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  • No Kangaroos In Austria!

    Missent to Melbourne, AustraliaIt’s not always easy to live in a small country like Austria, especially when you await a parcel from a big country like the United States of America. There is small Austria and there is big Australia, which sounds and spells very similar, except for those two small letters that make the difference.

    So if you live in Austria and your parcel from the USA is much overdue, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it got completely lost somewhere over the Atlantic. It might also be that, even if the sender wrote the correct address on it (Austria, without „al“!), to some unknown reason your parcel makes its way over the wrong ocean (Pacific instead of Atlantic) to Melbourne, Australia (with „al“!).

    It might also be that some unknown but conscientious and well-educated post clerk in Australia knows the difference between the continent he lives on and the small country in the heart of Europe, and forwards the parcel to the correct addressee. So even if you live in small Austria, you might face a happy end with your overdue parcel.

  • Third Retrobörse In Vienna: 3rd December 2011

    Following the success of the first and second Retrobörse in Vienna in 2009 and 2010, Austria’s capital will see its third Börse on Saturday, 3rd December 2011. Location will be again the Technical University Freihaus, Wiedner Hauptstrasse 8, 1040 Vienna. Doors will open at 10 am and close at 4 pm. Entrance fee is only 3 Euros.

    On more than 50 sales tables you will find items from the very first Pong systems up to the Playstation 2 era, both computer and video games, hardware and accessories.

    Don’t miss this opportunity to enlarge your collection and chat with other enthusiasts about the whole video and computer games history.

    Please visit www.retroboerse.at for more details.

  • Videopac+ Version Of Baseball Released On Cart

    Route 66 artworkWith the development of the Odyssey3, Magnavox also developed some games to show the power of the new console at fairs like the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Most of the games were titles we know from the Odyssey2 or Videopac G7000, but with additional background graphics. Those have been released for the European Philips G7400 later, like Stone Sling, Freedom Fighters, Attack Of The Timelord (Terrahawks) or Killer Bees. There was also Flash Point which was never released by Philips for the G7400, so I made a limited edition of 100 copies available on cart in 2004.

    But there was another Odyssey3 prototype game: Baseball! Magnavox showed the well known Odyssey2 game with additional background graphics for the Odyssey3 – which made sense, because America was, and still is, crazy about Baseball. However, Philips did not take over the prototype for the European G7400, simply because that sport was never really popular in the old world.

    So I decided to make a run of 100 carts of Baseball+. René van den Enden patched the game so it will run also on PAL consoles – including the nice background graphics for the G7400 and compatibles of course.

    Find all info on my Videopac page!

  • Second Retrobörse In Vienna: 4th December 2010

    Following the success of the first Retrobörse in Vienna in the course of Eurocon 2009, Austria’s capital will see its second Börse on Saturday, 4th December 2010. Location will be again the Technical University Freihaus, Wiedner Hauptstrasse 8, 1040 Vienna. Doors will open at 10 am and close at 4 pm. Entrance fee is only 3 Euros.

    On more than 40 sales tables you will find items from the very first Pong systems up to the Playstation 2 era, both computer and video games, hardware and accessories.

    Don’t miss this opportunity to enlarge your collection and chat with other enthusiasts about the whole video and computer games history.

    Please visit www.retroboerse.at for more details. You can also discuss about the Retrobörse in our forums, there is a German and English thread.

  • Videopac+ Version Of Route 66 Released On Cart

    Route 66 artworkIn 2007 Richard Page of videopac.org released the first version of Route 66, a homebrew racing game by Rafael A. Cardoso da Silva and René van den Enden, as Videopac 66. Unfortunately Richard disappeared from the scene shortly after, so only very few copies of the game were really shipped.

    In the following two years, Rafael and René improved the game and added high resolution background graphics for the Videopac Plus machines. Now the new version of the game is again available on cart, and this time 100 copies have been made, so that every Videopac/Odyssey2 collector can get one. It was the wish of the authors to make the game available in both Videopac and Odyssey2 styles, so every copy of the game will be shipped with label, manual and inlay/index card in both styles.

    The Plus version of Route 66 was released at Eurocon/Retrobörse on 24th October 2009 in Vienna and is available via mail order since 8th November 2009. I hope you all like this improved version by Rafael A. Cardoso da Silva and René van den Enden. More info on my Videopac page.

  • Eurocon 2009 Is Over

    Eurocon 2009Eurocon celebrated its 10th anniversary in Vienna, Austria, from Friday 23rd until Sunday 25th October 2009. The convention was held in the Wombat’s The Lounge city hostel in the Mariahilfer Strasse. The preparations required much more work than those for Austrocon seven years ago, but the result was worth it. We think we had a diversified, interesting program and hope that all the attendees liked it.

    I have made a page with the list of participants, my photos, four short video clips of the live bands and links to the photos of other attendees. Enjoy!

  • Eurocon 2009 And Retrobörse In Vienna

    Eurocon 2009 LogoEurocon, the annual meeting of classic gaming enthusiasts from all over Europe (and beyond) celebrates its 10th anniversary! This year we will meet the 9th time in 10 years. After 2002 this is the second convention that will take place in Vienna, and for the second time I am part of the organisation team. Date will be the weekend from 23rd to 25th October 2009, location will be the Wombat’s city hostel in the Mariahilfer Strasse, one of the most famous shopping streets in Vienna.

    On Friday the participants will arrive during the day, so there will be already a lot of chatting with old and new friends. In the evening we will visit the famous Prater for gaming in the arcades, having food and drinks, and maybe visit the Praterdome discotheque. On Saturday there will be a Retrobörse in the Technical University. The Retrobörse will be open for the public, but the first hour in the morning will be only accessible for Eurocon participants. Saturday evening there will be a Retroparty at the Wombat’s, open for the public, with 80’s music, live bands (electronic music), retro videos and retro games. Sunday the Eurocon program will continue with Show & Tell, contests, an auction and much more …

    For detailed info please check out the official websites of the Eurocon and the Retrobörse.

  • Gameplan: Third Edition

    Gameplan, third editionWinnie Forster has released the third German edition of his first Gameplan book „Game Machines and Home Computers“. The latest edition has 240 pages with 700 illustrations and photos.

    The book has been updated, some sections have been expanded, a few new photos can be found, as well as more entries in the indices. Of course all sections of the latest hardware generation have been updated and now contain all hardware variations that have been released since edition two of the book (2005), like Apple iPhone and Nintendo DSi.

    The third edition of Gameplan 1 is available for 27,80 Euro. www.gameplan.de

  • Invaders

    Street art in Paris by &quote;Invader"Street art in Paris by &quote;Invader"Made a three day trip to Paris with the missus, and of course we had a walk through Quartier Latin, one of the oldest parts of Paris and also the university quarter. By chance, we stumbled across two artworks by „Invader“, a street artist who „invades“ cities all over the world with characters inspired by first-generation arcade games, especially Space Invaders. He makes them out of tiles, so he can cement them to walls and keep the ultra-pixelated appearance. Looks really great in my opinion!

    Invader started his work in 1999 and traveled to 35 cities on all five continents so far. You can visit his website at www.space-invaders.com, it’s well worth a read!

  • Interview With William Fisher

    BurgerTime and Night Stalker for IBM PC, front side of boxesEver heard of M-Network games for Apple II and IBM PC? Ever saw pictures of the boxes for those unreleased games? You can see them now in our short interview with former Intellivision programmer William Fisher, the creator of Space Hawk and co-author of a few other Intellivision games.

    Many thanks to Alessandro Pace in Italy for sending us his notes from his conversation with Mr. Fisher, they were the basis for this short interview.