Not only did John come up with a unique theme for an arcade cabinet, but he also went the extra mile literally "sculpting" custom pieces for his build.
In a move some might say more foolish than bold, RetroBlast frontman Kevin Steele is handing over the keys to the RetroBlast.com website to a bunch of slack-jawed ...
Digging way back now, our own RetroMC found this little doozy of an album over at DinosaurGardens.com.
The album is described as: "Conquer the Video Craze was issued in 1982, at the height of arcade games’ popularity. Over a background of ambient arcade noise, Curtis Hoard, “Atari Champion finalist”, reads convoluted game tips in a slow nasal monotone."
Anybody know more about Curtis Hoard? Apparently there's not a lot of info out there on him, but he does sound like someone who was influential at the rise of Video Games.
Lot's of chatter over there discussing how several different parts of this album have been sampled by other artists.
Our very own Forum Moderator RetroMC pointed these out to us.
Head on over to HighScoreArcade.com where they've got several issues of the classic JoyStik Magazine available for download.
There's some great info in there. For example, one magazine offers tips on how to improve your score beyond the Apple screen in Pac-Man: "These patterns are good from the Apple screen to the infinite limits of the keys. Our 9th-Key pattern is not only authoritatively good, but easy to describe and follow."
Do you have an hour to kill? If so, check out Gamasutra for author Steve Fulton's twenty page essay on the early history of Atari.
Fulton looks into the early years of the struggling gaming giant, delving into interesting facts about the origin of the name Atari and the inspiration for the famous logo.
The article does an excellent job of chronicling the birth of Atari and founder Nolan Bushnell's drive to turn the fledgling coin-op manufacturer, who could only afford to hire hippies to assemble their Pong machines, into the company that started the home video game phenomenon.
This is an excellent source of information and an entertaining read. I'll be looking forward to the next installments.
Rob Welkner of Coin-Op TV fame has posted coverage of the 2007 Classic Gaming Expo.
Described as: "Robert Welkner (COIN-OP TV) interviews Walter Day (Twin Galaxies), Todd Rogers (Beat The Champ) and a look at OlderGames.com and Arcade In A Box products"
Just a reminder, orders are being taken for the 2007 BYOAC Tokens over at arcadereplay.com .
Hurry up! It's a limited run and when they're gone, they're gone. And if Santoro doesn't get enough orders, well, there won't be any to begin with, so if you want to help continue the tradition, get your butt over there and order up!
The following Build Article has been put together with permission from John Keeler, aka SodaPopinski from the ArcadeControls Forums.
We felt that John's work was so unique and compelling that it deserved being preserved within the halls of RetroBlast!
Not only did John come up with a unique theme for an arcade cabinet, but he also went the extra mile literally "sculpting" custom pieces for his build.
Be sure to visit his BYOAC thread to discuss further.
As I was having my morning cup'o'joe and catching a little bit of the news before I went to work, the local Fox affiliate had a quick blurb discussing a midwest chain's intent to stock more handheld electronic and retro toys this Christmas because the 30-something parents are nostalgic about their childhood and want to involve their kids.
I gotta tell ya, if that's true, my wallet is going to be much lighter this Christmas as I make it a personal mission to grab as many as I can. The Coleco line of mini-arcades still fetch a pretty penny today on E-bay to collectors and some of the others out there are truly unique. I can't tell you how many hours I spent on this Pac-Man to the left. Maybe that's why I enjoy my PSP more than my Xbox 360?
To spark your interest, check out these great links:
Fire up your Way Back Machine and take a look at the Vintage Computer Festival 10.0 held this past weekend at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
'The Vintage Computer Festival is an international event that celebrates the history of computing.
The mission of the Vintage Computer Festival is to promote the preservation of "obsolete" computers by offering people a chance to experience the technologies, people and stories that embody the remarkable tale of the computer revolution.
Through our event and the Vintage Computer Festival Archives—our publicly accessible archive of computer hardware, software, literature and ephemera—we promote interest in researching and documenting the history of the computer. Above all, we promote the fun of playing with old computers.'
The festival featured retro-themed goodness from lectures on the role of the TRS-80 on computing to screenings of films such as 'Tilt: The Battle to Save Pinball' and '24 Hours on Craigslist'; a documentary about using the popular online classifieds to find retro-computing nirvana. There is also an online marketplace where you just might be able to find that minty fresh Colecovision console you've been looking for.
If any you retrogaming freaks were able to attend, we'd love to hear about it. Just click that little discuss button below!
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or stop by the forums and post to the boards and we'll be sure to pick it up.
Are you still a "Hard-Core" ga... (0) by donkey_kong
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The following Build Article has been put together with permission from John Keeler, aka SodaPopinski from the 
Fire up your Way Back Machine and take a look at the 
