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...
Old School Gamer Magazine Exclusive: Inside ‘Crunch Out’
Old School Gamer Magazine chats with Crunch Out’s Senior Developer, Artur Bujdoso to find out what inspired the game and how Devolver Digital and Take This played a role in the developer’s first Super Nintendo game. Old School Gamer Magazine: How was this game born?...
Remembering Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside (1998)
Even as a young upstart, Kobe Bryant looked like a superstar in the making. It is not much of a surprise then that the former Los Angeles Laker already had a video game to his name at the tender age of 19. In 1998 Nintendo released the Left Field Productions-developed...
Brett’s Old School Bargain Bin – Street Fighter II Turbo – By Brett Weiss
My forthcoming book, The SNES Omnibus: The Super Nintendo and Its Games, Vol. 2 (N-Z), is now available for pre-order. The book won’t release until April 28, 2019, but I decided to give Old School Gamer readers an advance look at one of the entries. Since the...
Caveman
Pinball has a long and varied history, with roots that stretch back hundreds of years. In the 18th century, the game Billard japonais (Japanese billiards) introduced the spring launcher that is a staple of all modern pinball machines. A little under 200 years later,...
Remembering the Nintendo Ultra 64 Dream Team: Ocean Software
Did things go swimmingly?
Old School Gamer Exclusive: Inside ‘MatchyGotchy Z’
Old School Gamer Magazine chats with Michael Silverman (Silverware Games Lead Designer. Studio owner, programming) and Say Mistage (Silverware Games Derpy Wasabi. Art, community), who detail their new virtual pet experience that harkens back to the days of Rob Fulop’s...
Convention Update: Sept-Oct 2018 – Old School Gamer Staff
RETRO WORLD EXPO, GALAXIES OF GAMING, PORTLAND RETRO GAMING EXPO RETRO WORLD EXPO HARTFORD, CT BY RYAN BURGER Held at the Connecticut Convention Center in downtown Hartford, the Retro World Expo is an event for anyone in the Northeast that is into retro gaming! It is...
The Adventures of Stuart Smith – Early Adventure Games By Bill Lange
Stuart Smith is the legendary game designer and programmer of a number of influential, early to mid 1980s, computer role playing games, including: FRACAS, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, The Return Of Heracles, Adventure Construction Set and Rivers of Light...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Eddie Adlum
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Eddie Adlum, who currently is displayed on card number 2050, from the Superstars of 2015 Collection. Eddie is the founder and publisher of RePlay Magazine. He has been writing or publishing since 1964, where he worked for...
Kirby’s Dream Land
One of Nintendo’s most iconic characters was never really meant for the screen. Kirby, who has appeared in over 30 games, was initially just used to hold space until developers created a more detailed character. The game’s developers, HAL Laboratory, planned on...
Chase the Chuck Wagon for the Atari 2600
When I started collecting Atari 2600 games in the nineties, Chase the Chuck Wagon was the Holy Grail. There were entire Geocities pages dedicated to its rarity complete with lists of the privileged few who owned a copy, those either lucky enough to find it in the wild...
Unreleased Game, Hardcore, to Appear on Mega Sg
Way back in October, I wrote about the upcoming FPGA-powered Mega Sg by the always fun manufacturer, Analogue. To be their Sega version of the Nt, Nt Mini and Super Nt (which were based on the NES and SNES respectively) the Mega Sg would boast support for the Genesis...
A Closer Look at Nintendo’s Official Super NES Peripherals: Super Scope
Scope this out.
Pipe Mania
Modern video games are wonders to behold. They blend cinematic graphics with complex storytelling in a way that transforms the act of gaming into a deeply involved, sometimes emotionally exhausting experience. Take the 2010 classic Heavy Rain. It’s a nuanced drama...
