Pinball Paradise for the next 50 hours – part 2

In our first post today, I told you about some never-seen-before pinball action on offer tonight in Newcastle. And now it gets even bigger.

THIS WEEKEND, Pinfest returns to The Caves Beach Hotel, and I genuinely believe it’s Australia’s best pinball event.

Pinball Paradise for the next 50 hours – part 1

If you love pinball and live within a few hours of Newcastle (Australia, I add for our UK readers) – get.in.your.car.now.

For the next 50 hours, Newcastle (& nearby Caves Beach) will host more quality pinball action that Australia’s seen in years.

Strider remake due 2014. And it looks… GREAT.

True story.

Back in 1996, I was living in Tamworth NSW. There, just off the main street was a flight of stairs. Up those stairs was a pool hall. And in that pool hall was a small arcade, with about ten machines. Each had a sign – ‘Beat the all-time highscore, win a can of Coke‘.

Tiger Heli?  “CSSSSSH” (that’s the sound of a can of Coke opening)

Strider?        Nope.
Try again.     Nope.
Try again.     Nope.
Try again.     Nope.
Try again.     Nope.
Try again.     Nope.
Try again.     Nope.
Try again.     “CSSSSSH”

Boy did that Coke taste good.

Oh, did you want to watch the newly-released trailer for the new Strider, due out next year on consoles AND PC?

This game’s ####ing awesome

Wow, this has made my day.

One of my favourite songs (+ clips) in years [<– language warning, also scenes of thrift shops] has been parodied by a New Zealand Group and turned into a lovesong to the Steam Summer Sale (& indie games in general).

They’ve really nailed it.  They even refer to Gabe Newell as ‘grandad’.

Massive thumbs up to Viva La Dirt League for this effort.

The real Spanish inspirations behind Maldita Castilla

Late last year Spanish indie game maker ‘Locomalito’  released his latest ‘big’ game…  The beautifully Ghosts n Goblins-esque Maldita Castilla.

Just prior to the game’s release, I got chatting to ‘Loco’ (real name, unknown) and he told me a bit about the inspiration he’d got from researching Spanish history, characters and landscapes.

For example, the main character is based on El Cid (immortalised in the statue below). He was a well-known Spanish hero, who inspired many myths.

 

 

The best of the best of the best: Pixel Prospector’s finest

Earlier this year, we celebrated the birthday of a great indie game players/makers resource with a rather popular lookback over it’s past three years.  Now, we bring you news of Simon Kaizen’s latest creation, “Pixel Prospector’s FINEST”.

One small click for mantas, a giant leap for bundlekind

Blah blah blah “too many bundles…”  HANG ON A SEC, THIS ONE’S AWESOME!
Bundle in a Box (“the only thematic bundle around”) went all ‘adventure’ games last time, but this time it’s SPACE GAMES and it’s a CRACKER.

Dig Dug, Tapper guy… it’s Wreck-It Ralph trailer 2!

Wow, this just keeps looking better and better.

Lots of cute ‘game phenomena’ moments (when a character dies, they reappear “flashing” for a few seconds) with game characters (well-known & obscure) from a wide range of eras.

Plus Jane Lynch as herself. Well, actually an FPS heroine – but it’s 98% Jane.

Pinfest: In the crazed mind of a Wizard

There are some great pinball players coming to compete at Pinfest tonight…   Richard (RGR),  Scotty (Cruiserman), Rob (TIN), Mitch (DataBeast), just to name a few.

But what goes on…   in the crazed mind of a top pinball player?

JOMG flipped a few questions to Edy Stevens (aka Dedrok) as he helped setup the machines for this weekend…

Pinfest – how one mad idea came to fruition

December 2011.

After months of work, Chris and Dom Slevin opened their dream business, Pizza n Pinball, in Broadmeadow. (A Newcastle suburb, 2 hours north of Sydney)  The brothers combining their skills in takeaway food, pinball maintenance and of course their love of the silverball. The word was put out via arcade forums, a Facebook page was set up, and the customers started to walk in.

One of those initial customers… was Robert Denton.