Following some media and gaming community backlash after his harsh comments that games of today are "pure unadulterated trash",  the good people of GameTap have conducted a follow-up interview with Nolan Bushnell.

To clarify his statements, Nolan assures us that he was referring to the lack of innovation in recent game design: "There’s a lot of people think that bigger, faster, better is an innovation. It’s not. It’s just bigger, faster, better."

In particular (and probably not surprisingly), Bushnell calls out the Grand Theft Auto series in particular saying it "in its deification of antisocial behavior, is where I heap the most of my scorn."

Read the full article here. 

Tag This Article:

(0) Comments

This year will be the 23rd annual celebration of the U.S. pinball exposition that each year tries to offer something special for everyone. Expo 2007 takes place in Rosemont, Illinois and will run Thursday October 25 to Sunday October 28 at the Wyndham O'Hare Hotel.

RetroBlast!'s own Kevin Steele will be on hand selling GameRoom Magazine wares and hanging out to catch all of the action.  Be sure to stop by and meet the Great Mr. Steele and have a chat with the man, the myth, the legend. 

Along with several seminars and guest speakers throughout the event, the main attraction is PinBrawl .

"PinBrawl is the ultimate team pinball competition. It is currently the world's only tournament to feature four person teams. Although the competition in PinBrawl is as fierce as any other tournament around, PinBrawl has always been about FUN first." 

Tag This Article:

(0) Comments

Here's one for you Pinball Junkies .

"Zen Studios, the developer of the popular XBLA game “Pinball FX,” will be offering owners of the game a FREE Buccaneer themed expansion table and update pak! Launching on Halloween, Pinball FX full-subscribers will be able to download the FREE expansion table and it will be included with all future downloads of the full version of Pinball FX." 

Not a bad deal if ya ask me.  I've not had the opportunity to play this yet, so for those of you who have, please, drop us a line and let us know what you think of it.

How's the gameplay compared to Virtual Pinball or something similar?

Do you feel like they got the physics down or is it just another video pinball simulator that doesn't stand up to the real deal? 

Zen Studio Free Booty This Halloween 

Tag This Article:

(1) Comments

BC Gaming has a review of the Nintendo DS title Konami Classics.

The game features 15 titles of yesteryear including Scramble, Circus Charlie, Rush 'n Attack and Gradius just to name a few.

And here's a cool feature you don't see everyday, according to writer Matt Paprocki :

"Technical people can enjoy looking at the actual arcade board, with full touch screen control to view every chip. Music nuts can listen to each individual piece in the detailed music player, along with any sound effects. Gameplay fanatics can dive into the actual dip switches and set any options they like. You'll do this by looking at a picture of the real set of switches, and seeing the result on the top screen."

How cool is that!  You can actually pull up a visual diagram of the arcade board?!  This I've got to see. 

Tag This Article:

(6) Comments

In case you missed it.  Capcom officially confirmed the development and eventual release of Street Fighter 4.  We've seen various HD renderings, etc. in the past, but have not had official word from Capcom until just last week.

The trailer seen below doesn't reveal much about game play, but one can only hope that they don't leave us retro-gamers in the dust and remain true to form on game play.  Street Fighter World has more info and a higher resolution trailer. 

Tag This Article:

(0) Comments

The on again, off again Castlevania The Movie is still on according to Paul W.S. Anderson , the producer still attached to the film and will allegedly start filming soon .

Paul is hoping to get the script finished before the impending writers strike.

Based on the interview in the above links, I've got some hesitant feelings about rushing the script through just to start filming.  The film has been an ongoing project for a couple of years now and has been shot down by at least one major motion picture company and now another is interested.

But if the script is too weak, it'll be a tough sell, or it'll come to market and be a complete flop.

Stay tuned! 

Tag This Article:

(0) Comments

One of my favorite retro gaming sites, Retro Remakes, unveiled a cool new feature last week.  The Showcase is described as "your one stop shop for Retro Remakes on the internet."

Essentially, Retro Remakes has put together a searchable database of downloadable remakes of classic games.  The best part is that the downloadable games are all freeware.  

While not all of the games that I have tried in the past are perfect, there are some really nice remakes and updates of some of our favorite classics from several retro platforms.  There are games from the Amiga, Atari 2600, C64 and others as well as a bunch of arcade remakes. 

According to the site, The Showcase database is in a public beta stage.  There appear to be around 150 games currently available.  

If you are looking for some retro gaming fun, the Showcase looks like a nice convenient place to find some updated retro gaming goodness.

Tag This Article:

(0) Comments

The upgraded versions look very refined. Can't wait to play this!  For those that don't know.  Atari Classics Evolved is scheduled for PSP later this year.

Tag This Article:

(1) Comments

Melissa Jones, a.k.a. the Pinewood Princess and her husband Jason have once again come up with a unique way to decorate your gameroom .

Nicecarvings.com is now offering custom painted canvas backgrounds and casting sets to decorate those bare walls  you've got in your gameroom.  Well, heh, that is if they're not already filled with arcade cabinets.

The prices are reasonable starting at $195.00 US and there are currently three different sets offered.

To get an idea of size and quality, check out the larger pic posted here . 

Nice work yet again Melissa! 

Tag This Article:

(10) Comments

Kotaku.com has a feature today discussing the Library of Congress and a new initiative to begin to catalog and preserve video games.

According to the feature: "the LoC is teaming up with major universities across the country to begin a 2-year initiative with the sole intent of figuring out just how institutions can preserve video games for years to come, while making the content accessible for use and study."

This is truly a milestone in the history of video gaming should this come to fruition.  Not only are they looking to obtain the media itself for each game but all facets of culture surrounding the game, meaning, posters, flyers, and yes even that old pac-man swatch you got when you were 10.

This can only mean good news for the video game industry as it will present a historical importance giving video games the same depth that the LoC has given to music and movies. 

Library of Congress Loves Video Games  

Tag This Article:

(0) Comments