert, Warren has been around the gaming industry for decades. He has worked at such companies and Gottlieb,...
An Interview with Ed Logg – by Kevin Butler
Atari was a corporation that was “born” in 1972. The first arcade game released by this fledgling company was Pong. After that, Atari released games such as Breakout, Sprint (both 2 and 4), Night Driver, and Firetruck to name a few. In 1977, Cinematronics released a...