Links updated – Telebunny.net and Insert Disk 2 added, book rant included!

Posted Thursday, 5th July 2012 under Video game books and magazines
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One of my favourite writers in the games journo biz has migrated toa new site – GameSpite.net has now moved across to its new location at Telebunny.net. But don’t worry – all the old content has been migrated and the journal is still being produced. Which reminds me, I need to grab the full back-catalogue of books, as well as 1UP Presents and SCROLL.

I’ve also updated Guru Meditation to point to the new and delightfully-titled Insert Disk 2. Same content as before, but now on its own dedicated installation.

The spiel on the above publications also reminds me that I’m keen to track down some other books on old games that have been/are being published by Pixel Nation, Pix’N’Love Publishing (though the latter seems to have received at least one damning review following their French language The History of Sonic the Hedgehog release last month) and of course Udon is always busy bringing out some great artbooks – I’m personally looking at snapping up The History of Sonic the Hedgehog, Marvel vs Capcom: Official Complete Works, SF20: The Art of Street Fighter, Darkstalkers Graphic File, Okami Official Complete Works and Valkyria Chronicles.

Man, that’s a lot of artbooks!!

You’re a collector now. Be proud.

Posted Wednesday, 7th September 2011 under Random nostalgia
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Fellow blogging site Guru Meditation put up a great treatise on the mentality of the retro gamer and our often-obsessive behaviour with this hobby. The following is an excerpt:

Now that first console is just one part of a mammoth collection that consumes your house. Somewhere among the countless games, consoles and peripherals is that first machine you ever picked up, that one that made you feel as though you’d crossed some great boundary, discovered some long hidden gem.

For me, that first console was the Sega Master System in… ’98 or ’99. I was lucky enough to have an SMS in the early 90s, and when my brothers and I wanted to upgrade to the Mega Drive we sold the SMS2, accessories and all our games to cover the cost of the upgrade. By ’98/’99 I was able to drive, so I started hitting up the local video rental stores and my favourite local independent gaming store to see what they had around. I missed out on some gems at one of the video rental stores where they were getting rid of boxed titles for $2 a pop (including Ys III!), though I still managed to grab a few oldies. My local independent was amazing though – bought up most of the stuff on the shelf and he rummaged around the back to find some other great classics (including a very clean boxed copy of Phantasy Star!).

The Master System was the only system I ever sold to fund the next round of gaming. Since the Sega Mega Drive I’ve kept all the systems and most of the games as one generation transitioned into the next.

I’m a shocker of a hoarder, but it pleases me that there others out there who have the bug worse than I!

Anywho, you should go have a read of Ode to the collector. It’s brill 🙂

Retro gaming blogs

Posted Wednesday, 6th July 2011 under Video game websites
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I’ve recently added some new blogs to my links and thought I’d give them a plug since I’ve been enjoying reading them of late:

• GameSpite
  Jeremy Parish’s gaming blog – not necessarily retro, but often covers old games along with the new ones. I’ve been listening to Retronauts since late-2006, so the blog makes for good reading. It’s also a frequent reminder I need to get around to ordering GameSpite Quarterly, as well as some other print-on-demand eMags.
• Guru Meditation
  Blog from another local Australian retro gamer – found out about his blog via Aussie Arcade and proceeded to leave numerous comments on there. Hopefully they’re not being regarded as spam 😛
• Famicomblog
  This one’s written by someone living in Japan hunting for old Famicom games. This is an awesome premise in and of itself, and it helps that the content’s fun. I discovered this one from Guru Meditation’s blog, so I can’t take credit for being clever and sourcing it via general Famicom hunting 😛
• Old School Gaming Blog
  Another blog I discovered via Guru Meditation, but this one has an emphasis on old Commodore stuff (well, so far anyways), so plenty of Amiga and C64 goodness. I love my C64 and am only a fledgling Amiga gamer (didn’t have one back in the day – we went from our C64 in 1988 to a 386DX40 in 1993), but there’s some great stuff in there.

I’ve done some random Googling for updated/maintained blogs on retro gaming a while back and didn’t come back with much, so I’ve started checking out recommended sites from other places, or sites from people commenting on other blogs and figured I’d return the favour.