Retro Gaming Australia

A couple of years ago, a Kickstarter campaign was run to produce a documentary series focused on the subject of competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee play, entitled The Smash Brothers. Said campaign was successful, and production on the series began in earnest.

Today, the producers behind the series have released the nine part documentary onto YouTube for your viewing pleasure. The series covers the background of the game and the rise of the competitive scene, explains some of the advanced techniques competitors employ while fighting, and follows the exploits of a number of big names in competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee play.

You can watch the series below.

The Power Glove promised a revolutionary method of control, where your actions could be replicated in the game. Of course, the promotional campaign completely overstated the capabilities of the device and many young NES owners were sorely disappointed with the end product. In spite of its failure to work as promised, the Power Glove has become iconic.

Filmmakers Adam Ward, Andrew Austin and Paula Kosowski have been working on a documentary called The Power of Glove. The film will have interviews with the creators of the Power Glove, along with an examination of the legacy of the peripheral and its fans, such as Isaiah “TriForce” Johnson.

The documentary does not have a release date as yet, but you can check out the official site now.

Ontario-based film company Fuel has obtained permission from the Alamogordo’s City Commission allowing them access to the city’s landfill for a period of six months. The reason? The company wishes to make a documentary on the excavation of of millions of unsold Atari 2600 cartridges which were said to have been buried there.

For those who don’t know, Atari was stuck with millions of unsold copies of games such as Pac-Man and E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial after the 1982 holiday season. The company had foolishly believed that people would buy Atari 2600s solely for these games, and produced more copies of the games than there were 2600 systems in households. These excess copies were said to have been buried in a New Mexico landfill in September 1983.

Susie Galea, the Almogordo city mayor seems to approve of the project, stating “I hope more people find out about Alamogordo through this opportunity that we have to unearth the Atari games in the landfill.”

Anthony and Nicola Caufield, a husband and wife British filmmaking team have a dream. A 90 minute documentary about rise of the British video game industry between 1979 and 1996 entitled From Bedrooms to Billions. The couple has been working on this project for nearly four years, and has been turned down by just about everyone under the sun, including a heartbreaking last minute withdrawal of funding from the BBC.

They’ve turned their attention to crowdfunding website Indiegogo in the hopes of getting the project finished. The fundraiser is currently at about $4,500 with 25 days to go. The goal is $30,000. Pre-production has been completed and several interviews filmed (including the likes of Julian “Jaz” Rignall, Archer MacLean and Iain Lee), with the filmmakers ready to go into full production mode when they’ve got the money.

Like your usual crowdsourcing project, there are a number of perks up for grabs for those who pledge at specific tiers, including portraits drawn by legendary Crash and Zzap 64! artist Oliver Frey.

Via Eurogamer

Matt Williams, who some of you might know from his work as a newsbot and reviewer over at Games On Net, recently asked me to take a look at a documentary he wrote, directed and produced on the arcade scene in Australia.

The 10 minute short consists of three interviews with people involved in the arcade industry in Adelaide – one is a gamer, one is a collector and one is an arcade operator. They each talk about their involvement with arcades and what arcade gaming means to them.

Check it out today.