Guestblogging today: Avin’ a go at Avatar

Sorry for the brief break in transmission.
Life just got hectic for a bit, but to make it up to you, I’ve got a *great* surprise coming up for you this weekend!

In the meantime, I’m doing some guestblogging today over at Jason Hill’s Screen Play blog. It’s a timely piece, concerning a certain film with blue people in it. (Sadly, no Smurfette)

Jason’s called it a ‘rant’ – you be the judge! (Rant? You shoulda seen the 1st draft! Enough to strip paint off the walls!)

If you missed my earlier Screen Play guestpieces, here’s one from April last year, and one from March 2008.

Review: C64 – The Last Amazon Trilogy

Let’s go back… to the days of Informer & Rhythm is a Dancer…

The Last Amazon & its sequel, were originally produced in 1993 for the Psytronik label. Alf Yngve had already made quite a name for himself in the Shoot ‘em up Construction Kit (SEUCK) scene, with playable games that often went beyond the usual expectations. But due to a lack of advertising budget, the Commodore 64’s dwindling market share, and a reluctance in the market to pay for ‘enhanced SEUCK games’, Psytronik’s business model was in real trouble. The Last Amazon games were never finished for commercial release. But instead of simply disappearing, they were distributed free on the front of Commodore Zone magazine.

Fifteen years later, emulation and the internet had both helped to re-invigorate the C64 scene, and Psytronik Software rose from the dead. CEO Jason ‘Kenz’ Mackenzie found the old Amazon games, and in late 2008, set to work on improving them. He added new loading screens. He asked ‘SEUCK powerup maker’ Shaun Coleman to add extra weapons to the Amazon games. (The Shoot em Up Construction Kit never included ‘weapon upgrades’). Richard Bayliss (of Sub Hunter fame) added fancy new frontends to the games, plus some music (in the style of Matt Gray).

If that’s not enough, Last Amazon creator Alf Yngve had another ace up his sleeve. He obtained a copy of Jon Wells’ Sideways SEUCK editor. This modification of the original editor allows the creation of horizontally scolling games. Alf utilised the sprites and background graphics from the first Last Amazon game and created a brand new sideways scrolling ‘Special Edition’. Thus, THE LAST AMAZON TRILOGY was created.

I’m going to review each game individually, starting with the original…

Sad week for claymation fans

Like most videogame bloggers, I have a list of ‘games I’d like to make one day’ floating around my head. And one of them would be a Gumby videogame. (Actually I just found out that there’s already been one released on Gameboy Advance… that’ll teach me to not buy any Nintendo handhelds…)

For those of you unfamiliar with the lil’ guy, a quick read of Gumby’s wikipedia article should get you in the mood for watching an episode or 2 on Youtube.

But this week is a sad week for fans of his green bendiness. Gumby’s creator Art Clokey passed away. Here’s the coverage on Boing Boing & ABC news.

He was a real legend in claymation, that’s for sure.

*Strange but true: My only ever paid nightclub DJ gig was NYE 1995, at Melbourne’s Retro nightclub, under the moniker of DJ Gumby. I played Gumby videos on the big screen, wore a Gumby T-shirt & had little gumby figurines around the DJ booth.

Why didn’t I think of this? Episode 329 in the series.

Talented retrogaming blogger Gnome has returned from his army duties, and launched yet another blog.

It’s a piece of genius.

Walls of Gaming is a blog that posts wallpaper (the computer, not paper-based, kind) that is…

1. About videogames
2. Free

So far, Gnome’s covered retrogaming (SMB, Maniac Mansion), contemporary (Uncharted 2, No More Heroes) & Indie (Machinarium) titles. This blog deserves a heap of traffic.

Visit. Download. Be Merry.

Identify these gaming fonts to win!

Can you identify the retro/indie/coinop ‘gaming fonts’ in our JOMG Merry Christmas logo?

There’s one game/company per letter, in “M-e-r-r-y C-h-r-i-s-t-m-a-s”.

First 3 people to tell us the complete list (IN THE COMMENTS BELOW) will WIN a limited edition “Galaga World Champion” badge, supplied to us by the man himself, Phil Day.

Some are easy, some are hard.
…First 3 people to list them all correctly in the comments below will WIN.

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Oh, and if you liked this post please click here to vote for it on DIGG.com.
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PS: Besides any update on this competition, JOMG is ‘on holiday’ till Monday January 12.

First Aussie review: Special When Lit

As promised, here’s our exclusive Australian review of Special When Lit, thanks to Aussie Arcade member AskJacob:

The Australian premiere screening was at the Chauvel Cinema, a well known Arthouse cinema in Paddington. When we got there, I thought I’d wandered into some other function – it was full! REALLY full of people, and LOUD – christmas party loud. It was a unique experience, I have never been in a cinema lobby with that kind of vibe before. “Perhaps they’re here for another function – there are several cinemas” said the Mrs – and I thought it was likely. None of these folk seemed to look like my mental image of a Pin-Head!

Fortunately while waiting in the lobby I started to see a few likely candidates floating around – there was someone with a shirt that says “TILT! I’ll give you tilt!” – and another with an arcade themed shirt. I relaxed – this must have been the right place, but I was still wondering what the other event that must be going on at the same time was…?

Australian Premiere: Special When Lit

Right now, I’m sitting in a hot room, with a loud pedestal fan singing in unison with the loud fan in my desktop PC. They’re both a bit unhappy with the Aussie Summer heat. But my heart isn’t in my study, as I sit at my desk. It’s 200km down the road… at the Chauvel Cinema, in Sydney. Because right now, they’re screening a very special movie premiere…

Special When Lit is showing tonight, for the first time in Australia. This film, a UK/Australian production had its world premiere at the Raindance Film Festival in London a few months ago. There it was nominated for BEST DOCUMENTARY.

Miyamoto never had to work for press like this

CLICK on pic for LARGE version

Darius of Tiny Subversions explains it all here.

Or…. you can read the original “comedy gold” comments thread here.

Hope you enjoy my motivational poster. It’s available at JOMG for FREE, but I maybe putting it on Xbox live arcade for 400 points.

Review: Cobex (Cruising on Broadway Extra)

Longtime retro remaker Caffeinekid recently sent me a headsup, about his latest classic game remake. It’s an interesting project, in both its legal – and ‘financial’ – status.

Let me explain…

ACMI spreads the Indiegaming love

ACMI (The Australian Centre for the Moving Image) is one of the most gaming-friendly museums in the world. In the past 4 years, this venue in Melbourne (Australia) has dedicated exhibitions to Sonic the Hedgehog, Games with an Agenda, Machinema, Aussie developer Beam Software/Melbourne House, and of course the exhibition we covered quite thoroughly… Game On.