Retro Gaming Australia

We are happy to announce today that the Classic Console Museum, a mainstay of the PAX experience, will be appearing at PAX Australia from July 19 to 21.

A veritable cacophony of Australian retro gaming goons has come together to organise the museum, including Retrospekt, Retro Domination, Australian Retro Gamer and of course, us here at Retro Gaming Australia.

Tickets to PAX are in short supply, so you’d better get in now – three day passes and Saturday tickets are already sold out!

I’ll be appearing as part of a panel on video game collecting called the Game Collectors Roadshow as part of the Game Masters exhibition at ACMI on the 9th of September.

The panel will be hosted by Adrian Franklin of the ABC show The Collectors and will feature myself and two other collectors showcasing some of our prize possessions and discussing the hobby of collecting old video games.

The second part of the show is an Antiques Roadshow-inspired bit where you can bring along your gaming items and have them appraised by us and get a bit of an explanation about their place in video gaming history. Bringing an item along will get you an entry in the draw to win a PlayStation Vita.

Finally, there will be a chiptune performance from Melbourne based artists Dot.AY and Derris-Khalan.

The event starts at 11, and entry is free.

I was recently contacted by a representative from the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) who has asked me to put out a call for video game collectors in Victoria.

In June, ACMI will be running an event called Game Masters: Discover the Worlds Greatest Video Games and their Creators 2012. As part of that event, they are exploring the possibility of having a “Game Collector’s Roadshow”.

Said event would encompass “a multi-location Collectors Event within Metropolitan Melbourne and Regional Victoria. A one-day specialised event for Retro-game collectors who have a passion for playing and collecting retro video games, hardware and associated paraphernalia. Includes Panel Forums, Valuing opportunities, Live 8bit Music Extravaganza and an interactive meet and greet.”

Currently, it’s not locked in – ACMI wants to gauge interest in the community to see if this kind of event is worth pursuing. Considering how badly Adelaide puts us to shame when it comes to retro gaming community activities, this would be a good opportunity for us all to get together.

Remember – this isn’t just a Melbourne thing either – the folks at ACMI want to find collectors in Geelong, Ballarat, Cragieburn and other regional areas.

You can let us know either in the comments sections or in the forums.

The world’s premiere chip tune festival, Blip Festival, will be making its Southern Hemisphere debut (February 17 and 18) this weekend at the Evelyn Hotel in Fitzroy. The festival has popped up all over the world since 2006 in the United States, Japan and across Europe – now it’s Australia’s turn.

Chiptune creators from across the world will be playing at the event – a combination of local talent, and many who are playing in Australia for the first time.

You can read more about it at the official website.

Brisbanites will be able to get their fair share of retro gaming love between September 19 and 30 at the Bleeding Heart Gallery on Ann Street, which will be playing host to Emulator, an event inspired by classic games.

According to the press release, “Emulator will celebrate the importance that classic gaming (including 8 & 16 bit consoles and arcade machines) has brought to a generation of gamers. The event will also look to promote the gaming industry in Australia as well as connecting these developers to gamers. Furthermore the whole event will raise money for Starlight Foundation!”

Various events happening at emulator include an art exhibition for 8-bit homages, a classic arcade retrospective with original machines (free to play), challenge nights were local game developers will face off on classic games, industry networking nights and local game developer showcases.

You can learn more about the event at Emulator’s official site, or at their Facebook page. You can track news about the event on Twitter.

Via Tsumea

AVCon, Adelaide’s very own anime and video games convention, starts today. It’s the event’s 10th anniversary, so if you’re in Radelaide over the weekend, you should totally check it out. It’s held at the Adelaide Convention Centre and will cost you $30 for a daily pass on Saturday or Sunday, or $50 for a weekend pass.

Our friends from Retrospekt will be hosting not one, but four events at the show. Where do they get the energy?

The first, Ready Steady Retro, is a classic console wars discussion. The panel and the audience will be discussing which was the better 16-bit console: the SNES or the Mega Drive. It starts at 12:30PM on Saturday.

Saturday night from 6 til 9, there’s the AVCon games night. Free for AVCon ticket holders, $5 if you’re not going to the show. It’s ages 15+ only, so the kiddlywinks are out of luck. There’s going to be a whole bunch of chiptune stuff from DK81, Xandox and Little-Scale, along with a Super Bomberman tournament.

On Sunday, there will be a panel Anime in Retro Games, which will examine the world of classic anime with licensed video games. Many of the games are totally obscure and never released in Australia, so it should be interesting.

Finally, there’s the Super Ultimate Gamer: Retro Edition, where players can register to compete against each other in games of David and Paul’s choosing. Not all of them are guaranteed to be good! There’s a Nintendo 3DS up for grabs for the winner.

Word has come through that Namco Bandai Partners will be hosting a screen of Tekken: Blood Vengeance on Wedesday, July 27th at Event Cinemas in George Street, Sydney. It’s a one off screening, so first in, best dressed.

Namco Bandai is also giving away 25 double passes to see the film on their Facebook page.
(continue reading…)

We’re not the only one getting in on the Duke Nukem Forever launch festivities. The Mana Bar, the world’s first video game bar, is running a Duke Nukem week celebration of their own from today. Yug, co-founder of the Mana Bar and Australian Gamer is going to be heading up the celebrations, returning to his old Fortitude Valley haunts.

Tell them Retro Gaming Australia sent you for a free baffled look.