GameLine: Wonders of the Retro Gaming World
Have a new Wonders of the Retro Gaming World episode! Go on, you deserve it. Today, the star of the show is the GameLine by CVC (Control Video Corporation). Released in 1983 for the Atari 2600, this was a modem that plugged into the cartridge slot that allowed users...
Go West: The Story of the Oregon Trail
The Pet Shop Boys, and to a lesser extent Horace Greeley, once advised us all to GO WEST, and as a general rule I do what the Pet Shop Boys tell me to do. After all, life is peaceful there in the open air. Sadly, I was born roughly a century and half too late to take...
Sealed Copy of Super Mario Bros. Sells for over $US100K
If you had a windfall of cash – let’s say, in the hundreds of thousands, what would you purchase? A home? A Mercedes? Or a copy of Super Mario Bros.? I know it’s a hard decision. Think carefully now. No matter what your spending preferences, a tremendous amount of...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – William ‘SnowFlake’ Rosa
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features William 'SnowFlake' Rosa, who is displayed on card number 2468, from the Superstars of 2016 Collection. On February 2nd, 2019, Bill broke a new world record on “Tapper” Arcade, pending verification. Streaming live on Twitch,...
CVG 101 “Please Don’t Chew the Gum”
If you're a child of the '80s, you probably bought at least a pack or two of Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, or some other kind of video game stickers. Remember those? They came in wax packs with a piece of pink cardboard masquerading as chewing gum, just like baseball cards....
AtGames Announces Classic Disney and Star Wars Video Games to Be Featured in Products
AtGames Digital Media Inc. has announced that iconic video games from Disney and Lucasfilm will be featured in their upcoming products. Fans can expect classic games from beloved properties like Disney’s Donald Duck, Tron, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ The Jungle...
Shareware: Influential Origins of Shareware in Gaming – By Robert Seale
If you were playing PC games, or even just using PC software in general, at any point throughout the 90s, you almost certainly saw or heard the term “shareware”. Not quite a demo, not quite freeware, shareware was a revolution in software distribution. It was crucial...
Boy, Oh Game Boy: Play It Loud!
Not the color Game Boy anyone was expecting.
Requiem for Game Room – Microsoft’s Arcade Revival and It’s Lost Potential – By Ken Horowitz
The death of the American Arcade has been somewhat overstated, I think. Given the rise in barcades and the growing popularity of classic arcades like Chicago’s Galloping Ghosts, Mark Twain would likely chuckle at pronouncements of the industry’s demise. People have...
Just for Qix: Hopping Zombie Vampires And the Last Apostle Puppet Show – By Michael Thomasson
Many video game fans believe that 1992’s Mortal Kombat was the first fighting game to use digitized sprite graphics. Others recognize Atari’s 1990 hit Pit-Fighter as the premiere beat ‘em up boasting the technology. The truth is that a rather obscure title, released...
The Untold Story of Highlander: The Video Game (No, not the one you are thinking of)- By Warren Davis
If ever there was a licensed property that would lend itself to becoming a video game, Highlander was it! You’ve got a collection of immortals who challenge each other to sword fights to the death (by beheading, no less!), over the course of centuries, until there can...
My Experience as an Expert Witness CAPCOM VS. DATA EAST – By Bill “The Game Doctor” Kunkel
By 1993, the last thing I was looking for was an expert witness gig facing off against yet another of the most popular and powerful software developers in the business. So of course I wound up working the expert witness deal for tiny Data East against the all-powerful...
Dino Eggs for the Commodore 64
Everyone knows that if you travel to the past and tinker with historical events, nothing can possibly go wrong. It certainly won’t alter the course of history forever. There’s simply no risk associated with messing with the space-time continuum and anyone who tries to...
Sega vs. Nintendo – Historic Fighting Game Battle – By Justin Francoeur
Thanks to the popularity of 1991’s Street Fighter II, fighting games had become a hot property. It was only a matter of time before a savvy game designer would identify what made SFII such a hit, expand on it, and release it as a new best-selling game. Hence, October...