Australian Gaming Database and magazine cover scans at RGA

hyper001

[Source: Australian Gaming Database]

Just wanted to give props to Retro Gaming Australia’s latest additions – they’ve just release an excellent wiki-based database relating to the gaming sector in Australia (including some excellent coverage of Hyper, Sega Megazone and The Zone, three of my favourite slices of Australian gaming media), as well as an archive covering magazine cover scans.

These both join their excellent/extensive Google docs-based Australian game magazine score review archive, TV ad archives and video game magazine ads.

In a perfect world of course, we would be able to grab all the back issues of Hyper and Sega Megazone in a PDF-like format to capture the history of gaming magazines in this country perfectly, but that’s unlikely to happen unfortunately. I for one would love to see some conversions of the old print masters into PDF to peruse on my PC or iOS device, but the return on the investment would probably not be sufficient given the time needed to do this.

Now if only I hadn’t sold off all my video game magazines when I got to Uni! I had piles of delightful magazines in there – C+VG’s from 1992-1993 and several issues of MEGA, Megatech, Sega Zone, Sega Force, Mean Machines Sega and the Official Sega Saturn Magazine from the UK (I owned Sega consoles if you couldn’t tell ;)), [Sega] Megazone 20-55 (the final issue), smatterings of Hyper from 1993 and 1994, then every issue from December 1995 to mid/late-1998… would make for some great reading going back and checking all of those out now ๐Ÿ˜€

Super Gaijin Ultra Gamer is live!

Two posts in one week? Madness!

I’m actually posting this one to plug a new blog being run by a fellow Australian retro gamer – the catch is that he lives in Japan and seems to come across all sorts of awesome stuff ๐Ÿ™‚

The site is Super Gaijin Ultra Gamer (http://www.supergaijinultragamer.org/) and is currently live with some early content.

Given the retro adventures he regularly has, I suspect there’ll be plenty of interesting content on the way with plenty of pics showing off the weird and wonderful stuff you will only find in Japan ๐Ÿ™‚

And if you forget the site, it’s been added to the links on the right hand side of Retro Otaku under “Gamage”.

Enjoy!

More (Australian) retro gaming blogs

Last week I posted about some retro gaming blogs I’ve been reading of late, but two other have caught my attention:

That reminds me of the time when I made a poster of Rocket Knight Adventures back in 1993. It was hand-drawn and everything, and included a quote from the Sega Megazone review that mentioned it being far more enjoyable than a night with Cindy Crawford and a barrel of jellied eels. I’m sure my parents were delighted that their 11-year-old son would put such a memorable comment on a poster about a video game in 1993.

Now I feel sad because it reminds me that I sold off all my video game magazines for practically nothing on eBay when I started Uni in 2000 in an effort to have something of a right-of-passage and farewell High School Sean, as well as scrape some extra cash for Uni life (a serving of chips and gravy from the Unibar made for a cheap but tasty lunch). Now as a man-child in their late-20s (with an understand wife), I regret selling everything off. But I rest at ease in the hope that someone else is dancing a merry jig with their bargain purchase.

Insert Credit reminds me I should be a better writer

So, Insert Credit is back in all its glory. Brandon & co.’s manifesto also reminds me I should be a better writer. We’ll see how that goes.

Sometimes I wonder which direction to take this blog – a “serious” treatise on old games, hardware modification tutorials, “look what I bought!” picture galleries, recording a gaming session, reviews? The end result is a bit of a mash, but maybe that’s not such a bad thing. The whole point of this blog is to act as a “catch-all” for my thoughts on video games, and given my time dedicated to actually playing games is sporadic and my thoughts on the topic often jumbled, it’s probably a good manifestation of what’s lurking inside my cranium.

If nothing else, at least it’s something to think about.

In the meantime, go and read Insert Credit – I used to check it out regularly for many years, but things dried up in 2009-ish, so it’s good to see everyone back at it. I can only hope one day they’ll cover the amazing news that Valis will be making a proper comeback on a console of some sort as a platformer, and not as a dodgy game on the PC.

Retro gaming blogs

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 ๐Ÿ˜›
  • 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 ๐Ÿ˜›
  • 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.