Awise from your Gwave – More 2008 Remakes links

Despite a recent destructive hack, the Retro Remakes site is back, much to the joy of retro game players (& makers). The forum has returned at a slightly different address, but sadly at this stage, the 2008 RR Competition downloads are not available.

Don’t worry; I’ve updated all my links to (off-site download) games, and added a few more, so you can catch up on your post-festive season gaming…

My Retro Gamer website reviews

Retro Gamer is the world’s only magazine dedicated to old-school videogames. In August last year, they launched a new (much more interactive) website, including a user review section (Cryptically titled “Retrobates”).

This post contains no videogame references

Every now & then, I contribute to Crikey – an Australian subscription-based e-newsletter, which concentrates on media, politics, culture & business.

Here was my piece, published yesterday.

———————==============——————–

3 times in my 36 years, I’ve been awake at an early hour, due to events in America.

• Early one morning in 1983, my father woke me up to watch Australians win a yacht race.
• Early one morning in 2001, my mother woke me via telephone, telling me to turn the TV on.
• But early one morning in 2009, I was already awake. My wife & I set two alarm clocks.

We watched history – listen to a new president “whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant”, and I rested my hand on my wife’s belly, knowing I’d have something to tell our son/daughter due in July.

———————==============——————–

Broooom! Broooom! Sega Rally 3 in Australia

I visited Galaxy World in George Street this weekend. Saw the new Rambo arcade machine. (More on that in a future post). Walked past rows of Tekken 6 machines, even saw a Street Fighter 4!

And then… I spotted it. A GIANT four-player Sega Rally 3. Wow. I’m not a massive racing fan, but this looked too nice to ignore.

Oh you really are an A$$HAT. Whoever you are.

Sorry for the headline, but some little @#$%@#%# has been hacking forums on the net.

Not big forums with 57 technicians and a huge IT budget. Hobbyist forums like Retro Remakes which just manage to keep going each week without extra un-needed expenses.

This isn’t some trivial matter. The sites affected are all going to have to do serious work (which costs money) to get back up again. The forums won’t be up again for days, maybe a week.

Yeah, I know, the chances of the A$$HAT hacker reading this aren’t much. But maybe, if we all clap our hands together, in tiny fairy claps… THEY’LL WALK UNDER A BUS.

EDIT: I originally thought that Aussie Arcade was one of the affected sites. They were not.

(They suddenly disappeared – at around the same time as Retro Remakes – with a short error message that looked very similar to the one on RR) It turns out that their recent hosting issues finally came to a head, and a source tells me that she “should be back up again this Friday”.)

Stu C’s showreel

Some of you may have played Stu C’s recent “Retro Remake compo” entry Ultimate Bruce Lee.

What you may not know, is that Stu has helped remake many more classic games over the years.

Yesterday, he uploaded his “showreel” – showing all the remakes his done… and yes, he includes his website address at the end, so you can start playing.

Youtube clip appears after the jump…

Get slimed this June

Atari has confirmed their upcoming Ghostbusters game will be coming out in June.

“Bustin’ makes me feel good!”

I’ve been feeling defensive…

When most people talk of online gaming, they mean games like Counterstrike or World of Warcraft. But today I’d like to talk about online browser gaming.

There’s a lot of rubbish out there… mostly flash games that aren’t too flash. (Sorry) But there are some real gems. Like Desktop Tower Defense. Note: I added that link at my own peril. If you haven’t played it before, there’s a great chance you’ll start… and never finish reading this blog post. Please, wait… just five minutes! Just… say… no…

A Sliding-Puzzle For Helen

I was going to update my “Stop Hammer time – Retro remakes downloads” post, but I thought this game deserved a post of it’s own.

A Sliding Puzzle for Helen is one of the entries in the “Games for Helen” category in the RR 2008 competition.

First my mum, now my sister-in-law…

When I launched this videogame blog, I had no idea the women in my life would feature so prominently!

First there was my mum & sister, with their excellent retrogaming Christmas present.

Then – on the same day (just after our Christmas lunch), my sister-in-law asked if I wanted “to see her old Frogger game”. Well, of course!

Click on the link below to continue…