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J.R.R. Tolkien, Jules Verne, and the World of Myst
My son is gradually working his way toward the end of the book “The Return of the King,” the swan song to J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic Lord of the Rings series. The series is a perfect fit for his personality. He’s obsessed with fantasy and adventure and the creation of new...
A Land Without End: Games With The Largest Open Worlds Ever
In an article published in 2017, author Mark Manson called life "the largest open world game known to date". Come to think of it, he was right - except, of course, that it's not a video game. But did you ever think of just how big Africa really is - it's the second...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Norman Caruso
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Norman Caruso, who is displayed on card number 2702, from the Superstars of 2017 Collection. Norman is the creator of “Gaming Historian”, A documentary series on YouTube. His goal is to explore the history of video game...
PaRappa The Rapper
It’s very strange to think that PaRappa the Rapper is now an old school game, but 23 years have passed since it was released in Japan and 22 since it debuted in the rest of the world. The game was the brainchild of Japanese musician Masaya Matsuura, who had enjoyed...
Ten More Games Announced for the Genesis Mini
Sega has been touting their new miniaturised Genesis for a while now, and while there’s a lot of excitement around the fact that they’re the ones actually manufacturing it (unlike a third party such as AtGames) the final games list is ultimately what everyone cares...
Golden Era Competitive Gamer Joel West Passes – By Walter Day
On November 28, 2018, the legendary video game champion, Joel David West, passed into eternity. Though many of his friends knew he was wrestling with health problems aggravated by diabetes, everyone was surprised and stunned when he passed away. It seems that in...
Lost Super NES Adaptation of 90’s Board Game Discovered
This game’s Atmosfear is a real NightMare.
Intruder Alert…Intruder Alert! – By Kevin Butler
NAME: BERZERK MANUFACTURER: STERN ELECTRONICS YEAR: 1980 TYPE: VIDEOGAME TEAM LEADER: DESIGNED AND PROGRAMMED BY ALAN MCNEIL Berzerk is a two-dimensional maze-style game that involves you attempting to escape killer robots in a never- ending gallery of mazes. Somewhat...
Tetris and Joseph Saelee – By Joel West / Completed by Brian Szarek
Welcome to another installment of a column dedicated exclusively to Old School Gamers and Old School Games from the Golden Age of gaming. These gamers, back in the day, had to physically use a coin or token to start a video game. The earning of these coins was mostly...
Entering the Digitized Era – Part 1 – By Warren Davis
In the beginning, there was the dot. The white dot. Alone in a void of blackness. This was the world of Pong, Computer Space, Breakout and many more. Crude graphics and no color. These were the earliest arcade video games – many implemented solely through hardwired...
The Ren & Stimpy Show Presents: Stimpy’s Invention
August 11, 1991 It’s a date that should be etched in the annals of time. It’s like July 20, 1969 (the date of the first moon landing), but much more important. It’s the day that The Ren & Stimpy Show first debuted on television. There aren’t enough superlatives to...
Pratt At the Arcade: The Darius Series – By Adam Pratt
Instead of trying to cram everything about a genre into one article, this time I am going to focus on a particular series within the realm of the shoot ‘em up. It is one that started off in arcades and was done in such a way that the home ports never could capture the...
Old Atari on Switch and New Atari on 4 Switchers – By Ryan Burger and Rice Pryor
New Atari-related releases are coming fast and furious, from many different directions recently. AtariAge. com has been publishing tons of new games, many of which were first released at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo and to the public quickly afterwards....
Introducing Evercade, a Mysterious New Retro Handheld
Access the mysterious Evercade website and the first thing that will grab your attention is the text; “EVERCADE - A BRAND NEW HANDHELD CONSOLE WITH UNIQUE MULTI-GAME RETRO CARTRIDGES FROM LEADING GAMES PUBLISHERS AND CONSOLE PLATFORMS”. It says a lot, but then again,...
Jersey Jack Announces Willy Wonka Pinball at MGC – By Brad Feingold
After passing out specially made Willy Wonka Candy Bars to mark the occasion at the first night of the Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee, Wi, Jersey Jack opened the doors and let the special guests into the presentation room to announce their latest pinball that...
Coffee Crisis – Grab a Cup and Kick Alien Butt!!! – By Brad Feingold
“The evil alien Smurglien race has taken notice of Earth’s fancy World Wide Web and have begun stealing its WiFi. In doing so, they have hacked their own version of the internet and hid it deep within the Earth’s web-based systems, calling it the Smurnet.” Now that’s...
Convention Update: Nov 2018 – Jan 2019 – By Old School Gamer
RETRO GAME CON SYRACUSE, NY - BY CONOR O’BRIEN The sixth Retro Game Con was held November 3-4 at the Oncenter in Syracuse, NY. Despite grey skies and cold rain, hundreds of attendees showed up at the venue. Some attendees came in costume and many were gamer parents...
Video Game Preservationist Auctions Off Unfinished Akira Prototype
Tetsuooooooooo!!!
Flip Grip: Bullet Heaven – By Rob Faraldi
Shmups (short for “shoot ‘em ups”) were a mainstream genre decades ago, but have since become a persistent niche. Some of the more popular and notable shmups include Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga, M.U.S.H.A., and Raiden. Certain classic consoles including TurboGrafx-16,...
Mortal Kombat: Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme
You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the Twilight Zone! Picture if you will a video game...
A Killer App: Star Raiders – By Bill Lange
Star Raiders, the iconic computer adventure game, was created for the Atari 400/800 home computer line, in fact, it was created at the same time as the development of the computers. It was programmed by Atari hardware designer Doug Neubauer. Neubauer was also on the...
Brett’s Old School Bargain Bin: Asteroids and Beamrider – By Brett Weiss
The theme for this installment of Old School Gamer is simu- lation games, but I’m still on a shooter high from the last issue, so I’m going to spotlight two more shooting games that are easy on the wallet, yet fun to play. If you’re cool with cartridge only, Asteroids...
The Origins of the Name “Pac-Man” Indecent to Iconic – By Ethan Johnson
All old-school gamers should be familiar with localization by now. Whether that is the censorship of Nazi symbols in Bionic Commando or the hilarious cutscenes of Zero Wing, things can change for better or worse when crossing the Pacific. It is fair to say though that...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Ellis Rowland
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Ellis Rowland, who is displayed on card number 42, from the Superstars of 2011 Collection. Ellis is proud of his world record at the arcade game Eagle. His score of 274,970 was posted on the Leaderboard on July16, 2011 and...
