Blockbuster Video, Earthworm Jim, and the 1995 World Video Game Championship
Earlier this month, the Blockbuster Video located in Morley, Australia announced that it was closing. It was the last Blockbuster on the continent, and the second to last Blockbuster in the world. Now, there is only one left. The last Blockbuster Video on the planet...
Remembering the Nintendo Ultra 64 Dream Team: Time Warner Interactive
The circle of life.
Turn and Burn: KITCHEN’S LIFE-LONG F-14 LOVE AFFAIR – By Patrick Hickey Jr.
For many game developers, there’s always that one golden goose or white whale. That game or genre that appeals to them the most. The thing that will cement their legacy. The one that regardless of their success on other projects, they always come back to. For Dan...
Brett’s Old School Bargain Bin: Atari 2600 Shooters – By Brett Weiss
Despite limited horsepower, the Atari 2600 is home to ports of some of the greatest, most famous arcade shooters of all time. Each of them is missing certain aspects of its respective coin-op classic, but many retain the essential elements that made the originals...
Nintendo Plays Party Pooper By Scott Alan Marriott
After wowing many a classic gamer with his madcap ménage of microgames, Wario and company are back for more fast-paced, reflex-oriented twitch tests. Or is he? Known best as a cranky moneygrubber, Wario’s penny-pinching ways have seemed to rub off on Nintendo for this...
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
It’s been called the worst video game of all time. Some people even credit it with causing the 1983 video game crash that nearly ruined the industry. A common legend surrounding the game is that it was so bad that Atari buried all of the unsold copies under a layer of...
The Sims – By Todd Friedman
You can’t talk about the history of simulation games without mentioning The Sims. The name itself is short for simulation. The Sims series is widely considered on the top of the list of franchise games. The Sims series has sold over 200 million copies worldwide and...
World Video Game Hall of Fame Reveals 12 Finalists
ROCHESTER, New York—Which video games will make it into the World Video Game Hall of Fame this May? Will Centipede devour the competition? Can Mortal Kombat fight its way to victory? Will Microsoft Windows Solitaire play its cards correctly? Can Super Mario Kart speed...
Polymega Barrages Twitter with New Updates
It’s been nearly a year since the Polymega remerged into the retro gaming zeitgeist, and about nine months since any other tangible updates have surfaced. But for those of you who have been patiently awaiting news of the industries hottest new converged emulation...
An R-Type Revival – By Patrick Hickey Jr.
Old School Gamer Magazine chats with Tozai Games Producer Takuya Banno, who discusses their new edition of the classic shoot-em-up, R-Type, dubbed R-Type Dimensions EX, on the Nintendo Switch. Featuring a plethora of old school influences and odes, Dimensions EX is...
Konami’s Classics Collections and the Curse of Being a Nintendo Fan
The drawback of being a Hard Corp fan of certain brands’ Bloodlines.
A Winner Is You! Pro Wrestling on the NES
For no good reason, I’ve been thinking about pro wrestling today. I’ve written about it before (https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/wwf-superstars/). I’ve been thinking about some of the legends of the sport: Andre the Giant, Fritz Von Erich, Sylvester Ritter (aka...
Shooters/Shmups: Galaga – By Todd Friedman
Almost every adult remembers the “Golden Age” of Video Gaming. Most would say this included arcade games from 1978 to 1983. If you were to ask someone what the five most popular games of that era were, Galaga would always be mentioned. It was, and is, one of the most...
Atari VCS 2019: More Power is Coming to the Atari VCS
Hello Fans! The team entered the year 2019 with a lot of great momentum and excitement around the Atari VCS project, confident in our direction and progress. Atari is working with some of the top talent and companies in the business, all helping to implement the...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight Cary J. Hahn
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Cary J. Hahn, who is displayed on card number 185 from the Superstars of 2011 Collection. After working at KTVO Ottumwa, Cary became "The Iowa Traveler" feature reporter for Cedar Rapids, Iowa CBS affiliate KGAN-TV, Channel...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Victor Marland
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Victor Marland, who is displayed on card number 2815, from the Superstars of 2018. Started in 2014, Victor began his current podcast, Ten Pence Arcade Podcast, focusing on arcade games from the 1970’s to the 2000’s. Each...
Piko Interactive Announces New Games for Classic Nintendo System Lineup
Piko Interactive, an independent video game publisher, has started accepting pre-orders for twelve new titles. These titles represent brand new releases for many consoles such as the Nintendo 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, Atari Jaguar, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy...
The Eagerly-Awaited Sega and Retro-Bit Collaboration Sees Success in the Gaming Community Before its March and April Release
Pomona, CA – Since announcing their partnership with Sega® at CES 2018, the gaming community and media outlets have been waiting in anticipation for the launch of the gaming industry’s most sought-after controllers. Retro-Bit® is proud to announce their line of six...
Ninja Gaiden
In his classic book on kenjutsu, The Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi wrote, “...in a fight to the death, one wants to employ all one’s weapons to the utmost. I must say that to die with one’s sword still sheathed is most regrettable.” Growing up, I had many an...
Newly Found Nintendo World Championships Cart Sells for $23,000
As far as rare game cartridges go, those from the 1990 Nintendo World Championships are among the most eminent. A few weeks ago, I did report on a sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. from Nintendo’s American retail test run of the mid-80’s that sold for a blistering...
Boy, Oh Game Boy: Pocket Power
They say black and white is slimming.
