PlayOldGames » Retro Culture

R-Type Exhibit in Japanese Playstation Home virtual world

Jonathan — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:00:47 +0000

Hop right in and take it for a spin!

If you have access to Japan’s Playstation Home virtual world, be sure to stop by Irem’s area and check out this R-Type exhibit they recently set up. You can look at some of the fighter ships, play a demo game, purchase R-Type games for your PSP or Playstation, or decorate your Home apartment with R-Type ship models.

Virtual Tour of METEOR

Jonathan — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:00:42 +0000

TinyCartridge.com has put up a quick video tour of the Japanese retro video game shop METEOR. Check it out and pretend you’re spending all of your Christmas money!

Advertisement: Kickle Cubicle

Jonathan — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:00:37 +0000

Scan courtesy vintagecomputing.com

The poster looks silly, but actually Kickle Cubicle is a pretty fun game. It’s a puzzler along the lines of Adventures of Lolo.

Scan spotted at VintageComputing.com.

Segata Sanshiro Action Figure

Jonathan — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:37:13 +0000

Segata Sanshiro - one of the best console mascots in history.

Sega Toys manufactured this tribute to the Sega Saturn mascot — the least they could do after he sacrificed his life to save the company’s executives from a missile attack — some time around 1998. Though the packaging has English text like “He Became Legend” scattered around, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this in any North American shop.

The back of the box reads: “SEGATA SANSHIRO is an authority of justice who guides young men to SEGASATURN Do. He hates to things by halves! In pursuit of SEGASATURN Do, he practices asceticism and keeps challenging various things day and night!!”

I want one so I can go forth and challenge various things day and night!

Via GameSetWatch.com.

Mario’s Closet

Jonathan — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 18:05:15 +0000

Clothes do make the man.

Glen Brogan has submitted this t-shirt design to Split Reason for production. How many of these options can you identify, and from what games?

Panic like it’s 1982!

Jonathan — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:38:24 +0000

If you’re a Mac user, you are familiar with Panic Inc. (and if you aren’t, you should be ashamed of yourself!). Producers of several fantastic programs, including FTP powerhouse Transmit and programming environment Coda, Panic Inc. certainly has a sense of humor. They recently commissioned Portland, OR area artist Lukas Ketner to produce package artwork for their main software offerings in a particular style:

“The concept: what if Panic was around in 1982, and our apps were early Atari 2600 games?”

The results feel right at home next to Defender and Homerun.

Pick up the full set of four as cartridge boxes...

... or as posters suitable for any den with wall-to-wall shag.

Check out Panic’s blog for a better look at the artwork!

Famicom Controller Business Card Case

Jonathan — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:00:52 +0000

With or without speaker

Banpresto has for sale some spiffy business card cases that look like Famicom controllers, either with or without built-in speaker detail. There is an inner divider that creates two separate compartments.

Business card CHECK!

Also available are Pac-Man themed business card cases.

Pac-Man style also available

A quick search through your favorite search engine should result in several online shops where these can be purchased. At about $10 US each, they are a pretty inexpensive pick-up.

SEGA Hardware Memorial Zippos

Jonathan — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:14:25 +0000

Zippo has a history of making commemorative lighters, and these two sold by Banpresto are definitely impressive. Celebrating SEGA’s hardware history, the lighter maker has produced two designs – the Mega Drive (Genesis in the US) and the Saturn.

16-Bit High Definition Flames

Segata Sanshiro would be proud.

At about $100 US each they’re not cheap, but are totally awesome.

Spotted at RetroThing.

SEGA Genesis Turns 20

Jonathan — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 16:57:18 +0000

Twenty years ago Nintendo faced its first real challenge to its dominance in the home console market: SEGA introduced the Genesis to North America. With a faster processor, stereo sound, and many excellent arcade ports the Genesis was a hit, eventually wrestling dominance away from Nintendo’s NES.

Click for the full poster.

Sega MegaDrive Bag

Jonathan — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:30:25 +0000

The unshakable NES owned the late 80′s video game scene. Not only did they bring gaming back to living rooms to stay, they went from strength to strength for at least five whole years (though games continued to be published until 1995, and the Famicom was still manufactured in Japan until 2003!) – an eternity in technology years.

Arcade rival Sega tried to counter with their own 8 bit Master System home video game, but made little mark. Sega wouldn’t pose a serious threat until 1989 when they unveiled their 16 bit Mega Drive system (Genesis in the US) and shook up Nintendo’s dominance. Mega Drive had superior sound, tremendous speed, and increased graphics horsepower (we can all chuckle today at the “High Definition graphics” label stenciled onto every American Genesis). It took a number of years for Nintendo to catch up, and in terms of sales the Mega-Drive is the last time that Sega really counted in the console game.

Spotted at RetroThing.com.

Buy your own here for $55 USD!