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Alan Radue
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Alan Radue, who is displayed on card number 383, from the Superstars of 2012. He is also featured on card 2210 from the Superstars of 2015. Alan is the current world record holder on the arcade games Sea Wolf & Sprint 2....
Old School Gamer Magazine Exclusive: Inside ‘Flap Happy’
Old School Gamer Magazine chats with “Flap Happy” creator and Refresh Games CEO Ryan Carson, who discusses the development process and why the experience was a lifelong dream for him. A nifty new NES project developed for Mega Cat Studios, Flap Happy definitely has...
The National Videogame Museum
This weekend I took a trip to the past, and I didn’t even need a DeLorean to get there. All I had to do was make the short drive to Frisco, Texas to visit the National Videogame Museum. Opened in 2016 by Joe Santulli, Sean Kelly, and John Hardie (founders of the Las...
The Last Official Release: Neo Geo AES – Samurai Shodown V Special (2004)
Welcome again, retro-playing friends, to another instalment of The Last Official Release. So far, I’ve chronicled the last games released for 25 different consoles and handhelds (all linked below). To say I’m running out of content wouldn’t be a lie – the list of what...
Global Gladiators for Game Gear Review
New review! Get it while it's hot! Of all the companies that shouldn't be involved in video games, I'd say McDonald's rates pretty highly. But they are, and this game, Global Gladiators found its way onto the Sega Game Gear in 1992. [wpdevart_youtube width="640"...
Old School Gamer Magazine Exclusive: Inside ‘Hero-U’
Old School Gamer Magazine chats with Corey Cole, President, Transolar Games (Formerly programmer and game designer – Quest for Glory, Castle of Dr. Brain, Shannara.), who lets us know what makes his newest game, Hero-U a special one. Old School Gamer Magazine: How was...
ARpiCADE – Raspberry Pi Your Jamma Cabinet – By Old School Gamer
ARpiCADE is the solution to a whole slew of issues that retro video gamers have. It is an extra board set that you hook up to your Raspberry Pi computer. It allows you to do the equivalent of RetroPie, which so many people are using to build handheld computers and...
Deja Vu
The term “film noir” traces back to 1946 and the French film critic Nino Frank. He used the phrase in an article titled, “A New Kind of Police Drama: the Criminal Adventure,” which focused on films like Double Indemnity, The Maltese Falcon, and Murder My Sweet. They...
Unannounced, Unreleased Pre-World Championship Wrestling NES Game Discovered
A curious curio for oldschool video game and wrestling fans alike.
GameShell – You Can Build It….I Did! – By Old School Gamer
My interest in the GameShell began when I heard about it back in November 2017, right as Old School Gamer was in its infancy. I often find myself backing many retro gaming related products that I see popping up on crowdfunding sites, especially on Kickstarter, which...
Video Game Industry Veteran and Former Atari COO, Todd Shallbetter, Joins Medical Video Game Company, Level Ex
Shallbetter to lead video game studio’s strategic partnership efforts CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (MARCH 6, 2019) — Level Ex, creators of industry-leading video games for doctors, announced today the hiring of former Atari Chief Operating Officer, Todd Shallbetter, as Senior...
The C64 Mini World’s Best Selling Home Computer – Reborn! By Michael Thomasson
The marketing boldly promotes the C-64 Mini as “The World’s Best-Selling Home Computer – Reborn!”, and in many ways, that proves to be true. At a buck and a quarter per game, the C64 Mini has a lot to offer. While not perfect, most of the promises made by this new...
About Atari:Two Books by Jamie Lendino – By Bill Lange
Jamie Lendino, the Editor-in-Chief of ExtremeTech, recently released (June, 2018) a new book on the Atari 2600 titled Adventure: The Atari 2600 At The Dawn Of Console Gaming. It is his second Atari-related book and is the follow up to his earlier (March, 2017) Atari...
Pole Position and Michael Klug – By Joel West
COINS DETECTED IN POCKET Welcome to the premier installment of a column dedicated exclusively to Old School Gamers. These gamers, back in the day, had to physically use a coin to start a video game. The earning of coinage was mostly accomplished after some form...
Grim Fandango
All good things come to an end. Beginning with the 1986 release of Labyrinth, Lucasfilm/LucasArts released some of the greatest adventure games ever created. Games like The Secret of Monkey Island, Zak McKracken and The Alien Mindbenders, and Maniac Mansion still...
Just For Qix By Michael Thomasson
This issue’s arcade game of choice is none-other than the immensely popular side scrolling beat-em up Double Dragon. The initial game was released in 1987 by Technos in Japan, and licensed to Taito for manufacture and distribution in the United States and Europe. The...
Beavis and Butthead – By Jacob Pruitt
IMMATURITY IN AN ARCADE... NO WAY Alot of us can remember sitting in front of the television set late at night on our carpet and watching our heroes sing on MTV. Our smiles appearing on our faces once the two teenage idiots appeared on the screen sitting on their...
The Last Official Release: TurboGrafx-16 – Magical Chase (1993)
Welcome back, welcome back! This - THIS is The Last Official Release. I’m not sure why I keep repeating myself, but let’s just roll with it. I’m having fun. Here, I delve into the last games officially released for your favourite consoles. A pretty darn extensive list...
Fighters Before the Dawn of the Street Fighter Age – By Adam Pratt
In any discussion about the influence and history of fighting games in entertainment at large, it is impossible to ignore the contribution that arcades made to the genre. Naturally, everyone first thinks of Street Fighter II when such games are brought up, and this...